Pretty much as per the title. Assuming that the shuttle program is canned but Skylab-type flights continue throughout the 1970s, what probable effects does this have on SF and other space-related writing and media?
While the public level of interest in the space program is likely to be similar to the accident-less periods during the shuttle flights (ie., low except when unmanned probes do something interesting), there will probably be more general knowledge of spaceflight, so I could see, eg., Star Trek Phase II being aired, or Star Wars and CETK being even bigger successes than IOTL. Phase II being aired would likely have a large effect on the subsequent evolution of Star Trek, particularly the movies, as the pilot was the basis for the first movie. You might not see any Trek movies at all, or at least until much later, in fact. Anything that explicitly requires or invokes the space shuttle is right out, of course, but that is mainly a factor for written stories until well into the 1980s.
On the broader question, I think space advocacy in the 1970s is likely to be very heavily affected. IOTL, a lot of the most prominent people in that area, like O'Neill or Heppenheimer, were strongly for the shuttle due to the initial low cost estimates, and really depended upon those estimates being hit for their ideas of space colonization. ITTL, those ideas will require new technology, so I think something a bit similar to the '90s/'00s low-cost space access movement would probably arise in the '70s, but seeking governmental R&D rather than the predominantly private approach of more recent decades. The cancellation of the Shuttle may be seen as catastrophic in many circles, or at least as a rather bad thing (how little do they know...), though the ridiculous nature of the cost estimates may go a long way towards cooling such feelings.
While the public level of interest in the space program is likely to be similar to the accident-less periods during the shuttle flights (ie., low except when unmanned probes do something interesting), there will probably be more general knowledge of spaceflight, so I could see, eg., Star Trek Phase II being aired, or Star Wars and CETK being even bigger successes than IOTL. Phase II being aired would likely have a large effect on the subsequent evolution of Star Trek, particularly the movies, as the pilot was the basis for the first movie. You might not see any Trek movies at all, or at least until much later, in fact. Anything that explicitly requires or invokes the space shuttle is right out, of course, but that is mainly a factor for written stories until well into the 1980s.
On the broader question, I think space advocacy in the 1970s is likely to be very heavily affected. IOTL, a lot of the most prominent people in that area, like O'Neill or Heppenheimer, were strongly for the shuttle due to the initial low cost estimates, and really depended upon those estimates being hit for their ideas of space colonization. ITTL, those ideas will require new technology, so I think something a bit similar to the '90s/'00s low-cost space access movement would probably arise in the '70s, but seeking governmental R&D rather than the predominantly private approach of more recent decades. The cancellation of the Shuttle may be seen as catastrophic in many circles, or at least as a rather bad thing (how little do they know...), though the ridiculous nature of the cost estimates may go a long way towards cooling such feelings.
