Would USS Lake Champlain be still the prime recovery ship had Freedom 7 went up earlier on March 24?
I like your topic. I'm going to offer some advice on a perhaps better way to open up a discussion, and will use your Original Post as a starting point. Please do not be offended, as that is not my intention, but rather accept the advice as something to consider...Would USS Lake Champlain be still the prime recovery ship had Freedom 7 went up earlier on March 24?
The second iteration of your worthy question now contains links to both the Carrier/Capsule, and allows fellow forum members to quickly and easily look up the relevant information and allows for informed opinions to be made. I myself cannot answer your question, until I actually goto the linked pages and read up on them, which I shall do forthwith...Would USS Lake Champlain still be the prime recovery ship had Freedom 7 went up earlier on March 24?
Now, having had a chance to give a quick look see to both sites, I have to admit that I don't know if the USS Lake Champlain would indeed be the recovery ship used, because I don't see anything about what she was doing on March 20th - March 24th historically on the liked page. As an offshoot to your question, though, what effect on history would the originally scheduled launch have had?
I totally understand!Re USS Lake Champlain: I would prefer to wait until one of the space jockeys like Michael Van or Randy offer their input on this.
I have to disagree on this point, however, and here is why;Otherwise I think it'll have basically little to nil effect on history at all since Comrade Gagarin will still be the first in orbit a month later, overshadowing Freedom 7's and causes the space race to continue as usual.
I totally understand!
I have to disagree on this point, however, and here is why;
In OTL, the Soviets get Comrade Gagarin both into space & orbit first, and only then does the USA Get Alan Shepard into space, and then only in a sub-orbital space flight.
Now in this alternate situation, the USA gets to crow about their achievement (You know we would), only to then end up with egg on their faces, just weeks later, when the USSR announces there own first flight, which just happens to be an orbital space flight. So the intensity is better, and the rivalry more heated, because the altered circumstances have the USA setting a new record, and then being one-upped almost immediately by the USSR, as opposed to OTL where the Soviets got there first, and then the american achievement, of getting there second, and not going all the way at that, isn't as close a space race, so folks might get a bit more emotionally involved/invested into their own space programs....
I waffle on this one, not that I disagree on orbit being far and away more useful than a sub-orbital junket, but rather getting a guy up there for a short term as opposed to long term/permanent manned/unmanned satellites kind of thing. So a guy orbits the planet a time or twenty, what have you got up there for weeks/months/years? How many satellites/space stations have you got versus the other fellows program, what new and interesting science advances have come from these...I beg to differ. That was raised for a multiple times by users other than me in this site and all I see is a longstanding agreement that the race to orbit was the real prize which really mattered, and thus it ends up very much like how OTL played out.
Yeah no, I don't buy that either. So you think that things would be the same, Randy thinks it would be a less intensive US effort, and I believe it would be a more intensive US effort.On the other day I had argued about this with Randy who believes that the space race would be less intense since it would took off pressure for the Kennedy administration and made him less likely to boldly intitiate the manned lunar landings.
From February 7th through March 2nd, Lake Champlain was operating in the Caribbean. Between March 20th and 24th, she would likely be undergoing maintenance in Quonset Point, RI.
Here's where I got the information from. Lake Champlain was on a Midshipman cruise in February. After returning to Quonset Point, RI she would spend some time having maintenance performed. In an emergency she could probably be deployed again immediately. In all likelihood though, Essex would be the better option to serve as the prime recovery ship for a March launch.If there is a navy schedule documenting things like those for the year of 1961 I would definitely want to read it.