Space Atlas (1961)

The late 1950s and early 1960s saw an explosion in space art from private contractors. The aerospace contractors used this art in proposals, advertisements, and to promote themselves. Lots of this was used in public documents or appeared in books from the time. This book, while not strictly for children illustrated a number of great "possible" space vehicles .

United States Naval Institute. Space atlas; valuable information on universe, solar system, moon, earth in space, tide, calendar, time, coming exploration of outer space. New York: American Map Co. 48 p. 26 cm.

General Dynamics gave us illustrations of Passenger gliders...





Reconnaissance space ships (not space stations) never intended to land on the surface.Nuclear passenger rockets

And solar powered space ships. While NASA showed their version of how the future would look.

All I know is that space travel looked a lot cooler before actual physics and budgets came into play