WI: Nixon never cancels Apollo

Among Nixon's other crimes, he cancelled the final Apollo missions.

The whole point of the space station was as a waypoint on the way to lunar bases.

The whole point of the shuttle program was to supply the space station.

So if Apollo is never cancelled we'd have a permenant lunar settlement.

tqm111 said:

Among Nixon's other crimes, he cancelled the final Apollo missions.

The whole point of the space station was as a waypoint on the way to lunar bases.

The whole point of the shuttle program was to supply the space station.

So if Apollo is never cancelled we'd have a permenant lunar settlement.

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Er...no, we wouldn't. Not to mention that train of logic is totally disconnected from canceling the final Apollo missions, which actually freed up Saturn Vs for building space stations.

Anyways, Apollo was fated to end fairly soon, since it was just the Moon landing program, there was a major budget crunch between the Great Society and the Vietnam War (and Apollo was very expensive), and Johnson had shut down the Saturn V production line (yes, you read that right, Johnson). The most that could have happened was flying another J-class mission (Apollo 18), so that there would be a spare available for Skylab. Congress, not Nixon, had more to do with the ending of AAP and other efforts to use Apollo hardware; they just didn't want to pay for an unlimited space flight program once prestige objectives had been fulfilled, and the programs shorn of their long-range objectives were simply not very compelling (eg., NASA was proposing to use wet-workshops as basically weather satellites, despite the success of far cheaper automated versions).

The purpose for building the space shuttle was more to reduce launch costs from the Saturn V era, which NASA bamboozled themselves and others into believing could actually happen that way with that design.

it was not Nixon alone who kill Apollo

the Apollo Program was orginal planned to end with mission Apollo 20 in 1974
the 1966 Apollo Application Program was "off the record" proposal at NASA HQ
That "AAP" Program include 27 launch of Saturn V and IB
US Congress and Senat under pressure with Vietnam War budget
and then NASA comes with a budget busting demands in 1968:
Apollo Missions, Voyager Mars probe, first AAP mission (Syklab)
Congress say NO WAY

in 1969 The Space Task Group publish reports were they recommending:
the Integrated Manned Programme: with 2001 (the Movie) like Space Infrastucture
until 1980 with manned space flights to Mars:
a Space base with 48 Astronauts in Low orbit provides by Shuttle
Several space station 12 up 24 Astronauts in Low orbit provides by Shuttle or Tug from Space Base
a Fuel depot for Nuclear Shuttle and orbital Tugs
a synchronous orbit station with 12 Astronauts provides by Nuklear Shuttle
Lunar orbit Station with 12 Astronauts provides by Nuklear Shuttle
Lunar Base with 12 Astronauts provides by Tug from Lunar orbit station
a 12 Astronaut Mission to Mars with 2 Space ships
makes 1980 ca 148 US astronauts in space, sorry no ladys...

to make things worst, Thomas O. Paine became the Administrator of NASA in 1969
Paine wanted it all: Apollo until 20, complet AAP AND the Integrated Manned Programme.
and Nixon had another top priority: Vietnam War
it takes until 1973 were Nixon takes decision
in at the same time Thomas O. Paine makes "clear cuttings" Apollo program to save his goals
Apollo 15 (as H mission, fly as J Mission) and later Mission 18, 19, 20 canceld for Skylab
Saturn V Producktion stopped
in end Thomas O. Paine left NASA like a offended toddler...
and Nixon makes a decision
he takes a small part of the Integrated Manned Programme: The Space Shuttle

Budget was cut in '68. And so AAP dropped from the table, they also shut down Saturn production infrastructure by time Nixon was in office.

From mid '69 onwards they were fighting to keep at least some of Apollo missions (there were plans to cut even more than in OTL) and to get at least Shuttle funded. Only part of AAP to be funded and fly was Skylab and ASTP. Which used hardware mostly made for canceled lunar Apollo missions.

grdja83 said:

Budget was cut in '68. And so AAP dropped from the table, they also shut down Saturn production infrastructure by time Nixon was in office.

From mid '69 onwards they were fighting to keep at least some of Apollo missions (there were plans to cut even more than in OTL) and to get at least Shuttle funded. Only part of AAP to be funded and fly was Skylab and ASTP. Which used hardware mostly made for canceled lunar Apollo missions.

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Yep--I have an AW&ST from the early '70s that posists that both Apollo 16 and 17 (!!) could be canceled!