and generally complex. An attempt to re-simplify was made in the form of the DC-3, designed by Maxime Faget, who had designed the Mercury capsule among other vehicles. Numerous offerings from a variety of commercial companies were also considered but generally fell by the wayside as each NASA lab pushed for its own version.

All of this was taking place in the midst of other NASA teams proposing a wide variety of post-Apollo missions, a number of which would