In the world of deeply classified military projects, "never-weres" and "might have beens" can shed great light on what actually has been happening behind the scenes. The Manned Orbital Laboratory, a secret project that was cancelled in 1969, illustrates that for more than sixty years, the US government has been energetically seeking persistent, easily-retasked, adaptive, and above all intelligent capabilities for monitoring adversaries from space. For those interested in military space[1], the history offers an essential reference point. If the MOL had flown, it would have been super cool; but the US secured the desired capabilities by other means, many of which are still deep black. This document provides a comprehensive overview of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program, a United States Air Force initiative in the 1960s aimed at developing a manned space platform for military reconnaissance during the Cold War. The document explores the objectives, challenges, and eventual cancellation of the program, as well as the debates and differing opinions surrounding MOL. It discusses concerns about cost, international relations, and the role of humans in space. The document also covers the training program for MOL crew members, their roles and responsibilities, and the development of the MOL system. Personal accounts express shock and disappointment over the program's termination, and mention the consequences such as layoffs and the transfer of MOL crew members to NASA. Overall, this document offers insights into the complexities and controversies surrounding the MOL program. This annotated edition illustrates the capabilities of the AI Lab for Book-Lovers to add context and ease-of-use to manuscripts. It includes five types of abstracts, building from simplest to more complex: TLDR (one word), ELI5, TLDR (vanilla), Scientific Style, and Action Items; four essays to increase viewpoint diversity: Context in the Discourse, Formal Dissent; Red Team Critique; and MAGA Perspective; and Notable Passages and Nutshell Summaries for each page. [1] Indeed, "For All Mankind."-Ed.

This book charts the history of manned space stations in a logical, chronological order. It tells the story of the two major space powers starting out on their very separate programs, but slowly coming together. It describes rarely mentioned development programs, most of which never flew, including the US Manned Orbiting Laboratory, the Soviet Almaz station, and the Soviet Polyus battlestation. The Mir space station was one of the greatest human achievements in modern history, and a thorough telling of its story is essential to this book. This book is the first of its kind to tell the whole story of the manned space stations from the USA and Russia.

The publication of this book is extremely timely, for the next major advances in manned space flight after Project Apollo will most likely be made in earth orbital operations. Manned exploration of the moon will certainly continue after the initial landing, but it will be performed essentially with the Saturn V launch vehicles and Apollo spacecraft developed in Apollo, especially in the early phases. Modifications to this basic hardware will increase operating capabilities to permit extensive lunar explo ration during prolonged stay times by the astronauts on the moon's surface. Manned orbital space stations have been studied for years, and NASA is already well along in development of its first attempt to provide more spacious accommo dations for astronaut-scientists in its Saturn Workshop program. While the Workshop is certainly not the ultimate space station of which our technology is capable, it is a workable, poor man's approach to the immediate need for using and expanding our present manned space flight capability without a de trimentalloss of momentum. The approach of converting a Saturn rocket stage into a manned laboratory and observatory in space is an improvisation that matches the use of the jerry-built Jupiter C back in 1958 to launch Explorer I. Let's hope that it can get the job done just as effectively.

In 1963, the Air Force annouced it was developing a program to increase the Defense Department efforts to determine military usefulness in space. This program was called MOL (Manned Orbiting Laboratory). The program also held a highly classified component called "Dorian," managed by the National Reconnaissance Office. When the NRO declassified all its files on the Dorian and MOL programs in 2015, five astronauts (James Abrahamson, Karol Bobko, Albert Crews, Bob Crippen, and Richard Truly) and the program's technical director, Michael Yarymovych, shared their experiences and insight of being trained to be America's spies in space during the Cold War.