Bold They Rise:Spaceflight from 1976 to the Present

Intro
It's happening,huh?
Yes,it is. My first real TL.

A space TL,with a POD in '76? Wow.
I know what you're thinking. And no,this isn't a TLIAW. This is a (more or less) full blown TL. The POD? Gerald Ford gets elected in his own right. True,he wasn't THAT big of a space geek,but the big changes come after his administration.

What cool stuff can we expect?
LOADS. Shuttle-C,Space Station Friendship,a '90s Orion MPCV,SpaceX doing suborbital space tourism,a Buran-wank,a "Slavic Spring" in 1993,a return to the Moon,and more.

You must've planned it out for some time.
Since November.

How about international space?
You'll see,you'll see. Patience,young buck. Besides,this is a rehearsal of sorts.

For what?
A bigger TL,with a POD in '61. Again,you'll see.
 
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Table of contents (planned)
Book 1: New Beginnings (1976-1980)

Book 2: Countdown (1981-1985)

Book 3: Launch (1986-1990)

Book 4: Assembly (1991-1996)

Book 5: Approaches (1997-April 1999)

Book 6 (Interlude): Tranquillity (May-July 1999)

Book 7: Establishment (August 1999-2003)

Book 8 (Interlude): Reconfiguring (2004-2005)

Book 9: Trajectories of Exploration (2006-2013)

Book 10: Hermes (2014-December 2015)

Book 11: Arrival (January-October 2016)

Book 12: Setup (November 2016-2030)

Book 13: Frontier (2031-2061)

Book 14: Appendices
 
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Book 1:chapter 1
Chapter 1:The beginning of it all

March 21,1976
Kennedy Space Center
Cape Canaveral,Florid

Transcript of a speech by Gerald Ford

"Today I speak to you from a place that needs no introduction. It is from the Kennedy Space Center that all American manned space missions since Freedom 7 have launched. From Launch Complex 39A over there,Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 crew launched to their appointment with the moon. From that pad,beginning 3 years from now,the first Space Shuttle missions will launch. If I win a full term in November,I will revitalize the space program. America will return to space as the decade of the 1980s begins. In February 1970,my predecessor stated that in the 70s,we would make space a familiar habitat of the 80s and 90s,easily accessible for human exploration. He will only be off by a few years. Thank you."

I know,not much of a first post. But more's to come.
 
Chronology:February-October 1976
February 1976
MoM decree 129:The N1-L3 program is cancelled. Development of space stations DOS-7 and DOS-8 is approved. Development of projects 1K11K25 Energia-Buran,100GK Mosche geostationary Earth resources and observation platform,and 150GK Heavy Rocket Study Phases 1-2 program is approved.

March 1976
Ford's speech at KSC. Fifth test firing of the Space Shuttle Main Engine,for 205 seconds.

April 1976
NBC's John Chancellor takes a tour of Russia'a space center at Star City. Chancellor reports (aired on April 30 and May 6) that the Soviet Union's space program isn't leaps and bounds ahead of NASA:rather,the two space programs are more or less evenly matched.

May 1976
Development as per NASA budgetary request 74-10 of the Cargo Space Shuttle (Shuttle-C) Phase 1 is approved.

June 1976
Last launch attempt of the Europa rocket. This mission,the only successful Europa,places the 503 lb West German Tamich research satellite into medium Earth orbit. Europa is cancelled in July. The first launch of Ariane,Europe's next generation rocket,is anticipated for early 1979.

July 4,1976
NASA's Viking 1 lander touches down at Chryse Planitia,Mars.

July 31,1976
Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev dies peacefully in his sleep,aged 69.

Late summer 1976 (August-mid September)
NASA's Viking 2 arrives at Mars on August 11,its lander touching down at Schiaparelli Crater on the 29th. On August 17,TASS announces that a "careful selection" has ensured that Alexi Kosygin will be General Secretary of the CCCP. The next day,Soviet space scientist Roald Sagdeyev reveals in a BBC interview that the next Soviet Mars probes will be a pair of orbiters in 1977 and orbiter/lander pairs in 1979 and 1981:the 1975 launch opportunity was skipped for "budgetary reasons". The first shuttle SRB test firing,a 15 second event on September 8,is viewed close up by 12,000 guests and on TV by over 100,000 people. Between September 12 and October 2,cosmonauts Anatoly Filipchenko and Mikhail Lisun, the crew of Soyuz 23, fly the second manned mission to the Salyut 5 space station.

October 7,1976
Three days after the 19th anniversary of the Sputnik 1 launch,NASA is in shock:closeup imagery taken by the Viking 2 orbiter has identified,on the Isidis Planitia,what can only be some sort of moss. However,further analysis will have to wait:NASA's next Mars mission,the Pioneer Mars orbiter and atmospheric probe,isn't due for launch until 1981.

October 24,1976
NASA announces that its next astronaut selection has been moved up one year to allow for the delay of the first Space Shuttle mission to September 1980. Also,the test orbiter Enterprise will be modified for spaceflight after the ALT tests next year:Enterprise's first space mission is not expected earlier than Q1 1984 because of the modifications required for Enterprise's structure and systems.
 
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I love me a good alternate space program story...great star so far! And the Enterprise makes it into space after all!
 

Archibald

Banned
By the way, it's Jerry Ford
President Ford, who as a member of the House Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration in 1958 helped draft the original Space Act that gave NASA its charter and was always a stalwart supporter of the space program.
 
Europe in space-1 (B1Ch2)
August 1976

In Paris a meeting was held. The ministers of the 9 European countries involved in ESA,Europe's pan-continental space agency,met to discuss their options:

MANNED SPACEFLIGHT,1980-2010
A. No indigenous manned space program prior to 2000-2002 funding period. Use the American Space Shuttle and Russian Soyuz for space access only. After 2005-small capsule,to be launched by a notional American heavy lift rocket
B. Development studies of a manned spacecraft in the 1980s and early 1990s,leading up to flight tests in 1996-1998 and operational missions after 2001 or so. Winged extended capsule (similar to NASA's Big Gemini study of 1967) launched atop Ariane (next generation) booster or notional American heavy lifter.
C. Purchase of 3 Soyuz spacecraft from USSR,modification to systems and test launch as soon as 1983. In 1990,debut a European version with improved systems.

RESOLVED:Option B was chosen in November.

MAJOR UNMANNED SPACEFLIGHT-EARTH AND MOON
Magsat II (cooperartion with NASA)-1979 (launched by Scout rocket)
Aeolus oceans observer-1984 (launched by Delta 5000 series rocket)
Galileo lunar polar orbiter-1987
Atmospheric carbon observe-NET 1989
Lunar lander-1990
General earth observation network-after 1992
Lunar lander-1993 or 1994
Lunar polar rover-before 1997
Lunar geophysical network-early 2000s

UNMANNED PLANETARY MISSIONS
Venus flyby/multiple atmospheric probes-1987
Mars orbiter-1988
Venus radar orbiter/balloon-1990
Multiple asteroid flyby (chemical)-1993
Saturn orbiter/atmospheric probe+Titan probe-1994
Mars lander-1994
Mars lander-1996
Phobos orbiter-1998
Mercury flyby/polar penetrator-2001
Mars rover-2003
Mercury orbiter-2004
Asteroid Belt tour (REP)-2008


Overall,the meeting was a success
 
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1976 election results
Gerald Ford/Nelson Rockefeller 295 EV 26 states carried 44,100,536
Jimmy Carter/Lloyd Bentsen 220 EV 18 states carried + DC 37,455,129
Eugene McCarthy/Alan Davies 48 EV 6 states carried 10,278,952

Primary issues:Detente (Ford for,Carter against,McCarthy for)
Energy (Ford for solar energy,Carter for a UN mandate re:OPEC,McCarthy no stance)


 
Chronology:November 1976-May 1977
November 1976
The Voyager spacecraft are transported to Kennedy Space Center. Development of the Energia-Buran system begins.

December 1976
Salyut 6 arrives at Baikonur:launch is anticipated for next September. NPO Energia announces its intent to internationalize the Mosche program by 1988:first launch is anticipated for 1985. China places two Shi Jian space balloons in geostationary orbit with the first Long March 2B rocket,a sign that China is in space exploration for the long run.

January 1977
Enterprise's first ALT captive-carry tests.

February 1977
Soyuz 24,last mission to Salyut 5, which is deorbited in May (Zudov, Rostdezvensky).

March 1977
The first ever Ariane is rolled out at the Paris Air Show.

April 1977
Conversion of the MSFC Skylab trainer to the Interim Space Station begins. Launch is now targeted for the beginning of 1985. NASA Administrator James Fletcher tours Western Europe speaking about the benefits of NASA/ESA cooperation.

May 22,1977
The first Star Wars film premieres in the US (Philadelphia,New York,Boston,Albany,Baltimore,Washington DC).

The rest of May 1977
The Intercosmos 8 satellite carries Japan's first real space science payload, a materials sciences experiment called Kasumi.
 
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You naughty boy, you killed Hermès.
This is a capsule version of Hermes,with wings and a mini cargo bay (12 x 28 ft). So Hermes isn't extinct,more kind of dormant,but also kind of not. The upshot? An earlier debut (mid to late 90s). At the time of its cancellation,I believe Hermes was set to deliver its first Freedom (?) crew in 2001.
 
A pop culture interlude of sorts
Warning:slight spoilers

The 1970s and 1980s were impressive times for popular culture. Movies,music,and books were being produced on a scale never seen before. Many artistic careers were impacted by the new culture. Let's look at three examples (a small selection):

George RR Martin:
In 1982,the New Jersey native burst upon the literary scene with Armageddon Nights. The novel,set in the year 2301,is a tale of life in the Star Trek universe,forty years after the adventures of Kirk's Enterprise. In 1994,Martin published A Game Of Thrones,the first A Song of Ice and Fire book. Sequels followed in 1997 (A Clash of Kings),1999 (A Storm of Swords),2003 (A Feast for Crows),2008 (A Dance of Dragons),2013 (The Winds of Winter),and 2017 (A Time for Wolves). In 2008,NBC optioned the TV rights. The resulting TV show first aired on May 14,2010 under the overarching title Game of Thrones. Other books have also been written in that universe. Fantasy prospered with Ralph Bakshi's adaptations of The Hobbit (1976),The Lord of the Rings (1978(,and The Return of the King (1983), and Martin worked on the last.

Ann M.Martin:The genre of "middle-school fiction" owes itself to Martin's The Baby-sitter's Club series, which numbered 412 books in total (if one counts the various spinoff series) published between March 1984 and November 2012. Like ASOIAF,there would be TV versions (1989-1990,2004-2008) and two movies (the "regular" movie,in 1993,and Babysitter's Club:Friends Forever in 2005).

Francine Pascal:Another pioneer of young-adult fiction, with the various (697 in all!) Sweet Valley series books, published between October 1982 and May 2006. The Sweet Valley High TV show, which aired between 1993 and 1998,had a "Super Special" episode arc in October and November 1995 (inspired by the 1975 TV movie Stowaway to the Moon) in which the character of Cara Walker (Larisa Oleynik) stows away on a Shuttle launch to Mir. While in space,Cara falls for cosmonaut Maksim Stepanov (real-life cosmonaut Leonid Kadenyuk),and hilarity ensues.
 
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Chronology:summer 1977
June 1977
Salyut 6 gets closer to launch,now planned for September. Cosmonauts Georgi Dobrovolski (1) and Valeri Ryumin are the prime crew for the first expedition, backed up by Yuri Romanenko and Alexsandr Ivanchenkov. China launches the third and fourth FSW recoverable satellites just a week apart:for two days the spacecraft conduct a joint mission,including rendezvous exercises. The Viking 1 orbiter photographs another patch of Martian moss,this one in Gusev Crater. On Earth,JPL submits studies for a Mars Geoscience and Climate Orbiter,a Lunar Science Orbiter,and a Venus radar orbiter,balloon,and medium-term (at least 3 days surface operation) lander.

July 1977
The first Ariane rocket reaches the launch pad at Kourou:due to the EEC's financial situation,the first launch will now be in a year.

August 1977
The first two Shuttle ALT tests,respectively piloted by Jack Lousma/Ken Mattingly and Fred Haise/Stuart Roosa. Two Soviet Mars 77 orbiters,Mars 8 and Mars 9,are dispatched to the Red Planet at the beginning of the month,and a further orbiter/lander pair is approved for a 1984 launch. NASA's Voyager spacecraft launch on August 20 and August 28.

(1)-The Soyuz 11 disaster is averted by Viktor Patsayev,who simply PLACES HIS RIGHT KNEE OVER THE EQUALISATION VALVE (2). Patsayev leaves the cosmonaut corps in 1973 and Vladislav Volkov in 1976:neither fly another mission.

(2)-I remember somebody did this in a space TL. Can someone confirm I'm not imagining things?
 
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The Soviet space agency, and development and testing of Energia/Buran between 1977 and 1980
Boris Chertok's quiet takeover of TskBEM in November 1973 was the last thing many in the Soviet aerospace hierarchy wanted. For one thing,it meant that from now on the military would have less and less say in the management of the manned space program. However,the successful operation of Salyuts 3,4,and 5 during Chertok's early years helped shape the hierarchy's opinion in his favor. Another helping point was the death of Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin's ascension to the post of General Secretary. Kosygin,unlike most,favored increased civilian space activity. The Soviet-American space cooperation pact signed by Nixon and Brezhnev on May 24,1972 was renewed by Rockefeller (since Ford was touring Canada) and Kosygin on July 10,1977, at Athens.

The renewal of the space cooperation agreement guaranteed six personnel exchanges between NASA and NPO Energia between 1979 and 1987,the addition of an American-made video spectrometer to the Venera 13 and 14 Venus orbiters (1), the use of the NASA tracking stations at Canberra and Goldstone to provide backup tracking data for Soviet space probes,a technical exchange in 1984 or 1985 involving data for potential second generation robotic lunar landers, and kept open the option of future manned cooperative missions,although no such missions were planned at that time. A renewal clause at the end stated that the first option for renewal was in 1984,and renewal opportunities every two years thereafter through the end of the century were provided.

(From Asif Siddiqi, Challenge to Shuttle (and cooperation on Earth), the Soviet space program 1974-1986, Government Printing Office, 2005, rev.2011,2019.)

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Throughout the late 70s,Energia development continued apace. The first test firings of the new RD-250 engines provided much valuable data,and by 1982, with Energia's debut set for 1984 (the Zenit booster modules) and 1985 (Energia itself), much risk had been retired. The announcements of the development approval of the Energia-M (medium) variant in 1980 and the Energia-T (heavy) variant in 1984 were greeted both with apprehension and with excitement.

Buran was also under devleopment. Metal bending for the first orbiter began at the end of 1976, and construction of the second commenced in early 1979. The debut of the former was set for 1985,the latter 1988,and soon two more orbiters would be assembled in the Podlipki jigs. The first Buran astronaut corps was selected in 1978,and Chertok hoped to select the second in 1981, which would include two women. The first group was weighted heavily towards pilots,but Chertok planned that subsequent groups would each have 10 pilots and 12 mission specialists.

List of the GKNI-1 cosmonaut group,with their spaceflights

Pilots

Ivan Bachurin (Soyuz T-13,Buran 1K4,Soyuz TM-17,STS-98,Soyuz TM-26,Taifun 3K3,Buran 1K10,STS-131,Molniya 7K2)
Alexi Borodai (Ptichka 2K2,Soyuz TM-23,Baikail 2K7,Gagarin 5K2,Artemis 10)
Leonid Kadenyuk (STS-24,Baikal 2K3,Groza 4K2,STS-126/Friendship 20/Orion 6,Buran 1K14,Zarya ZO-3,Hermes-MS 1)
Oleg Kononenko (Baikal 2K3,STS-119,Artemis NEO-2)
Sergei Nezelov (Soyuz T-16,STS-51,Groza 4K4,Tsiolkovski 6K2.Artemis 14)
Rimantas Stankavichus (Soyuz T-14)
Ural Sultanov (Buran 1K5,Taifun 3K2,Buran 1K11,STS-146)


Mission specialists
Arkadi Bogdanov (STS-40,Soyuz TM-21,Baikal 2K9,Zarya LO-1)
Nikolai Fefelov (Soyuz TM-10,Groza 4K2,Friendship 8 (temporarily),Gagarin 5K4,Artemis-LS 2,Soyuz TMA-17,Dnepr 8K2)
Valeri Illarionov (STS-27,Baikal 2K5,STS-73,Soyuz TM-32,Taifun 3K6)
Viktor Zabolotsky (Soyuz TM-5,Ptichka 2K2,Buran 1K7,Groza 4K3,Taifun 3K3,Soyuz TMA-1,Taifun 3K6,Friendship 15,Buran 1K11)
 
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