Lunex A-410 LV - Provisional drawing of Lunex A-410 launch vehicle. 8,000 bytes. 104 x 484 pixels.

The AB-825 represented a medium launch vehicle of the USAF 1961 Space Launch System family. The AB-825 would have conducted earth orbit tests of partially-fuelled Lunex lunar lander stages, and also have boosted the Lunex manned glider on circumlunar test flights. It consisted of the 'A' stage, evidently somewhere in size between the Centaur and Saturn IV, the 'B' stage with a single J-2 engine, and some solid fuel booster motors.

LEO Payload: 39,460 kg. to: 560 km Orbit. at: 28.0 degrees. Payload: 10,890 kg. to a: translunar trajectory. Core Diameter: 7.6 m.

• Air Force completed studies on a family of advanced heavy-lift launch vehicles for use in the late 1960's

  The launchers used solid rocket boosters together with Lox/LH2 upper stages. The modular stages could be combined in various ways to achieve a range of launch vehicles (as for the USAF Lunex lunar base project). These studies would provide the basis for the later Titan derivatives and, eventually, the final space shuttle design.