On January 27, 1967, during a routine training exercise, Apollo 1 experienced a cabin fire. Fortunately, Gus Grissom managed to blow the hatch, and the crew escaped. The fire was investigated, which exposed over 1,000 design flaws in the Block I spacecraft, so NASA had CM-012 sent back to North American Aviation to make modifications, including replacing the hatch with the one to be used on the Block II (the Block I, as a result, was rechristened the Block IB). This pushed the flight back to at least July, and when that happened, multiple modifications had been made to the spacecraft, including then new hatch, wires being hidden and insulated, more fireproof materials, using liquid oxygen in the cabin instead of pure oxygen (which was still being used for launching, landing, and EVA), and the A1C suit was nixed in favor of the Block II suit, now rechristened the A7L. The flight went off without a hitch.
Afterwards, NASA raced to meet the end-of-decade deadline set by JFK, including flying an unmanned lunar module on Apollo 2, launching a CSM and LM on two separate Saturn IBs on Apollo 3, testing the mighty Saturn V on Apollo 4, repeating Apollo 3 with a crew and the Block II spacecraft on Apollo 5, testing the Saturn V again on Apollo 6, then launching Skylab using the wet workshop concept in mid-1968, and visited by Apollo 7 later in October for final checkout.
Today, Apollo is still going strong, essentially the American equivalent of Soyuz. NASA tried to replace it with the Space Shuttle, but it ultimately became nothing more than a support craft for Apollo, and was retired in 2011 in favor of the Shuttle-C. The Block II was retired in 1980 in favor of the Block III, Block IV, and Block V spacecraft (Block III for Earth orbital flights, Block IV for lunar flights, and Block V for interplanetary flights). Skylab, which had been built out with modules in the 70s and 80s, is part of the International Space Station, and the Saturn IB has been replaced by the Saturn II (codename Saturn INT-20). There is also now a moonbase appropriately called Armstrong Base, and there were even three manned landings on Mars in the mid-80s and early-90s, though this program was put on the backburner to focus on the Moon and ISS. There's also rumors that Apollo was used for military-related purposes in the 80s, as several missions were launched from Vandenberg with classified mission profiles (one was extremely classified, and is believed to have transferred Air Force personnel to an orbital weapons platform in polar orbit loaded with re-entry vehicles so as to reliably hit Soviet targets).
But what if Grissom didn't blow the hatch? More specifically, what if there wasn't even a blow-hatch function to begin with after what happened to Grissom on Liberty Bell 7? What if the crew couldn't get out and was killed? How would the space program be affected? Would Apollo have still gone on like our timeline, or would it be retired and fully replaced by the Space Shuttle? How would Skylab change? Would we put boots on Martian soil?
Afterwards, NASA raced to meet the end-of-decade deadline set by JFK, including flying an unmanned lunar module on Apollo 2, launching a CSM and LM on two separate Saturn IBs on Apollo 3, testing the mighty Saturn V on Apollo 4, repeating Apollo 3 with a crew and the Block II spacecraft on Apollo 5, testing the Saturn V again on Apollo 6, then launching Skylab using the wet workshop concept in mid-1968, and visited by Apollo 7 later in October for final checkout.
Today, Apollo is still going strong, essentially the American equivalent of Soyuz. NASA tried to replace it with the Space Shuttle, but it ultimately became nothing more than a support craft for Apollo, and was retired in 2011 in favor of the Shuttle-C. The Block II was retired in 1980 in favor of the Block III, Block IV, and Block V spacecraft (Block III for Earth orbital flights, Block IV for lunar flights, and Block V for interplanetary flights). Skylab, which had been built out with modules in the 70s and 80s, is part of the International Space Station, and the Saturn IB has been replaced by the Saturn II (codename Saturn INT-20). There is also now a moonbase appropriately called Armstrong Base, and there were even three manned landings on Mars in the mid-80s and early-90s, though this program was put on the backburner to focus on the Moon and ISS. There's also rumors that Apollo was used for military-related purposes in the 80s, as several missions were launched from Vandenberg with classified mission profiles (one was extremely classified, and is believed to have transferred Air Force personnel to an orbital weapons platform in polar orbit loaded with re-entry vehicles so as to reliably hit Soviet targets).
But what if Grissom didn't blow the hatch? More specifically, what if there wasn't even a blow-hatch function to begin with after what happened to Grissom on Liberty Bell 7? What if the crew couldn't get out and was killed? How would the space program be affected? Would Apollo have still gone on like our timeline, or would it be retired and fully replaced by the Space Shuttle? How would Skylab change? Would we put boots on Martian soil?
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