I've been browsing the NTRS looking for pre-flight space shuttle artwork (Don't download anything from the JSC their scanner is blurry.) and I've found a few familiar friends there and one item that really stands out.

It's a picture of the Space Shuttle and the E.S.R.O. Spacelab... It's a picture that puts into full perspective just how long it took to get the shuttles flying and just how long they have been flying. (E.S.R.O became the ESA in 1974)

I tried searching NTRS to see if I could find of the same, but could find nothing. Could you give me some hints on how to work the search or just share more.

That is and interesting picture for sure, and you are right about how much time and effort it touch. I remember see things about the shuttle when I was in grade school, years before it flew and I'm 44 now. It took alot to develope and test.

I've got back to you and I hope you find what you are looking for. I thought I'd add three more artists impressions, all dating from the early-mid 1970's, from the ones I found.

The first is a rather evocative picture of the Space Shuttle mounted on the back of a 747, the second is a picture of the shuttle coming in to land at the Cape. The last shows the loading of the LDEF dating from the period when it was planned to launch it during a Spacelab mission.

What dreams we had...

Yes! Thanks for your help

Here is an interesting pic I found there. Notice the launch tower is in more of an Apollo configuration then what is presently used.

Well, here's a real blast from the past; looks like late 60s/early 70s vintage:

One of the "might have been" aspects of the Space Shuttle program was the plan to launch military missions from the "Slick Six" launch site at Vandenberg AFB in California. Here's a picture of the Enterprise in place as a test article as they renovated the launch pad. Vandenberg was abandoned as a Shuttle launch and landing site when the military decided to go with other launch vehicles after Challenger.

That isn't LDEF but the bottom of 2 pallets

Nprev, regarding the top-right "wraparound" fuel tank design. I remember images of that from ages back - but shudder to think about the risks of foam shedding!

Andy

I'm with you there; the vertical stabilizers look pretty vulnerable. Well, didn't happen...

I always favored the manned boost stage plus the orbital "dart" myself. There's a dynamite pic of a model of this (ca. 1972, IIRC) that someone posted a few months back; I'll see if I can find it.

Mission Profile from 1972

Could be right, but the caption at the NTRS, which I took my information from, reads:




However I have learned that those descriptions should be taken with a grain of salt, the picture I posted to the OP, showing the shuttle/spacelab claims that the shuttle is carrying space colony components...