alternatehistory.com

ISS mission planning
Just a heads up. I'm non-canonizing the flights of the GKNI-1 cosmonaut group,because things might change in the course of the TL (Buran will still fly many times). So anyway........

December 21,1977
Houston Coliseum
An evening speech by George Low

"The ISS is based on a study conducted in 1970. The study called for four space station launches between 1975 and 1983 to preserve America's long duration manned space capability. There are obviously some differences from the old ISS study as compared to the station now under devleopment. The 1970 study assumed four stations launched by Saturn Vs. This has been reduced to one station,launched by the second Phase 1 Shuttle-C,scheduled for launch in May 1985. Elements of all four original ISS stations will appear in the new program. Ir is worth examining the original vision to compare it to the new.

The first ISS space station,built from Skylab B,would be launched in December 1975 into an orbit similar in altitude to Skylab,but at a 28 degree inclination as opposed to Skylab's 50 degrees. The CSM crew transports would ride a Titan SRB plus S-IVB upper stage to ISS-1. Changes to the Apollo Service Module would enable the SM equipment bays to be converted into cargo bays. Cargo stored in these bays during launch would be transferred to the station via spacewalking astronauts using a 'clothesline' system. Four crews would man ISS-1,performing biological and chemical research,including utilization of a specialized onboard centrifuge. The mission of the space station would span about 21 months.

ISS-2 would be the second station launch,in April 1978. During the two year operational lifetime of this station,Earth resources surveys would be conducted. To aid these,the station would be launched into a 290 nm orbit at the original Skylab inclination,enabling Skylab to serve as a backup should ISS-2 fail to reach orbit (1). As with ISS-1,biomedical experiments would be conducted.

ISS-3 would take up its predecessor's work in September 1980. Monthly CSM launches that winter would raise its crew complement to nine. Despite the planned introduction of the Shuttle at that time,the original plan did not assume Shuttle missions to ISS-3 or its successor. Onboard this station,space manufacturing experiments would be conducted. Anticipated operational time for ISS-3 and ISS-4 was 2 1/2 years apiece. ISS-4 would launch in March 1983.

ISS-4 is especially notable for two reasons. The first is that it was planned that artifiil gravity would be used. The station's spent S-II booster rocket would be used as a counterweight,enabling 1/6th g similar to the gravitational force of the Moon. The second is its use of 2 radioactive power units,which would separately launch on the Saturn 1-B rocket (2). They would be docked to ISS-4 via an Agena upper stage (3) and would generate 6 kW of electricity. By the end of station life in the autumn of 1985,NASA would be ready to launch a permanent,modularized space station.

The ISS being developed today,by contrast,will be launched by the Shuttle-C. Its crews will ride to orbit in specialized passenger modules in a Shuttle cargo bay. At an appointed time,these modules will be ejected from the payload bay. Agena stages will carry them to the ISS orbit,from where they will dock to the station autonomously,with the crew as backup. At the end of a mission,another Agena picks them up and transfers them to another Shuttle. The centrifuge module is retained as well:it will launch on an Atlas-Centaur. The station will operate in a 268 nm orbit,inclined 42 degrees to the equator. Thank you,and may you all enjoy a Merry Christmas".

1-Apparently I'm the first person to realize that................

2-In the original ISS study,the radioactive power units would be launched on Titan rockets.

#-In the original study,there was no explanation of how the RPUs would be ferried to ISS-4. Also,said study used letter designations for the stations.

Top