The Retriever Rocket was one of the classic designs that came out the collaboration of various scientists and engineers, the best known being Dr Wernher von Braun, with contemporary artist such as Chesley Bonestell. This resulted in a series of articles in the weekly magazine Collier's, in the early 1950s, and several books. Later Walt Disney made a series of television programs using similar designs, employing the talents of the original teams.
First issued in 1957, then known as the RM-1,the Moonship would have been built in Earth orbit from elements of the Three-Stage Rocket (that has also been issued as a Glencoe Models' kit). The fuel tanks would have to be added as would the antenna and the nuclear power source in the nose, the conical shield protecting the crew.
The engine section is fully detailed with the supply pipes from the seven fuel tanks feeding the single rocket engine. Included in the kit in the Bottle Suit, which would have been a one-person spaceship, rather like the current Manned Maneuvering Unit as used on the International Space Station. It is this particular element where we can be sure of the scale, as model kits of this era, especially futuristic spaceships, were not produced to conventional scales. However the figure in the Bottle Suit can definitely be said to be 1:72 scale.
