Jun 302012
The “Orphans in Space” DVD set contains a bunch of really rather odd old films about space, from the early part of the 20th century up to the 1980’s. The video of most interest to readers of this blog is a Martin-Marietta promotional video for the Zenith Star laser satellite, featuring snippets of a speech by President Reagan at the Martin Marietta facility (near Denver?) in front of a full-scale Zenith Star mockup.
The video was copied to DVD from a videotape, which is why the resolution is a bit low.
Thanks for the info and post, Scott. I wonder where the Zenith Star mockup is at now. Probably hanging out with the missing X-20/Dynasoar mockup…
Can you upload a copy of the video to YouTube or some other video site? My father worked on this program for many years and I would love to learn more.
A: It’s not my video to upload
B: I wouldn’t know how to upload a video from a DVD
C: The guy who contacted me about contributing to this a few years ago already uploaded a (lower-rez) video to… somewhere. Asked me not to mention it publicly until after the DVDs came out. I’ll see if I can dig through the old emails to find the uploaded vid and see if it’s still online.
Thanks for posting the photos.
I worked on Zenith Star at Martin-Marietta and was present at Reagan’s appearance. The meeting was held at Martin’s Waterton plant, nestled in the foothills west of Denver. The worker bees on the program did not see much of the president – our entry into and exit from the rocket factory in which the speech was given was heavily choreographed for security reasons.
No doubt the mock-up had a short life. It was only cosmetic, like a Hollywood movie set. Nothing functional about it at all.
I seem to remember a Major Witt who was part of Martin-Marietta’s USAF customer’s organization. Many of my colleagues, including my boss, were former Air Force. High-integrity, highly capable people, and outstanding collaborators.
The job was among the most interesting and gratifying jobs I have had.
[…] historian Scott Lowther has posted some frames from a video taken of the event. Wrapped in gold foil, its exhaust port hatches open and its huge […]
[…] historian Scott Lowther has posted some frames from a video taken of the event. Wrapped in gold foil, its exhaust port hatches open and its huge […]