Painting 7 illustrates a "stack" of the Titan booster, the MOL vehicle and the Gemini-B spacecraft on the launch pad. Launch pad workers pause to admire the assembled stack, supported by the Umbilical Tower. The large Mobile Service Structure has been moved to a safe distance.
This painting shows the human aspect of the technical rocket-launching business by comparing the overwhelming sizes of the artifacts with six human figures, two workers on the pad at the base of a solid rocket booster and four more men on or near the support truck.
The Gemini-B has the same red nose section and theTitan booster is shown with the five-segment solid rocket boosters of the Titan IIIC, as in painting #2&3. The seven-segment Titan IIIM was approved in 1965 and cancelled in 1969, along with the entire MOL program.
The Douglas corporate logo is visible on the side panel of the truck, partially obscured by the open cab door, and on the side of the MOL vehicle. This suggests it was painted before April 1967.
Note also that this is not Space Launch Complex (SLC)-6 at Vandenberg AFB on California's Pacific coast. The structures are incorrect and mislocated and the Santa Ynez Mountains are missing from the background. Instead, it might be SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Florida's Atlantic coast. The support tower does not appear to have an access arm capable of reaching the Gemini-B capsule to allow crew ingress.
Jacobe may have done this painting earlier than the rest in the collection because it is a photograph of a painting, not an original painting (see image at right). He may have based this painting on photographs of the Titan IIIC test launch from SLC-40 in November 1966 (see photo below) that lofted a Gemini capsule modified to mimic the Gemini-B. If so, this painting was made in 1967 and illustrates an early plan to launch unmanned test versions of the Titan/MOL stack from Florida before moving operations to California.
No acetate or onionskin sheets are associate with this painting.
Source.
- Information on Titan IIIC launch of November 3, 1966: "Titan 3C Passes 6th Test, Furnishes MOL Support," Aviation Week & Space Technology, November 14, 1966, p. 30.