Hi Paul, I don't have a Spacex Astronomic Telescope Satellite (I wish!), but I did find out where it's from. I have a card back illustration (which I think you sent me ages ago?), and I've seen a picture of the remains of this toy. My good friend Bill (Wotan) had one as a child and says you could actually look through the toy as a telescope. Bill also found a picture in a book that showed the exact same thing in what looked like a NASA illustration, but try as I might, I could find no reference to it anywhere on the internet. But then I got lucky.
I had a visit from my good friend Robert from LA, who collects Major Matt Mason and space memorabilia. Who gave me an old book in Dutch that he'd found in Brussels (near where I live). And in that was the exact same picture, but showing enough of the NASA number to have it identified.
As it happens, Robert used to work at NASA, and was kind enough to ask a former colleague at NASA Archives. Here's what I got back (answers provided right in the middle of a Shuttle mission and all!):
The official caption from 1968 reads: MANNED SPACE STATIONS --- Artist’s rendering showing details of an advanced space station concept having a spinning radius of 240 feet at the crew quarters (left end) to provide an artificial gravity field in earth orbit. The station, weighing a total of about one million pounds, would be launched in three segments by three Saturn V launch vehicles and assembled in space. About 50,000 cubic feet of living space and 45,000 cubic feet of laboratory space would be provided by the station. The drawing shows a 120-inch telescope drifting nearby (lower left), a logistics vehicle approaching rendezvous with the station (immediately to right and behind telescope), and a small satellite is being drawn up into the station’s maintenance hangar.
And Robert's friend also asked NASA's lead scientist, Steve Hawley - an astronaut who flew the Shuttle five times, including the mission that deployed the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Who replied:
My guess it's an early rendering of HST. In 1968 HST was not a formal NASA start (I think that happened in the early 70's) but it was certainly being debated in the science and space community as a high priority. It was originally proposed in the '40s by Dr. Lyman Spitzer (a famous astronomer) who, as I recall, was a NASA VIP guest for the launch back in 1990. Anyway, back in the ' 60's it was called LST for Large Space Telescope. It was initially a 3-m telescope (HST ended up being 1.4m) and was, back in those days, envisioned to be serviced by an orbiting space station. My guess is that this rendering intended to capture the various activities that would/could be done from an orbiting space station, including servicing the "LST".
I think that's about as official as it gets, right? :)
Best
--
Paul
I think that's about as official as it gets, right? :)
Best
--
Paul
As usual, wonderful research Paul, Woodsy.
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