In this historical photo from the U.S. space agency, the M2-F3 lifting body is being launched from NASA's B- 52 mothership at the NASA Flight Research Center (FRC — now the Dryden Flight Research Center), Edwards, California.
A fleet of lifting bodies flown at the FRC from 1963 to l975 demonstrated the ability of pilots to maneuver and safely land a wingless vehicle designed to fly back to Earth from space and be landed like an aircraft at a pre-determined site.
Each weekday, SPACE.com looks back at the history of spaceflight through photos (archive).