Space History Photo: HL-20 at Langley

News
By published
space history, nasa, lifting body
The HL-20 was one of two concepts considered for the Personnel Launch System. (Image credit: NASA | Carole Petrachenko Chapman)

In this historical photo from the U.S. space agency, the NASA Langley Research Center lifting body, called the HL-20, is shown in front of the hangar.

The HL-20 was one of two concepts considered by NASA as a type of Personnel Launch System (PLS). In essence, it would serve as a space taxi to and from the space station. The full scale engineering model is 29.5 feet long, and 23.5 feet across the wingspan.

Each weekday, SPACE.com looks back at the history of spaceflight through photos (archive).

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

NASA Archives
NASA Archives
U.S. Space Agency

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the U.S. government agency in charge of the civilian space program as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. Founded in 1958, NASA is a civilian space agency aimed at exploring the universe with space telescopes,  satellites, robotic spacecraft, astronauts and more. The space agency has 10 major centers based across the U.S. and launches robotic and crewed missions from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida. It's astronaut corps is based at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. To follow NASA's latest mission, follow the space agency on Twitter or any other social channel, of visit: nasa.gov. 

More about spaceflight

SpaceX launches 250th Starlink satellite mission, lands rocket at sea (video, photos)

This Week In Space podcast: Episode 158 — Hubble's 35th Birthday

The Outer Worlds 2: Release window, trailers, story details & everything else we know
See more latest
Most Popular
Screenshot from The Outer Worlds 2
The Outer Worlds 2: Release window, trailers, story details & everything else we know
A purple haze above the NYC skyline. The moon looks quite small compared to the haze.
Scientists find giant, hidden gas cloud only 300 light-years away: 'This cloud is literally glowing in the dark'
a black hole in a swirling blue and white sky
NYT bestseller Daniel Wilson's next book is 'Hole in the Sky', an alien first contact story on a Cherokee reservation, and it's already been picked up by Netflix (interview)
two scientists in white lab coats stand next to a cylindrical spacecraft in a hangar
A failed Soviet Venus lander will fall back to Earth after being stranded for 53 years
An illustration of a blueish white orb with a jet of material coming out to the left of it. There are lots of green thin lines representing magnetic field lines.
What happens inside neutron stars, the universe's densest known objects?
A celestial shadow known as the Circinus West molecular cloud creeps across this image taken with the Department of Energy-fabricated 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera (DECam)
Astronomers gaze into 'dark nebula' 60 times the size of the solar system (video)
Lego Marvel Rocket on Space.com background with deals logo
Lego Marvel Rocket & Baby Groot Minifigure set is now 20% cheaper in this Amazon Sci-Fi deal
This map of Earth in 2024 shows global surface temperature anomalies, or how much warmer or cooler each region of the planet was compared to the average from 1951 to 1980. Normal temperatures are shown in white, higher-than-normal temperatures in red and orange, and lower-than-normal temperatures in blue.
March 2025 featured fires, floods and record-setting warmth in the US
two images; on the left, a black and white image of a river delta seen from space. on the right, the same area but covered in colored, squiggly lines
Satellite images reveal how Earth's surface moved during deadly Myanmar earthquake
An illustration of three satellites above Earth looking down at bright green auroras.
Newly launched NASA satellites open eyes to start studying 'auroral electrojets' in Earth's atmosphere