To the Rescue!

Shortly after Woodsy posted his recent article with a proposed Rescue craft launch sequence, which showed a newly discovered image on a middle eastern stamp, we pondered on the origin of the image and the derivation of the design for the R6 Rescue Craft from the Spacex II series. As if by magic, I received a mail from Barry Hinchcliffe, a collector and space history enthusiast, who has earlier helped us identify a Ford Nuclear rocket design. The article Barry kindly provided showed the original image, from which the stamp and the illustration from the 1970 Daily Mirror Book of Space (shown above, held together with tape, from my childhood!).

The article from Missiles and Rockets (magazine ?) dates from October 1965 and details the development of a concept by Aerojet for a 'head-steered' launch vehicle, which would use a development of the HL-10 series Lifting Body on a Titan booster.

Huge thanks again Barry!



WOODSY'S POSTSCRIPT:

Just been comparing the stamp's colour art and the new black and white image from Barry. They seem slightly different. I wonder if there is a set of these images at different stages of the launch, maybe in colour or has the stamp artist simply created a new version?  See what you think.