alternatehistory.com
Big Gemini (3)
October 4 1978
The Learjet that had rushed NASA deputy administrator James Preston Layton here from Washington, after that midnight briefing with the Science Missions Board, was now dropping down toward one of the most familiar, yet most exciting, landscapes in all the world. There lay the first two generations of the Space Age, spanning twenty miles of the Florida coast to the south, outlined by winking red warning lights, were the giant gantries of the Saturns, that had set men on the path to the Moon. Near the horizon, looming against the sky like a man-made mountain, was the incredible bulk of the Vehicle Assembly Building, still the largest single structure on Earth.
After the jet landed at Ellington Preston Layton was taken to the Cape. One of its favorites sights to see was the pad search lights in the distance. Whether it was for Saturn, Titan, Delta or Atlas, they could be seen for 20 miles or more. It was an indicator that something was going to happen. This day, Preston Layton was greeted by a unique sight, two different areas streaming shafts of light. On Pad 39B was a Saturn IB. A Titan III stood on Launch Complex 41, soon to be moved to its final, NASA pad.
The incoming mission was one of the most complex ever staged since the Apollo days.
This day of October Preston Layton was to supervise payload integration at the Titan launch complex, also known as I-T-L – Integrate, Transfer, Launch. Preston Layton visited the teams at a gigantic, cavernous “white room” at pad 41. This environmental shelter was part of the Mobile Launch Tower -the largest moving structure in the world. Despite its size the MLT was only a small element of the I-T-L, itself as big as NASA own moonport.
Build by Martin Marietta in Denver, Titan’s two stages were ferried to the Cape, to the Vertical Integration Building (VIB). They were mated together there and the resulting Titan core and its platform were then pushed out the VIB by two powerful locomotives, going by rail to the Solid Motor Assembly Building (SMAB; USAF was as worse as NASA when considering acronyms). There, two big solid rocket motors were added.
The Titan still lacked its 3rd stage, the payload and the protective shroud – or, if manned, Helios and its escape tower.
Whatever went above Titan second stage, it would be mated to the rocket on the pad. Getting out of the SMAB, the booster continued its rail trip to the pad, pushed by the locomotives – offering the singular vision of a beheaded rocket slowly travelling across the Florida countryside.
Once at the pad, the Mobile Launch Tower literally engulfed the rocket. The environmental shelter Preston Layton visited was integral part of the MLT; a room 30 meter high and six meter wide, divided in a dozen of vertical levels. The lowest level corresponded to the top of the Titan second stage, forty meters above the ground. Once the Titan readied for launch, the MLT would be moved away, leaving only a smaller umbilical tower.
James Preston Layton had been officially, NASA deputy administrator for a year and half - he had been suggered, and imposed to Burt Edelson, by Carter advisor Walter Mondale, a hater of the shuttle. Edelson had been a good friend of Beggs, making the succession easier, to the delight of Carter, which considered the space program as a liability. Edelson had its hand full with large man-tended platforms, but the Titan to launch them were rather expensive. Cheap access to space remained a pipe dream, thanks to the loss of the shuttle.
"A thorning issue with space station Liberty is that of safety during long duration missions. That question remains partially unanswered to this day.
Should Helios on-orbit duration be extended past one month ?
Should crew rotations been accelerated ?
What about a safe haven, a corner of the space station where a stranded crew could wait rescue ?
None of these solutions was found to be truly satisfying. Instead a lifeboat was prefered - a capsule docked to the space station that could be used in case of an emergency. Because NASA budget deflated considerably, that last option remained unfunded. The Soviet record duration flights aboard their Salyuts recently prompted a re-examination of the problem.
In 1977 and 1978, the issue was studied by the Carter Administration but the FY 1979 budget only contained funds for Big G rotations and the space station with procurement of the lifeboat being deferred. By contrast Congress, in its FY 1979 budget deliberations, decided the lifeboat option should be kept open and added $4 million for more studies. The FY 1980 NASA budget request contained funds for the lifeboat, yet these funds were subsequently deleted after program was reviewed within the Administration.
The Rockwell International Corporation has expressed frustration, citing his Apollo-based capsule as a safe, proven vehicle. The OMB, however, see the lifeboat as duplicating Big Gemini in the manned spacecraft role. There's no way they agree to fund two manned capsules at the same time.
In this context it is rather unfortunate that an interesting proposal from McDonnell Douglas has gone unnoticed. The company proposed to re-fly spent Big Gemini crew modules. Touching down on a runway, unlike Apollo these capsules are not ruined by saltwater, although early in the programme NASA decided against a possible reuse, on safety grounds.
The lifeboat, however, would be a different matter. Much like the Agenas it would be launched unmanned, thus not risking a crew. Every module would also be completely checked and overhauled before being reflown as a lifeboat. Chief engineer of the study Owen J. Gordon noted that back in 1967 Big Gemini was imagined as an interim vehicle to be flown before the shuttle, and thus could house an equally large crew - as much as ten astronauts plus a pilot and a co-pilot. "A big lifeboat allows for a big space station crew, he notes, making the orbital outpost more productive." But playing against this proposal is NASA aversion for spent hardware.
"They consider a capsule internal structure suffers too much during ree-entry, taking the brunt of a brutal ballistic reentry. Winged shapes skimming on the atmosphere, bleeding speed with lower G-loads, are preferable if reuse of the hardware is to be considered. It's a point of view I won't discuss; I consider we still lack experience in that field." Gordon concludes.
These days the lack of space shuttle is felt more bitterly than ever; many see the space program as stuck in the 60's. The lifeboat issue, for its part, remains unanswered...
…
music: Isaac Hayes, Shaft
The Titan III-M cleared the launch tower, accompanied by the loud noise of its solid rocket motors. They actually lifted the whole rocket; the LR-87 liquid-fueled engines on the core only started two minutes in flight. The mission pushed Titan III near its maximum payload. Helios was on the the way to orbit, carrying scientist Owen Garriott to its second trip in space. Having flown on Skylab and worked on the Apollo Telescope Mount, Garriott had an important role to play in the incoming mission.
Eight minutes later Titan second stage powered Helios to a 185km parking orbit. Over the next following hours three burns pushed the spacecraft up to 350km. Deke Slayton opened the hatch running through the heatshield, and entered the cargo block to monitor deployment of the Gemini Telescope Mount.
First task of the crew was to jettison the protective shroud above the payload. The two panels were ripped off by explosive bolts, disclosing the big solar telescope. It had been “borrowed” from the backup Skylab workshop and mated to a platform, itself linked to Helios cargo block. Unsurprisingly the idea came from Martin Marietta, builder of both ATM and Titan booster. The platform would provide power, communications, thermal control and other services; it essentially gave Helios a surrogate Shuttle payload bay, even if the platform could not be returned to Earth. These free-flyers would also performs some tasks Liberty was not good at, on different orbits.
The ATM stack was a heavy thing. To not offload Titan payload, engineers had cut two-third of Helios cargo section, leaving only a tiny pressurised module behind the reentry capsule. This shortened cargo section would act as sas for the EVAs, notably to retrieve film from the ATM cameras. This was Garriott job!
On day 7 Bruce McCandless had another task to perform. Back in 1973 Skylab crew had tested the M-509 “Manoeuvring Unit” within the roomy workshop. After satisfactory tests, an evolved variant now waited McCandless at the rear of the ATM platform. He performed an EVA, and first spent a long time carefully strapping himself to the MMU. After some satisfactory testing he tried a greater hop and moved 50 feet away from the platform. Garriott, also out of the ship to work on the solar telescope, took the iconic picture of McCandless floating with the ATM windmill on the background. The platform also featured a small robotic arm built in Canada; a bigger variant would be mounted later on space station Liberty.
"Tally-ho, the Enterprise. We got her in daylight at 1.5 miles, 29 feet per second" Slayton told the ground. Enterprise looked similar to Skylab, but the two differed in many points.
Slayton station-kept Helios around Enterprise for long minutes. Everything nominal, docking was performed. Enterprise had been NASA answer to Salyut. Skylab 4 84 days record had been broken by the soviets, which progressed rapidly – 96, then 135 days. The Helios crew was to spent 150 days at Enterprise.
The crew had to perform lot of tasks – observing the Sun with the ATM, mapping Earth at high resolution. Toward the end of the mission however a thruster on Helios started to leak. There were pressures on NASA to shorten the mission, to no avail. Pictures of McCandless riding the MMU caught public attention, resulting in more pressure to the astronauts. At one time, the crew “forgot” some tasks and fixed some its own priorities.
-------------
With perfect hindsight the two Agena and the Helios CTS-3 missions have become closely linked with the following Skylab desorbit program.
Yet in the times when these missions flew, in 1976-77, Skylab desorbit was NOT in NASA future plans. Largely forgotten today is the fact that Skylab A was boosted into orbit by an even larger Saturn S-II stage – a stage 33 ft in diameter and that weighed nearly 100 000 pounds. NASA confirmed that the 83,790lb AS-513 S-II stage re-entered January 11, 1975, over the Atlantic just before 3.00am EST, radar tracking reporting one large chunk that fell into the Ocean at 34 deg N by 19 deg W, 1,600 km west of Gibraltar. No reports of any impacts or damage elsewhere.
Skylab A was to meet a similar fate; the battered space station was to be abandonned in orbit. The Cosmos 954 crisis happened in January 1978 changed everything. There was no way a nearly 200 000 pounds spacecraft would made an uncontrolled reentry.
The Learjet that had rushed NASA deputy administrator James Preston Layton here from Washington, after that midnight briefing with the Science Missions Board, was now dropping down toward one of the most familiar, yet most exciting, landscapes in all the world. There lay the first two generations of the Space Age, spanning twenty miles of the Florida coast to the south, outlined by winking red warning lights, were the giant gantries of the Saturns, that had set men on the path to the Moon. Near the horizon, looming against the sky like a man-made mountain, was the incredible bulk of the Vehicle Assembly Building, still the largest single structure on Earth.
After the jet landed at Ellington Preston Layton was taken to the Cape. One of its favorites sights to see was the pad search lights in the distance. Whether it was for Saturn, Titan, Delta or Atlas, they could be seen for 20 miles or more. It was an indicator that something was going to happen. This day, Preston Layton was greeted by a unique sight, two different areas streaming shafts of light. On Pad 39B was a Saturn IB. A Titan III stood on Launch Complex 41, soon to be moved to its final, NASA pad.
The incoming mission was one of the most complex ever staged since the Apollo days.
This day of October Preston Layton was to supervise payload integration at the Titan launch complex, also known as I-T-L – Integrate, Transfer, Launch. Preston Layton visited the teams at a gigantic, cavernous “white room” at pad 41. This environmental shelter was part of the Mobile Launch Tower -the largest moving structure in the world. Despite its size the MLT was only a small element of the I-T-L, itself as big as NASA own moonport.
Build by Martin Marietta in Denver, Titan’s two stages were ferried to the Cape, to the Vertical Integration Building (VIB). They were mated together there and the resulting Titan core and its platform were then pushed out the VIB by two powerful locomotives, going by rail to the Solid Motor Assembly Building (SMAB; USAF was as worse as NASA when considering acronyms). There, two big solid rocket motors were added.
The Titan still lacked its 3rd stage, the payload and the protective shroud – or, if manned, Helios and its escape tower.
Whatever went above Titan second stage, it would be mated to the rocket on the pad. Getting out of the SMAB, the booster continued its rail trip to the pad, pushed by the locomotives – offering the singular vision of a beheaded rocket slowly travelling across the Florida countryside.
Once at the pad, the Mobile Launch Tower literally engulfed the rocket. The environmental shelter Preston Layton visited was integral part of the MLT; a room 30 meter high and six meter wide, divided in a dozen of vertical levels. The lowest level corresponded to the top of the Titan second stage, forty meters above the ground. Once the Titan readied for launch, the MLT would be moved away, leaving only a smaller umbilical tower.
James Preston Layton had been officially, NASA deputy administrator for a year and half - he had been suggered, and imposed to Burt Edelson, by Carter advisor Walter Mondale, a hater of the shuttle. Edelson had been a good friend of Beggs, making the succession easier, to the delight of Carter, which considered the space program as a liability. Edelson had its hand full with large man-tended platforms, but the Titan to launch them were rather expensive. Cheap access to space remained a pipe dream, thanks to the loss of the shuttle.
"A thorning issue with space station Liberty is that of safety during long duration missions. That question remains partially unanswered to this day.
Should Helios on-orbit duration be extended past one month ?
Should crew rotations been accelerated ?
What about a safe haven, a corner of the space station where a stranded crew could wait rescue ?
None of these solutions was found to be truly satisfying. Instead a lifeboat was prefered - a capsule docked to the space station that could be used in case of an emergency. Because NASA budget deflated considerably, that last option remained unfunded. The Soviet record duration flights aboard their Salyuts recently prompted a re-examination of the problem.
In 1977 and 1978, the issue was studied by the Carter Administration but the FY 1979 budget only contained funds for Big G rotations and the space station with procurement of the lifeboat being deferred. By contrast Congress, in its FY 1979 budget deliberations, decided the lifeboat option should be kept open and added $4 million for more studies. The FY 1980 NASA budget request contained funds for the lifeboat, yet these funds were subsequently deleted after program was reviewed within the Administration.
The Rockwell International Corporation has expressed frustration, citing his Apollo-based capsule as a safe, proven vehicle. The OMB, however, see the lifeboat as duplicating Big Gemini in the manned spacecraft role. There's no way they agree to fund two manned capsules at the same time.
In this context it is rather unfortunate that an interesting proposal from McDonnell Douglas has gone unnoticed. The company proposed to re-fly spent Big Gemini crew modules. Touching down on a runway, unlike Apollo these capsules are not ruined by saltwater, although early in the programme NASA decided against a possible reuse, on safety grounds.
The lifeboat, however, would be a different matter. Much like the Agenas it would be launched unmanned, thus not risking a crew. Every module would also be completely checked and overhauled before being reflown as a lifeboat. Chief engineer of the study Owen J. Gordon noted that back in 1967 Big Gemini was imagined as an interim vehicle to be flown before the shuttle, and thus could house an equally large crew - as much as ten astronauts plus a pilot and a co-pilot. "A big lifeboat allows for a big space station crew, he notes, making the orbital outpost more productive." But playing against this proposal is NASA aversion for spent hardware.
"They consider a capsule internal structure suffers too much during ree-entry, taking the brunt of a brutal ballistic reentry. Winged shapes skimming on the atmosphere, bleeding speed with lower G-loads, are preferable if reuse of the hardware is to be considered. It's a point of view I won't discuss; I consider we still lack experience in that field." Gordon concludes.
These days the lack of space shuttle is felt more bitterly than ever; many see the space program as stuck in the 60's. The lifeboat issue, for its part, remains unanswered...
…
music: Isaac Hayes, Shaft
The Titan III-M cleared the launch tower, accompanied by the loud noise of its solid rocket motors. They actually lifted the whole rocket; the LR-87 liquid-fueled engines on the core only started two minutes in flight. The mission pushed Titan III near its maximum payload. Helios was on the the way to orbit, carrying scientist Owen Garriott to its second trip in space. Having flown on Skylab and worked on the Apollo Telescope Mount, Garriott had an important role to play in the incoming mission.
Eight minutes later Titan second stage powered Helios to a 185km parking orbit. Over the next following hours three burns pushed the spacecraft up to 350km. Deke Slayton opened the hatch running through the heatshield, and entered the cargo block to monitor deployment of the Gemini Telescope Mount.
First task of the crew was to jettison the protective shroud above the payload. The two panels were ripped off by explosive bolts, disclosing the big solar telescope. It had been “borrowed” from the backup Skylab workshop and mated to a platform, itself linked to Helios cargo block. Unsurprisingly the idea came from Martin Marietta, builder of both ATM and Titan booster. The platform would provide power, communications, thermal control and other services; it essentially gave Helios a surrogate Shuttle payload bay, even if the platform could not be returned to Earth. These free-flyers would also performs some tasks Liberty was not good at, on different orbits.
The ATM stack was a heavy thing. To not offload Titan payload, engineers had cut two-third of Helios cargo section, leaving only a tiny pressurised module behind the reentry capsule. This shortened cargo section would act as sas for the EVAs, notably to retrieve film from the ATM cameras. This was Garriott job!
On day 7 Bruce McCandless had another task to perform. Back in 1973 Skylab crew had tested the M-509 “Manoeuvring Unit” within the roomy workshop. After satisfactory tests, an evolved variant now waited McCandless at the rear of the ATM platform. He performed an EVA, and first spent a long time carefully strapping himself to the MMU. After some satisfactory testing he tried a greater hop and moved 50 feet away from the platform. Garriott, also out of the ship to work on the solar telescope, took the iconic picture of McCandless floating with the ATM windmill on the background. The platform also featured a small robotic arm built in Canada; a bigger variant would be mounted later on space station Liberty.
"Tally-ho, the Enterprise. We got her in daylight at 1.5 miles, 29 feet per second" Slayton told the ground. Enterprise looked similar to Skylab, but the two differed in many points.
Slayton station-kept Helios around Enterprise for long minutes. Everything nominal, docking was performed. Enterprise had been NASA answer to Salyut. Skylab 4 84 days record had been broken by the soviets, which progressed rapidly – 96, then 135 days. The Helios crew was to spent 150 days at Enterprise.
The crew had to perform lot of tasks – observing the Sun with the ATM, mapping Earth at high resolution. Toward the end of the mission however a thruster on Helios started to leak. There were pressures on NASA to shorten the mission, to no avail. Pictures of McCandless riding the MMU caught public attention, resulting in more pressure to the astronauts. At one time, the crew “forgot” some tasks and fixed some its own priorities.
-------------
With perfect hindsight the two Agena and the Helios CTS-3 missions have become closely linked with the following Skylab desorbit program.
Yet in the times when these missions flew, in 1976-77, Skylab desorbit was NOT in NASA future plans. Largely forgotten today is the fact that Skylab A was boosted into orbit by an even larger Saturn S-II stage – a stage 33 ft in diameter and that weighed nearly 100 000 pounds. NASA confirmed that the 83,790lb AS-513 S-II stage re-entered January 11, 1975, over the Atlantic just before 3.00am EST, radar tracking reporting one large chunk that fell into the Ocean at 34 deg N by 19 deg W, 1,600 km west of Gibraltar. No reports of any impacts or damage elsewhere.
Skylab A was to meet a similar fate; the battered space station was to be abandonned in orbit. The Cosmos 954 crisis happened in January 1978 changed everything. There was no way a nearly 200 000 pounds spacecraft would made an uncontrolled reentry.
- Archibald
- Word Count: 1.9k