sorry for not posting a chapter yet, its in the works but i've been a bit under the weather recently. should be out within the next 7 days
Glorious Dawn : An Alternate Space Age
- Thread starter SingularityG3
- Start date
sorry again for taking so long, i was on track but I lost a lot of my motivation, and now I've just accidentally broken one of my fingers, I hope to get the chapter out in the next week but I can make no guarantees
Chapter 9 - Along for the Ride
At last after almost a month, i have done the bare minimum of writing a chapter!
i hope y'all enjoy it, we're really getting to the fun things now.
Along for the Ride
At last, after over 4 months of travelling, Venera 3 approaches Venus. Its foreboding, featureless cloud tops greeting the weary robotic traveller with a dull white. Though it wouldn’t look like it from so far above, the venusian atmosphere would be rushing across the surface at immense speeds, what seems like a calm planet from above has winds blasting at over 80m/s. This world, these hellish conditions are what Venera must endure, for as long as it can.
Slamming into the atmosphere many times faster than the speed of sound, a thick sheet of plasma envelopes the weary craft, heating the outside to thousands of degrees. During this time it is helpless to contact earth, any signal would take minutes to be heard, and the plasma completely blocks any attempt at communication. After what felt like an eternity, the plasma washes away leaving the craft falling far into the clouds. The outside pressure rising to 2, 3, 5 atmospheres. Venera 3 was never built to survive the depths. 10 atmospheres, the atmosphere crushing its hapless body. 12 atmospheres, the metal construction would creak and bend, before finally buckling, and imploding. The mutilated debris of this craft silently falling beneath the clouds, to remain forever lost on this veiled world. Rest well, Venera 3, the information provided would be sufficient to base future probes off of, and hopefully have one survive to the surface.
Venera 4 wouldn’t be so lucky. Launched before the true data was obtained, it was clear that it would take a miracle for her to survive to the surface.
It would be another 2 stressful months before Venera 4 would reach Venus, At which point it had become clear that a fate similar to that of Venera 3 was destined for this probe. She would hit the atmosphere moving at multiple kilometres per second, plasma rapidly washing over the fragile craft, plunging it into a radio silence with Earth, that it would not emerge from. A minor crack in the heat shield caused it to completely burn through during atmospheric entry, completely destroying the weary traveller.
Turning our gaze to Vandenberg AFB, under an hour remains for the launch of the very first crewed flight of spearhead. The Titan-III would sit, towering on the launch pad awaiting her time to shine as the pilot for this flight would prepare.
The pilot would be Robert White, a former USAF X-15 Test pilot who was selected to join the spearhead programme for the first flight. The original spearhead design was kept as close to the X-15 in terms of systems as possible, to reduce training time for new astronauts, training was also running in parallel for the full spearhead design, its systems were completed but its body had not yet been fully built.
“T-2 Hours, support crew please vacate the Launch Site.”
Robert White would enter the spaceplane to perform a manual test of systems, finding nothing out of the ordinary, launch would proceed as planned over the next 2 hours.
“Kittyhawk is Go for launch”
“Roger, everything’s ready here.”
“We read you Kittyhawk, Launch in T-30 Seconds. Those solid rockets will be rough so prepare for that, anything goes wrong and we’ll do our best to separate them and get you safely back here.”
“I’ll do my best up here to not lose any feathers”
The solid rocket boosters flare to life, engulfing the launchpad in a cloud of smoke as the rocket rides its fiery exhaust up past the launch tower and higher into the sky. All systems show a successful launch so far, tank pressure nominal on the first and second stages, with the solid rockets burning well.
“Kittyhawk, prepare for core stage ignition and booster separation”
The core stage ignites with a thunderous roar, propelling Kittyhawk further and further into the blackening skies, the boosters silently falling away behind it
“That core engine is a lot smoother, stage one seems to be working perfectly.”
“Great to hear, I’m sure that everyone over at Aerojet will be ecstatic.”
The core stage would shortly be shut off, allowing Kittyhawk to get a decent suborbital test before the Orbital launch later in the year, should all the missions perform well.
Kittyhawk would separate from the Titan III, now flying with her own wings high above the atmosphere. Though it was a simple suborbital flight, it would be the testing ground for spearhead’s systems, demonstrations of the spaceplane’s manoeuvrability would be conducted for roll, pitch and yaw, all working at near perfection. Just over 10 minutes after separation the time would come for atmospheric entry. Some concerns would be raised about a potential issue with the landing gear system providing an inlet for plasma to bleed inside the vehicle, but as this did not happen on the unmanned flight, it was hoped the vehicle would perform perfectly during reentry.
Communication would go silent, the blanket of plasma failing to permit any signal to leave, they would simply have to wait for the craft to slow, and hopefully hear the sound of Robert’s voice, or the persistent hum of Kittyhawk’s systems.
It had been 2 minutes since communication should have been regained, all the launch crew at Vandenberg had begun to fear the worst had happened, they had lost a crew member. There could have been imperfections in the heat shield that went undetected, or the aforementioned landing gear let plasma creep into the insides of the craft, destroying it from the inside out, or it could have tumbled through the atmosphere, exposing the more vulnerable skin of the vehicle to the - “Come in Vandenberg, this is Kittyhawk, do you read?”
Cheering erupted across mission control, Kittyhawk made it through the force of reentry, now safely gliding to the landing runway, fully intact. Kittyhawk’s first flight would fully complete all mission objectives set, and demonstrated the ability to land spaceplanes manually at specific locations, allowing for much more specified missions in the future
The moon would hang far beneath the falling Luna 7 craft, prepared to cast her robotic gaze upon the vast flats of Mare Vaporium. In the footsteps of those probes that came before her, retrorockets would begin to be fired to decelerate down to survivable speeds. After slowing down, at just 5 metres above the surface, the lander would jettison from the rest of the probe, shooting upwards before falling back down again and bouncing across the surface, coming to rest beside a large rock in a flat expanse of the lunar surface. Her stabilising petals deploying, keeping her upright, and as the first minutes on the moon passed, she snapped her first photo of the lunar surface, and sends it back to Earth.
Over 300,000 kilometres away from the steady transmissions of Luna 7 in eastern England was the Jodrell Bank Observatory, silently listening to the skies around the moon, hung high in the sky shining her faint light on the world below. In a strange turn of events, the Soviet Union had asked the observatory to listen in on Luna 7’s signals, an unexpected cooperation to receive the first images. And finally, after waiting for something, anything to come through, they got it. The first images from the surface of the moon. They revealed a desolate, high contrast wasteland scattered with debris fields, boulders and sharp edges left untouched for billions of years, no seas or winds or geology to wear down the points, to smooth the ground. In the photos, it was clear that this was no easy place to land. Though Luna did land in one of the lunar maria, the flattest areas on the moon, made by long since cooled oceans of lava, Luna had barely missed crashing into a boulder, clearly landing on the moon would be no easy task, even with the aid of human controlled, manual landings.
The following months would be dominated by American spaceflight, a second suborbital flight of spearhead would be conducted, And after months of travel Mariner 1 would arrive at Mars, Mariner 2 arriving just a short while later, with beautiful images of this blood red world, and the two rugged moons that circle it. Photos of Tsiolkovsky valley and Olympus Mons, this world that had looked long dead in previous images was shown to have features evidently carved by water over hundreds of thousands of years. It may not look like it in these images, but this was once a would flourishing with life
Once the 2 Mariner probes would send their last photos, triumphant in their quest, Vandenberg would be ready for another launch, this time using the Titan III’s full power to send Milton Orville Thompson to orbit, inside the newly refurbished Kittyhawk Spearhead. This would be the first crewed orbital flight of the Spearhead program, and the first ever flight of a craft that had previously been to space.
Launch would occur in the early evening, firing up into a polar orbit with all systems performing perfectly, with Northern Canada looming outside the wide canopy, falling off into the sunset with sparse lights dotting the night side of view. Performing a test of the in-orbit orientation control systems, Milton would pitch up Kittyhawk, giving a direct view of the horizon, a thin ribbon of blue, straddling the vast expanse of space, and hugging the fragile surface of the Earth, clouds decorating the vast oceans and landforms beneath like paintbrush strokes, elegantly dancing across the surface, glowing orange as they cross the darkness, occluding the bright signs of civilization below.
After almost 2 hours in blissful solitude above the earth, running advanced systems checks and observations of the passing terrains, sensors began to show that pressure for one of the orientation control tanks was dropping, forcing an early end to the planned 6 orbits of the mission. A brief deorbit burn was performed, and once atmospheric entry was successfully completed with no damage to the vehicle, Thompson would glide Kittyhawk all the way to the landing runway, and touchdown without a scratch. The perfect end to the first orbital Spearhead flight
Off in the soviet union, preparations were underway for the launch of Voskhod 1, the first of the new series of crewed spaceflights. The crew would consist of Vladimir Komarov, Konstantin Feoktistov and Vasili Lazarev. The Voskhod capsule was an upgraded Vostok, having 3 seats and a Backup retrorocket, as well as a rudimentary orbital manoeuvering system. This first flight would launch on November 7th, despite being rushed to meet this deadline, the launch up through orbital insertion would be concluded with no errors, Earth looming outside the small window like a pane of glass spattered with wisps of snow, falling off into the abyss of space, seemingly fighting against the expanses of air below for domination of the view.
This mission would contain no extraordinary goals, it is never good to overload the first mission of a program with great ambitions, but it would set the stage for the upcoming Voskhod 2 mission, in which it was planned that Alexei Leonov would inflate the “Volga” airlock, and undertake the first ever “extra-vehicular activity”, a spacewalk. Though that would not be for quite a few months, and if the first flight could not return home, the program would end then and there, with the planned Voskhod 3-5 being scrapped without a second thought, with Voskhod 2 being kept for propaganda and first value.
After a whole day in low earth orbit, it was time for the three brave crew to return home. As the atmosphere began to thicken, the reentry module would separate from the equipment module. Or, it should’ve. Whilst the upper atmosphere began to lick at the falling craft, a faint red glow building up along the leading side before shooting off behind it, a trail of plasma burning the sky. That glow would turn to orange, then to a bright white as Voskhod hits thicker and thicker air, this shape is unstable, rapidly Voskhod begins to tumble wildly through the atmosphere, antennae melting as they are exposed to these immense temperatures, until finally the joints between the two modules burn through, the equipment module promptly breaking apart mere seconds after falling away from the crew module. Due to this event, each flight ready module would undergo a much more thorough inspection before making its way to the launch vehicle.
i hope y'all enjoy it, we're really getting to the fun things now.
Along for the Ride
At last, after over 4 months of travelling, Venera 3 approaches Venus. Its foreboding, featureless cloud tops greeting the weary robotic traveller with a dull white. Though it wouldn’t look like it from so far above, the venusian atmosphere would be rushing across the surface at immense speeds, what seems like a calm planet from above has winds blasting at over 80m/s. This world, these hellish conditions are what Venera must endure, for as long as it can.
Slamming into the atmosphere many times faster than the speed of sound, a thick sheet of plasma envelopes the weary craft, heating the outside to thousands of degrees. During this time it is helpless to contact earth, any signal would take minutes to be heard, and the plasma completely blocks any attempt at communication. After what felt like an eternity, the plasma washes away leaving the craft falling far into the clouds. The outside pressure rising to 2, 3, 5 atmospheres. Venera 3 was never built to survive the depths. 10 atmospheres, the atmosphere crushing its hapless body. 12 atmospheres, the metal construction would creak and bend, before finally buckling, and imploding. The mutilated debris of this craft silently falling beneath the clouds, to remain forever lost on this veiled world. Rest well, Venera 3, the information provided would be sufficient to base future probes off of, and hopefully have one survive to the surface.
Venera 4 wouldn’t be so lucky. Launched before the true data was obtained, it was clear that it would take a miracle for her to survive to the surface.
It would be another 2 stressful months before Venera 4 would reach Venus, At which point it had become clear that a fate similar to that of Venera 3 was destined for this probe. She would hit the atmosphere moving at multiple kilometres per second, plasma rapidly washing over the fragile craft, plunging it into a radio silence with Earth, that it would not emerge from. A minor crack in the heat shield caused it to completely burn through during atmospheric entry, completely destroying the weary traveller.
Turning our gaze to Vandenberg AFB, under an hour remains for the launch of the very first crewed flight of spearhead. The Titan-III would sit, towering on the launch pad awaiting her time to shine as the pilot for this flight would prepare.
The pilot would be Robert White, a former USAF X-15 Test pilot who was selected to join the spearhead programme for the first flight. The original spearhead design was kept as close to the X-15 in terms of systems as possible, to reduce training time for new astronauts, training was also running in parallel for the full spearhead design, its systems were completed but its body had not yet been fully built.
“T-2 Hours, support crew please vacate the Launch Site.”
Robert White would enter the spaceplane to perform a manual test of systems, finding nothing out of the ordinary, launch would proceed as planned over the next 2 hours.
“Kittyhawk is Go for launch”
“Roger, everything’s ready here.”
“We read you Kittyhawk, Launch in T-30 Seconds. Those solid rockets will be rough so prepare for that, anything goes wrong and we’ll do our best to separate them and get you safely back here.”
“I’ll do my best up here to not lose any feathers”
The solid rocket boosters flare to life, engulfing the launchpad in a cloud of smoke as the rocket rides its fiery exhaust up past the launch tower and higher into the sky. All systems show a successful launch so far, tank pressure nominal on the first and second stages, with the solid rockets burning well.
“Kittyhawk, prepare for core stage ignition and booster separation”
The core stage ignites with a thunderous roar, propelling Kittyhawk further and further into the blackening skies, the boosters silently falling away behind it
“That core engine is a lot smoother, stage one seems to be working perfectly.”
“Great to hear, I’m sure that everyone over at Aerojet will be ecstatic.”
The core stage would shortly be shut off, allowing Kittyhawk to get a decent suborbital test before the Orbital launch later in the year, should all the missions perform well.
Kittyhawk would separate from the Titan III, now flying with her own wings high above the atmosphere. Though it was a simple suborbital flight, it would be the testing ground for spearhead’s systems, demonstrations of the spaceplane’s manoeuvrability would be conducted for roll, pitch and yaw, all working at near perfection. Just over 10 minutes after separation the time would come for atmospheric entry. Some concerns would be raised about a potential issue with the landing gear system providing an inlet for plasma to bleed inside the vehicle, but as this did not happen on the unmanned flight, it was hoped the vehicle would perform perfectly during reentry.
Communication would go silent, the blanket of plasma failing to permit any signal to leave, they would simply have to wait for the craft to slow, and hopefully hear the sound of Robert’s voice, or the persistent hum of Kittyhawk’s systems.
It had been 2 minutes since communication should have been regained, all the launch crew at Vandenberg had begun to fear the worst had happened, they had lost a crew member. There could have been imperfections in the heat shield that went undetected, or the aforementioned landing gear let plasma creep into the insides of the craft, destroying it from the inside out, or it could have tumbled through the atmosphere, exposing the more vulnerable skin of the vehicle to the - “Come in Vandenberg, this is Kittyhawk, do you read?”
Cheering erupted across mission control, Kittyhawk made it through the force of reentry, now safely gliding to the landing runway, fully intact. Kittyhawk’s first flight would fully complete all mission objectives set, and demonstrated the ability to land spaceplanes manually at specific locations, allowing for much more specified missions in the future
The moon would hang far beneath the falling Luna 7 craft, prepared to cast her robotic gaze upon the vast flats of Mare Vaporium. In the footsteps of those probes that came before her, retrorockets would begin to be fired to decelerate down to survivable speeds. After slowing down, at just 5 metres above the surface, the lander would jettison from the rest of the probe, shooting upwards before falling back down again and bouncing across the surface, coming to rest beside a large rock in a flat expanse of the lunar surface. Her stabilising petals deploying, keeping her upright, and as the first minutes on the moon passed, she snapped her first photo of the lunar surface, and sends it back to Earth.
Over 300,000 kilometres away from the steady transmissions of Luna 7 in eastern England was the Jodrell Bank Observatory, silently listening to the skies around the moon, hung high in the sky shining her faint light on the world below. In a strange turn of events, the Soviet Union had asked the observatory to listen in on Luna 7’s signals, an unexpected cooperation to receive the first images. And finally, after waiting for something, anything to come through, they got it. The first images from the surface of the moon. They revealed a desolate, high contrast wasteland scattered with debris fields, boulders and sharp edges left untouched for billions of years, no seas or winds or geology to wear down the points, to smooth the ground. In the photos, it was clear that this was no easy place to land. Though Luna did land in one of the lunar maria, the flattest areas on the moon, made by long since cooled oceans of lava, Luna had barely missed crashing into a boulder, clearly landing on the moon would be no easy task, even with the aid of human controlled, manual landings.
The following months would be dominated by American spaceflight, a second suborbital flight of spearhead would be conducted, And after months of travel Mariner 1 would arrive at Mars, Mariner 2 arriving just a short while later, with beautiful images of this blood red world, and the two rugged moons that circle it. Photos of Tsiolkovsky valley and Olympus Mons, this world that had looked long dead in previous images was shown to have features evidently carved by water over hundreds of thousands of years. It may not look like it in these images, but this was once a would flourishing with life
Once the 2 Mariner probes would send their last photos, triumphant in their quest, Vandenberg would be ready for another launch, this time using the Titan III’s full power to send Milton Orville Thompson to orbit, inside the newly refurbished Kittyhawk Spearhead. This would be the first crewed orbital flight of the Spearhead program, and the first ever flight of a craft that had previously been to space.
Launch would occur in the early evening, firing up into a polar orbit with all systems performing perfectly, with Northern Canada looming outside the wide canopy, falling off into the sunset with sparse lights dotting the night side of view. Performing a test of the in-orbit orientation control systems, Milton would pitch up Kittyhawk, giving a direct view of the horizon, a thin ribbon of blue, straddling the vast expanse of space, and hugging the fragile surface of the Earth, clouds decorating the vast oceans and landforms beneath like paintbrush strokes, elegantly dancing across the surface, glowing orange as they cross the darkness, occluding the bright signs of civilization below.
After almost 2 hours in blissful solitude above the earth, running advanced systems checks and observations of the passing terrains, sensors began to show that pressure for one of the orientation control tanks was dropping, forcing an early end to the planned 6 orbits of the mission. A brief deorbit burn was performed, and once atmospheric entry was successfully completed with no damage to the vehicle, Thompson would glide Kittyhawk all the way to the landing runway, and touchdown without a scratch. The perfect end to the first orbital Spearhead flight
Off in the soviet union, preparations were underway for the launch of Voskhod 1, the first of the new series of crewed spaceflights. The crew would consist of Vladimir Komarov, Konstantin Feoktistov and Vasili Lazarev. The Voskhod capsule was an upgraded Vostok, having 3 seats and a Backup retrorocket, as well as a rudimentary orbital manoeuvering system. This first flight would launch on November 7th, despite being rushed to meet this deadline, the launch up through orbital insertion would be concluded with no errors, Earth looming outside the small window like a pane of glass spattered with wisps of snow, falling off into the abyss of space, seemingly fighting against the expanses of air below for domination of the view.
This mission would contain no extraordinary goals, it is never good to overload the first mission of a program with great ambitions, but it would set the stage for the upcoming Voskhod 2 mission, in which it was planned that Alexei Leonov would inflate the “Volga” airlock, and undertake the first ever “extra-vehicular activity”, a spacewalk. Though that would not be for quite a few months, and if the first flight could not return home, the program would end then and there, with the planned Voskhod 3-5 being scrapped without a second thought, with Voskhod 2 being kept for propaganda and first value.
After a whole day in low earth orbit, it was time for the three brave crew to return home. As the atmosphere began to thicken, the reentry module would separate from the equipment module. Or, it should’ve. Whilst the upper atmosphere began to lick at the falling craft, a faint red glow building up along the leading side before shooting off behind it, a trail of plasma burning the sky. That glow would turn to orange, then to a bright white as Voskhod hits thicker and thicker air, this shape is unstable, rapidly Voskhod begins to tumble wildly through the atmosphere, antennae melting as they are exposed to these immense temperatures, until finally the joints between the two modules burn through, the equipment module promptly breaking apart mere seconds after falling away from the crew module. Due to this event, each flight ready module would undergo a much more thorough inspection before making its way to the launch vehicle.
Congrats to Kittyhawk on the dawn of reusable crewed spaceflight! Such a momentous occasion for humanity. Now, Voskhod 2 on the other hand...
going to try to aim for 1 chapter every 2 weeks for a while, i broke a finger and the whole hand has been splinted so it will take longer to write them, my apologies
Chapter 9.5 - Torch Light
Torch Light
March 24, 1965
22:47 UTC, Southern Siberia
The skies would be clear above the snowy tundra of Siberia, sparse trees silhouetted against the backdrop of the milky way, spotlight being the lone source of light in these frozen wastes, shining their illuminating gaze upon an R-7 Semyorka, standing on a launch pad towering over the surrounding infrastructure
“Weather remains clear”
“Confirm, we are ready for launch at 2300”
“Yes, we are ready for launch at 2300”
The towering rocket would stand on the pad awaiting the signal for launch, the nations of the world clueless to the events set to unfold in under an hour, the United States was aware of the launch site’s existence, but an untimely gap in reconnaissance meant that the rocket went unnoticed.
22:59 UTC
“Launch in 10”
The countdown was on, moments remaining before the rocket would launch, and light up the night
5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Lift-off
March 24, 1965
22:47 UTC, Southern Siberia
The skies would be clear above the snowy tundra of Siberia, sparse trees silhouetted against the backdrop of the milky way, spotlight being the lone source of light in these frozen wastes, shining their illuminating gaze upon an R-7 Semyorka, standing on a launch pad towering over the surrounding infrastructure
“Weather remains clear”
“Confirm, we are ready for launch at 2300”
“Yes, we are ready for launch at 2300”
The towering rocket would stand on the pad awaiting the signal for launch, the nations of the world clueless to the events set to unfold in under an hour, the United States was aware of the launch site’s existence, but an untimely gap in reconnaissance meant that the rocket went unnoticed.
22:59 UTC
“Launch in 10”
The countdown was on, moments remaining before the rocket would launch, and light up the night
5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Lift-off
Chapter 10 - Mesospheric Waltz
My god, this has taken so long to write, i am so sorry for the wait, everyone.
I do hope that the wait was worth it though, a lot of interesting firsts are about to happen!
Mesospheric Waltz
The day is November 22, 1963. During a motorcade through Dallas, the President of the United States was shot, John F. Kennedy was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he was officially pronounced dead. Lyndon B. Johnson, the Vice President, was inducted to become the next President. To memorialise JFK, Johnson renamed NASA’s Florida Launch Operations Centre to the “John F. Kennedy Space Centre”. The first launch from this newly re-named site is the inaugural launch of the Saturn series, a Saturn I. It carries no true payload, merely a boilerplate of the in-development Apollo CSM. Thanks to Vulcan II, US lift capability was already ahead of the soviets, but that was just about the only part they were ahead in, sure to be proven by the USSR’s next flight, Voskhod 2.
May 14, 1964
Voskhod 2 had been in the works for quite some time, during development some issues with the Volga airlock exploding during inflation had nearly caused the whole mission to be scrapped, but work pushed on, eventually the airlock had been completed, and capsule systems all seemed to function perfectly, the last thing to do was to launch. Launching in the afternoon on a rather clear day, Voskhod 2 reached orbit just a short while later, at which time the crew on board, Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov would gear up for the main objective of their mission. Suits would be donned, and final preparations were underway. The Volga airlock would be commanded to expand, it slowly filled with air and extended out and away from the main module of Voskhod, and despite all the fears and stress felt by the ground crew, it had not ruptured, and Leonov was given the all clear to begin. Alexei would make his way into the airlock, before sealing off the door to the capsule, and preparing to make his way outside. In just a few moments, that door to the outside would open. Alexei pushed it open, took in the sights and began to slowly push himself out, a camera attached to the main module was recording his exit, along with a camera he himself was holding, and soon, the whole world would see that the soviets had yet again done what no other nation had done before. The first spacewalk. Alexei would not spend too long outside the capsule, there were worries that Alexei’s spacesuit may have expanded during the spacewalk, and it had, but not to a degree that would require any drastic actions. The Volga airlock’s door to space would close, and Alexei would safely return to the inside of the cabin. They would spend 2 more days in space before atmospheric entry was planned and started. After a stressful mission, Alexei Leonov and Pavel Belyayev had made it back to Earth safe and sound.
June 22, 1964
Luna 8 had been coasting for 3 days, after launching on the 19th from Baikonur and spending a short while in low earth orbit, it had propelled itself forwards to the moon. Its design was similar to her predecessors, some of them failed on the launchpad, and others lost contact just after reaching orbit, Luna 8 was the first one to finally survive past orbital insertion. Her goal was different from the previous Luna missions, while the first few planned to impact and land, 8 was going to orbit the moon, A feat almost achieved by the Americans 5 years earlier with their Pioneer X mission, and soon to be attempted again with the aptly named “Lunar Orbiter 1”. Luna 8 would finally light up her engines, violently shaking the feeble craft, and it would continue for over 2 minutes, slowing down more and more until finally, the goal was achieved. Luna 8 had entered orbit around the moon, becoming the first ever spacecraft to enter orbit around an object other than the Earth. For as long as 8 could survive, she would send back images taken of the lunar surface, revealing a world though desolate, still rich with beauty. Craters with dynamic ray systems and terraced walls, with complicated peaks at the centre, mountain ranges alone in the middle of the barren maria like islands, deep chasms and ravines filled with boulders and pockmarked with craters. Although the moon from Earth may look like a bland sphere hovering in the sky, up close its beauty is revealed, and when the time comes for human exploration, there will be no shortage of sights to behold.
July 4, 1964
At Vandenberg, a monster casts a long shadow across the landscape, it is sunrise, and the first true Spearhead is about to launch, Independence, fittingly, and intentionally, launching on the 4th of July. The engines ignite, their loud roar heard across the whole country, broadcast on radio and television, this metal contraption riding a trail of fire all the way up to space, the crew comprised of Lachlan Macleay, a new USAF Astronaut, and Robert White, quickly becoming used to spaceflight. Their mission had many goals, but the largest ones were to verify the function of Spearhead systems, and attempt to perform a spacewalk, trying to bring America back to level with the USSR’s space program. A good few days were spent in orbit, each day assessing the possibility of an EVA, but each time problems were found, whether it be unexpected suit readings or problems with the docking port opening, it just wasn’t meant to be. Despite trying to overcome all the issues, they just couldn’t get everything to cooperate enough to allow for the spacewalk to happen. But that was a secondary objective, tests of Independence’s systems revealed that everything was working incredibly well, heat sensors were performing as expected, engines could fire, their RCS systems worked perfectly to allow for complex manoeuvres, and cabin air had and was still holding steady. There was only 1 more thing to verify, the heat shield. Reentry would begin far south of Vandenberg AFB, giving a long range of landing options and time to fix any malfunctions that may occur. And as the sheet of plasma began to envelope the spaceplane’s base, the crew would feel a brief jolt, and find that their craft had began to roll, thankfully not in a way that would put any part of the craft in danger, but it would take impact on their trajectory, they had to use the RCS systems to correct their rotation or they could end up landing in Nevada or crashing into the Pacific coast. The roll was successfully corrected, and despite overwhelming fear felt in mission control, Independence was on track to land right at Vandenberg AFB, a perfect bullseye, and a fantastic end to a mission that had accomplished all but one of its goals.
August 18, 1964
Following behind the Soviet’s Luna 8 by just under 2 months, Lunar Orbiter 1 would launch from Kennedy Space Centre, however it would not be launched on an Atlas, but rather a Vulcan II. After the failure in August 1962, thousands of hours of work had been put into improving every feature of the rocket, and making it safer and more reliable, and after intense development, It was ready to fly again. Launching in the dead of night, The 2 F-1 Engines roared to life, producing an immense amount of thrust, allowing the rocket to ascend into sky, after a few minutes of firing fuel in the first stage was depleted. The stages would separate, the first stage gently drifting away, before the J-2 began to burn, the exhaust plume flooding into the first stage’s interstage, rupturing it with the pressure and force as the second stage accelerates faster and faster until it reached the targeted speed, sending it towards the moon. Lunar Orbiter 1 was built without an insertion engine, as the J-2 Would be conducting the orbital insertion burn, this was possible due to the high power of the engines combined with the light payload, weighing only 340kg, with the Vulcan II’s payload capacity to low lunar orbit being an immense 2000kg. Simple telemetry would begin to be transmitted back to earth, just to let mission control know that the spacecraft was operational.
August 22, 1964
The craft arrives at the moon, the J-2 Firing up once again to decelerate into an orbit of the moon. The planned orbit was an eccentric one, with a periastron of 150km and an apoastron of 1200km. Once orbit had been achieved, photo taking would begin and last for 2 weeks before sending the last image.
The images received showed the same beautiful world that Luna 8 had, but with one addition. An image of the Earth rising above the limb of the moon. A World, filled with life, vast swaths of blue covering the earth, with land rich with green grass and forests, clouds swirling around the planet in a form that not even the most delicate and skilled painter could replicate. This was our home, our only home. A fragile island in the vast, cold and perilous ocean of the universe.
September 5, 1964
In the weeks to follow, Few launches would happen, with the notable exception of SC-I2. The second flight of Spearhead Independence, pushing the boundaries of human spaceflight further and faster than ever before. To test the abilities of Spearhead, the choice had been made to launch into a High polar orbit with an apogee of around 1000km, made possible thanks to the lack of radiation from the Van Allen Belts near the poles. Launching on the 5th of September with a crew of James Wood and Russell Rogers. This mission would stay up for 5 days, mainly serving as a test for how long missions can last, how far the orbits can be pushed and also, as an observer. But before that, America would try once more to accomplish an EVA. Suit pressure read nominal, and the docking port was ok to open, James and Russell donned their blue and white suits, the cabin was safely depressurised, and James would open the airlock. The door had handles surrounding the outside of it, to grab hold of and tether suits to, James carefully secured his suit’s tether to one of the latches, and then lightly pushed himself up. He found himself gracefully floating up, as he exited the port the earth began to make itself visible, the swirling clouds casting their shadows above the ocean, a thin band of blue surrounding all of it, the atmosphere seeming fragile and delicate from such a high altitude. Out here the seconds gave way to minutes, just staring at the earth, but this was not just a sightseeing mission, James grabbed a small nitrogen gun attached to his belt, using it to propel himself, but he found it difficult to use, having to hold it near to his centre of mass or else the thrust would send him into a spin made it too inconvenient to use. After a total of 27 minutes outside, he would tug on his tether to move back towards Independence, unhooking his tether and gently planting his feet back on the cabin floor. The airlock door was closed, and the cabin repressurised. America’s first EVA had been successfully completed, and now it was time for a new part of the mission to begin, observing the launch of Surveyor 1
September 9, 1964
America’s first attempt at a moon landing, Surveyor 1, would be launched at a time that the crew of SC-I2 would be able to view it as it was taking off. A Lone light in the dark night, rising and tilting as it goes. It would successfully reach orbit, and go on to complete its TLI Burn, seen by SC-I2 on the limb of the earth, a faint light that went out just as fast as it lit up.
September 10, 1964
The time came, and SC-I2 would begin reentry procedures, every precaution is taken to avoid the near-disaster of SC-I1, and thankfully reentry is performed perfectly, landing at Vandenberg AFB with not a single point of damage
September 12, 1964
Surveyor 1 had reached the moon, however instead of decelerating into orbit, and then landing, it was on a direct impact trajectory, having to slow down entirely by itself down to the surface. Its solid motors would ignite, doing their best to slow the feeble craft down to land, however, one of the solid motor’s casings was structurally weakened, due to improper testing it was believed that the casings used could survive the temperature swings experienced in space, and this was true for most of them, but this one failed to be thoroughly tested to reveal the defect, causing the motor to explode shortly after beginning to fire. The lander did have manoeuvring capabilities, though minimal, allowing it to maintain stability, but it could not make up for the thrust lost from the destroyed engine. Surveyor 1 would ultimately be a lunar impactor mission.
October 24, 1964
The Soviet Union knew that the United States was catching up, already having surpassed their lift capability, so they had decided to accomplish a milestone that intel suggested, the US had not begun to work on. A modified Voskhod capsule was prepared, with a basic RCS system on it, and 2 small solid motors on either side, along with at the top, a simple tether system. The Voskhod rocket upper stage was modified too, getting the same solid rocket motors, and an attachment hook on the top. The Soviet Union would attempt artificial gravity. By attaching the Voskhod with a tether to the upper stage, and activating the solid motors, the plan was to generate at least 0.05G, with calculations suggesting that up to 0.15G was possible, though at the risk of using up the precious RCS fuel, this would provide valuable information on how the human body reacts in low gravity environments, including ones similar to the moon, and though daring, was feasible, and the Soviets would try their hardest to pull it off.
The crew consisted of Boris Yegorov and Dmitri Zaikin, Boris was originally planned to go up on Voskhod 1, but his flight was pushed back due to a minor health concern. Shortly after orbit was reached, Voskhod 3 and the Voskhod Upper Stage would separate, before Voskhod 3 slowly swivelled around to face the stage, Dmitri would control the RCS, lightly propelling the spacecraft towards its target, before connecting with the hook, releasing the tether and slowly pushing backwards, after a few minutes of drifting a light jolt would be felt by the crew, signifying that the tether had fully extended, and the solid rocket motors could ignite.
“Beginning Rotation”
The solid motors would flare to life as commanded, both Voskhod and the Upper Stage’s engines activate and spin the two around, keeping the tether taut and connected, they continue to fire for a few seconds before sputtering out. But still, the rotation persisted, they had achieved artificial gravity. Tests began to find the force they had achieved, letting go of specifically measured objects and seeing how long they took to fall led them to find they had reached approximately 0.072g, approaching half that of the Moon’s gravity. The spin would be allowed to continue for 2 days, during which time Boris and Dmitiri tested various activities in low gravity, before getting ready for reentry. The motors on the other sides of the two craft would fire up to slow the spin, the tether would be jettisoned and Voskhod’s retrorockets would fire, bringing it down to a suborbital trajectory, safely being recovered and bringing an end to a successful mission.
November 5, 1964
A Mars Transfer Window has opened up, and both the USSR and USA will be taking advantage of it, the Soviet Union has planned Mars 3, with a mission plan some may describe as over-ambitious, they plan to first enter orbit around Mars, and then drop a descent probe to land on its surface. All would be well during launch, and Trans-Mars Injection was performed without a flaw, sending it on its way to reach the Red planet a year from now.
November 9, 1964
The US had Mariner III in store, planned as just a relatively simple flyby mission, it did have 2 extra parts in store. For one it had a small atmospheric entry probe on it, not designed to survive to landing, but hopefully surviving long enough to send back details on the atmosphere. The second part was that it technically had a second target, Phobos, Mars’ largest moon. Mariner III would perform a close flyby of Phobos, during which it would take spectra readings and take a multitude of images, much like Mars 3 its launch went off without a hitch using the improved Vulcan II, and it was on a trajectory to reach Mars just a few days before the soviet’s mission.
December 13, 1964
The USAF would attempt a daring feat with their Spearhead launchers, with 2 being launched just 1 day apart, this would be the 3rd launch of Independence and the 1st launch of Constitution, Constitution launching first, it was thought more important to launch the never before used Spearhead first in the event of any malfunctions, they could be adapted to by Independence, but thankfully the launch went perfectly, placing Constitution firmly in a circular 350km orbit. Independence would launch the next day, nearly matching Constitution’s orbit, but placed a bit lower to catch up, eventually they would be within viewing distance of each other, a short conversation ensuing talking about systems and “that new spacecraft smell” before they would be given the all clear for docking. Constitution would be given the task of docking with Independence, slowly inching closer to each other, letting out little puffs of RCS to keep the docking ports lined up, until finally, the two craft docked together, and after a few minutes of confirming that the ports were sealed, the doors would open. The first ever crew transfer would take place, Independence’s crew switching to Constitution, and Constitution’s crew switching to Independence. They would remain docked together for just over a day, during which time the new crew of Constitution did confirm “that new spacecraft smell” and suggested to mission control bringing up an air freshener for the next mission. The two craft would separate, before Independence would land first, Constitution spending another day in orbit to allow for the runway to be readied for them. Both craft would safely land, and be refurbished for the next flight, to a new location to be ready in just a few months.
January 9, 1965
a Vulcan II Towers over the launchpad at Vandenberg, its extended fairing massively increasing the size of the vehicle, A short while after noon it would launch, lumbering up instead of its usual shoot off the pad, this was no ordinary payload it was carrying, but a station. The Fletcher station had been in the works since the first funding in 1961, with construction beginning in Early 1963. It had a cream colour on the outside, with USAF written on the side with a deep blue. The station was 4 metres wide and 16 metres long, with one docking port at the base, and an airlock at the top. The inside was furnished rather lightly, it was divided into 4 sections, each 4 metres tall. The first was a storage room, at launch it would be mostly empty except for food storage, room 2 was for the crew, having 2 beds and personal storage containers. Room 3 was for operations, controlling the cameras, talking to base and general system telemetry. The final room was dedicated to the airlock and spacesuits. Mounted to the sides of the station were solar panels, to provide power for the station, along with a main and backup communications dish, as well as mobility rungs for ease of movement during spacewalks.
The station would be successfully put into a polar orbit, yet again proving the reliability of the Vulcan II, and the abilities of the United State’s space program. The first visit to the station scheduled for March, 1965
I do hope that the wait was worth it though, a lot of interesting firsts are about to happen!
Mesospheric Waltz
The day is November 22, 1963. During a motorcade through Dallas, the President of the United States was shot, John F. Kennedy was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he was officially pronounced dead. Lyndon B. Johnson, the Vice President, was inducted to become the next President. To memorialise JFK, Johnson renamed NASA’s Florida Launch Operations Centre to the “John F. Kennedy Space Centre”. The first launch from this newly re-named site is the inaugural launch of the Saturn series, a Saturn I. It carries no true payload, merely a boilerplate of the in-development Apollo CSM. Thanks to Vulcan II, US lift capability was already ahead of the soviets, but that was just about the only part they were ahead in, sure to be proven by the USSR’s next flight, Voskhod 2.
May 14, 1964
Voskhod 2 had been in the works for quite some time, during development some issues with the Volga airlock exploding during inflation had nearly caused the whole mission to be scrapped, but work pushed on, eventually the airlock had been completed, and capsule systems all seemed to function perfectly, the last thing to do was to launch. Launching in the afternoon on a rather clear day, Voskhod 2 reached orbit just a short while later, at which time the crew on board, Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov would gear up for the main objective of their mission. Suits would be donned, and final preparations were underway. The Volga airlock would be commanded to expand, it slowly filled with air and extended out and away from the main module of Voskhod, and despite all the fears and stress felt by the ground crew, it had not ruptured, and Leonov was given the all clear to begin. Alexei would make his way into the airlock, before sealing off the door to the capsule, and preparing to make his way outside. In just a few moments, that door to the outside would open. Alexei pushed it open, took in the sights and began to slowly push himself out, a camera attached to the main module was recording his exit, along with a camera he himself was holding, and soon, the whole world would see that the soviets had yet again done what no other nation had done before. The first spacewalk. Alexei would not spend too long outside the capsule, there were worries that Alexei’s spacesuit may have expanded during the spacewalk, and it had, but not to a degree that would require any drastic actions. The Volga airlock’s door to space would close, and Alexei would safely return to the inside of the cabin. They would spend 2 more days in space before atmospheric entry was planned and started. After a stressful mission, Alexei Leonov and Pavel Belyayev had made it back to Earth safe and sound.
June 22, 1964
Luna 8 had been coasting for 3 days, after launching on the 19th from Baikonur and spending a short while in low earth orbit, it had propelled itself forwards to the moon. Its design was similar to her predecessors, some of them failed on the launchpad, and others lost contact just after reaching orbit, Luna 8 was the first one to finally survive past orbital insertion. Her goal was different from the previous Luna missions, while the first few planned to impact and land, 8 was going to orbit the moon, A feat almost achieved by the Americans 5 years earlier with their Pioneer X mission, and soon to be attempted again with the aptly named “Lunar Orbiter 1”. Luna 8 would finally light up her engines, violently shaking the feeble craft, and it would continue for over 2 minutes, slowing down more and more until finally, the goal was achieved. Luna 8 had entered orbit around the moon, becoming the first ever spacecraft to enter orbit around an object other than the Earth. For as long as 8 could survive, she would send back images taken of the lunar surface, revealing a world though desolate, still rich with beauty. Craters with dynamic ray systems and terraced walls, with complicated peaks at the centre, mountain ranges alone in the middle of the barren maria like islands, deep chasms and ravines filled with boulders and pockmarked with craters. Although the moon from Earth may look like a bland sphere hovering in the sky, up close its beauty is revealed, and when the time comes for human exploration, there will be no shortage of sights to behold.
July 4, 1964
At Vandenberg, a monster casts a long shadow across the landscape, it is sunrise, and the first true Spearhead is about to launch, Independence, fittingly, and intentionally, launching on the 4th of July. The engines ignite, their loud roar heard across the whole country, broadcast on radio and television, this metal contraption riding a trail of fire all the way up to space, the crew comprised of Lachlan Macleay, a new USAF Astronaut, and Robert White, quickly becoming used to spaceflight. Their mission had many goals, but the largest ones were to verify the function of Spearhead systems, and attempt to perform a spacewalk, trying to bring America back to level with the USSR’s space program. A good few days were spent in orbit, each day assessing the possibility of an EVA, but each time problems were found, whether it be unexpected suit readings or problems with the docking port opening, it just wasn’t meant to be. Despite trying to overcome all the issues, they just couldn’t get everything to cooperate enough to allow for the spacewalk to happen. But that was a secondary objective, tests of Independence’s systems revealed that everything was working incredibly well, heat sensors were performing as expected, engines could fire, their RCS systems worked perfectly to allow for complex manoeuvres, and cabin air had and was still holding steady. There was only 1 more thing to verify, the heat shield. Reentry would begin far south of Vandenberg AFB, giving a long range of landing options and time to fix any malfunctions that may occur. And as the sheet of plasma began to envelope the spaceplane’s base, the crew would feel a brief jolt, and find that their craft had began to roll, thankfully not in a way that would put any part of the craft in danger, but it would take impact on their trajectory, they had to use the RCS systems to correct their rotation or they could end up landing in Nevada or crashing into the Pacific coast. The roll was successfully corrected, and despite overwhelming fear felt in mission control, Independence was on track to land right at Vandenberg AFB, a perfect bullseye, and a fantastic end to a mission that had accomplished all but one of its goals.
August 18, 1964
Following behind the Soviet’s Luna 8 by just under 2 months, Lunar Orbiter 1 would launch from Kennedy Space Centre, however it would not be launched on an Atlas, but rather a Vulcan II. After the failure in August 1962, thousands of hours of work had been put into improving every feature of the rocket, and making it safer and more reliable, and after intense development, It was ready to fly again. Launching in the dead of night, The 2 F-1 Engines roared to life, producing an immense amount of thrust, allowing the rocket to ascend into sky, after a few minutes of firing fuel in the first stage was depleted. The stages would separate, the first stage gently drifting away, before the J-2 began to burn, the exhaust plume flooding into the first stage’s interstage, rupturing it with the pressure and force as the second stage accelerates faster and faster until it reached the targeted speed, sending it towards the moon. Lunar Orbiter 1 was built without an insertion engine, as the J-2 Would be conducting the orbital insertion burn, this was possible due to the high power of the engines combined with the light payload, weighing only 340kg, with the Vulcan II’s payload capacity to low lunar orbit being an immense 2000kg. Simple telemetry would begin to be transmitted back to earth, just to let mission control know that the spacecraft was operational.
August 22, 1964
The craft arrives at the moon, the J-2 Firing up once again to decelerate into an orbit of the moon. The planned orbit was an eccentric one, with a periastron of 150km and an apoastron of 1200km. Once orbit had been achieved, photo taking would begin and last for 2 weeks before sending the last image.
The images received showed the same beautiful world that Luna 8 had, but with one addition. An image of the Earth rising above the limb of the moon. A World, filled with life, vast swaths of blue covering the earth, with land rich with green grass and forests, clouds swirling around the planet in a form that not even the most delicate and skilled painter could replicate. This was our home, our only home. A fragile island in the vast, cold and perilous ocean of the universe.
September 5, 1964
In the weeks to follow, Few launches would happen, with the notable exception of SC-I2. The second flight of Spearhead Independence, pushing the boundaries of human spaceflight further and faster than ever before. To test the abilities of Spearhead, the choice had been made to launch into a High polar orbit with an apogee of around 1000km, made possible thanks to the lack of radiation from the Van Allen Belts near the poles. Launching on the 5th of September with a crew of James Wood and Russell Rogers. This mission would stay up for 5 days, mainly serving as a test for how long missions can last, how far the orbits can be pushed and also, as an observer. But before that, America would try once more to accomplish an EVA. Suit pressure read nominal, and the docking port was ok to open, James and Russell donned their blue and white suits, the cabin was safely depressurised, and James would open the airlock. The door had handles surrounding the outside of it, to grab hold of and tether suits to, James carefully secured his suit’s tether to one of the latches, and then lightly pushed himself up. He found himself gracefully floating up, as he exited the port the earth began to make itself visible, the swirling clouds casting their shadows above the ocean, a thin band of blue surrounding all of it, the atmosphere seeming fragile and delicate from such a high altitude. Out here the seconds gave way to minutes, just staring at the earth, but this was not just a sightseeing mission, James grabbed a small nitrogen gun attached to his belt, using it to propel himself, but he found it difficult to use, having to hold it near to his centre of mass or else the thrust would send him into a spin made it too inconvenient to use. After a total of 27 minutes outside, he would tug on his tether to move back towards Independence, unhooking his tether and gently planting his feet back on the cabin floor. The airlock door was closed, and the cabin repressurised. America’s first EVA had been successfully completed, and now it was time for a new part of the mission to begin, observing the launch of Surveyor 1
September 9, 1964
America’s first attempt at a moon landing, Surveyor 1, would be launched at a time that the crew of SC-I2 would be able to view it as it was taking off. A Lone light in the dark night, rising and tilting as it goes. It would successfully reach orbit, and go on to complete its TLI Burn, seen by SC-I2 on the limb of the earth, a faint light that went out just as fast as it lit up.
September 10, 1964
The time came, and SC-I2 would begin reentry procedures, every precaution is taken to avoid the near-disaster of SC-I1, and thankfully reentry is performed perfectly, landing at Vandenberg AFB with not a single point of damage
September 12, 1964
Surveyor 1 had reached the moon, however instead of decelerating into orbit, and then landing, it was on a direct impact trajectory, having to slow down entirely by itself down to the surface. Its solid motors would ignite, doing their best to slow the feeble craft down to land, however, one of the solid motor’s casings was structurally weakened, due to improper testing it was believed that the casings used could survive the temperature swings experienced in space, and this was true for most of them, but this one failed to be thoroughly tested to reveal the defect, causing the motor to explode shortly after beginning to fire. The lander did have manoeuvring capabilities, though minimal, allowing it to maintain stability, but it could not make up for the thrust lost from the destroyed engine. Surveyor 1 would ultimately be a lunar impactor mission.
October 24, 1964
The Soviet Union knew that the United States was catching up, already having surpassed their lift capability, so they had decided to accomplish a milestone that intel suggested, the US had not begun to work on. A modified Voskhod capsule was prepared, with a basic RCS system on it, and 2 small solid motors on either side, along with at the top, a simple tether system. The Voskhod rocket upper stage was modified too, getting the same solid rocket motors, and an attachment hook on the top. The Soviet Union would attempt artificial gravity. By attaching the Voskhod with a tether to the upper stage, and activating the solid motors, the plan was to generate at least 0.05G, with calculations suggesting that up to 0.15G was possible, though at the risk of using up the precious RCS fuel, this would provide valuable information on how the human body reacts in low gravity environments, including ones similar to the moon, and though daring, was feasible, and the Soviets would try their hardest to pull it off.
The crew consisted of Boris Yegorov and Dmitri Zaikin, Boris was originally planned to go up on Voskhod 1, but his flight was pushed back due to a minor health concern. Shortly after orbit was reached, Voskhod 3 and the Voskhod Upper Stage would separate, before Voskhod 3 slowly swivelled around to face the stage, Dmitri would control the RCS, lightly propelling the spacecraft towards its target, before connecting with the hook, releasing the tether and slowly pushing backwards, after a few minutes of drifting a light jolt would be felt by the crew, signifying that the tether had fully extended, and the solid rocket motors could ignite.
“Beginning Rotation”
The solid motors would flare to life as commanded, both Voskhod and the Upper Stage’s engines activate and spin the two around, keeping the tether taut and connected, they continue to fire for a few seconds before sputtering out. But still, the rotation persisted, they had achieved artificial gravity. Tests began to find the force they had achieved, letting go of specifically measured objects and seeing how long they took to fall led them to find they had reached approximately 0.072g, approaching half that of the Moon’s gravity. The spin would be allowed to continue for 2 days, during which time Boris and Dmitiri tested various activities in low gravity, before getting ready for reentry. The motors on the other sides of the two craft would fire up to slow the spin, the tether would be jettisoned and Voskhod’s retrorockets would fire, bringing it down to a suborbital trajectory, safely being recovered and bringing an end to a successful mission.
November 5, 1964
A Mars Transfer Window has opened up, and both the USSR and USA will be taking advantage of it, the Soviet Union has planned Mars 3, with a mission plan some may describe as over-ambitious, they plan to first enter orbit around Mars, and then drop a descent probe to land on its surface. All would be well during launch, and Trans-Mars Injection was performed without a flaw, sending it on its way to reach the Red planet a year from now.
November 9, 1964
The US had Mariner III in store, planned as just a relatively simple flyby mission, it did have 2 extra parts in store. For one it had a small atmospheric entry probe on it, not designed to survive to landing, but hopefully surviving long enough to send back details on the atmosphere. The second part was that it technically had a second target, Phobos, Mars’ largest moon. Mariner III would perform a close flyby of Phobos, during which it would take spectra readings and take a multitude of images, much like Mars 3 its launch went off without a hitch using the improved Vulcan II, and it was on a trajectory to reach Mars just a few days before the soviet’s mission.
December 13, 1964
The USAF would attempt a daring feat with their Spearhead launchers, with 2 being launched just 1 day apart, this would be the 3rd launch of Independence and the 1st launch of Constitution, Constitution launching first, it was thought more important to launch the never before used Spearhead first in the event of any malfunctions, they could be adapted to by Independence, but thankfully the launch went perfectly, placing Constitution firmly in a circular 350km orbit. Independence would launch the next day, nearly matching Constitution’s orbit, but placed a bit lower to catch up, eventually they would be within viewing distance of each other, a short conversation ensuing talking about systems and “that new spacecraft smell” before they would be given the all clear for docking. Constitution would be given the task of docking with Independence, slowly inching closer to each other, letting out little puffs of RCS to keep the docking ports lined up, until finally, the two craft docked together, and after a few minutes of confirming that the ports were sealed, the doors would open. The first ever crew transfer would take place, Independence’s crew switching to Constitution, and Constitution’s crew switching to Independence. They would remain docked together for just over a day, during which time the new crew of Constitution did confirm “that new spacecraft smell” and suggested to mission control bringing up an air freshener for the next mission. The two craft would separate, before Independence would land first, Constitution spending another day in orbit to allow for the runway to be readied for them. Both craft would safely land, and be refurbished for the next flight, to a new location to be ready in just a few months.
January 9, 1965
a Vulcan II Towers over the launchpad at Vandenberg, its extended fairing massively increasing the size of the vehicle, A short while after noon it would launch, lumbering up instead of its usual shoot off the pad, this was no ordinary payload it was carrying, but a station. The Fletcher station had been in the works since the first funding in 1961, with construction beginning in Early 1963. It had a cream colour on the outside, with USAF written on the side with a deep blue. The station was 4 metres wide and 16 metres long, with one docking port at the base, and an airlock at the top. The inside was furnished rather lightly, it was divided into 4 sections, each 4 metres tall. The first was a storage room, at launch it would be mostly empty except for food storage, room 2 was for the crew, having 2 beds and personal storage containers. Room 3 was for operations, controlling the cameras, talking to base and general system telemetry. The final room was dedicated to the airlock and spacesuits. Mounted to the sides of the station were solar panels, to provide power for the station, along with a main and backup communications dish, as well as mobility rungs for ease of movement during spacewalks.
The station would be successfully put into a polar orbit, yet again proving the reliability of the Vulcan II, and the abilities of the United State’s space program. The first visit to the station scheduled for March, 1965
Chapter 11 - By the Rocket's Red Glare
oh my god
By the Rocket's Red Glare
January 19, 1965
This day was a long time in the making, multiple defects found and corrected, test flights and plans going awry and strides being made in design and recovery, the first crewed flight of Gemini was mere moments away, Alan Shepard, the first American in space, placed in the Command pilot seat, with John Young accompanying him. Launching from America’s premier spaceport on the Floridian coast in the cold morning of January 19th, Though the first crewed flight was originally planned for Gemini III, The timeline was accelerated, though risky, to fastrack work on orbital manoeuvring skills for the upcoming Apollo program, the USSR’s secretive space programs made it unknown just how far and fast they were advancing, making it critical to stay ahead in any way the US could. Gemini II would launch perfectly, being placed in an orbit barely deviating from the plans, which once in orbit would be changed, using the onboard Orbital Attitude and Manoeuvring System, which would prove to be difficult to get the hang of, but can be used eloquently when the right training is received. The first day of the flight would draw to a close, the remaining 2 days merely testing out the systems, performing small orbital changes and preparing for reentry. The design of Gemini was masterful, taking advantage of atmospheric reentry effects to generate lift, allowing for better precision when it comes to a landing zone, which during reentry would prove to work incredibly well, landing just 56 miles away from the centre of the recovery zone. A fantastic opening to the Gemini program
February 19, 1965
The Soviets remained ahead however, launching their victory lap Voskhod 4 on February 19th with sole crew member Viktor Gorbatko being tasked with once again generating artificial gravity for 1 day, the next 3 of the mission consisting of microgravity effect studying, preparing for potential lunar missions in the years to come, requiring days in microgravity, however during the Tethered Spin-Up, the booster’s solid motor failed to provide the expected thrust, leading to a decreased force felt, a disappointment to both the ground crew and Viktor, but it remained enough to perform experiments, and once spin-down was completed, the reconnaissance phase would prove to not be as useful as hoped, but it did reveal something unexpected by the Soviets. See, the United states publicises most of its launches, even the reconnaissance program was publicised, though under an alternate name, but here blatantly exposed on the launchpad of Vandenberg AFB, A Spearhead launcher! The next publicised Spearhead mission was not until June, so what could this be? The mission came to a close, and as soon as reentry was completed the images taken would be sent and shown to Soviet officials, originally unconcerned, but more strange things would crop up. Lower resolution imagery from January revealed something peculiar, another rocket on the pad. A large fairing, reminiscent of their pre-existing Vulcan II rockets. All these things together lead to a startling realisation. They were losing ground in the race. The United States had launched a space station, and it was shockingly close to being crewed. And at the worst time.
March 2, 1965
Just 1 week after Voskhod 4 landed, Spearhead would rise again, a launch meant to be secretive, but that the Soviets were aware of, watching it the whole time. This would be crewed with two new USAF Astronauts, Lachlan Macleay and Richard Lawyer. The SRBs would break violently away from the core stage, their rumble and engine plume illuminating the inside of the cabin, more so than the morning sun was. The core stage would burn out shortly after too, stage 2 igniting and blasting apart the already distant interstage. The atmosphere mostly out of the way, the aggressive jostling turned to a smooth ride. Orbit would be reached, and the time was approaching for rendezvous with Fletcher, at first too far to be seen, but the perfectly timed
launch was bringing them closer and closer. First, a dimly glowing speck in the sky, indistinguishable from any normal star would it not be for the slight movement observable, brightening to a luminosity similar to Venus in the evening sky, before Fletcher’s form began to take shape, a long rod ominously straddling the depths of space and the comforting blue of Earth’s oceans and atmosphere, the solar panels protruding from the side revealing the real form of this, the first true outpost in space. Constitution would dock to the station, and once everything was ready, the door was opened. Lachlan would be the first in, floating up through the storage room, all the storage containers in there empty at the moment, then pushing up into the crew room, Lachlan would get settled, Richard following shortly after. The rest of the day would be spent getting used to the new environment, verifying the onboard systems, and activating the reconnaissance cameras, and once the atmosphere was verified as safe, their suits would be placed in the airlock room. Once all that was completed, they would both get their first sleep in Fletcher station, one of many to come.
Days would be spent getting exercise, performing spacewalks and doing reconnaissance on the territory of the USSR, uncovering nothing not already known, except for a strange pinprick of light in Siberia, seemingly an outpost of some sort? But besides that one strange observation, nothing much would be found. During this however, the Relay system was brought online, allowing for more frequent communication utilising satellites relaying both Fletcher and Vandenberg Control’s transmissions.
March 23, 1965
The USAF would also quite generously allow Gemini III to use the Relay system. America’s newest human spaceflight program was proceeding at breakneck speeds, the task for this one being to perform a spacewalk, and a rendezvous with a previously launched “Agena Target Vehicle”. Though both spacewalks and dockings had been performed by Spearhead, Gemini, and the soon-to-be Apollo would function in exceedingly different ways, making it necessary to perform these feats yet again. The crew for Gemini III would be Ed White and James McDivitt, executing the launch well, after an initial issue with the engine almost led to aborting the launch, but thankfully the rocket had not yet left the pad, meaning all that had to happen was a scrub of a few days to make sure everything was working fine. Once that was all sorted out, their time in orbit began, and Ed White would prepare for the first EVA of the Gemini program. The cabin was depressurised, and the doors were opened. Ed carefully pushed off the seat, floating gently out of the capsule, and gazing towards the Earth. The EVA would last 28 minutes in total, before going back into the capsule just before the sun would pass behind the Earth. Ed would be permitted to sleep once the doors were closed and atmosphere restored, McDivitt staying awake a few more hours, taking their turns in this staggered sleep schedule. The next day their task would be relatively simple, rendezvous and dock with the Agena Target Vehicle.
Vietnam - March 24, 1965
The once lush jungles of Vietnam had been choked in smoke and flame for years, the war having lasted longer than most had hoped. Planes used to fly above the ground, bombing villages and infantry, but recently those flights decreased in frequency with ground troops moving in, fighting back on land, trying to keep North vietnam from expanding all the way down. There were cries in America to stop the war, to finally end it, but the threat of communist expansion was too high to ignore, so it raged on. Now it is the dead of night, the sparse clouds silhouetting the night sky, cloaking what was thought to be impossible. At 11pm UTC, the Soviet Union launched an R7-Semyorka carrying a small nuclear warhead. It drifted high above the earth for a short while, before nearing the location. They had not planned to send a nuclear weapon directly to the ground, that would be far too destructive, and almost certainly result in retaliation, and an airburst would cause even more devastation! No, they had decided to detonate this weapon in space, 360 km above Vietnam, high enough to be visible for over 2000 km. In an instant the Vietnamese sky was lit up with a brilliant white, rapidly giving way to an expanding disk of light green fading to magenta, seemingly alien tendrils reaching out from this otherworldly light, the disk shortly faded to a deep crimson, as more patches of red began to appear across the sky, artificial aurorae. Electronics across a large swath of Vietnam and the neighbouring ocean were shut off, the explosion having released an EMP. This detonation was meant as a show of force, a threat, and it was seen as one.
Fletcher, Above the Central Pacific - March 24, 1965 - 11:43 pm UTC
R “Hey Lachlan, I’m having a bit of trouble with comms, mind taking a look?”
Lachlan is currently outside performing a spacewalk to inspect for any damage on the exterior hull of Constitution and Fletcher
L “Sure, what seems to be the issue?”
Lachlan begins making his way around the station, grabbing hold of one handle, then the next
R “Both communication systems don’t seem to be working, Direct is spotty at best, and Relay is completely offline, I’m thinking there might’ve been a debris strike to the dish.”
As Lachlan comes around to the other side of the station, something as beautiful as it is horrifying can be seen, a dim red glow creeping up over the horizon, the emissions from the nuclear detonation. Richard, inside the station, doesn’t notice anything out of the ordinary at first, until certain systems begin reporting obviously incorrect readings. “Pressure at 12 atmospheres” “Temperature at 131 F”, causing slight confusion, until he turns to look at the panel next to the window, and sees the very same glow
R “Hey, Lachlan, do you have any idea what the hell that thing is?”
L “Looks to me like some sort of aurora, we’re over the Pacific, right?”
R “Yeah, we’re floating over Hawaii in a few minutes”
Lachlan reaches the dish, finding it in its scanning mode, panning left and right, up and down trying to find a connection to be made with a relay satellite or a ground station.
C “Fle- ch- this i- he- S- Constell- tio- can ou- hear us? Fletcher, this is the USS Constellation, can you hear us?”
R “We hear you, Constellation. This is Richard Lawyer on Constitution”
C “Good to hear you’re all ok up there, we understand that Macleay is currently on a spacewalk, we need you to get him back inside right away.”
R “I’ll patch him into this conversation, what’s the hurry?”
L “What’s going on?”
C “The Soviet Union detonated a nuclear explosive in space above Vietnam, that explosion has caused a temporary radiation belt to form, we’ve already lost one of our satellites. You’re going to have to evacuate the station, make your way to Constitution as fast as you can, then undock and wait for further instructions.”
R “Jesus christ, Ok. I’ll go to Constitution now, Lachlan, you need to get in here as fast as you can, don’t bother taking off your spacesuit in the airlock.”
L “Got it.”
Lachlan quickly makes his way around the station, narrowly missing the solar panels, before reaching the apex of the station, opening the airlock door and getting in
C “Constitution is good radiation protection, but as the belt grows you’ll be receiving more and more radiation. In just under an hour you’ll have to perform a deorbit burn, that’ll take you down for landing”
R “What do you mean landing? We’re too far away from Vandenberg to land!”
C “You’re going to have to land at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii. You’re already cleared for landing there, the runway is around 2500 feet shorter, but we’re sure you’ll be able to land there safely. Onboard there is a manual of emergency landing procedures, further details should be in there. Good luck, Constitution.”
Time seems to pass slower, the stress of knowing every second up here is more and more radiation experienced, frantic flipping through the emergency landing procedures. What other scenario would these ever have to be used? Such an event would’ve been seen as so unlikely nobody would give it a second thought, but someone had. The time had finally come to commence the deorbit burn, the engines flared to life, pushing the two USAF Astronauts into their seats, and just as soon as it had begun, it sputtered out, the burn complete. Now all they had to do was land the damn thing.
Constitution began to hit the atmosphere, thin wisps of plasma streaming along the underbelly of the craft, trailing along the wings, reentry had been done many times before, but that can never remove the stress felt. What if the hasty undocking from Fletcher had caused damage to the hull, or what if the heat shield was improperly taken care of during refurbishment from the first mission? Ultimately reentry would be flawless, Lachlan took control of the ship and began to bleed off speed before reaching Hickam AFB. If they could not land safely, or if they overshot the runway, they could careen into the ocean, or into a building. It was a risky landing. Finally, enough speed had been bled off to begin the final approach, landing gear was extended, and the runway was clear. Constitution descended, pointed ever so slightly upwards to expose more surface to the oncoming air, with the hope to cause more drag, and to ensure the hind landing gear was the first to make contact with the runway. It was incredibly dim, the sun still below the horizon, although close enough to illuminate with a dim orange glow. Constitution would touchdown, a screech being heard as the hind wheels touched the runway, the whole craft tilting downwards, front wheels making contact, flaps fully extended. All they could do now was hope they didn’t overshoot the runway.
Constitution had successfully landed, in one of the most daring missions yet. She would remain in Hickam for a few days in a hangar, Lachlan and Richard being flown back to the mainland. Further days had passed and the USS Constellation, the very ship that had alerted, and saved the crew of Constitution, came to pick up the spaceplane, loaded on with a crane and over the next few weeks, to be brought back to Vandenberg.
Gemini III Would reenter shortly after, landing safely just tens of miles east of Florida. But Fearing the worst, the US Military goes to DEFCON 2, though there were no intentions of further detonations by the Soviets, the US, and the world, remained mortified by the events that had taken place. Calls to withdraw troops rang out in every city, and even some high ranking government officials called to bring the troops home. These would be met with ignorance for the better part of a week, before the decision was officially made to withdraw troops from South Vietnam, though to make sure that nothing like this would ever happen again, drastic measures were to be taken. The Pilot program, having fallen off in recent times, was revived. Anti-satellite weapons became relevant once again, with smaller, more efficient and more reliable designs having to be created, if another space weapon is launched from the USSR then there wouldn’t be enough time to get an X-15 or other plane ready for launch, these weapons had to be small enough to fit on ships to be deployed in the Pacific ocean, ready to retaliate at a moments notice. Concepts were even made for orbital weapons platforms, though met with criticism at first, military officials would begin to consider it as a viable option, because if anything like this were to happen again, it could be a lot more disastrous, and what better way to show you’re serious than placing a few nuclear warheads in orbit.
By the Rocket's Red Glare
January 19, 1965
This day was a long time in the making, multiple defects found and corrected, test flights and plans going awry and strides being made in design and recovery, the first crewed flight of Gemini was mere moments away, Alan Shepard, the first American in space, placed in the Command pilot seat, with John Young accompanying him. Launching from America’s premier spaceport on the Floridian coast in the cold morning of January 19th, Though the first crewed flight was originally planned for Gemini III, The timeline was accelerated, though risky, to fastrack work on orbital manoeuvring skills for the upcoming Apollo program, the USSR’s secretive space programs made it unknown just how far and fast they were advancing, making it critical to stay ahead in any way the US could. Gemini II would launch perfectly, being placed in an orbit barely deviating from the plans, which once in orbit would be changed, using the onboard Orbital Attitude and Manoeuvring System, which would prove to be difficult to get the hang of, but can be used eloquently when the right training is received. The first day of the flight would draw to a close, the remaining 2 days merely testing out the systems, performing small orbital changes and preparing for reentry. The design of Gemini was masterful, taking advantage of atmospheric reentry effects to generate lift, allowing for better precision when it comes to a landing zone, which during reentry would prove to work incredibly well, landing just 56 miles away from the centre of the recovery zone. A fantastic opening to the Gemini program
February 19, 1965
The Soviets remained ahead however, launching their victory lap Voskhod 4 on February 19th with sole crew member Viktor Gorbatko being tasked with once again generating artificial gravity for 1 day, the next 3 of the mission consisting of microgravity effect studying, preparing for potential lunar missions in the years to come, requiring days in microgravity, however during the Tethered Spin-Up, the booster’s solid motor failed to provide the expected thrust, leading to a decreased force felt, a disappointment to both the ground crew and Viktor, but it remained enough to perform experiments, and once spin-down was completed, the reconnaissance phase would prove to not be as useful as hoped, but it did reveal something unexpected by the Soviets. See, the United states publicises most of its launches, even the reconnaissance program was publicised, though under an alternate name, but here blatantly exposed on the launchpad of Vandenberg AFB, A Spearhead launcher! The next publicised Spearhead mission was not until June, so what could this be? The mission came to a close, and as soon as reentry was completed the images taken would be sent and shown to Soviet officials, originally unconcerned, but more strange things would crop up. Lower resolution imagery from January revealed something peculiar, another rocket on the pad. A large fairing, reminiscent of their pre-existing Vulcan II rockets. All these things together lead to a startling realisation. They were losing ground in the race. The United States had launched a space station, and it was shockingly close to being crewed. And at the worst time.
March 2, 1965
Just 1 week after Voskhod 4 landed, Spearhead would rise again, a launch meant to be secretive, but that the Soviets were aware of, watching it the whole time. This would be crewed with two new USAF Astronauts, Lachlan Macleay and Richard Lawyer. The SRBs would break violently away from the core stage, their rumble and engine plume illuminating the inside of the cabin, more so than the morning sun was. The core stage would burn out shortly after too, stage 2 igniting and blasting apart the already distant interstage. The atmosphere mostly out of the way, the aggressive jostling turned to a smooth ride. Orbit would be reached, and the time was approaching for rendezvous with Fletcher, at first too far to be seen, but the perfectly timed
Days would be spent getting exercise, performing spacewalks and doing reconnaissance on the territory of the USSR, uncovering nothing not already known, except for a strange pinprick of light in Siberia, seemingly an outpost of some sort? But besides that one strange observation, nothing much would be found. During this however, the Relay system was brought online, allowing for more frequent communication utilising satellites relaying both Fletcher and Vandenberg Control’s transmissions.
March 23, 1965
The USAF would also quite generously allow Gemini III to use the Relay system. America’s newest human spaceflight program was proceeding at breakneck speeds, the task for this one being to perform a spacewalk, and a rendezvous with a previously launched “Agena Target Vehicle”. Though both spacewalks and dockings had been performed by Spearhead, Gemini, and the soon-to-be Apollo would function in exceedingly different ways, making it necessary to perform these feats yet again. The crew for Gemini III would be Ed White and James McDivitt, executing the launch well, after an initial issue with the engine almost led to aborting the launch, but thankfully the rocket had not yet left the pad, meaning all that had to happen was a scrub of a few days to make sure everything was working fine. Once that was all sorted out, their time in orbit began, and Ed White would prepare for the first EVA of the Gemini program. The cabin was depressurised, and the doors were opened. Ed carefully pushed off the seat, floating gently out of the capsule, and gazing towards the Earth. The EVA would last 28 minutes in total, before going back into the capsule just before the sun would pass behind the Earth. Ed would be permitted to sleep once the doors were closed and atmosphere restored, McDivitt staying awake a few more hours, taking their turns in this staggered sleep schedule. The next day their task would be relatively simple, rendezvous and dock with the Agena Target Vehicle.
Vietnam - March 24, 1965
The once lush jungles of Vietnam had been choked in smoke and flame for years, the war having lasted longer than most had hoped. Planes used to fly above the ground, bombing villages and infantry, but recently those flights decreased in frequency with ground troops moving in, fighting back on land, trying to keep North vietnam from expanding all the way down. There were cries in America to stop the war, to finally end it, but the threat of communist expansion was too high to ignore, so it raged on. Now it is the dead of night, the sparse clouds silhouetting the night sky, cloaking what was thought to be impossible. At 11pm UTC, the Soviet Union launched an R7-Semyorka carrying a small nuclear warhead. It drifted high above the earth for a short while, before nearing the location. They had not planned to send a nuclear weapon directly to the ground, that would be far too destructive, and almost certainly result in retaliation, and an airburst would cause even more devastation! No, they had decided to detonate this weapon in space, 360 km above Vietnam, high enough to be visible for over 2000 km. In an instant the Vietnamese sky was lit up with a brilliant white, rapidly giving way to an expanding disk of light green fading to magenta, seemingly alien tendrils reaching out from this otherworldly light, the disk shortly faded to a deep crimson, as more patches of red began to appear across the sky, artificial aurorae. Electronics across a large swath of Vietnam and the neighbouring ocean were shut off, the explosion having released an EMP. This detonation was meant as a show of force, a threat, and it was seen as one.
Fletcher, Above the Central Pacific - March 24, 1965 - 11:43 pm UTC
R “Hey Lachlan, I’m having a bit of trouble with comms, mind taking a look?”
Lachlan is currently outside performing a spacewalk to inspect for any damage on the exterior hull of Constitution and Fletcher
L “Sure, what seems to be the issue?”
Lachlan begins making his way around the station, grabbing hold of one handle, then the next
R “Both communication systems don’t seem to be working, Direct is spotty at best, and Relay is completely offline, I’m thinking there might’ve been a debris strike to the dish.”
As Lachlan comes around to the other side of the station, something as beautiful as it is horrifying can be seen, a dim red glow creeping up over the horizon, the emissions from the nuclear detonation. Richard, inside the station, doesn’t notice anything out of the ordinary at first, until certain systems begin reporting obviously incorrect readings. “Pressure at 12 atmospheres” “Temperature at 131 F”, causing slight confusion, until he turns to look at the panel next to the window, and sees the very same glow
R “Hey, Lachlan, do you have any idea what the hell that thing is?”
L “Looks to me like some sort of aurora, we’re over the Pacific, right?”
R “Yeah, we’re floating over Hawaii in a few minutes”
Lachlan reaches the dish, finding it in its scanning mode, panning left and right, up and down trying to find a connection to be made with a relay satellite or a ground station.
C “Fle- ch- this i- he- S- Constell- tio- can ou- hear us? Fletcher, this is the USS Constellation, can you hear us?”
R “We hear you, Constellation. This is Richard Lawyer on Constitution”
C “Good to hear you’re all ok up there, we understand that Macleay is currently on a spacewalk, we need you to get him back inside right away.”
R “I’ll patch him into this conversation, what’s the hurry?”
L “What’s going on?”
C “The Soviet Union detonated a nuclear explosive in space above Vietnam, that explosion has caused a temporary radiation belt to form, we’ve already lost one of our satellites. You’re going to have to evacuate the station, make your way to Constitution as fast as you can, then undock and wait for further instructions.”
R “Jesus christ, Ok. I’ll go to Constitution now, Lachlan, you need to get in here as fast as you can, don’t bother taking off your spacesuit in the airlock.”
L “Got it.”
Lachlan quickly makes his way around the station, narrowly missing the solar panels, before reaching the apex of the station, opening the airlock door and getting in
C “Constitution is good radiation protection, but as the belt grows you’ll be receiving more and more radiation. In just under an hour you’ll have to perform a deorbit burn, that’ll take you down for landing”
R “What do you mean landing? We’re too far away from Vandenberg to land!”
C “You’re going to have to land at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii. You’re already cleared for landing there, the runway is around 2500 feet shorter, but we’re sure you’ll be able to land there safely. Onboard there is a manual of emergency landing procedures, further details should be in there. Good luck, Constitution.”
Time seems to pass slower, the stress of knowing every second up here is more and more radiation experienced, frantic flipping through the emergency landing procedures. What other scenario would these ever have to be used? Such an event would’ve been seen as so unlikely nobody would give it a second thought, but someone had. The time had finally come to commence the deorbit burn, the engines flared to life, pushing the two USAF Astronauts into their seats, and just as soon as it had begun, it sputtered out, the burn complete. Now all they had to do was land the damn thing.
Constitution began to hit the atmosphere, thin wisps of plasma streaming along the underbelly of the craft, trailing along the wings, reentry had been done many times before, but that can never remove the stress felt. What if the hasty undocking from Fletcher had caused damage to the hull, or what if the heat shield was improperly taken care of during refurbishment from the first mission? Ultimately reentry would be flawless, Lachlan took control of the ship and began to bleed off speed before reaching Hickam AFB. If they could not land safely, or if they overshot the runway, they could careen into the ocean, or into a building. It was a risky landing. Finally, enough speed had been bled off to begin the final approach, landing gear was extended, and the runway was clear. Constitution descended, pointed ever so slightly upwards to expose more surface to the oncoming air, with the hope to cause more drag, and to ensure the hind landing gear was the first to make contact with the runway. It was incredibly dim, the sun still below the horizon, although close enough to illuminate with a dim orange glow. Constitution would touchdown, a screech being heard as the hind wheels touched the runway, the whole craft tilting downwards, front wheels making contact, flaps fully extended. All they could do now was hope they didn’t overshoot the runway.
Constitution had successfully landed, in one of the most daring missions yet. She would remain in Hickam for a few days in a hangar, Lachlan and Richard being flown back to the mainland. Further days had passed and the USS Constellation, the very ship that had alerted, and saved the crew of Constitution, came to pick up the spaceplane, loaded on with a crane and over the next few weeks, to be brought back to Vandenberg.
Gemini III Would reenter shortly after, landing safely just tens of miles east of Florida. But Fearing the worst, the US Military goes to DEFCON 2, though there were no intentions of further detonations by the Soviets, the US, and the world, remained mortified by the events that had taken place. Calls to withdraw troops rang out in every city, and even some high ranking government officials called to bring the troops home. These would be met with ignorance for the better part of a week, before the decision was officially made to withdraw troops from South Vietnam, though to make sure that nothing like this would ever happen again, drastic measures were to be taken. The Pilot program, having fallen off in recent times, was revived. Anti-satellite weapons became relevant once again, with smaller, more efficient and more reliable designs having to be created, if another space weapon is launched from the USSR then there wouldn’t be enough time to get an X-15 or other plane ready for launch, these weapons had to be small enough to fit on ships to be deployed in the Pacific ocean, ready to retaliate at a moments notice. Concepts were even made for orbital weapons platforms, though met with criticism at first, military officials would begin to consider it as a viable option, because if anything like this were to happen again, it could be a lot more disastrous, and what better way to show you’re serious than placing a few nuclear warheads in orbit.
Chapter 12 - Afterglow
Afterglow
June 3, 1965
The return to crewed spaceflight took months, the radiation belt was proving to last longer than anticipated, and had delayed missions by months. The first mission post-detonation was the Gemini IV mission, crewed with Gus Grissom and Charles Conrad. The cabin atmosphere was not only high oxygen content, but filled with tension and stress. Space had been devoid of life for billions of years, and only in the past few years had we begun to take the first steps into the vast cosmic ocean, and for just a few months more, it would be empty, and despite this, it still felt eerie returning, the radiation belt was still present, but at a low enough amount to be safe for human spaceflight once again. This mission would include another EVA, as well as fuel cells for longer stays in orbit, this mission specifically planning a full week in orbit, however, in an attempt to accelerate the program, a rendezvous would yet again be attempted. A week prior, an Agena Target Vehicle was launched, a small, uncrewed docking target for Gemini, featuring an engine on one side and a cone for docking on the other, as well as a large antenna. Gemini IV was originally to launch just 1 day after the ATV, but ground stations were having trouble sending signals to the ATV, causing the delay. It would thankfully launch, making the journey up to Low Earth Orbit, where over the course of a few hours, the crew would slowly manoeuvre their way close to the Agena Target Vehicle, until it began to show itself, first a small dot far away on the horizon, then growing to a line, and soon a fully formed cylinder looming not too far. Gemini would slowly decrease its speed, coming to, what was essentially a stop, to make sure everything was ready for docking. After almost 30 minutes of waiting, they were given the go ahead, and began to ever so slightly move towards the ATV, coming to a stop in just under 2 minutes, as the two craft came into contact with each other, Gus calling out “Agena Contact!”. Gemini was confirmed to be able to both perform advanced orbital changes, and precise dockings with other craft, an incredible win for the upcoming Apollo program. They would remain docked for 4 days, at the end, Gus Grissom would perform a spacewalk towards the ATV, retrieving a small micrometeorite detector to analyse the results, and when Gus was back inside, Gemini’s doors would close, and they would undock from the Agena Target Vehicle, flying free for another 3 days before deorbiting, splashing down north of the Bahamas, bringing a successful end to an incredible mission
June 5, 1965
But the mission that followed, would be less of an achievement, and more of an autopsy. F-E3, or SC-C3, was to visit Fletcher station, communication had impossible with Fletcher since the detonation, only brief signals being sent from Fletcher every 3 hours, controlled by a radiation-proofed system, so the job of Robert White and Francis Neubeck was to rendezvous and dock with Fletcher, and inspect the damages, if the station could be saved then they would remain for 1 month, but if not, they would be flying alone for just 3 days. It took longer than expected to arrive at Fletcher, its orbital position was relatively unknown, the occasional signal begin hard to pinpoint exactly, resulting in a margin of error for location of almost 5 miles, but once it was located by SC-C3, they made their way closer and closer, and found something that drastically changed the tone of the mission. The rendezvous lights were on at the docking port, but during the flyaround inspection, it was found that the airlock door had opened. The door WAS closed by Lachlan Macleay during the crisis, the sound of it closing could be heard with a brief thump as the sound travelled through the walls into the pressurised sections, yet here it was open. A brief fear of a potential Soviet visit was considered, but quickly put to rest once it was confirmed there were no launches from the USSR since the incident, it was most likely open due to an electrical fault. A massive relief, but that quickly faded into dread. The doors to the other segments of Fletcher were all left open, no time to close them as the crew of the previous expedition left, are they still open? Fletcher had a basic automated depressurisation avoidance system, the doors to the segments would all close, but the pressure sensors were damaged from the radiation as experienced by Richard Lawyer. To confirm their suspicions, Francis would stationkeep Spearhead nearby the airlock, while Robert donned the new Astronaut Manoeuvring Unit on the back of his suit, and holstered the backup Nitrogen Gun, opening Constitution’s airlock and going over the airlock, he looked in and saw what they had both feared, The doors had failed to close. Dim red emergency lights lit up the interior, small particles clung to the walls and crew supplies had exploded due to the pressure change, small ice particles suspended around the station and packets of food loose in the storage area. There was no chance of recovery for Fletcher. Robert slowly made his way back to Constitution, but not before closing Fletcher’s airlock. Constitution would remain in orbit for just another single day, before reentering the atmosphere and landing at Vandenberg. The hopes of the USAF were not high, and they scrambled for any change for saving Fletcher, though none were found.
July 6, 1965
The USSR, unsurprisingly weary of the radiation belt they had created, hesitated more than the Americans to return to spaceflight, but the Soviet officials were getting antsy, worried that the USA may be getting a lead, decided to proceed with their next launch, an incredibly unique one. Voskhod 2, sent Alexei Leonov on a spacewalk, but none of the other Voskhods had, until now that is. Voskhod 5 would see the first female cosmonaut perform a spacewalk, Irina Solovyova, while the other cosmonaut, Valentina Ponomaryova, would remain in the capsule until the spacewalk was completed. The mission launched in the middle of the day into a classic low earth orbit, and remained there for just over 32 hours, at which point the Volga was inflated, and Irina would make her way into it. Their spacesuits were checked for a few minutes, and once internal atmospheres were confirmed stable, the airlock opened. The hole at the end was a deep black, the darkest colour one could see, the pure absence of any light at all. Irina would then lightly push against the walls, sending her gently floating out of the airlock, into the vast expanses waiting outside. She would spend a total of 26 minutes outside before reentering the airlock, becoming the first woman to ever perform a spacewalk. The remainder of the mission would consist of further microgravity experiments, as well as testing long-duration spaceflight for women, spending a whole 10 days up in orbit, once their time was over they fired the retrorockets and- nothing happened. The main retrorockets failed to fire, quickly followed by a violent silence as the lights blinked off and on, then a brief clunk. Clearly the retrorockets would not fire, the backup retrorockets were activated and after a second that seemed to stretch an hour, they ignited. Voskhod was quickly decelerated, faster than was planned, in fact. An acceleration of 0.2G was expected, but instead they seemed to be experiencing 0.37G, Not a big difference in the grand scheme of things, but when you’ve been training for such a long time, you can tell something is wrong. The activation of the main retrorockets caused a brief power surge which separated the main retrorocket section. This decreased the mass of the craft, and caused a greater change in velocity than anticipated, giving Voskhod 5 a new landing site, Mongolia.
Mongolia became truly independent just 4 years prior, thanks to the USSR, and as such they helped handle the situation and even aided in recovery efforts, turning what might have been a disaster into a temporary inconvenience.
August 3, 1965
It was clear that the Soviet Union was intent on continuing their own spaceflight program through the increased radiation, and as such the only thing that the United States could do was power through it. NASA would launch their next two missions in quick succession, an in-orbit rendezvous. Gemini V would launch on the 3rd of August, crewed with Frank Borman and Jim Lovell while Gemini VI launched 4 days later, on the 7th of August, and was crewed with Eugene Cernan and John Young. Both missions had successful launches, with Gemini VI reporting that the liftoff was smoother than they trained for. Just under 2 hours after launch, VI performed their first manoeuvre, bringing them to within 1km of Gemini V, this distance would be cut down to just 50m with further manoeuvres and orbital adjustments, bringing the two of them close enough to see the full defined shape of the other. Before launch, it was considered to perform an EVA to switch pilots mid-flight, but this never went ahead as the necessary EVA suit would be too uncomfortable to wear for Gemini V’s planned 2 week flight. But Gemini VI was just a 2 day flight, permitting use of the bulkier suit. John Young opened the doors of Gemini and, tethered to VI, slowly drifted over to Gemini V where he spent around 4 minutes floating around the craft, inspecting the sides and waving to Borman and Lovell inside, before drifting back to and entering Gemini VI. They would proceed to deorbit the next day, landing near the coast of Florida for quick recovery once landed, Gemini V landing on the 17th of August. Their flight rate was increasing and the Apollo program was closer every passing day
August 12, 1965
To prepare for this, another Lunar Orbiter was launched. Unlike the last one, taking advantage of Vulcan II’s ability to bring payloads directly to a lunar orbit, This time the spacecraft would use the whole 5,000kg of TLI to its advantage, featuring large solar arrays that would deploy after launch, a directional and omnidirectional antenna, a simple radar system to see the albedo
October 16, 1965
Continuing their victory lap, NASA would launch Gemini VII on the 16th of August, crewed with Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins, they would attempt to rendezvous and dock with the Agena Target Vehicle, and use its engine to boost them into a higher orbit, up to a targeted apogee of 1000km, at which point Neil would perform the highest EVA yet performed, and they would perform some experiments on high altitude micrometeorite and particle concentration. Launch was just after sunrise, sending them up into an orbit similar, but lower, to the ATV, with which rendezvous was completed with just 3 hours later, docking just another 10 minutes later. Once everything was in order in the capsule, Agena’s engine would fire and push Armstrong and Collins back into their seats, accelerating them faster and faster, ultimately achieving an orbit of 292x1125km, the EVA would be mostly successful, except for a minor issue with the suit being more rigid than expected, but the experiments were performed and Neil was able to return into the spacecraft unharmed, deorbit burn conducted on the 26th of August, landing safely in the Atlantic ocean
November 4, 1965
Turning our gaze towards Mars, Mariner 3 and Mars 3 are fast approaching the Red Planet, photographing the expansive Tsiolkovsky Valley and the massive Olympus Mons, as well as taking observations of Argyre Planitia and Hellas Basin, Mariner 3 would dispatch the atmospheric entry probe, which would burn up shortly after transmitting the basic information of Mars’ atmosphere, finding it as being mostly Carbon Dioxide, with decent amounts of Nitrogen and Argon, smaller levels of Oxygen, Carbon Monoxide and even smaller amounts of Water vapour. Mariner 3 would continue to fly on, but not before taking detailed observations of Phobos, finding the massive Stickney crater and multitudes of ridges and craters on this dynamic body, whilst Mars 3 was about to attempt an incredible feat, it would attempt to land upon the surface of Mars. Its target is Utopia Planitia, though it would never make it to the surface, the retrorockets being fired erroneously before atmospheric entry even began, leading to an uncontrolled crash landing on the surface at speeds too high for the craft to survive. But they would not give up, Next window, 1967, they plan to launch 2 landers at once, Double the chances, and if all goes well, double the science.
November 10, 1965
Just after sunset in the United States, the Moon in the sky was full and bright, and just 80 kilometres above the Moon’s surface was Surveyor 2, hurtling towards the ground at 2.5km/s, seconds away from performing its daring, spectacular landing. At 75 km her retrorockets ignited, slowing the craft down at incredible speeds, pulling a maximum of 7 G-Forces on its way down, The mass of the craft reducing from almost 1.5t to just 350kg. Unlike the failed Surveyor 1, Surveyor 2 had a surface sampling arm, as well as batteries to keep the craft from dying while its solar panels were disabled during the long lunar nights. The craft was now just 11km above the surface, falling at a much more acceptable 100m/s, the now empty solid rocket motor was jettisoned, left to crash somewhere nearby, along with the radar, the remainder of the trip was spent decelerating using small vernier engines mounted on the 3 legs extending out from the central probe block. This continued until the craft, sensing it was just 3m above the surface with a smaller radar, shut off the verniers and fell gently to the surface, coming to a soft stop just a few seconds later. Finally, the US had landed a probe on the surface of the Moon. It would be left silent for just under an hour to make sure all systems were intact and ready, and once it was confirmed, the sampling arm would extend out to scoop up a small part of the lunar soil and analyse it, detailing its chemical composition and other interesting properties of the regolith, one of which showed that the dust was more magnetic than first thought, and clung to certain parts of the craft!
November 18, 1965
The USSR did not like the fast progress that the United States was making, having beaten them to a space station far sooner than ever expected, so to compensate the USSR’s space program was accelerated tenfold, Soyuz capsules, the next generation craft after Voskhod, began to be constructed, work on the rocket they hoped would bring them to the moon, the N1, was accelerated as fast as it could be, and Cosmonaut medical examination time was cut down to just 10 days to the dismay of the planners, Voskhod 6 would test a quickly put together Spacewalk system known as the UPMK, essentially a large belt with pressurised nitrogen tanks to be ever so slightly vented for spacewalk manoeuvring. It would launch the 18th of November, into a highly inclined orbit, crewed with Anatoli Voronov and Aleksandr Matinchenko, spending just 2 hours in orbit before being commanded to open the Volga airlock and begin the spacewalk. He would spend over 80 minutes outside, testing the UPMK and taking photographs of the earth and Voskhod capsule, eventually orbital nightfall drew near, and Anatoli was told to return to the capsule, he hesitated for a short while, but he ultimately returned before sunset, the rest of the mission was spent performing medical experiments and photographing the Earth through the window. The mission would come to an end on the 24th of November, supplies running low they had no choice but to land, doing so perfectly. The retrorockets fired correctly, and reentry was as smooth as it could be, a fantastic end to the last Voskhod flight of the year, and the 2nd last ever, Voskhod 7 planned for April 1966, with Soyuz being introduced the very same year.
December 1, 1965
The proof from F-E3 Was undeniable, Fletcher was too far gone. Electrical systems fried, barely enough power to keep life support and communications on at the same time, and many crucial observation tools completely dead. So the USAF made the tough decision to let Fletcher deorbit. She would have one last visitor, a small Centaur stage, with a rendezvous and docking system attached to the top of it. But this Centaur was a unique one, originally planned for a special mission to boost a meet with a crewed Gemini craft in orbit and boost it around the moon. But this was canned as the extra testing needed to certify Gemini’s heat shield for lunar reentry speeds were seen as unnecessary, especially with Apollo not too far away, so the centaur was held back, until being chosen for this mission. Centaur would dock with Fletcher, and slowly rotate the large station around until it was pointing opposite to its orbital direction, at which point the engines began to fire. Fletcher began to slow down, and after just a minute of the engine firing, Fletcher would be shut down for the last time. An hour later, the thin atmosphere began to pull at the crafts, Fletcher’s solar panels being violently torn off, paint flaking off of the two crafts and the hull beginning to warp. The bond between Centaur and Fletcher melted away, the two craft hurtling towards the south pacific, beginning to completely melt and shatter. A small hole formed in Fletcher, allowing the plasma to flow inside, everything burnt and vaporised in under a second, more and more plasma flowing in with such force that it burst out both the airlock and loosening the welds of Fletcher’s walls enough that it broke apart, panels flying loose and metal framing warping while the Centaur was mangled beyond recognition, the engine having already broken off. The two slowed down to subsonic speeds, and at last their end had come, they both impacted the ocean, the waves swallowing them whole. Fletcher was laid to rest at the bottom of the ocean, leaving Constitution grounded until some new targets can be made, docking-compatible Keyhole satellites already preparing for launch, but something else was being prepared too. A flight-model of Fletcher was produced before Fletcher was launched, and it was never disassembled, in fact, it's so completed that it just needs to be fitted with the right equipment to be space-worthy, though Fletcher is gone, its name is not, and it will soon be followed, with Fletcher II
Chapter 13 - Last Hurrah
I'm sorry for taking so long to put this chapter out, typical Holiday chaos.
Oh, Hey! Speaking of chaos!
Last Hurrah
December 5, 1965
In the early age of space exploration, many firsts had already been accomplished. The first satellite launched 8 years ago, The first person went into orbit 4 years ago, and launches in general were becoming more and more routine. But there was one milestone not yet accomplished that both major agencies would aim to achieve. The first to orbit Venus.
The Soviets would launch their Venera 5 mission on December 5 with a low energy transfer aiming to arrive sometime in October 1966. A minor issue arose shortly after launch, the solar panel arrays getting stalled for a brief period, but repeated attempts yielded full deployment. The Americans were to launch Mariner 4 just 2 days later on the 7th, Aiming to arrive around 7 months later. No major complications occurred during or after launch, and it went right on its way to Venus
December 12, 1965
Gemini VIII was crewed with Walter Schirra and Elliot See, Aimed to perform similar tasks as previous missions. Planning to rendezvous with an Agena Target Vehicle, Though this would be one of the last of such missions. A modified ATV was in development, scheduled to be ready for Gemini X. It would have more experiments on it, small solar panels to keep it alive in event of launch delays, and a small pressurised compartment for biological experiments. Gemini would dock with Agena on the 13th, and would remain docked until the 20th, aiming to conduct longer and longer spaceflights in preparation for Apollo. Numerous spacewalks would occur, mostly by Elliot See, And would push the limits on spacewalk length. Agena’s engine was planned to boost Gemini VIII to a higher orbit, but troubles with the circuitry in Agena prevented this from happening. They remained in orbit for one more day before Gemini was deorbited, splashing down in the Atlantic
January 5, 1966
Unfortunately for the US, during Mariner 4’s interplanetary coast, during one of the communication windows, nothing was heard. For some unknown reason it simply stopped communicating, putting a swift end to America’s dream of having the first Venus orbiter.
April 2, 1966
The Voskhod program was coming to an end, with Voskhod 7. Piloting the mission is Dmitri Zaikin, and Copiloting is Yevgeni Khrunov. This mission was an arduous one, requiring a long time training, for this mission would have a special tethered spacewalk. The USSR Had designed their own manoeuvring unit called the UPMK. Launching early in the morning, A minor thrust loss
was observed in the second stage, not enough to threaten the mission but enough to shorten its length by a day. The two of them wasted no time getting the mission ready, Inflating the airlock just an hour after orbital insertion.. The two of them donned their spacesuits and Dmitri left the craft, held by tether they activated their UPMK and applied a small bit of momentum forwards. They would drift forwards for a few minutes before the tether went taut and stopped their movement. Hanging 100m from their craft they saw uniques views, the capsule just a small, tiny shadow against the bright colours of the Earth. Dmitri would remain floating outside the capsule for over an hour, returning only when the sun began to drift below the horizon, taking this photo just before returning. Voskhod 7 would maintain its orbit for over a week more, pushing the limits of what was believed to be Voskhod’s safe limits. When time was up, they conducted a flawless deorbit burn and landed safely in the central USSR
April 13, 1966
This marathon of crewed spaceflight would continue with the Americans and their Gemini IX, A mission consisting of Alan Bean and Richard Gordon. Docking with the ATV a longer 3 days after launch after some minor issues were found with the guidance system requiring almost 2 days of work to fix. A unique payload was carried aboard the ATV, A small pressurised container, inside of it was seeds of various different plants. These were to be brought back with Gemini IX and compared to control seeds left on earth to better gauge the effects of radiation on genetic material. This mission would yet again reach new milestones for the Gemini program, being boosted into the highest orbit yet, and having extra rations onboard to sustain the crew for longer. Alan Bean would spacewalk across to Agena to retrieve the samples, but unknown to the ground crew, this spacewalk would almost end in disaster. While retrieving the samples, Alan noticed something. The horizon was turning. Barely so, almost imperceptibly, but visible by referencing against the angle of the Agena’s Boom antenna
“Gordon, we’re spinning”
“We are?”
Alan notices a brief puff of white coming from Gemini recurring every few seconds
“Are you firing the OAMS?”
“No, no, it doesn’t look it’s firing from here”
“Well I can see some particles comin’ from Gemini so unless you’re having a smoke in there I don’t know what else it could be!”
The RCS continued to fire, increasing the spin to a point that Gordon could see noticeable changes through the window. Alan was having a more hands-on experience, literally having to hold onto the ATV to keep from being slowly lifted off. Gordon would fire thrusters in the opposite direction, but this only momentarily stalled the rotation and gave Alan a quick fright
“Ok I-I’m coming back inside, don’t do any more sudden corrections like that”
“Should we undock when you’re back in?”
“Agena is good mass, if we undock we’ll spin faster”
Alan moves back towards the Gemini spacecraft and sits down. Thanks to the Relay network, connections with mission control rarely sever for more than a few minutes. Communications start between CAPCOM and Gemini on the situation, and it is decided an early, emergency splashdown must be completed. The OAMS system is shutdown and the Reentry Control System is used to cancel out the rotation of 6rpm before undocking from the Agena. The retrorockets fire and decelerate Gemini IX enough for it to slip into the atmosphere and begin slowing down even more. Due to the inconvenient issue, reentry had to be conducted over China, with a landing taking place in the vicinity of Okinawa, a convenient spot seeing as numerous US Navy ships remained stationed nearby the islands - both as a convenient spot in relation to Vietnam for the now mostly ended war, and because of the years of american occupation. The crew of Gemini IX were recovered safely just over an hour after splashdown.
May 19, 1966
A long, arduous series of designs and redesigns and model testing that had lasted for years had finally led to this, the Soyuz spacecraft. Capable of seating 3 people, with a docking port that doubles as an airlock, enough supplies to remain undocked in orbit for 2 weeks, and plenty of manoeuvring fuel for orbital adjustments. Despite the crew capabilities, just one man would be launching on this flight, Vladimir Komarov, But none would come down.
Just one day later Soyuz 2 was to launch, rendezvous and dock with Soyuz 1, Komarov then transferring over to 2, with Soyuz 1 autonomously reentering the next day. Vladimir Komarov had already flown to space on the early mission of Vostok 4 almost 5 years earlier, And again on Voskhod 1, 3 years earlier - Making this their third spaceflight, and second time on the debut launch of a new spacecraft. The launch of Soyuz 1 was delayed a short time due to what was thought to be an issue with the engines, but this was quickly solved and found to be an erroneous reading. Launching in the late afternoon, Komarov had 6 hours to spend in orbit before it was time for them to have an admittedly not great dinner, and try to sleep in the difficult, microgravity environment.
May 20, 1966
Komarov would only get 4 hours of sleep out of a hoped 10 hours, waking up numerous times to find their arms raised in front of them. They would also wake up to find that one of Soyuz’s two solar panels had failed to fully deploy, But the power loss was not a dangerous amount, not for one person at least. The spacewalk for Soyuz 2 would need to be changed slightly to also attempt to fix the solar panel issue. Soyuz 2 would launch closer to midday, around 12:05 pm Baikonur Time, Entering orbit a short time later in an optimal position to rendezvous with Soyuz 1. The spacecraft was crewed with Valery Bykovsky and Aleksei Yeliseyev, both new cosmonauts, though the time they lacked in space was made up for with many days of training time. With multiple prior launches testing fast rendezvous methods, the USSR was able to conduct a rendezvous in just 3 orbits. Once in place, both Soyuz 1 and 2 extended their inflatable airlock - Soyuz 2 then would do the final docking approach, housing the active side of the port, it would dock with Soyuz 1. Two then opened their side of the hatch, verifying stable atmospheric pressure, and once given the go ahead, Komarov opened their side. They remained in their separate capsules for 50 minutes before Komarov made their way across into Two’s side. Their docking port was then closed, and shortly after detached from One, which began its reentry protocols as soon as the opportunity arose and the capsules were a safe distance from each other. The now combined crews of Soyuz 1 and 2 remained in orbit for another 2 days, able to push the smaller amount of supplies for the test flight as far as they could.
May 22, 1966
Once they were running low, the time came for deorbiting. The engines fire and Soyuz begins the long descent back to Earth. The plasma envelopes the craft, but it remains stable even as different forces dynamically shift around it, all the way down into the thicker parts of the atmosphere. Drogue chute deploys perfectly, Main parachute deploys, though not after a tongue-biting delay lasting just half a second longer than it should’ve, but it still deploys perfectly. The Soyuz approaches the ground at just under 8m/s, The retrorockets are commanded to fire and... they don’t. Soyuz slams into the Kazakhstani plains and kicks up a large cloud of dust. But thankfully, the same thing happened on the uncrewed landing of Soyuz 1, allowing the crew to be alerted of the hazardous landing and to brace in the event that their retrorockets were also faulty.
June 8, 1966
A ground model of fletcher had been worked on day and night over the past few weeks, trying to make it flight-worthy. Finally, it was ready for launch. Rocketing up into the sky, no footage of the launch was broadcast, much like the previous station’s launch, it was classified. Simply being called a weather monitoring satellite, but the officials knew that was not the case. As did the two astronauts slated to visit it just a short time later
July 12, 1966
Piloting Constitution was Francis Neubeck, Previously flying on the SC-I3 Mission, the first docking of two crewed spacecraft. Born in Washington DC in 1932 they joined the US Naval Academy, but went on to join the USAF instead. In 1962 he applied to become a NASA Astronaut but was rejected, deciding to then go into the USAF Pilot School. However their time without space wouldn't last long, being accepted into the first group of Spearhead Astronauts in 1964.
And Karol Bobko, Born in New York, 1937, They entered into the USAF in 1959 and completed their flight training just a year later. in Late 1962 They were approached by the USAF with an offer to join the upcoming Spearhead program, Karol accepted and flew on the second mission, Kittyhawk 2 (KH-2) in August 1963, and later flying on SC-I2 just 13 months later. Despite having flown 2 times previously, Francis was chosen to be the command pilot of this mission, with Karol as pilot due to their engineering skills, in the event of some unforeseen malfunction with fletcher, they would be able to attempt repairs whilst Francis keeps the Spearhead ready to go.
Rendezvous and docking was conducted after just over 26 hours in low earth orbit. A quick inspection was conducted to make sure the station was ready for operations, and was verified to be safe - This mission had numerous plans, surveillance on Baikonur cosmodrome was planned, finding traces of a new rocket in development, but further examination of it was not possible. Spacewalks were conducted every few days as a mean to grow familiar with zero g movement, most finding it difficult to get used to. But helping with this was the new and improved Astronaut Maneuvering Unit, a large cuboid tank able to be mounted to the back of the spacesuit and used by a controller on either arm, pushing down on buttons to release thrust in specific directions. The only mission to have used an AMU was F-E3, When it was used to traverse the distance between Constitution and the frail Fletcher station. Francis Neubeck maintained a close watch on Fletcher’s systems to make sure no leaks were occuring, and watched and recorded through the telescope as the station passed over Soviet territory.
July 28, 1966
7:20 PST
“Good morning Fletcher, Today is Thursday the 28th, We here at Vandenberg hope you’ll be having a great day up there. We thought it’d be fitting to wake you up with Telstar today”
“Morning, Vandenberg. This is Karol Bobko on Fletcher, How’s the weather down there?”
“Dry and hot, How is it up there?”
“I think I have it on good authority to say it’s very dry outside, almost no humidity. But in here it’s a nice 70°F”
“Good to hear. Not much news today. For the mission you’ve got a spacewalk planned at noon, you’ll need to fetch the experiments on both of the solar panels and be back in by 1pm”
“That’s pretty quick. But I get to use the AMU, yeah?”
“Of course. You also should let Francis know that today is just an observation day.”
“Alright, we’ll contact you after the spacewalk is done and if we need anything.”
“Have a good day, Fletcher”
July 28, 1966
12:07 PST
“Airlock is ready to open, Bo. Good luck on your spacewalk”
Bobko would push open the airlock door and begin to traverse the exterior of the spacecraft. Despite being a military space station, a few science experiments still made their way onboard - A micrometeoroid detector, a cosmic ray detector, and a rudimentary telescope. Bobko’s task was to retrieve the various results on the end of the solar panels.
“Being out here for so long really helps change your perspective on things”
“Oh?”
“I’m not sure that cream was the best colour to paint the station”
Bobko activates the AMU to travel across the wingspan of the station, from one end of a solar panel to the other. Collecting the micrometeoroid slides and film from the telescope, Before coming up to the end of the other solar array to retrieve that side’s results
“Ok Bo, Telescope film is unlocked”
“Hold on a second, Francis, I’m having a bit of an issue here”
“What’s happening?”
“I think my temp control is broken, its getting pretty hot in here”
“If you want we can cut this short and get you back in here”
“That’d be best, it’s getting bad pretty fast”
Karol attempts to use the AMU, but no thrust is provided
“Francis i’m getting nothing from the AMU, proceeding to use the main panel connector to return to the station”
“Want me to loop you into Vandenberg?”
“No, no, it’s ok. Let them know about the AMU troubles th-“
“Bo?”
“...”
“Bobko?”
Francis races to the Bobko-facing window and sees him frantically waving one arm, holding onto the rail with the other until he accidentally lets go and begins slowly spinning
“BOBKO!”
Francis remotely closes and pressurises the airlock before rushing in there and hastily putting on the USAF spacesuit helmet and grabbing the backup Handheld AMU. He quickly opens the airlock and uses the old AMU to race over to Bobko - spinning around, flailing their arms around in a panicked manner. Grabbing on to Karol, Francis finds that despite the insulation of their suits, Karol is strangely hot to the touch. It is only when Francis catches a glimpse behind Karol’s sun visor that he realises what happened. Smoke. There was fire in Karol’s suit. Francis acts fast and fires the handheld AMU to push both of them back to Fletcher, and just before entering the airlock, Francis releases some of the atmospheric pressure in Karol’s suit. hopefully suffocating and extinguishing the flames.
beep
“Hello, Fletcher! How’d the spacewalk g-“
“VANDENBERG, THIS IS FRANCIS NEUBECK, I NEED THE NUMBERS FOR EMERGENCY DEORBIT 016-09”
“O-Ok, sending them up now. What’s the emergency?”
“A FIRE STARTED IN KAROL’S SUIT, I VENTED HIS PRESSURE TO PUT IT OUT BUT I DON’T KNOW IF HE’S ALIVE!”
He frantically rushes down the station, keeping Karol in their suit as Francis opens the door to Constitution and locks Karol into the copilot seat
“WHEN CAN I DEORBIT?”
“Fastest we can get you down here is a hard burn in 0918, Then it’s a 78 degree turn in 2358”
Francis punches the numbers into Constitution’s timer, but the minutes pass at a dreadful pace, Karol motionless in their seat, Francis trying to keep calm as the stress rises, until finally the time comes. 16 minutes after setting the timer, Francis ignites the engines and sets the engine throttle as high as it allows. The two of them are pushed back into their seats and lowering the perigee of their orbit until their path intersects north of Vandenberg, and the engines cut out. Constitution floats delicately for minutes after that, until the thin wisps of atmosphere begin to scrape at the sides of the craft, decelerating it with high G-forces and pushing the two once again into their seats. Francis then waits a few more minutes for the second timer to run down and begins to turn the ship, conducting the 78 degree turn needed to reach Vandenberg and bleed off enough speed.
The wind grows loud outside the craft, dynamic forces rocking it like a boat about to be hit by a rogue wave. The sun reflects bright across the ocean’s scattered waves deep below, cut off by the expansive desert and the thin Vandenberg runway. Francis deploys the landing gear and starts pitching up to create as large a profile as possible to increase drag, Slowing down to what looks like a safe landing speed they begin to lose altitude and the back wheels make contact. But Constitution is still moving too fast, it begins to wobble and lose stability, shaking violently as it rolls down the runway. The shaking increases until a slight turn is made to try and keep from rolling off, and Constitution’s left wing begins being torn to shreds by the ground, The contact forcing the entire vehicle into a damaging spin, painfully scraping the entire vehicle. Constitution slows down, and eventually comes to a stop, but she doesn’t look like she did at launch. Beaten and battered, missing limbs with their body torn and scratched, it was a devastating sight to see for the crew by the runway as they rushed towards the smoldering corpse of Constitution to rescue the two crew on board.
The rescue team pushes forwards through the billowing smoke, tearing off the crew door and racing in, pulling the unconscious Karol out of their seat and running as fast as they safely could towards the air ambulance helicopter, departing soon after Karol was onboard, flying directly to the nearest capable hospital. Francis’ wounds were less serious, once dragged out of the fatally wounded craft it was clear that they could be treated onsite.
As the days passed, the magnitude of the disaster became more and more clear. Constitution was irreparably damaged, And Independence is unable to dock with the station due to its different configuration, forcing Fletcher II to be left after just a single visit. The US Secretary of the Air force demanded a report be put together on how such a tragedy could’ve happened and how it was not prevented sooner. This put the USAF and the entirety of the US Government in a precarious situation, 2 astronauts injured, one of them possibly dead, what could they say? Well, news about a potential disaster involving astronauts had made its way into the papers, but the public was in the dark about the true nature of Spearhead, and the entire existence of Fletcher I and II, so what on earth could they do? As it turns out, they wouldn’t have to do anything.
July 30, 1966
Despite trying to keep Spearhead’s true purpose a secret, the Soviet Union were able to piece together and find evidence of the program. With all of this, the disaster was able to be revealed to the Soviet public incredibly close to the true events
КАТАСТРОФА АМЕРИКАНСКОГО КОСМИЧЕСКОГО САМОЛЕТА - Ракета, запущенная американцами 3 недели назад, имела на борту двух астронавтов, посещающих секретную космическую станцию-шпион! 2 дня назад был совершен быстрый и опасный побег со станции из-за неисправности. Последовала опасная посадка, в результате которой космический самолет разбился и ранил обоих астронавтов! - AMERICAN SPACE PLANE DISASTER - A Rocket launched by the Americans 3 weeks ago had 2 astronauts on board visiting a secret spy space station! 2 days ago a fast and dangerous fleeing from the station was performed due to a malfunction. Followed by a dangerous landing resulting in the space plane crashing and injuring both astronauts!
This news quickly made its way to America, officials maintained their position that the rumours were entirely just that, but it all seemed to make sense. Eventually this forced a press conference to be held. This conference contained the very first confirmation that a rendezvous with some object was performed on the mission, and several previous missions, though the identity of this object was not confirmed. And it would not be until “The Zuckert Report” was released, at an unknown time once completed, would the true secrecy of the USAF’s space program come to light.
Oh, Hey! Speaking of chaos!
Last Hurrah
December 5, 1965
In the early age of space exploration, many firsts had already been accomplished. The first satellite launched 8 years ago, The first person went into orbit 4 years ago, and launches in general were becoming more and more routine. But there was one milestone not yet accomplished that both major agencies would aim to achieve. The first to orbit Venus.
The Soviets would launch their Venera 5 mission on December 5 with a low energy transfer aiming to arrive sometime in October 1966. A minor issue arose shortly after launch, the solar panel arrays getting stalled for a brief period, but repeated attempts yielded full deployment. The Americans were to launch Mariner 4 just 2 days later on the 7th, Aiming to arrive around 7 months later. No major complications occurred during or after launch, and it went right on its way to Venus
December 12, 1965
Gemini VIII was crewed with Walter Schirra and Elliot See, Aimed to perform similar tasks as previous missions. Planning to rendezvous with an Agena Target Vehicle, Though this would be one of the last of such missions. A modified ATV was in development, scheduled to be ready for Gemini X. It would have more experiments on it, small solar panels to keep it alive in event of launch delays, and a small pressurised compartment for biological experiments. Gemini would dock with Agena on the 13th, and would remain docked until the 20th, aiming to conduct longer and longer spaceflights in preparation for Apollo. Numerous spacewalks would occur, mostly by Elliot See, And would push the limits on spacewalk length. Agena’s engine was planned to boost Gemini VIII to a higher orbit, but troubles with the circuitry in Agena prevented this from happening. They remained in orbit for one more day before Gemini was deorbited, splashing down in the Atlantic
January 5, 1966
Unfortunately for the US, during Mariner 4’s interplanetary coast, during one of the communication windows, nothing was heard. For some unknown reason it simply stopped communicating, putting a swift end to America’s dream of having the first Venus orbiter.
April 2, 1966
The Voskhod program was coming to an end, with Voskhod 7. Piloting the mission is Dmitri Zaikin, and Copiloting is Yevgeni Khrunov. This mission was an arduous one, requiring a long time training, for this mission would have a special tethered spacewalk. The USSR Had designed their own manoeuvring unit called the UPMK. Launching early in the morning, A minor thrust loss
April 13, 1966
This marathon of crewed spaceflight would continue with the Americans and their Gemini IX, A mission consisting of Alan Bean and Richard Gordon. Docking with the ATV a longer 3 days after launch after some minor issues were found with the guidance system requiring almost 2 days of work to fix. A unique payload was carried aboard the ATV, A small pressurised container, inside of it was seeds of various different plants. These were to be brought back with Gemini IX and compared to control seeds left on earth to better gauge the effects of radiation on genetic material. This mission would yet again reach new milestones for the Gemini program, being boosted into the highest orbit yet, and having extra rations onboard to sustain the crew for longer. Alan Bean would spacewalk across to Agena to retrieve the samples, but unknown to the ground crew, this spacewalk would almost end in disaster. While retrieving the samples, Alan noticed something. The horizon was turning. Barely so, almost imperceptibly, but visible by referencing against the angle of the Agena’s Boom antenna
“Gordon, we’re spinning”
“We are?”
Alan notices a brief puff of white coming from Gemini recurring every few seconds
“Are you firing the OAMS?”
“No, no, it doesn’t look it’s firing from here”
“Well I can see some particles comin’ from Gemini so unless you’re having a smoke in there I don’t know what else it could be!”
The RCS continued to fire, increasing the spin to a point that Gordon could see noticeable changes through the window. Alan was having a more hands-on experience, literally having to hold onto the ATV to keep from being slowly lifted off. Gordon would fire thrusters in the opposite direction, but this only momentarily stalled the rotation and gave Alan a quick fright
“Ok I-I’m coming back inside, don’t do any more sudden corrections like that”
“Should we undock when you’re back in?”
“Agena is good mass, if we undock we’ll spin faster”
Alan moves back towards the Gemini spacecraft and sits down. Thanks to the Relay network, connections with mission control rarely sever for more than a few minutes. Communications start between CAPCOM and Gemini on the situation, and it is decided an early, emergency splashdown must be completed. The OAMS system is shutdown and the Reentry Control System is used to cancel out the rotation of 6rpm before undocking from the Agena. The retrorockets fire and decelerate Gemini IX enough for it to slip into the atmosphere and begin slowing down even more. Due to the inconvenient issue, reentry had to be conducted over China, with a landing taking place in the vicinity of Okinawa, a convenient spot seeing as numerous US Navy ships remained stationed nearby the islands - both as a convenient spot in relation to Vietnam for the now mostly ended war, and because of the years of american occupation. The crew of Gemini IX were recovered safely just over an hour after splashdown.
May 19, 1966
A long, arduous series of designs and redesigns and model testing that had lasted for years had finally led to this, the Soyuz spacecraft. Capable of seating 3 people, with a docking port that doubles as an airlock, enough supplies to remain undocked in orbit for 2 weeks, and plenty of manoeuvring fuel for orbital adjustments. Despite the crew capabilities, just one man would be launching on this flight, Vladimir Komarov, But none would come down.
Just one day later Soyuz 2 was to launch, rendezvous and dock with Soyuz 1, Komarov then transferring over to 2, with Soyuz 1 autonomously reentering the next day. Vladimir Komarov had already flown to space on the early mission of Vostok 4 almost 5 years earlier, And again on Voskhod 1, 3 years earlier - Making this their third spaceflight, and second time on the debut launch of a new spacecraft. The launch of Soyuz 1 was delayed a short time due to what was thought to be an issue with the engines, but this was quickly solved and found to be an erroneous reading. Launching in the late afternoon, Komarov had 6 hours to spend in orbit before it was time for them to have an admittedly not great dinner, and try to sleep in the difficult, microgravity environment.
May 20, 1966
Komarov would only get 4 hours of sleep out of a hoped 10 hours, waking up numerous times to find their arms raised in front of them. They would also wake up to find that one of Soyuz’s two solar panels had failed to fully deploy, But the power loss was not a dangerous amount, not for one person at least. The spacewalk for Soyuz 2 would need to be changed slightly to also attempt to fix the solar panel issue. Soyuz 2 would launch closer to midday, around 12:05 pm Baikonur Time, Entering orbit a short time later in an optimal position to rendezvous with Soyuz 1. The spacecraft was crewed with Valery Bykovsky and Aleksei Yeliseyev, both new cosmonauts, though the time they lacked in space was made up for with many days of training time. With multiple prior launches testing fast rendezvous methods, the USSR was able to conduct a rendezvous in just 3 orbits. Once in place, both Soyuz 1 and 2 extended their inflatable airlock - Soyuz 2 then would do the final docking approach, housing the active side of the port, it would dock with Soyuz 1. Two then opened their side of the hatch, verifying stable atmospheric pressure, and once given the go ahead, Komarov opened their side. They remained in their separate capsules for 50 minutes before Komarov made their way across into Two’s side. Their docking port was then closed, and shortly after detached from One, which began its reentry protocols as soon as the opportunity arose and the capsules were a safe distance from each other. The now combined crews of Soyuz 1 and 2 remained in orbit for another 2 days, able to push the smaller amount of supplies for the test flight as far as they could.
May 22, 1966
Once they were running low, the time came for deorbiting. The engines fire and Soyuz begins the long descent back to Earth. The plasma envelopes the craft, but it remains stable even as different forces dynamically shift around it, all the way down into the thicker parts of the atmosphere. Drogue chute deploys perfectly, Main parachute deploys, though not after a tongue-biting delay lasting just half a second longer than it should’ve, but it still deploys perfectly. The Soyuz approaches the ground at just under 8m/s, The retrorockets are commanded to fire and... they don’t. Soyuz slams into the Kazakhstani plains and kicks up a large cloud of dust. But thankfully, the same thing happened on the uncrewed landing of Soyuz 1, allowing the crew to be alerted of the hazardous landing and to brace in the event that their retrorockets were also faulty.
June 8, 1966
A ground model of fletcher had been worked on day and night over the past few weeks, trying to make it flight-worthy. Finally, it was ready for launch. Rocketing up into the sky, no footage of the launch was broadcast, much like the previous station’s launch, it was classified. Simply being called a weather monitoring satellite, but the officials knew that was not the case. As did the two astronauts slated to visit it just a short time later
July 12, 1966
Piloting Constitution was Francis Neubeck, Previously flying on the SC-I3 Mission, the first docking of two crewed spacecraft. Born in Washington DC in 1932 they joined the US Naval Academy, but went on to join the USAF instead. In 1962 he applied to become a NASA Astronaut but was rejected, deciding to then go into the USAF Pilot School. However their time without space wouldn't last long, being accepted into the first group of Spearhead Astronauts in 1964.
And Karol Bobko, Born in New York, 1937, They entered into the USAF in 1959 and completed their flight training just a year later. in Late 1962 They were approached by the USAF with an offer to join the upcoming Spearhead program, Karol accepted and flew on the second mission, Kittyhawk 2 (KH-2) in August 1963, and later flying on SC-I2 just 13 months later. Despite having flown 2 times previously, Francis was chosen to be the command pilot of this mission, with Karol as pilot due to their engineering skills, in the event of some unforeseen malfunction with fletcher, they would be able to attempt repairs whilst Francis keeps the Spearhead ready to go.
Rendezvous and docking was conducted after just over 26 hours in low earth orbit. A quick inspection was conducted to make sure the station was ready for operations, and was verified to be safe - This mission had numerous plans, surveillance on Baikonur cosmodrome was planned, finding traces of a new rocket in development, but further examination of it was not possible. Spacewalks were conducted every few days as a mean to grow familiar with zero g movement, most finding it difficult to get used to. But helping with this was the new and improved Astronaut Maneuvering Unit, a large cuboid tank able to be mounted to the back of the spacesuit and used by a controller on either arm, pushing down on buttons to release thrust in specific directions. The only mission to have used an AMU was F-E3, When it was used to traverse the distance between Constitution and the frail Fletcher station. Francis Neubeck maintained a close watch on Fletcher’s systems to make sure no leaks were occuring, and watched and recorded through the telescope as the station passed over Soviet territory.
July 28, 1966
7:20 PST
“Good morning Fletcher, Today is Thursday the 28th, We here at Vandenberg hope you’ll be having a great day up there. We thought it’d be fitting to wake you up with Telstar today”
“Morning, Vandenberg. This is Karol Bobko on Fletcher, How’s the weather down there?”
“Dry and hot, How is it up there?”
“I think I have it on good authority to say it’s very dry outside, almost no humidity. But in here it’s a nice 70°F”
“Good to hear. Not much news today. For the mission you’ve got a spacewalk planned at noon, you’ll need to fetch the experiments on both of the solar panels and be back in by 1pm”
“That’s pretty quick. But I get to use the AMU, yeah?”
“Of course. You also should let Francis know that today is just an observation day.”
“Alright, we’ll contact you after the spacewalk is done and if we need anything.”
“Have a good day, Fletcher”
July 28, 1966
12:07 PST
“Airlock is ready to open, Bo. Good luck on your spacewalk”
Bobko would push open the airlock door and begin to traverse the exterior of the spacecraft. Despite being a military space station, a few science experiments still made their way onboard - A micrometeoroid detector, a cosmic ray detector, and a rudimentary telescope. Bobko’s task was to retrieve the various results on the end of the solar panels.
“Being out here for so long really helps change your perspective on things”
“Oh?”
“I’m not sure that cream was the best colour to paint the station”
Bobko activates the AMU to travel across the wingspan of the station, from one end of a solar panel to the other. Collecting the micrometeoroid slides and film from the telescope, Before coming up to the end of the other solar array to retrieve that side’s results
“Ok Bo, Telescope film is unlocked”
“Hold on a second, Francis, I’m having a bit of an issue here”
“What’s happening?”
“I think my temp control is broken, its getting pretty hot in here”
“If you want we can cut this short and get you back in here”
“That’d be best, it’s getting bad pretty fast”
Karol attempts to use the AMU, but no thrust is provided
“Francis i’m getting nothing from the AMU, proceeding to use the main panel connector to return to the station”
“Want me to loop you into Vandenberg?”
“No, no, it’s ok. Let them know about the AMU troubles th-“
“Bo?”
“...”
“Bobko?”
Francis races to the Bobko-facing window and sees him frantically waving one arm, holding onto the rail with the other until he accidentally lets go and begins slowly spinning
“BOBKO!”
Francis remotely closes and pressurises the airlock before rushing in there and hastily putting on the USAF spacesuit helmet and grabbing the backup Handheld AMU. He quickly opens the airlock and uses the old AMU to race over to Bobko - spinning around, flailing their arms around in a panicked manner. Grabbing on to Karol, Francis finds that despite the insulation of their suits, Karol is strangely hot to the touch. It is only when Francis catches a glimpse behind Karol’s sun visor that he realises what happened. Smoke. There was fire in Karol’s suit. Francis acts fast and fires the handheld AMU to push both of them back to Fletcher, and just before entering the airlock, Francis releases some of the atmospheric pressure in Karol’s suit. hopefully suffocating and extinguishing the flames.
beep
“Hello, Fletcher! How’d the spacewalk g-“
“VANDENBERG, THIS IS FRANCIS NEUBECK, I NEED THE NUMBERS FOR EMERGENCY DEORBIT 016-09”
“O-Ok, sending them up now. What’s the emergency?”
“A FIRE STARTED IN KAROL’S SUIT, I VENTED HIS PRESSURE TO PUT IT OUT BUT I DON’T KNOW IF HE’S ALIVE!”
He frantically rushes down the station, keeping Karol in their suit as Francis opens the door to Constitution and locks Karol into the copilot seat
“WHEN CAN I DEORBIT?”
“Fastest we can get you down here is a hard burn in 0918, Then it’s a 78 degree turn in 2358”
Francis punches the numbers into Constitution’s timer, but the minutes pass at a dreadful pace, Karol motionless in their seat, Francis trying to keep calm as the stress rises, until finally the time comes. 16 minutes after setting the timer, Francis ignites the engines and sets the engine throttle as high as it allows. The two of them are pushed back into their seats and lowering the perigee of their orbit until their path intersects north of Vandenberg, and the engines cut out. Constitution floats delicately for minutes after that, until the thin wisps of atmosphere begin to scrape at the sides of the craft, decelerating it with high G-forces and pushing the two once again into their seats. Francis then waits a few more minutes for the second timer to run down and begins to turn the ship, conducting the 78 degree turn needed to reach Vandenberg and bleed off enough speed.
The wind grows loud outside the craft, dynamic forces rocking it like a boat about to be hit by a rogue wave. The sun reflects bright across the ocean’s scattered waves deep below, cut off by the expansive desert and the thin Vandenberg runway. Francis deploys the landing gear and starts pitching up to create as large a profile as possible to increase drag, Slowing down to what looks like a safe landing speed they begin to lose altitude and the back wheels make contact. But Constitution is still moving too fast, it begins to wobble and lose stability, shaking violently as it rolls down the runway. The shaking increases until a slight turn is made to try and keep from rolling off, and Constitution’s left wing begins being torn to shreds by the ground, The contact forcing the entire vehicle into a damaging spin, painfully scraping the entire vehicle. Constitution slows down, and eventually comes to a stop, but she doesn’t look like she did at launch. Beaten and battered, missing limbs with their body torn and scratched, it was a devastating sight to see for the crew by the runway as they rushed towards the smoldering corpse of Constitution to rescue the two crew on board.
The rescue team pushes forwards through the billowing smoke, tearing off the crew door and racing in, pulling the unconscious Karol out of their seat and running as fast as they safely could towards the air ambulance helicopter, departing soon after Karol was onboard, flying directly to the nearest capable hospital. Francis’ wounds were less serious, once dragged out of the fatally wounded craft it was clear that they could be treated onsite.
As the days passed, the magnitude of the disaster became more and more clear. Constitution was irreparably damaged, And Independence is unable to dock with the station due to its different configuration, forcing Fletcher II to be left after just a single visit. The US Secretary of the Air force demanded a report be put together on how such a tragedy could’ve happened and how it was not prevented sooner. This put the USAF and the entirety of the US Government in a precarious situation, 2 astronauts injured, one of them possibly dead, what could they say? Well, news about a potential disaster involving astronauts had made its way into the papers, but the public was in the dark about the true nature of Spearhead, and the entire existence of Fletcher I and II, so what on earth could they do? As it turns out, they wouldn’t have to do anything.
July 30, 1966
Despite trying to keep Spearhead’s true purpose a secret, the Soviet Union were able to piece together and find evidence of the program. With all of this, the disaster was able to be revealed to the Soviet public incredibly close to the true events
КАТАСТРОФА АМЕРИКАНСКОГО КОСМИЧЕСКОГО САМОЛЕТА - Ракета, запущенная американцами 3 недели назад, имела на борту двух астронавтов, посещающих секретную космическую станцию-шпион! 2 дня назад был совершен быстрый и опасный побег со станции из-за неисправности. Последовала опасная посадка, в результате которой космический самолет разбился и ранил обоих астронавтов! - AMERICAN SPACE PLANE DISASTER - A Rocket launched by the Americans 3 weeks ago had 2 astronauts on board visiting a secret spy space station! 2 days ago a fast and dangerous fleeing from the station was performed due to a malfunction. Followed by a dangerous landing resulting in the space plane crashing and injuring both astronauts!
This news quickly made its way to America, officials maintained their position that the rumours were entirely just that, but it all seemed to make sense. Eventually this forced a press conference to be held. This conference contained the very first confirmation that a rendezvous with some object was performed on the mission, and several previous missions, though the identity of this object was not confirmed. And it would not be until “The Zuckert Report” was released, at an unknown time once completed, would the true secrecy of the USAF’s space program come to light.
Chapter 14 - Call of the Chariot
I am so sincerely sorry about the long delay for this one,
Call of the Chariot
July 30, 1966
The Zuckert Report was released just under a month after the tragic crash of F2-E1, detailing the events and what could have prevented them, if anything. The full document is kept classified, but the findings are revealed in a speech by Zuckert himself, who seemingly had no idea of the full state of their own space program, though this is just an attempt to shift the blame away from himself.
“What the report has uncovered is a mismanaged, barely functioning program kept aloft by pure luck and governmental nepotism. Hundreds of mission-affecting faults, and 14 endangering faults were found to have occurred across the spearhead program, little of which ever made its way to the ears that needed to hear it. But not just that, large amounts of engineering defects were overlooked, approved and allowed to be mated to Spearhead. The most damaging of which being the actuators of Constitution’s right winglet, replaced after its last flight. Somehow passing all the safety checks, the actuator was set to the wrong angle, constantly imposing unexpected aerodynamic forces on the craft, and ultimately causing the instability on the runway that led to the crash. But even that wasn’t the worst of the findings, what was found with the AMU was nothing short of harrowing. Poorly placed wiring, bad insulation, in some places none whatsoever, and this is where the situation arose. The Blue of our spacesuits reduced the already abysmal rate of thermal radiation that would’ve helped to cool it down. At one point near the back of the suit, uninsulated wiring touched the innermost layer of protection from space, and this is where a small spark ignited the whole suit. The insides of the AMU quickly heated up, preventing its internal mechanisms from functioning. From there, a small piece of metal contacting both the AMU and the back of the suit began to heat up, making the temperature inside the suit worse and worse. This continued until yet another poorly insulated wire, inside of Karol Bobko’s suit, sparked. His suit had an internal atmosphere of 100% oxygen which ignited incredibly fast. Thankfully for Karol, Francis Neubeck was able to extinguish the flames by relieving his suit pressure, at which point he was brought back inside where they departed the station as soon as they could. This is where the next mistake is apparent, Abort modes - These should always be ready to be used, the most convenient abort modes for each orbit covering the next 48 hours, given every 24. But for whatever reason, Vandenberg was not practising this for the two previous missions, causing a delay of just a short time, but seconds that could have been crucial. And Karol Bobko, Karol as you all know died on the 29th, from injuries sustained in the crash. If the crash had not occurred, Karol would have most likely survived the burns. If the leaders of Spearhead had taken the slightest care to the production of their own spacecraft and spacesuits, not only could Karol have survived the landing, but they might not have even had an incident with the AMU, remaining at Fletcher II right now. But this is not the case. Spearhead used its exorbitant budget in all the wrong places, seemingly manifesting from the higher levels of government in support of such militarisation of space. Using it to accelerate the development and designs of the spacecraft, at such a speed that required almost completely bypassing safety checks. Fletcher never should have been allowed to launch. Spearhead should never have left the vehicle assembly building in the states it did. The fact that such a devastatingly mishandled program ever made it off the ground, and thrived under the knowledge of the public and some of the higher ups is utterly astounding.”
Shortly after the speech was delivered, Spearhead and Fletcher were both officially cancelled. Independence was set to be placed in storage, and Constitution’s remains were locked away in a hangar on base. But this left the US with a conundrum, for the USSR now was known to have been fully aware of the program, and its military connections, So wouldn’t they pursue the same technology? Not willing to take the chance, USAF’s space program remained, but to a lesser extent. The Vulcan rockets became a part of NASA, along with any future crewed programs and missions that may have military significance. Any USAF astronauts still in the program would be eligible to transfer to NASA at their own discretion, an offer that Francis Neubeck would take up. The USAF would continue to own and develop military reconnaissance satellites, positioning satellites and anti-satellite vehicles.
And though they wouldn’t know it, their suspicions were right. The USSR was developing spaceplanes with weaponizing capability, two of them! The longest in development was one originally called VKA, a simplistic, 1 seated craft, planned to be launched on the side of an in-development rocket known only as Albatross. The other was Spiral, An air-launched spaceplane still deep in development, but aiming for a 1970 launch at the latest
September 21, 1966
Though the USAF’s human spaceflight programs had ended, NASA’s continued on. Gemini X would launch its first part, the Upgraded ATV, on September 20th. Experiencing some short term weather-based launch delays, Gemini X would follow behind just a day later. Mission pilot was William Anders, This was their first spaceflight, but with plenty of training it was decided he had the capabilities needed. Also piloting was David Scott, another first time Astronaut, though on this mission for different reasons. David had been selected to fly on Apollo 2, a crewed, CSM only TLI abort test. Gemini X’s problems piled up, with issues being found with the orbital parameters provided. Though only a small discrepancy, orbital mechanics is an unforgiving thing, making a rendezvous with the ATV much harder. Another day would be spent loitering in orbit, deciding whether or not to proceed with the rendezvous. Ultimately, it was decided to go ahead, the OMS still containing enough propellant. Docking was successful just 28 hours after launch, Agena looming large out the window with its vast solar panels, reminiscent of the late Fletcher station. Over the course of the mission, numerous spacewalks are conducted to retrieve the pressurised samples and inspect the many experiments. They would spend 15 days docked to the ATV, returning to earth on October 7th.
October 26, 1966
Venera 5, Having coasted through space for the past 10 months, Began to at last approach Venus. Wearily approaching the strange world, Venera 5 hung in silence, yet another speck among a sea of distant suns. Yet just down below, a world ravaged by acid rains and hellish pressure and temperatures. Venera’s KTDU-425A engine flared to life, fueled by that ever present fuel of nitrogen tetroxide and UDMH. Some time passed, and Venera had made it, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit Venus. Her mission would last as long as she survived, sending back photos and observations of the mysterious veiled planet forever hanging below.
November 15, 1966
Late in the year NASA would launch the final Gemini mission, Gemini XI. Its command pilot was Gordon Cooper, and its pilot was Charles Bassett. Launching in the evening, it reached orbit with flawless performance from its rocket, and did a direct ascent to the ATV already waiting in orbit. Much like Gemini X, spacewalks were completed every few days to retrieve experiments on the Agena target vehicle, and to test the limits on current EVA technology in preparation for the Apollo program. To celebrate the last Gemini mission and to wish good luck to the future Apollo 1
mission, Gordon snuck a slice of cake onboard which he shared with Charles on day 2 of the mission. A large portion of the mission was spent doing observations of the Leonids meteor shower from above. The Leonids are one of the brightest meteor showers to occur, having outbursts roughly every 33 years, producing thousands of meteors per hour. A television camera mounted outside, facing the Earth, took images every second to capture meteors striking the planet. Expectedly, the micrometeorite detectors found increased activity during this time.
At last, Gemini’s time had come to a close. The reentry systems fired and brought the craft’s orbit down, dipping deep into the atmosphere. The plasma trail splits the sky in two as Gemini descends into the ocean water. With Gemini XI a roaring success, Apollo was clear to go ahead.
December 4, 1966
As Earth and Mars find themselves in the middle of a Hohmann transfer window, NASA aims to take advantage of the opportunity and launch a spacecraft. Mariner 5 is a planned Orbiter spacecraft to map the Martian surface and photograph the Martian moons.
December 5, 1966
But Mariner would yet again have competition from the USSR with the sister spacecrafts of Mars 4 and Mars 5, launching just 5 days apart from each other.
Mars 4 is designed to be a lander, with no orbiter component. A prior design contained both an orbiter and lander, separation occurring shortly before orbital insertion, but the lack of landing site recon led this to be deemed a risk to the lander. Instead, Mars 4 would land a large craft weighing around 2500kg on the surface, currently planned to be in the vicinity of Tsiolkovsky Valley. But that isn’t it, as Mars 4 contains a secondary payload, the PrOP-M rover. A small tethered craft weighing just 4.5kg and about the size of a loaf of bread, able to wander around the surface in a 15m radius of the lander by utilising mobile skis.
December 10, 1966
Mars 5 would be a dedicated orbiter, entering orbit 3 days before Mars 4 arrives. Its primary purpose is to provide an in-depth look at Tsiolkovsky valley to find the best landing site - its secondary mission is simply to map the Martian surface and photograph Phobos and Deimos.
February 10, 1967
White : “Lift off and clock running”
CAPCOM : “Godspeed, Apollo 1, Clear of the tower”
Grissom : ”Roll Commence”
CONTECH : “Roger roll, you’re looking good”
Grissom : “Pitch is tracking good”
Apollo 1’s Saturn IB shot up with a strength never before seen on manned spaceflight, the light from the engines outshining the sun hung low in the horizon. The towering beast continues lumbering up through the atmosphere, encountering less and less resistance. Crewed with Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, everyone understood the importance of this mission, and would try their hardest to make sure everything went exactly as planned.
CONTECH : “Mark, Mode 1 Charlie, Apollo 1 you are go for staging”
Grissom : “Roger, we’re go.”
With a sudden rumble, the rocket fell quiet, the S-IB stage dropping behind the craft as the launch escape tower ignited and separated from the command module
Chaffee : “Tower jettisoned beautifully”
CAPCOM : “Apollo 1, Trajectory and guidance are a go”
Grissom : “Roger, she looks real good. A bit rocky on this stage, but very pleasant”
White : “3, 2, 1, Mark.”
Grissom : “Apollo systems are go, Gimbal is real tight”
White : “Thrust is right on the 1G”
Apollo continues pushing into orbit, reaching higher and higher into space before finally, the engines shut off. Apollo 1 reached orbit, and the chariot falls away behind the command module. This mission was merely a test flight, a last check of all the systems before the lunar phase of the Apollo program begins.
Apollo 1 would spend 8 days in space, returning to Earth on the 18th. Each day for a short while, the crew would appear on television, multiple cameras stored inside the capsule for monitoring and recording.
CAPCOM : “The flight of Apollo 1 dominates the news this morning. We’ve received a number of messages for you, one of them from president Johnson who attended the launch in person. He said “Congratulations on the splendid beginning of this flight. The country is proud of you and the many in NASA, the private companies, and the services which have combined to make such a successful manned space flight. We watched with mounting excitement the magnificent launch of the Saturn IB. The way to the stars takes courage, ability, and devotion to our goal. You are making a major stride in this star-studded way, the nation is proud of you.”
Grissom : “Well, you tell Johnson that we’re proud of him too, for taking that time to come down to the launch site”
CAPCOM : “I’m sure he’ll appreciate that sentiment”
Each day more tests were conducted, slightly inconvenienced by the new sleep schedules drafted up by mission control, requiring one person to be awake at all times. This got many complaints from the crew, and it was agreed that a different schedule would be used on all future flights.
White : “You notice all those stars out the window?”
Chaffee : “Billions of ‘em”
Grissom : “You know, I’ve hardly even looked outside so far”
Chaffee : “You should try it some time, there’s a few good ones here and there”
White : “How's the sun?”
Chaffee : “Eh, I could take it or leave it. Aldebaran though? That’s a nice a star”
No major issues were found with the command module’s design during Apollo 1, reaffirming the fact that this program was able to go ahead. The SPS engine and RCS systems were tested numerous times with glowing records, and the computer held up well in most circumstances. The 8 days were at last up, and as such they fired the engine one last time to fall into the atmosphere. While the atmosphere began to swirl around the conical spacecraft, it was tilted ever so slightly upwards to increase the downrange distance the capsule would travel before splashdown. Some minutes would pass and Apollo would splash down in the Atlantic, being recovered just a short time after. Apollo 1 proved to be a magnificent success, validating every system for future lunar exploration, and giving its crew one hell of a ride. Apollo 2 is scheduled for just 2 months later, featuring Jim McDivitt, David Scott and Rusty Schweickart as crew. But just like always, the USSR wasn’t far behind, Planning a test launch for their H1 rocket in September 1967, and a crewed flight around the moon in December with Yevgeny Khrunov and Andriyan Nikolayev.
Call of the Chariot
July 30, 1966
The Zuckert Report was released just under a month after the tragic crash of F2-E1, detailing the events and what could have prevented them, if anything. The full document is kept classified, but the findings are revealed in a speech by Zuckert himself, who seemingly had no idea of the full state of their own space program, though this is just an attempt to shift the blame away from himself.
“What the report has uncovered is a mismanaged, barely functioning program kept aloft by pure luck and governmental nepotism. Hundreds of mission-affecting faults, and 14 endangering faults were found to have occurred across the spearhead program, little of which ever made its way to the ears that needed to hear it. But not just that, large amounts of engineering defects were overlooked, approved and allowed to be mated to Spearhead. The most damaging of which being the actuators of Constitution’s right winglet, replaced after its last flight. Somehow passing all the safety checks, the actuator was set to the wrong angle, constantly imposing unexpected aerodynamic forces on the craft, and ultimately causing the instability on the runway that led to the crash. But even that wasn’t the worst of the findings, what was found with the AMU was nothing short of harrowing. Poorly placed wiring, bad insulation, in some places none whatsoever, and this is where the situation arose. The Blue of our spacesuits reduced the already abysmal rate of thermal radiation that would’ve helped to cool it down. At one point near the back of the suit, uninsulated wiring touched the innermost layer of protection from space, and this is where a small spark ignited the whole suit. The insides of the AMU quickly heated up, preventing its internal mechanisms from functioning. From there, a small piece of metal contacting both the AMU and the back of the suit began to heat up, making the temperature inside the suit worse and worse. This continued until yet another poorly insulated wire, inside of Karol Bobko’s suit, sparked. His suit had an internal atmosphere of 100% oxygen which ignited incredibly fast. Thankfully for Karol, Francis Neubeck was able to extinguish the flames by relieving his suit pressure, at which point he was brought back inside where they departed the station as soon as they could. This is where the next mistake is apparent, Abort modes - These should always be ready to be used, the most convenient abort modes for each orbit covering the next 48 hours, given every 24. But for whatever reason, Vandenberg was not practising this for the two previous missions, causing a delay of just a short time, but seconds that could have been crucial. And Karol Bobko, Karol as you all know died on the 29th, from injuries sustained in the crash. If the crash had not occurred, Karol would have most likely survived the burns. If the leaders of Spearhead had taken the slightest care to the production of their own spacecraft and spacesuits, not only could Karol have survived the landing, but they might not have even had an incident with the AMU, remaining at Fletcher II right now. But this is not the case. Spearhead used its exorbitant budget in all the wrong places, seemingly manifesting from the higher levels of government in support of such militarisation of space. Using it to accelerate the development and designs of the spacecraft, at such a speed that required almost completely bypassing safety checks. Fletcher never should have been allowed to launch. Spearhead should never have left the vehicle assembly building in the states it did. The fact that such a devastatingly mishandled program ever made it off the ground, and thrived under the knowledge of the public and some of the higher ups is utterly astounding.”
Shortly after the speech was delivered, Spearhead and Fletcher were both officially cancelled. Independence was set to be placed in storage, and Constitution’s remains were locked away in a hangar on base. But this left the US with a conundrum, for the USSR now was known to have been fully aware of the program, and its military connections, So wouldn’t they pursue the same technology? Not willing to take the chance, USAF’s space program remained, but to a lesser extent. The Vulcan rockets became a part of NASA, along with any future crewed programs and missions that may have military significance. Any USAF astronauts still in the program would be eligible to transfer to NASA at their own discretion, an offer that Francis Neubeck would take up. The USAF would continue to own and develop military reconnaissance satellites, positioning satellites and anti-satellite vehicles.
And though they wouldn’t know it, their suspicions were right. The USSR was developing spaceplanes with weaponizing capability, two of them! The longest in development was one originally called VKA, a simplistic, 1 seated craft, planned to be launched on the side of an in-development rocket known only as Albatross. The other was Spiral, An air-launched spaceplane still deep in development, but aiming for a 1970 launch at the latest
September 21, 1966
Though the USAF’s human spaceflight programs had ended, NASA’s continued on. Gemini X would launch its first part, the Upgraded ATV, on September 20th. Experiencing some short term weather-based launch delays, Gemini X would follow behind just a day later. Mission pilot was William Anders, This was their first spaceflight, but with plenty of training it was decided he had the capabilities needed. Also piloting was David Scott, another first time Astronaut, though on this mission for different reasons. David had been selected to fly on Apollo 2, a crewed, CSM only TLI abort test. Gemini X’s problems piled up, with issues being found with the orbital parameters provided. Though only a small discrepancy, orbital mechanics is an unforgiving thing, making a rendezvous with the ATV much harder. Another day would be spent loitering in orbit, deciding whether or not to proceed with the rendezvous. Ultimately, it was decided to go ahead, the OMS still containing enough propellant. Docking was successful just 28 hours after launch, Agena looming large out the window with its vast solar panels, reminiscent of the late Fletcher station. Over the course of the mission, numerous spacewalks are conducted to retrieve the pressurised samples and inspect the many experiments. They would spend 15 days docked to the ATV, returning to earth on October 7th.
October 26, 1966
Venera 5, Having coasted through space for the past 10 months, Began to at last approach Venus. Wearily approaching the strange world, Venera 5 hung in silence, yet another speck among a sea of distant suns. Yet just down below, a world ravaged by acid rains and hellish pressure and temperatures. Venera’s KTDU-425A engine flared to life, fueled by that ever present fuel of nitrogen tetroxide and UDMH. Some time passed, and Venera had made it, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit Venus. Her mission would last as long as she survived, sending back photos and observations of the mysterious veiled planet forever hanging below.
November 15, 1966
At last, Gemini’s time had come to a close. The reentry systems fired and brought the craft’s orbit down, dipping deep into the atmosphere. The plasma trail splits the sky in two as Gemini descends into the ocean water. With Gemini XI a roaring success, Apollo was clear to go ahead.
December 4, 1966
As Earth and Mars find themselves in the middle of a Hohmann transfer window, NASA aims to take advantage of the opportunity and launch a spacecraft. Mariner 5 is a planned Orbiter spacecraft to map the Martian surface and photograph the Martian moons.
December 5, 1966
But Mariner would yet again have competition from the USSR with the sister spacecrafts of Mars 4 and Mars 5, launching just 5 days apart from each other.
Mars 4 is designed to be a lander, with no orbiter component. A prior design contained both an orbiter and lander, separation occurring shortly before orbital insertion, but the lack of landing site recon led this to be deemed a risk to the lander. Instead, Mars 4 would land a large craft weighing around 2500kg on the surface, currently planned to be in the vicinity of Tsiolkovsky Valley. But that isn’t it, as Mars 4 contains a secondary payload, the PrOP-M rover. A small tethered craft weighing just 4.5kg and about the size of a loaf of bread, able to wander around the surface in a 15m radius of the lander by utilising mobile skis.
December 10, 1966
Mars 5 would be a dedicated orbiter, entering orbit 3 days before Mars 4 arrives. Its primary purpose is to provide an in-depth look at Tsiolkovsky valley to find the best landing site - its secondary mission is simply to map the Martian surface and photograph Phobos and Deimos.
February 10, 1967
White : “Lift off and clock running”
CAPCOM : “Godspeed, Apollo 1, Clear of the tower”
Grissom : ”Roll Commence”
CONTECH : “Roger roll, you’re looking good”
Grissom : “Pitch is tracking good”
Apollo 1’s Saturn IB shot up with a strength never before seen on manned spaceflight, the light from the engines outshining the sun hung low in the horizon. The towering beast continues lumbering up through the atmosphere, encountering less and less resistance. Crewed with Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, everyone understood the importance of this mission, and would try their hardest to make sure everything went exactly as planned.
CONTECH : “Mark, Mode 1 Charlie, Apollo 1 you are go for staging”
Grissom : “Roger, we’re go.”
With a sudden rumble, the rocket fell quiet, the S-IB stage dropping behind the craft as the launch escape tower ignited and separated from the command module
Chaffee : “Tower jettisoned beautifully”
CAPCOM : “Apollo 1, Trajectory and guidance are a go”
Grissom : “Roger, she looks real good. A bit rocky on this stage, but very pleasant”
White : “3, 2, 1, Mark.”
Grissom : “Apollo systems are go, Gimbal is real tight”
White : “Thrust is right on the 1G”
Apollo continues pushing into orbit, reaching higher and higher into space before finally, the engines shut off. Apollo 1 reached orbit, and the chariot falls away behind the command module. This mission was merely a test flight, a last check of all the systems before the lunar phase of the Apollo program begins.
Apollo 1 would spend 8 days in space, returning to Earth on the 18th. Each day for a short while, the crew would appear on television, multiple cameras stored inside the capsule for monitoring and recording.
CAPCOM : “The flight of Apollo 1 dominates the news this morning. We’ve received a number of messages for you, one of them from president Johnson who attended the launch in person. He said “Congratulations on the splendid beginning of this flight. The country is proud of you and the many in NASA, the private companies, and the services which have combined to make such a successful manned space flight. We watched with mounting excitement the magnificent launch of the Saturn IB. The way to the stars takes courage, ability, and devotion to our goal. You are making a major stride in this star-studded way, the nation is proud of you.”
Grissom : “Well, you tell Johnson that we’re proud of him too, for taking that time to come down to the launch site”
CAPCOM : “I’m sure he’ll appreciate that sentiment”
Each day more tests were conducted, slightly inconvenienced by the new sleep schedules drafted up by mission control, requiring one person to be awake at all times. This got many complaints from the crew, and it was agreed that a different schedule would be used on all future flights.
White : “You notice all those stars out the window?”
Chaffee : “Billions of ‘em”
Grissom : “You know, I’ve hardly even looked outside so far”
Chaffee : “You should try it some time, there’s a few good ones here and there”
White : “How's the sun?”
Chaffee : “Eh, I could take it or leave it. Aldebaran though? That’s a nice a star”
No major issues were found with the command module’s design during Apollo 1, reaffirming the fact that this program was able to go ahead. The SPS engine and RCS systems were tested numerous times with glowing records, and the computer held up well in most circumstances. The 8 days were at last up, and as such they fired the engine one last time to fall into the atmosphere. While the atmosphere began to swirl around the conical spacecraft, it was tilted ever so slightly upwards to increase the downrange distance the capsule would travel before splashdown. Some minutes would pass and Apollo would splash down in the Atlantic, being recovered just a short time after. Apollo 1 proved to be a magnificent success, validating every system for future lunar exploration, and giving its crew one hell of a ride. Apollo 2 is scheduled for just 2 months later, featuring Jim McDivitt, David Scott and Rusty Schweickart as crew. But just like always, the USSR wasn’t far behind, Planning a test launch for their H1 rocket in September 1967, and a crewed flight around the moon in December with Yevgeny Khrunov and Andriyan Nikolayev.
Chapter 15 - Solus in Mare Somniorum
I'm confident in saying that I can finally move to a weekly schedule with these chapters, Coming out every Friday Night (AEST/AEDT), And let me know what you think of this chapter by replying! feedback is always appreciated
February 14, 1967
Quickly following up the success of Apollo 1, Jim McDivitt, David Scott and Rusty Schweickart were chosen for Apollo 2, the last CSM only systems test.
Making it to orbit with no issues apparent, The crew would spend hours verifying the systems before they were allowed to rest for the night. Finding perfection all across the board. The engine was tested by conducting short burns to raise the CSM’s apogee, then lower it the next orbit. The engine was tested 6 times, each time performing just as expected. The crew would answer questions from earth once a day on national tv, and once the tests were over, make observations of various astronomical objects from the window. 5 days in total were spent in orbit, by the end of which it was accepted that the CSM was fully functional and ready for the moon.
May 19, 1967
Amidst the rapid progress, yet another Apollo mission was conducted, but this one was uncrewed. It would perform a vital test of deep space manoeuvring, and the logistics of a free return trajectory around the moon. It launched late at night, hanging up in the sky as just another dot after the last engines shut off. Performing the S-IVB engine burn the next day, sending it racing towards the moon through the dark ocean of space. 3 Days would pass as it approached the moon closer and closer, finally entering its sphere of influence, photographing the surface as it got nearer. Unbounded by any orbit, Apollo 3 continued on past the moon, being flung around back towards Earth, proving the possibility of a free return abort scenario. Apollo 3 hit the atmosphere above the pacific ocean, splashing down safely in the waters, and being recovered just a short while later.
May 25, 1967 - U.S. Newspaper Excerpt
Political Turmoil in China!
The world was shocked today to hear that China would officially be closing its borders to all countries, a shift that could indicate instability in the most populous country. This follows the shift of some Soviet troops from the main USSR and North Vietnam towards the Chinese border, recent riots in neighbouring Hong Kong, And what is thought to have been China’s first hydrogen bomb test. Mere days after the closure was announced, it was reported that a large number of Chinese troops also gathered along the borders of the USSR, North Vietnam and small areas of the border with the Kingdom of Sikkim and India.
July 2, 1967
Apollo would once again launch a Saturn IB, for an unorthodox test of systems. Saturn Vs at this time are still relatively scarce, most rockets still mid-production. But the Lunar Module still needs to be tested with crew, so a unique solution was devised to allow the program testing to continue. The CSM and LEM would launch on separate rockets, then meet up in orbit for testing.
July 4, 1967
Once the LEM was confirmed in orbit and stable, Apollo 4’s CSM launched in the morning of July 4. Naming the spacecraft had previously been banned due to early Mercury names poking fun at NASA, but as this was the first mission to include 2 crewed craft, they would need separate names. The LEM was designated Spider, on account of its look with the legs extended. The crew had also decided to name the CSM “Gumdrop”, after its appearance when it was delivered to the VAB, wrapped in blue plastic.
Apollo 4 was crewed by commander John Young, command module pilot Donn Eisele and lunar module pilot Richard Gordon. All of them were scheduled for future landings, and would be preferred due to this mission's special tasks. Quickly performing a rendezvous with Spider, a short flyaround was performed to make sure everything was in working order. Once confirmed externally, Gumdrop slowly manoeuvred towards Spider’s docking port. A clunk was heard, and contact was confirmed. The two craft locked together and after a few minutes, the crew would open the door. Quickly getting on with the mission, John Young and Richard Gordon closed the door to the CSM and undocked, the next part of the mission being a test of the LEM’s systems.
Spider’s descent stage engine ignited, sending it far away from Gumdrop. After a short time, the engine would shut off and the craft held steady at around 100 km from Gumdrop. A short time was spent far from the command module, observations being made of the earth below and the performance of various systems. Then after just 3 hours of free-flying, the descent stage dropped away as the ascent engine ignited, sending Spider back to the command module. The two craft docked once again, and on the next day, Spider would undock, uncrewed. Its engine would send it into an elliptical orbit, where it would remain for at least 5 years. The remainder of the mission was spent observing the earth through different filters, nearby satellites such as the Pegasus series launched by the Saturn IB, and celestial bodies. Mars and Jupiter especially, with attempts made at observing Ceres, though little success was found.
September 15, 1967
“H1 Полные баки, ожидание запуска”
“H1 готовится к запуску, двигатели запускаются”
After months of waiting, the H1 Was finally launching. Her 30 NK-15 engines flared to life with a deafening scream and a light comparable to the sun’s. Pushing the megalithic 2.7 million kilogramme rocket faster and faster with a force never seen before in rocketry.
“Достигнуто максимальное давление, ракета выглядит стабильно”
The skies were almost clear, just a few sparse clouds dotting the night sky, all lit up by the magnificent light of the rocket’s exhaust. The thunderous cries of the H1 die down as it approaches the upper atmosphere, Blok A running low on fuel. The callout is given and Blok A is struck with the exhaust from Blok B’s 8 NK-15V engines, separating just seconds after. She would continue burning for 2 minutes before they too shut down, Blok V taking over. Blok V had 4 NK-21 engines, delivering the final push into orbit with a burn of 6 minutes. Her mission wasn’t complete yet though, the payload for this flight was a lunar Soyuz craft, not manned, but with a crew of 4 Tortoises. This was just to make sure that life could survive the trip around the moon in the capsule, but they would still become the first ever creatures to return from the lunar sphere of influence. Along with this, a fully uncrewed LK Lunar lander would test the landing systems in Oceanus Procellarum, The current planned site of the first crewed landing.
After a short loiter in orbit, Blok G would ignite, propelling the craft onto a trans-lunar trajectory. Days pass, the tortoises remain alive as they drift closer and closer to the moon. They would lower down to under 200 km above the lunar surface, before the Blok D ignited, slowing the whole vehicle down into lunar orbit. The LK and Blok D separate, firing again to bring the lander onto a suborbital trajectory. Falling faster and faster towards the surface, Blok D breaks away to crash into the surface as the LK’s RD-858 engine ignites, steadily slowing down the fragile craft. Dust is thrown away by the exhaust of the engine as it decelerates more and more before finally touching down. LK has proven itself a worthy lander for crew. But, as a failsafe in case the future human landings fail, an incredibly simple robotic arm, like the one on the in development Mars 4, plants a soviet flag on the surface of the moon. No matter what happens now, the USSR can still say they had the first flag on the Moon.
With LK’s part of the mission complete, Soyuz ignites her engines and pushes out of lunar orbit, back towards Earth. A large concern of this flight was the heat shield, this was a slightly different design to handle the heat of lunar reentry, if the shield wasn't thick and robust enough, the craft could break up in the plasma. Striking the atmosphere at immense speeds, the exchange of signals stops as the atmospheric plasma engulfs the capsule, blocking any and all broadcasts from getting through. Mission control waits with bated breath for the signal to be regained, though nothing is heard. But it is seen! Soyuz’s parachute was seen by the recovery crew already on site. As soon as it landed it was found that the comms system was oversaturated by false signals and shut down, a problem easily solved if human crew was on board, and thus an issue of little concern.
September 27, 1967
Launching in the bright of day on the 24th, Luna 13 was thrown towards the moon to accomplish something never yet seen before. A rover, on the surface of another world. Descending from lunar orbit, the unending grey landscape flies past below as Luna 13 tries its best to slow down, a soft landing necessary. Clouds of dust pick up beneath the vehicle, engine throttling down as the surface edges closer and closer. Luna 13 lands and signals back to Earth, the mission has begun. Lunokhod opens her lid, revealing the solar panels, rolls off the ramps, and controlled live from the ground, begins to rove across the surface. The 1.5 second signal delay took some getting used to for the remote drivers, but as the rover could move no faster than 20 cm/s, any issues were negligible. In just a single day, Lunokhod was driven for 180 meters across the landscape of Oceanus Procellarum. It had landed nearly 2 km away from the landing site of the LK, which over the next 4 weeks it slowly and persistently drove towards.
October 1, 1967
Mariner 5 was the first of the 1967 Mars probes to arrive, Making a close pass of Deimos before firing its engines and slowing down into orbit of Mars, fully mapping its surface in preparation for future probes. An upcoming program for NASA was the Voyager program, seeking to perform more advanced interplanetary missions, such as landing multiple probes on the surface of Mars and Venus, or flying past the outer planets or asteroids
October 2, 1967
Mars 5 arrived at Mars just a day after,the first of the Soviet Mars fleet. Entering into orbit without an issue, it begins to slowly map the surface of the planet in higher detail than ever before. Revealing the world to be even more complex than thought before, with canyons and deltas carved by water long since evaporated. Craters filled with sand and rolling dunes stretching beyond the horizon, unending flats giving way to gargantuan mountains and boulder strewn fields.
October 5, 1967
This newfound insight on Mars helped pinpoint Mars 4’s landing location, though it could not be changed, it was found to be a good place for studying. Mars 4 slammed into the atmosphere at
incredible speeds, a veil of plasma shrouding the vehicle as it was battered by the thickening atmosphere. Drag increased and it slowed down to a safe speed, its heat shield separated and the parachutes deployed from the main vehicle. Gently descending closer to the surface, until the parachute separated and the retrorockets fired. Earth heard back 7 minutes later, Touchdown successful. She began to send back her first image. A vast, expansive horizon of lone and level sands, hills and mountains poking up from beyond it, and a barren red sky. Mars felt more hostile than ever before, but the lander would hold on for as long as possible.
October 7, 1967
The first few days of Mars 4’s time on the Martian surface were relatively boring, mainly making sure the fort was held down and that the special payload was safe to deploy. Held on a small robotic arm, the PrOP–M rover was lowered to the ground and deployed safely. Attached to the lander by a 15m long tether, it could move around by using skis on either side of its central bus. Taking a break every metre to take measurements of the soil from different locations. Affectionately referred to by the public as “Baby Box” on account of its very small size, just 28cm long and 12cm wide, and weighing only 4.5kg.
October 19, 1967
Sadly, a mere 2 weeks after landing, Mars 4 loses contact with Earth. It is unknown what happened specifically, but the results of Martian soil analysis suggest that the dust had managed to creep into the lander, making sending and receiving signals impossible for it.
October 21, 1967
The long journey to LK had proved tolerable for Lunokhod, besides having to briefly pause during the lunar night and to recharge, the travelling was constant. Here, a choice could be made. 2 Lunokhods would be useful for the upcoming crewed landings as beacons, they could launch just 1 more lunokhod to this site, or they could send this one down into Bessarion and launch 2 more. A short amount of tests were completed with the LK to gauge its battery life, and it was found that the small solar panels around the communication dishes were providing enough power to act as an incredibly simple beacon. This thankfully allowed Lunokhod to journey into Bessarion, a journey which would take at least a month to reach the rim of the crater, and upwards of 2 months to reach the base. Given that the design of Lunokhod only called to survive for 3 months, it may not be able to complete the mission in time.
November 11, 1967
Early in the morning, the Floridian sky would burst into flames as the Saturn V’s beautiful engines ignited, The 5 Rocketdyne F-1 Engines delivering an immense amount of thrust up through the whole rocket, lifting Apollo 6, and her crew of Walter Schirra, Jack Swigert and Walter Cunningham into orbit. The S-IC shuts down, giving way to the S-II above it, firing for another 6 minutes. Once that stage runs out of fuel, it breaks away, the S-IVB firing for just under 3 minutes before shutting off. Apollo 6 would remain in orbit for another 2 hours, before the decision was made.
“Apollo 6, this is Houston, you are go for TLI”
Solus in Mare Somniorum
February 14, 1967
Quickly following up the success of Apollo 1, Jim McDivitt, David Scott and Rusty Schweickart were chosen for Apollo 2, the last CSM only systems test.
May 19, 1967
Amidst the rapid progress, yet another Apollo mission was conducted, but this one was uncrewed. It would perform a vital test of deep space manoeuvring, and the logistics of a free return trajectory around the moon. It launched late at night, hanging up in the sky as just another dot after the last engines shut off. Performing the S-IVB engine burn the next day, sending it racing towards the moon through the dark ocean of space. 3 Days would pass as it approached the moon closer and closer, finally entering its sphere of influence, photographing the surface as it got nearer. Unbounded by any orbit, Apollo 3 continued on past the moon, being flung around back towards Earth, proving the possibility of a free return abort scenario. Apollo 3 hit the atmosphere above the pacific ocean, splashing down safely in the waters, and being recovered just a short while later.
May 25, 1967 - U.S. Newspaper Excerpt
Political Turmoil in China!
The world was shocked today to hear that China would officially be closing its borders to all countries, a shift that could indicate instability in the most populous country. This follows the shift of some Soviet troops from the main USSR and North Vietnam towards the Chinese border, recent riots in neighbouring Hong Kong, And what is thought to have been China’s first hydrogen bomb test. Mere days after the closure was announced, it was reported that a large number of Chinese troops also gathered along the borders of the USSR, North Vietnam and small areas of the border with the Kingdom of Sikkim and India.
July 2, 1967
Apollo would once again launch a Saturn IB, for an unorthodox test of systems. Saturn Vs at this time are still relatively scarce, most rockets still mid-production. But the Lunar Module still needs to be tested with crew, so a unique solution was devised to allow the program testing to continue. The CSM and LEM would launch on separate rockets, then meet up in orbit for testing.
July 4, 1967
Once the LEM was confirmed in orbit and stable, Apollo 4’s CSM launched in the morning of July 4. Naming the spacecraft had previously been banned due to early Mercury names poking fun at NASA, but as this was the first mission to include 2 crewed craft, they would need separate names. The LEM was designated Spider, on account of its look with the legs extended. The crew had also decided to name the CSM “Gumdrop”, after its appearance when it was delivered to the VAB, wrapped in blue plastic.
Apollo 4 was crewed by commander John Young, command module pilot Donn Eisele and lunar module pilot Richard Gordon. All of them were scheduled for future landings, and would be preferred due to this mission's special tasks. Quickly performing a rendezvous with Spider, a short flyaround was performed to make sure everything was in working order. Once confirmed externally, Gumdrop slowly manoeuvred towards Spider’s docking port. A clunk was heard, and contact was confirmed. The two craft locked together and after a few minutes, the crew would open the door. Quickly getting on with the mission, John Young and Richard Gordon closed the door to the CSM and undocked, the next part of the mission being a test of the LEM’s systems.
Spider’s descent stage engine ignited, sending it far away from Gumdrop. After a short time, the engine would shut off and the craft held steady at around 100 km from Gumdrop. A short time was spent far from the command module, observations being made of the earth below and the performance of various systems. Then after just 3 hours of free-flying, the descent stage dropped away as the ascent engine ignited, sending Spider back to the command module. The two craft docked once again, and on the next day, Spider would undock, uncrewed. Its engine would send it into an elliptical orbit, where it would remain for at least 5 years. The remainder of the mission was spent observing the earth through different filters, nearby satellites such as the Pegasus series launched by the Saturn IB, and celestial bodies. Mars and Jupiter especially, with attempts made at observing Ceres, though little success was found.
September 15, 1967
“H1 Полные баки, ожидание запуска”
“H1 готовится к запуску, двигатели запускаются”
After months of waiting, the H1 Was finally launching. Her 30 NK-15 engines flared to life with a deafening scream and a light comparable to the sun’s. Pushing the megalithic 2.7 million kilogramme rocket faster and faster with a force never seen before in rocketry.
“Достигнуто максимальное давление, ракета выглядит стабильно”
The skies were almost clear, just a few sparse clouds dotting the night sky, all lit up by the magnificent light of the rocket’s exhaust. The thunderous cries of the H1 die down as it approaches the upper atmosphere, Blok A running low on fuel. The callout is given and Blok A is struck with the exhaust from Blok B’s 8 NK-15V engines, separating just seconds after. She would continue burning for 2 minutes before they too shut down, Blok V taking over. Blok V had 4 NK-21 engines, delivering the final push into orbit with a burn of 6 minutes. Her mission wasn’t complete yet though, the payload for this flight was a lunar Soyuz craft, not manned, but with a crew of 4 Tortoises. This was just to make sure that life could survive the trip around the moon in the capsule, but they would still become the first ever creatures to return from the lunar sphere of influence. Along with this, a fully uncrewed LK Lunar lander would test the landing systems in Oceanus Procellarum, The current planned site of the first crewed landing.
After a short loiter in orbit, Blok G would ignite, propelling the craft onto a trans-lunar trajectory. Days pass, the tortoises remain alive as they drift closer and closer to the moon. They would lower down to under 200 km above the lunar surface, before the Blok D ignited, slowing the whole vehicle down into lunar orbit. The LK and Blok D separate, firing again to bring the lander onto a suborbital trajectory. Falling faster and faster towards the surface, Blok D breaks away to crash into the surface as the LK’s RD-858 engine ignites, steadily slowing down the fragile craft. Dust is thrown away by the exhaust of the engine as it decelerates more and more before finally touching down. LK has proven itself a worthy lander for crew. But, as a failsafe in case the future human landings fail, an incredibly simple robotic arm, like the one on the in development Mars 4, plants a soviet flag on the surface of the moon. No matter what happens now, the USSR can still say they had the first flag on the Moon.
With LK’s part of the mission complete, Soyuz ignites her engines and pushes out of lunar orbit, back towards Earth. A large concern of this flight was the heat shield, this was a slightly different design to handle the heat of lunar reentry, if the shield wasn't thick and robust enough, the craft could break up in the plasma. Striking the atmosphere at immense speeds, the exchange of signals stops as the atmospheric plasma engulfs the capsule, blocking any and all broadcasts from getting through. Mission control waits with bated breath for the signal to be regained, though nothing is heard. But it is seen! Soyuz’s parachute was seen by the recovery crew already on site. As soon as it landed it was found that the comms system was oversaturated by false signals and shut down, a problem easily solved if human crew was on board, and thus an issue of little concern.
September 27, 1967
Launching in the bright of day on the 24th, Luna 13 was thrown towards the moon to accomplish something never yet seen before. A rover, on the surface of another world. Descending from lunar orbit, the unending grey landscape flies past below as Luna 13 tries its best to slow down, a soft landing necessary. Clouds of dust pick up beneath the vehicle, engine throttling down as the surface edges closer and closer. Luna 13 lands and signals back to Earth, the mission has begun. Lunokhod opens her lid, revealing the solar panels, rolls off the ramps, and controlled live from the ground, begins to rove across the surface. The 1.5 second signal delay took some getting used to for the remote drivers, but as the rover could move no faster than 20 cm/s, any issues were negligible. In just a single day, Lunokhod was driven for 180 meters across the landscape of Oceanus Procellarum. It had landed nearly 2 km away from the landing site of the LK, which over the next 4 weeks it slowly and persistently drove towards.
October 1, 1967
Mariner 5 was the first of the 1967 Mars probes to arrive, Making a close pass of Deimos before firing its engines and slowing down into orbit of Mars, fully mapping its surface in preparation for future probes. An upcoming program for NASA was the Voyager program, seeking to perform more advanced interplanetary missions, such as landing multiple probes on the surface of Mars and Venus, or flying past the outer planets or asteroids
October 2, 1967
Mars 5 arrived at Mars just a day after,the first of the Soviet Mars fleet. Entering into orbit without an issue, it begins to slowly map the surface of the planet in higher detail than ever before. Revealing the world to be even more complex than thought before, with canyons and deltas carved by water long since evaporated. Craters filled with sand and rolling dunes stretching beyond the horizon, unending flats giving way to gargantuan mountains and boulder strewn fields.
October 5, 1967
This newfound insight on Mars helped pinpoint Mars 4’s landing location, though it could not be changed, it was found to be a good place for studying. Mars 4 slammed into the atmosphere at
October 7, 1967
The first few days of Mars 4’s time on the Martian surface were relatively boring, mainly making sure the fort was held down and that the special payload was safe to deploy. Held on a small robotic arm, the PrOP–M rover was lowered to the ground and deployed safely. Attached to the lander by a 15m long tether, it could move around by using skis on either side of its central bus. Taking a break every metre to take measurements of the soil from different locations. Affectionately referred to by the public as “Baby Box” on account of its very small size, just 28cm long and 12cm wide, and weighing only 4.5kg.
October 19, 1967
Sadly, a mere 2 weeks after landing, Mars 4 loses contact with Earth. It is unknown what happened specifically, but the results of Martian soil analysis suggest that the dust had managed to creep into the lander, making sending and receiving signals impossible for it.
October 21, 1967
The long journey to LK had proved tolerable for Lunokhod, besides having to briefly pause during the lunar night and to recharge, the travelling was constant. Here, a choice could be made. 2 Lunokhods would be useful for the upcoming crewed landings as beacons, they could launch just 1 more lunokhod to this site, or they could send this one down into Bessarion and launch 2 more. A short amount of tests were completed with the LK to gauge its battery life, and it was found that the small solar panels around the communication dishes were providing enough power to act as an incredibly simple beacon. This thankfully allowed Lunokhod to journey into Bessarion, a journey which would take at least a month to reach the rim of the crater, and upwards of 2 months to reach the base. Given that the design of Lunokhod only called to survive for 3 months, it may not be able to complete the mission in time.
November 11, 1967
Early in the morning, the Floridian sky would burst into flames as the Saturn V’s beautiful engines ignited, The 5 Rocketdyne F-1 Engines delivering an immense amount of thrust up through the whole rocket, lifting Apollo 6, and her crew of Walter Schirra, Jack Swigert and Walter Cunningham into orbit. The S-IC shuts down, giving way to the S-II above it, firing for another 6 minutes. Once that stage runs out of fuel, it breaks away, the S-IVB firing for just under 3 minutes before shutting off. Apollo 6 would remain in orbit for another 2 hours, before the decision was made.
“Apollo 6, this is Houston, you are go for TLI”
Shouldn’t Apollo 6 be Apollo 5?I'm confident in saying that I can finally move to a weekly schedule with these chapters, Coming out every Friday Night (AEST/AEDT), And let me know what you think of this chapter by replying! feedback is always appreciated
Solus in Mare Somniorum
February 14, 1967
Quickly following up the success of Apollo 1, Jim McDivitt, David Scott and Rusty Schweickart were chosen for Apollo 2, the last CSM only systems test.Making it to orbit with no issues apparent, The crew would spend hours verifying the systems before they were allowed to rest for the night. Finding perfection all across the board. The engine was tested by conducting short burns to raise the CSM’s apogee, then lower it the next orbit. The engine was tested 6 times, each time performing just as expected. The crew would answer questions from earth once a day on national tv, and once the tests were over, make observations of various astronomical objects from the window. 5 days in total were spent in orbit, by the end of which it was accepted that the CSM was fully functional and ready for the moon.
May 19, 1967
Amidst the rapid progress, yet another Apollo mission was conducted, but this one was uncrewed. It would perform a vital test of deep space manoeuvring, and the logistics of a free return trajectory around the moon. It launched late at night, hanging up in the sky as just another dot after the last engines shut off. Performing the S-IVB engine burn the next day, sending it racing towards the moon through the dark ocean of space. 3 Days would pass as it approached the moon closer and closer, finally entering its sphere of influence, photographing the surface as it got nearer. Unbounded by any orbit, Apollo 3 continued on past the moon, being flung around back towards Earth, proving the possibility of a free return abort scenario. Apollo 3 hit the atmosphere above the pacific ocean, splashing down safely in the waters, and being recovered just a short while later.
May 25, 1967 - U.S. Newspaper Excerpt
Political Turmoil in China!
The world was shocked today to hear that China would officially be closing its borders to all countries, a shift that could indicate instability in the most populous country. This follows the shift of some Soviet troops from the main USSR and North Vietnam towards the Chinese border, recent riots in neighbouring Hong Kong, And what is thought to have been China’s first hydrogen bomb test. Mere days after the closure was announced, it was reported that a large number of Chinese troops also gathered along the borders of the USSR, North Vietnam and small areas of the border with the Kingdom of Sikkim and India.
July 2, 1967
Apollo would once again launch a Saturn IB, for an unorthodox test of systems. Saturn Vs at this time are still relatively scarce, most rockets still mid-production. But the Lunar Module still needs to be tested with crew, so a unique solution was devised to allow the program testing to continue. The CSM and LEM would launch on separate rockets, then meet up in orbit for testing.
July 4, 1967
Once the LEM was confirmed in orbit and stable, Apollo 4’s CSM launched in the morning of July 4. Naming the spacecraft had previously been banned due to early Mercury names poking fun at NASA, but as this was the first mission to include 2 crewed craft, they would need separate names. The LEM was designated Spider, on account of its look with the legs extended. The crew had also decided to name the CSM “Gumdrop”, after its appearance when it was delivered to the VAB, wrapped in blue plastic.
Apollo 4 was crewed by commander John Young, command module pilot Donn Eisele and lunar module pilot Richard Gordon. All of them were scheduled for future landings, and would be preferred due to this mission's special tasks. Quickly performing a rendezvous with Spider, a short flyaround was performed to make sure everything was in working order. Once confirmed externally, Gumdrop slowly manoeuvred towards Spider’s docking port. A clunk was heard, and contact was confirmed. The two craft locked together and after a few minutes, the crew would open the door. Quickly getting on with the mission, John Young and Richard Gordon closed the door to the CSM and undocked, the next part of the mission being a test of the LEM’s systems.
Spider’s descent stage engine ignited, sending it far away from Gumdrop. After a short time, the engine would shut off and the craft held steady at around 100 km from Gumdrop. A short time was spent far from the command module, observations being made of the earth below and the performance of various systems. Then after just 3 hours of free-flying, the descent stage dropped away as the ascent engine ignited, sending Spider back to the command module. The two craft docked once again, and on the next day, Spider would undock, uncrewed. Its engine would send it into an elliptical orbit, where it would remain for at least 5 years. The remainder of the mission was spent observing the earth through different filters, nearby satellites such as the Pegasus series launched by the Saturn IB, and celestial bodies. Mars and Jupiter especially, with attempts made at observing Ceres, though little success was found.
September 15, 1967
“H1 Полные баки, ожидание запуска”
“H1 готовится к запуску, двигатели запускаются”
After months of waiting, the H1 Was finally launching. Her 30 NK-15 engines flared to life with a deafening scream and a light comparable to the sun’s. Pushing the megalithic 2.7 million kilogramme rocket faster and faster with a force never seen before in rocketry.
“Достигнуто максимальное давление, ракета выглядит стабильно”
The skies were almost clear, just a few sparse clouds dotting the night sky, all lit up by the magnificent light of the rocket’s exhaust. The thunderous cries of the H1 die down as it approaches the upper atmosphere, Blok A running low on fuel. The callout is given and Blok A is struck with the exhaust from Blok B’s 8 NK-15V engines, separating just seconds after. She would continue burning for 2 minutes before they too shut down, Blok V taking over. Blok V had 4 NK-21 engines, delivering the final push into orbit with a burn of 6 minutes. Her mission wasn’t complete yet though, the payload for this flight was a lunar Soyuz craft, not manned, but with a crew of 4 Tortoises. This was just to make sure that life could survive the trip around the moon in the capsule, but they would still become the first ever creatures to return from the lunar sphere of influence. Along with this, a fully uncrewed LK Lunar lander would test the landing systems in Oceanus Procellarum, The current planned site of the first crewed landing.
After a short loiter in orbit, Blok G would ignite, propelling the craft onto a trans-lunar trajectory. Days pass, the tortoises remain alive as they drift closer and closer to the moon. They would lower down to under 200 km above the lunar surface, before the Blok D ignited, slowing the whole vehicle down into lunar orbit. The LK and Blok D separate, firing again to bring the lander onto a suborbital trajectory. Falling faster and faster towards the surface, Blok D breaks away to crash into the surface as the LK’s RD-858 engine ignites, steadily slowing down the fragile craft. Dust is thrown away by the exhaust of the engine as it decelerates more and more before finally touching down. LK has proven itself a worthy lander for crew. But, as a failsafe in case the future human landings fail, an incredibly simple robotic arm, like the one on the in development Mars 4, plants a soviet flag on the surface of the moon. No matter what happens now, the USSR can still say they had the first flag on the Moon.
With LK’s part of the mission complete, Soyuz ignites her engines and pushes out of lunar orbit, back towards Earth. A large concern of this flight was the heat shield, this was a slightly different design to handle the heat of lunar reentry, if the shield wasn't thick and robust enough, the craft could break up in the plasma. Striking the atmosphere at immense speeds, the exchange of signals stops as the atmospheric plasma engulfs the capsule, blocking any and all broadcasts from getting through. Mission control waits with bated breath for the signal to be regained, though nothing is heard. But it is seen! Soyuz’s parachute was seen by the recovery crew already on site. As soon as it landed it was found that the comms system was oversaturated by false signals and shut down, a problem easily solved if human crew was on board, and thus an issue of little concern.
September 27, 1967
Launching in the bright of day on the 24th, Luna 13 was thrown towards the moon to accomplish something never yet seen before. A rover, on the surface of another world. Descending from lunar orbit, the unending grey landscape flies past below as Luna 13 tries its best to slow down, a soft landing necessary. Clouds of dust pick up beneath the vehicle, engine throttling down as the surface edges closer and closer. Luna 13 lands and signals back to Earth, the mission has begun. Lunokhod opens her lid, revealing the solar panels, rolls off the ramps, and controlled live from the ground, begins to rove across the surface. The 1.5 second signal delay took some getting used to for the remote drivers, but as the rover could move no faster than 20 cm/s, any issues were negligible. In just a single day, Lunokhod was driven for 180 meters across the landscape of Oceanus Procellarum. It had landed nearly 2 km away from the landing site of the LK, which over the next 4 weeks it slowly and persistently drove towards.
October 1, 1967
Mariner 5 was the first of the 1967 Mars probes to arrive, Making a close pass of Deimos before firing its engines and slowing down into orbit of Mars, fully mapping its surface in preparation for future probes. An upcoming program for NASA was the Voyager program, seeking to perform more advanced interplanetary missions, such as landing multiple probes on the surface of Mars and Venus, or flying past the outer planets or asteroids
October 2, 1967
Mars 5 arrived at Mars just a day after,the first of the Soviet Mars fleet. Entering into orbit without an issue, it begins to slowly map the surface of the planet in higher detail than ever before. Revealing the world to be even more complex than thought before, with canyons and deltas carved by water long since evaporated. Craters filled with sand and rolling dunes stretching beyond the horizon, unending flats giving way to gargantuan mountains and boulder strewn fields.
October 5, 1967
This newfound insight on Mars helped pinpoint Mars 4’s landing location, though it could not be changed, it was found to be a good place for studying. Mars 4 slammed into the atmosphere atincredible speeds, a veil of plasma shrouding the vehicle as it was battered by the thickening atmosphere. Drag increased and it slowed down to a safe speed, its heat shield separated and the parachutes deployed from the main vehicle. Gently descending closer to the surface, until the parachute separated and the retrorockets fired. Earth heard back 7 minutes later, Touchdown successful. She began to send back her first image. A vast, expansive horizon of lone and level sands, hills and mountains poking up from beyond it, and a barren red sky. Mars felt more hostile than ever before, but the lander would hold on for as long as possible.
October 7, 1967
The first few days of Mars 4’s time on the Martian surface were relatively boring, mainly making sure the fort was held down and that the special payload was safe to deploy. Held on a small robotic arm, the PrOP–M rover was lowered to the ground and deployed safely. Attached to the lander by a 15m long tether, it could move around by using skis on either side of its central bus. Taking a break every metre to take measurements of the soil from different locations. Affectionately referred to by the public as “Baby Box” on account of its very small size, just 28cm long and 12cm wide, and weighing only 4.5kg.
October 19, 1967
Sadly, a mere 2 weeks after landing, Mars 4 loses contact with Earth. It is unknown what happened specifically, but the results of Martian soil analysis suggest that the dust had managed to creep into the lander, making sending and receiving signals impossible for it.
October 21, 1967
The long journey to LK had proved tolerable for Lunokhod, besides having to briefly pause during the lunar night and to recharge, the travelling was constant. Here, a choice could be made. 2 Lunokhods would be useful for the upcoming crewed landings as beacons, they could launch just 1 more lunokhod to this site, or they could send this one down into Bessarion and launch 2 more. A short amount of tests were completed with the LK to gauge its battery life, and it was found that the small solar panels around the communication dishes were providing enough power to act as an incredibly simple beacon. This thankfully allowed Lunokhod to journey into Bessarion, a journey which would take at least a month to reach the rim of the crater, and upwards of 2 months to reach the base. Given that the design of Lunokhod only called to survive for 3 months, it may not be able to complete the mission in time.
November 11, 1967
Early in the morning, the Floridian sky would burst into flames as the Saturn V’s beautiful engines ignited, The 5 Rocketdyne F-1 Engines delivering an immense amount of thrust up through the whole rocket, lifting Apollo 6, and her crew of Walter Schirra, Jack Swigert and Walter Cunningham into orbit. The S-IC shuts down, giving way to the S-II above it, firing for another 6 minutes. Once that stage runs out of fuel, it breaks away, the S-IVB firing for just under 3 minutes before shutting off. Apollo 6 would remain in orbit for another 2 hours, before the decision was made.
“Apollo 6, this is Houston, you are go for TLI”
Apollo 5 was a planned mission deemed unnecessary due to the success of Apollo 4, so was cancelled
Alright, i know i just said i'm moving to a weekly schedule, and that is still true! but i might be a day or two late compared to the last chapter, had to do a lot of digging for a very specific rocket which stopped me from writing