Nuclear Power in Space
The atomic age comes to space in this design from the 1960s or '70s. Powered by a nuclear reactor as part of NASA’s Systems Nuclear Auxiliary Power (SNAP) program, this space station allowed for the servicing and launch of a spaceship in space.
To prevent any contaminating radiation from reaching the crew, the reactor was kept at the end of a long boom.
More than four stories tall, the concept is larger than anything that could have been launched from the surface of the Earth. So engineers envisioned this station being assembled high above the atmosphere. Two of its decks would be used as a laboratory in space while the others two would be used to living and operations.