[X] My Assistant

[gndonald]

While looking through the Encyclopedia Astronautica website, I came across a short entry which shows an Apollo CSM docked to something that looks like an overgrown Hubble Space Telescope. (See: Entry)

The web entry does not have any references however, but the picture which seems to show the launch configuration as well, must have a source.

Can anyone help?

[dvandorn]

I sort of forget what it was first called, but the program in question was called Apollo Extension Systems (AES) for a while, before being renamed Apollo Applications Projects (AAP).

The whole idea was to come up with ways to use the Apollo technology for missions other than the basic lunar landing mission. These not only included expanded lunar expeditions, they also included a rather wide variety of space station, space astronomy and other missions. Heck, there were even plans for a "fast" manned flyby of Venus using Apollo technology.

It started out with the concept, "Here we have these great spacecraft. What else can we do with them?" When most of the suggestions began to involve designing and building large, complex new spacecraft to fly with Apollo CSMs (after all, the space station concepts required you to build the space stations), the question was modified to "What else can we do with them with minimal additional design and development?" This was when the name changed from AES (which encouraged extending the Apollo systems) to AAP (which simply encouraged the use of existing Apollo technology, with as little new spacecraft development as necessary).

As always, these changes reflected dropping Congressional support and funding levels.

As time went on and those AAP programs which *could* be funded were identified and given green lights, they fell out of the AAP umbrella and either became their own programs (SkyLab, ASTP) or were incorporated into what was called "mainline Apollo" (as the final three expanded lunar expeditions). The rest of the grand plans that never came to be are now delegated to the great dustbin labeled Great Missions That Never Were...

-the other Doug