Immediately following my blogging of the model Booster Rocket seen in the 1961 exposition in New York, blog reader Barry spotted and clarified the identity of the vehicle in question as being the NASA Lewis Research Center Mars Spacecraft. A quick search onthe net revealed an extended article on the craft and a date of 1960 attached to the program, pushing it back by another year from the original supposed inspiration for the toy of around 1963.
Astronautix has a complete background to the ship and also describes the earth return vehicle as being a 'delta winged' craft, not seen on the model or the diagram above. The later model of the Booster Rocket shown in
Dandridge Coles book - Beyond Tomorrow (thanks Nyrath!) shows a vehicle much more familiar in shape to the toys which eventually appeared some years later.
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