Lifting-body designs

Well before the shuttle Enterprise came along (assembly began in 1974), NASA researchers were already cooking up ideas for "lifting body" spacecraft that didn't look or work exactly like a tubular rocket. Throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s, NASA worked through a series of lifting-body prototypes that it says were quite influential on the eventual shuttle program.

This artist's rendering from 1962 shows three such designs, from left to right: the M2-F1, the M1-L, and a lenticular shape. The wingless structure--the body of the vehicle itself provides the lift in the atmosphere--would allow for a horizontal re-entry, like the descent of an airplane, which in turn would mean less damage from the extreme heat of re-entry, according to the space agency. It was the M2-F1 design that would soon enough be flying.