fut-spasta (SOC)_v_bw_o_TPMBK (ca. 1981, unnumbered Boeing photo)

“Space Operations Center

American manned space station. Study 1979. The Space Operations Center was proposed by NASA's Johnson Spaceflight Center in 1979.

Status: Study 1979.

Like most other space station studies from the mid/late 1970s its primary mission was the assembly and servicing of large spacecraft in Earth orbit -- not science. NASA/JSC signed a contract with Boeing in 1980 to further develop the design. Like most NASA space station plans, SOC would be assembled in orbit from modules launched on the Space Shuttle. The crew's tour of duty would have been 90 days. NASA originally estimated the total cost to be $2.7 billion, but the estimated cost had increased to $4.7 billion by 1981. SOC would have been operational by 1990.

NASA's Johnson Spaceflight Center extended the Boeing contract in February 1982 to study a cheaper, modular, evolutionary approach to assembling the Space Operations Center. An initial power module would consist of solar arrays and radiators. The next launches would have delivered a space tug 'garage', two pressurized crew modules and a logistics module. The completed Space Operations Center also would have contained a satellite servicing and assembly facility and several laboratory modules. Even with this revised approach, however, the cost of the SOC program had grown to $9 billion. Another problem was Space Operations Center's primary mission: spacecraft assembly and servicing. The likely users (commercial satellite operators and telecommunications companies) were not really interested in the kind of large geostationary space platforms proposed by NASA. By 1983, the only enthusiastic users for NASA's space station plans were scientists working in the fields of microgravity research and life sciences. Their needs would dictate future space station design although NASA's 1984 station plans did incorporate a SOC-type spacecraft servicing facility as well.”

Above & image from/at:

www.astronautix.com/s/spaceoperationscenter.html
Credit: Marcus Lindroos/Astronautix website

The abridged version of the above:

“The Space Operations Center was proposed by NASA's Johnson Spaceflight Center in 1979. Like most other space station studies from the mid/late 1970s its primary mission was the assembly and servicing of large spacecraft in Earth orbit -- not science.
NASA/JSC signed a contract with Boeing in 1980 to further develop the design. This illustration is from 1981. Like most NASA space station plans, SOC would be assembled in orbit from modules launched on the Space Shuttle. The Shuttle depicted here delivers a resupply module for the SOC crew; the tour of duty would have been 90 days.”

The above & image from/at:

www.pmview.com/spaceodysseytwo/station/sld002.htm

sites.google.com/site/spaceodysseytwo/station/soc81.jpg
Credit: PMView Pro website

8.625” x 10.875”.

Take a closer look at this, it’s exquisite, the perspective, the detail, the lighting/shading, etc., etc., right down to the "NO STEP" on the inboard elevon, which I don't think actually existed, but who cares, (BTW, I easily wiped off the reddish tint visible on the wing). Houston/Galveston Bay are just above the orbiter.
Another John J. Olson masterpiece.

Last, but NOT least:

www.398th.org/Images/Images_Association/Text/Olson_Cleari...
Credit: 398th Bomb Group Memorial Association website

space.nss.org/national-space-society-governor-jack-olson-...
Credit: NSS website

Taken on: February 1, 2023

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