Project 7969 Designs Project 7969 ballistic designs. From left: Lockheed; Martin; Aeronutronics; Goodyear; McDonnell; Convair Credit: (c) Mark Wade. 6,524 bytes. 640 x 110 pixels.

Convair's proposal for the Air Force initial manned space project involved a large-scale manned space station. When pressed, they indicated that a minimum vehicle - a 450 kg, 1.6 m diameter sphere - could be launched by an Atlas within a year. The spacecraft would be boosted by an Atlas Hustler booster into a 270 km orbit. Deorbit would be accomplished by retrorocket. The spacecraft had a ballistic coefficient (W/CdA) of 250 kg per square meter. It was expected that a first manned orbital flight could be achieved 12 months after a go-ahead.

Total Length: 1.5 m. Maximum Diameter: 1.5 m. Total Mass: 450 kg.

• 26 - Baker, David, The History of Manned Spaceflight, Crown, New York, 1981.
• 483 - Grimwood, James M., Project Mercury: A Chronology, NASA Special Publication-4001.