Hey! Just a quick question about Olympus' orbit, what would its orbital parameters be? It'd probably be on the stable 28 degree orbit, but what apoapsis/periapsis?
I liked the last chapter but I still find it hard to believe the government would allow the vice president to go on a suborbital spaceflight let alone to the moon :P
Well I imagine not all the 7-person crew of a shuttle is there for a full expedition on the station. The commander and pilot definitely don't stay, so that's 5 seats free for a rotation crew, or 4 and a short stay if someone is staying for a double rotation (if that's a thing ITTL).
My guess is that it's a lifeboat variant of Apollo that can hold 5 astronauts like the Skylab Rescue capsule IOTL, except here it's docked for long periods and changed out periodically.
There's a couple of pilot astronauts that had scientific backgrounds, namely Don Lind and Bruce McCandless, so they'd be good choices imo. Just don't think a doctor is a good choice. Someone with a physics or an engineering background, like Ed Gibson, Owen Garriott, or Philip Chapman would be...
Would a three day stay be enough for that? Plus since the later Apollo missions were really geology focused, the only appropriate scientist-astronauts for a lunar mission would be Harrison Schmitt and Anthony England.
Looking forward to the new chapter!
Also, by the way, I was looking up Apollo astronaut assignments (as you do), and I was interested to see a couple differences you made in your Apollo crew choices.
Like for example, in your Apollo 18, you made Bruce McCandless a CMP, whereas he was assigned...