Dyna-Soar docks with station

Dyna-Soar on surveillance mission

The Dyna-Soar was America's first spacecraft which actually reached the hardware stage. Conceived in 1957 as a logical next step after the X-15 rocket plane, the Dyna-Soar was based on Eugen Sanger's WWII-era "Silver Bird" concept of a bomber which could skip around the globe on the upper atmosphere.

The USAF saw the Dyna-Soar as their first step into the military use of outer space and planned numerous versions of the ship, including satellite inspection and electronic and photographic intelligence gathering (shown here). Later versions were also planned as mini-space stations which could carry "stand-off" nuclear weapons into orbit.

When the project was cancelled in 1963 with only one non-flying mock-up completed, the USAF's astronaut corps shifted into training for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, or -- in the case of Dyna-Soar trainee Neil Armstrong -- to NASA's civilian projects.