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So as a set of ideas for a specific TL... Challenger is saved one way or another, and while NASA is deeply shaken the publicity is spectacular. The country takes it less as a failure of the shuttle's underlying architecture than a validation of it's robustness and congress remains committed...

The interesting thing about anything actually called Mk II. or similar is that the plans that existed under those names were more or less dramatic retrofits of the existing airframes. Things like shifting the SSMEs from the orbiter to the ET, replacing the SRBs altogether with liquids or a...

I'm looking for what actual scenarios resulted in an RTLS, and it really looks like it amounts to an engine out very soon after SRB separation and not much else. A transatlantic abort is more likely, and could probably be arranged, but as brovane points out basically any abort requires...

I believe that estimate was produced after Challenger though. The pre disaster estimate iirc still would have exected about 2 losses during the program, but that number would have come out to something close to 1:200 or 1:300.

Ok, I want to see this made tomorrow as an AH film.

Assuming we are able to have this conversation in that world I'd imagine it having a real similarity to the discussions about how the Confederacy managed to last as long as it did.

To me the most reasonable thing would be a retrofit into what was at one point called Shuttle II, essentially rebuilding the existing airframes. My ideal configuration would be a combination of the introduction of a shuttle derived launch heavy, a liquid flyback booster and moving the SSME's...

No idea about Hitler specifically, but that's the mechanic by which such a thing could happen. Elected presidency or similar office where the same person ends up elected to both offices at once. It would require a situation fairly similar to Germany and Austria I think, but it's not inconceivable.

Ive actually seen passing reference to the France having some kind of provision for nuclear conversion as well, and Q3 was intended to. Nothing specific, butt enough that there's probably something to it.

I'd suspect nothing really drastic in the short term, but that's probably the end of Freedom before the idea of it turning into an international station really develops. Bear in mind that in the early 80s the shuttle was incredibly popular, and the public saw it as very likely to be an...

The other possibility that springs to mind is at least some western railroads electrifying aggressively. Selling power is a pretty obvious sideline if you're doing this, and was pretty standard practice for interurban and streetcar firms that weren't actually power companies first and railroads...

Another vote for LBJ here.

I'd argue with both points. Without a border Vancouver is a better port than Seattle in just about every conceivable way. An American BC seems a lot more likely to shrink Seattle than Vancouver IMO. I'd fully expect Seattle (if it exists as anything recognizable to OTL eyes) to be very much...

My inclination is that a later ship is probably going to hit an iceberg without Titanic pushing the creation of an ice patrol and emphasizing a need to slow in known ice fields. Remember that Titanic was making something under 20 kts, by the thirties ships were regularly averaging nearly 30. A...

Do you have a source for a higher res version or any further information really on a nuclear liner? That's a concept I'd really like to play with actually... Realistically the biggest opportunity I see for getting more nuclear merchant vessels would be if the Algol class had been built as...

It's also quite an assumption that merely vectoring one flight into another that already has basically unknown intentions is going to result in a collision. More likely if you actually instruct Midwest to ram UA, but that's going to go out on a an open frequency, giving UA plenty of time to...

Honestly I doubt that the changes will be all that great. Obviously the Kitty Hawk Class gets butterflied, and that will have knock on effects on carrier classes later, but overall I don't see it creating a big shift. As far as surface combatants go, remember that USS Bainbridge was...

I have to agree with the general skepticism about support cruisers, and twhile I do have a soft spot for the Mk 71 it is definitely a hard sell at this point. Whatever the caliber I really see the future of gunfire support at this point being larger numbers of smaller general purpose ships. A...

That stuff was a response to Hindenburg's loss though. Honestly butterflying Hindenburg is going to be a question of details. You will get Graf II in passenger service, as well as probably LZ-131 (Somewhat larger Hindenburg derivative that had a few frames laid before things shut down). I'd...