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  1. prolemasses

    Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes VII (Do Not Post Current Politics or Political Figures Here)

    Haven't heard of that one, what's the premise?
  2. prolemasses

    Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes VII (Do Not Post Current Politics or Political Figures Here)

    What if Rome fell in 1897?
  3. prolemasses

    The Dream Survives

    Awesome TL! The little details like MER being launched by Shuttle and Buran being stuck in Wisconsin are great. I love this Shuttle-II design, it feels so grounded while still being a significant improvement. Though it doesn't seem like the Shuttle TPS vulnerability was meaningfully addressed...
  4. prolemasses

    The Dream Survives

    Aha! My hunch that it would be a Challenger survives TL was right! Super excited, it's a fantastically interesting plausible premise in the best possible hands.
  5. prolemasses

    The Dream Survives

    Excited! Subscribed!
  6. prolemasses

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    Worth noting that without the RD-170s irl requirement for 10 reuses development of the equivalent engine for Vulkan probably proceeds smoother. IIRC reuse was a major hangup, not just the advanced combustion cycle and high thrust.
  7. prolemasses

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    I believe Vulkan here is closer to a slightly larger Zenit. Something like the RLA family. No hydrolox core and the Zenit type stage is the main rocket, not a booster. Booster recovery via parachutes is possible, but I'd think they'd have other focuses with Baikal and Zvezda ongoing.
  8. prolemasses

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    It was explicitly noted in the ESA update that everyone at the agency recognizes that they have no shot at flying people to the Moon on their own soon. They know that funding wise they're not quite up there with the superpowers. They are focusing on gaining manned access to orbit. Their attempt...
  9. prolemasses

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    Like others have said, I think some kind of international lunar base using the Moon Town EZA seems likely following the collapse of the USSR. Only issue I forsee is that the base module is explicitly mentioned as being powered by the exact same type of nuclear reactor as Zarya 3. In the...
  10. prolemasses

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    Thanks for the clarification! Sounds like no more Spacelab missions to Skylab, I bet the Europeans will love that. I would be surprised if the plans for 8 crew survive the 90s, that would be a lot of extra flights on the manifest, and with post-Cold War budget cuts NASA will probably want to...
  11. prolemasses

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    I believe the Freedom capsule has been explicitly described as smaller than Apollo though, so a Skylab Rescue configuration would likely be too cramped. Irl when NASA was studying ACRV designs for space station freedom, they figured that a sick or injured crew member that needed an emergency...
  12. prolemasses

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    BTW, I'm curious as to the normal crew sizes on each station. Based on the size of the Freedom capsule and in the interest of allowing crew rotations with a single Shuttle flight, I'd imagine Skylab probably has just three permanent crew, with more during Shuttle visits, but is Zarya intended to...
  13. prolemasses

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    Damn these never disappoint. Skylab looks so cool as a blend between the Apollo and Shuttle/ISS eras. Love the yellowing from solar exposure.
  14. prolemasses

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    Hey, the original Commercial Crew Dream Chaser design got away without a service module! I really hope this means Hermes does indeed fly in some form here. Would be cool to see a TL where ESA develops an independent crew capability that's not just a glorified lifeboat for an American station.
  15. prolemasses

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    Voting! This is already one of my favorite space TLs of all time, it definitely deserves the win. On another note, since the design and development of Hermes has already been changed, without Freedom around to dictate design changes and bring the craft's usefulness into question, and with...
  16. prolemasses

    The American System: A Henry Clay TL

    Cameron as a much more sinister FDR type figure is amazing.
  17. prolemasses

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    Zarya-3 was being retired on schedule, so I assume some kind of replacement station was being prepared. I'm sure it will now have to undergo modifications, especially if it was also nuclear powered, so the collapse of the USSR could create quite a gap in manned spaceflight unlike irl. With...
  18. prolemasses

    The American System: A Henry Clay TL

    It's alive! Loving the cursed modern politics, I'm really unsure of whether I'd be a Whig or a Democrat here. Cameron planning to come back and take his revenge I see.
  19. prolemasses

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    Wow, that's a chilling way to end things. Great that the Soviet Shuttle got to prove itself at least, this is definitely something that couldn't have been done had it not been built. Can't wait for Part 3!
  20. prolemasses

    A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    Not the massive Energia based vehicle, the Vulkan mentioned here (talked about in Post 6: Hurricane) is a Proton replacement (or at least launcher for Slava/TKS) similar to Zenit. But I'm still baffled as to how N1, an HLV that needs to be assembled at the launch site and carries 100 mt on two...
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