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SCALE: 1/144 |
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INITIAL RELEASE: 2005 |
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MEDIUM: Resin/Photo Etched Brass |
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RARITY: (2) |
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HEIGHT: 10" |
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Mercury Lab Lifts Off! |
ABOUT THE DESIGN |
ABOUT THE KIT |
In the earliest days of
America's manned space program, NASA engineers considered ways to extend the
Mercury Program beyond its primary goal of putting a man into orbit as
quickly, affordably and safely as possible. One of these concepts was
a temporary "space laboratory" that could stay aloft for as long as 14 days.
Using an Agenda B booster as the launch vehicle's second stage, the Mercury
Lab would carry a single astronaut and provide him with 182 cubic feet of
working space during his two week-long mission. The precursor to the Gemini-based Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL), the Mercury Lab never got beyond the proposal stage. |
New Ware (Czech Republic) specializes in highly detailed resin models of real space subjects, primarily boosters. However, the company occasionally ventures into authentic "concept" models, such as this little-known Mercury MOL project. Fortunately, most of the components -- the Atlas booster, Agena second stage and even the Mercury capsule -- were already in New War's inventory. Putting them altogether took just a few adaptations. The result was a unique glimpse at "what might have been." This model was built from an original issue. |
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Original Box Art |
Concept Spacecraft |
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