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  1. TimothyC

    The Dream Survives
    Threadmarks: TimothyC's Author Note

    I first would like to thank @e of pi and @Usili for allowing me to join in this endeavor. It was a crash project, but was a lot of fun. At the core, for me, there were a few things that I wanted to see the work explore. First, I wanted to look at what would, and wouldn’t change with a higher...
  2. TimothyC

    The Dream Survives

    While we are still working on our collected thoughts, there is one post I would like to address: As you may have noted, e of pi was the one to start the thread, and as a result, he is the only person who can add new threadmarks. For the first and third story posts that is easy because he was...
  3. TimothyC

    The Dream Survives
    Threadmarks: Part 4: Roll Out

    Roll Out The turn of the millennium found a generational turnover in progress in reusable vehicles. NASA’s Space Shuttle carried on its familiar roles launching commercial and governmental payloads to orbit and tested its new role as a space station construction and logistical support vehicle...
  4. TimothyC

    The Dream Survives
    Threadmarks: Post 2: Divergence

    Divergence The opening of the 1980s had put to rest the question of whether NASA could build and fly a reusable vehicle. The new Space Shuttle debuted with its first flights in 1981, and had been certified as operational with STS-9 in 1983. However, the end of the 1980s would determine if...
  5. TimothyC

    2024 Turtledoves - (Closes (15/02/24) - Best Spaceflight and Technology Timeline Nominations and Seconds

    Best Spaceflight and Technology Timeline: Children of Apollo by @Its_Just_Luci
  6. TimothyC

    2024 Turtledoves - (Closes (15/02/24) - Best Cold War to Contemporary Timeline Nominations and Seconds

    I nominate Best Cold War to Contemporary Timeline: The President Lay Dying by @Vidal
  7. TimothyC

    2024 Turtledoves - (Closes (15/02/2024) - Best Graphic Nominations and Seconds

    Best Graphic: Return (in A Sound of Thunder); @nixonshead
  8. TimothyC

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    I think that there also should be called out a distinction between plans on the ground, plans in space, and orders. One of the critical lessons in command is that you don't issue orders that you know are going to be ignored or disobeyed. I think once someone said that he should return into...
  9. TimothyC

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    Let me repeat because I don't think you fully grasp it: Once Plushenko put the frame on the reactor he was already dead, he just hadn't stopped breathing yet. Once this happens, the reactor is placed in the sarcophagus in Tsiklon's cargo bay, and to get back into Tsiklon, Plushenko has to then...
  10. TimothyC

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    The incident at Leningrad 1 was an actual event, and is independent of the Loss of Coolant event later in 1975 (February vs November). He probably was close enough to the tumbling reactor that having him come back aboard Tsiklon would have put the other three crew members at a higher risk of...
  11. TimothyC

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    A very powerful interlude to end the section. I do imagine that the orbiter gets retired after the flight, even if none of the materials that make it up get radiologically activated.
  12. TimothyC

    Bicentennial Man: Ford '76 and Beyond

    So, the US will be ahead technologically, but the deployment of that technology is going to be slowed. The bad news is that means that the 1990s are going to see a need to do replacements of systems rather than bulk retirements of older systems, but those new systems that are bought will be more...
  13. TimothyC

    Bicentennial Man: Ford '76 and Beyond

    First, glad I could help. Second, with this R&D, we are going to see even more of the Revolution in Military Affairs than we did historically. AIUI, in the 1980s, the build up allowed a lot of technologies that had started to be developed in the 1970s reach a mature state, but it did slow down...
  14. TimothyC

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    The High Frontier feels a lot like an OTL Sea Quest cover in development arc, if not the setting.
  15. TimothyC

    Solar Dreams: a history of solar energy (1878 - 2025)

    So, while others note that the are seasonal issues, going north, one thing that is easy to miss is the rainfall patterns. Once you get to points north of the Gulf of Mexico (IE, into Texas), moisture from the Gulf moves north-northwest and causes cloud formation (and storms, resulting in Tornado...
  16. TimothyC

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    That image looks quite familiar. Great update.
  17. TimothyC

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    The Eastern Block was making copies of some earlier designs, but they were firmly behind, and the gap was widening in the 1980s. As long as they were starting from western designs for things like memory chips and processors, they were stuck behind the west, and without investments in development...
  18. TimothyC

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    Just to remind everyone, the solution the FWC boosters had to the O-ring problem was to include a 'capture feature' that prevented the booster segments from developing a gap as they flexed during launch: Something else to keep in mind is that each SRB segment consisted of two sections that...
  19. TimothyC

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    The early landings are not much more complicated than the Soviet missions. They simply require two launches (with a minimum demonstrated pad turnaround at LC-39 of 17 days, this means both 39A and 39B will have to be ready, where in OTL 39B wasn't used for the shuttle until STS-51-L) to get the...
  20. TimothyC

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    While the original design for the external tank did involve it being placed into orbit alongside the space shuttle with the ET having a separate de-orbit motor in the nose, this was dropped fairly early into the firm definition of the program, and none of the 135 ETs that were used in the...
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