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1972: NASA hell of a year (5)
For a minute, let put the reader into George Low shoes. The month is February 1972. The space shuttle is dead, but Weinberger assured that manned spaceflight should continue.
All the options explored by the 1969 Space Task Group are dead on arrival - the shuttle was the last piece in existence.

So you have to rebuild a manned space program from zero.

Below is a short list of all the possible options in varied domains.

LAUNCH VEHICLES

  • Saturn IB

  • Titan III-M

  • ARES - SaTan (three Titan solids topped by Saturn S-IVB)

  • Jupiter 120 (Saturn INT-20 : 3*F-1A S-IC + S-IVB)
MANNED CRAFTS

  • Big Gemini

  • Block III CSM

  • General Electric D-2

  • Lockheed Corona

  • Grumman subscale Shuttle

  • Boeing revamped DynaSoar

  • Northrop HL-20

  • Martin Marietta X-24D
SPACE TUGS

  • NERVA

  • OTV

  • Centaur

  • Transtage

  • Apollo Service Module

  • Delta stage 2 (AJ-10 or TR-201)

  • Lockheed Agena

SPACE STATIONS

  • Skylab B

  • wet workshops

  • S-II dry workshop

  • Big Gemini 15ft cargo module

LARGE PROJECTS

  • Viking

  • Grand Tour

  • Large Space Telescope

  • HEAO (High Energy Astronomical Observatories)

  • Space station + crew ferry

  • NERVA

  • Apollo 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20.
That spoil a little bit, but it doesn't matter. IT shows how the year 1972 will be a complicated one for NASA. Kind of an enbarassment of riches !
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