Copyright Walt Disney Productions

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Disney... in SPACE!  This station design is from the Disney television series Man in Space (1955-1957) in which Uncle Walt and Werner Von Braun collaborated on a trilogy of programmes to sell an aggressive space project to the American public.  Using the remarkable resources of Walt Disney's production staff and Disney's instincts as a story teller, each instalment described in easy to understand lessons how to get into space, how to build a space station, how to get to the Moon, and finally how to get to Mars.  And all without that blasted rodent.

The space station is an update of the Collier's station that Von Braun had designed a few years earlier.  In the interim, Von Braun had improved and streamlined both the station and the shuttles that serviced it.  The shuttled were now delta-winged spindles that could be easily modified for other duties, such as being turned into lunar orbiters, while the station is easily recognisable as the next step up from the Collier's version; the main difference being that instead of being solar powered the station sports a striped nuclear reactor on its axis. 

The little bobbin-shaped things flitting about the station are "bottle suits."   These are spacesuits/work pods with mechanical arms that the astronauts use for EVA activities.  Given the fact that each one of these things must weigh close to a ton, Von Braun was obviously a bit optimistic about the costs of lifting freight into orbit.

Oh, by the way, if the bottle suits sound familiar, it's probably because you saw something very similar in a Kubrick film.

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