1958 – Astrotug – Lockheed (American)

Astrotug in Operation – Artist's Conception The Astrotug Tugboat for Space: Spaceborne scientific laboratories and platforms for further exploration into space are an accepted concept based on established engineering techniques. Components would be fired  as individual units into space, on precalculated orbits, and there assembled. To solve the major problems of how men are to …

1959-61 – Concept O-9 Manned Utility Tug – (American)

Concept O-9: Rendezvous by Manned Utility Tug From a report compiled between 1959-61 and presented in 1961 are various concepts {Suffixed by 'O' for Orbital Rendezvous). This extract only selects those concepts that have a manipulator component. WADD TECHNICAL REPORT 60-857 LAUNCHING AND ALIGHTMENT SYSTEMS FOR AERO-SPACE VEHICLES Nelson T. Levings, Jr. Cleveland Pneumatic Industries, …

1965 – Manned Space Pod with Manipulators (Concept) – Boeing (American)

Found in the old Boeing Historical archive some years back was a piece of artwork dated 20 Dec 1965 illustrating a “work pod” for orbital use. Space Pod sourced from here. Compare with later 1976 Boeing Space Tug concept here. See other early Space Teleoperators here. See other early Lunar and Space Robots here.  

1960 – “REMORA” Manned Space Manipulator – Bell Aerosystems (American)

Preliminary Design Concepts •    Bell Aerosystems Remora Capsule The REMORA configuration (Figure 5-15) is a small, buoy-shaped capsule 6-feet high, 3-feet in diameter, and weighing 540 pounds (leaded). This concept, proposed shout 1960, permits one astronaut to function in space while protected from the space environment. The capsule is tethered by a cable that provides …

1966-7 – Space Taxi (Concept) – LTV (American)

LTV Space Taxi concept. Mock-up using models. Full-scale mock-up Images sourced from here as original pdf currently unavailable. •    Ling-Temco-Vought Maneuvering Work Platform and  Space Taxi In 1966, Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV), in conjunction with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), completed a thorough investigation of manned maneuvering manipulator spacecrafts for the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The objectives …