I have been considering how the US space program might be effected by a surviving USSR that was active in space during the 90s.
I'm imagining a Soviet space program that uses as its main launchers the Soyuz rocket, the Zenit,
Energia-M and more rarely the full Energia (some of those launching the Buran orbiter, some launching special heavy payloads), with the main programs being Mir-2, improved military satellites, perhaps a Hubble-beating space telescope, an orbital radio telescope and a few interplanetary probes (such as an Energia-launched Mars sample return mission).
Now, I have a hard time seeing the US giving much more funding to NASA given the political limitations of both Congress and NASA itself at the time. But even so, if the Soviets are being particularly active in space, would the US cut back on NASA as much as they did OTL? This I also doubt.
I can see political pressure over a "booster gap" being particularly strong, so I read up on American heavy lift booster concepts of the 80s and early 90s and found
Barbarian MM, perhaps the heaviest version of the Titan rocket conceived. Not only does the rocket have a catchy name, it also has the ability to launch over 45 tonnes to LEO, 11 tonnes more than the Energia M.
So assuming that NASA and the USAF get enough extra funding to develop the Barbarian and it is ready to launch by the mid-90s at the latest, what could the US actually use it for? I imagine that launching Space Station Freedom all in a single package (this would be a smaller station that OTL's ISS of course) is a likely use. Are there other NASA missions such a booster would enable or OTL missions a bigger expendable booster would change? And what how would a booster like thing change things for the Airforce?
fasquardon