Clouded Minds
Mercury Redstone 3 was preparing to launch, The pilot for this flight would be Alan Shepard, Beginning the day of the launch with a breakfast of Steak and Eggs with Toast, Orange juice and Coffee. Getting into the Mercury capsule at a quarter past 5 to await the launch at 7 am, Which would soon be delayed to 9 am to allow for the weather to clear up
The mercury capsule has a rather unique design, A Conical shape starting 180 centimetres wide at the base with a heat shield mounted on it, tapering inwards the higher up you look until it leads into a cylinder containing 3 parachutes for landing, Mounted on top of that is the Antenna section, which is rather self-explanatory, Containing the communication antennas. Strapped to the heat shield is the Retrockpack, made to slow down the capsule prior to reentry. Inside the capsule, there was a Pure Oxygen atmosphere around 1/3 the Pressure of the atmosphere at sea level, The craft was also fitted with an ejector seat to be used in an emergency in the seconds after launch, Hopefully these would never need to be used. The coming minutes would tell if they were indeed necessary.
As the weather cleared, The final checks would be completed, and the rocket was Go for launch.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Ignition. The Redstone booster’s Singular Rocketdyne A-7 would lift the entire 30,000kg Rocket, Along with the Mercury capsule up away from the surface, 16 seconds after ignition the rocket begins to Pitch over slowly to a 45 degree angle over 25 seconds, Maximum Aerodynamic Pressure ( Known as Max-Q ) being reached just over 40 seconds later.
2 Minutes 20 seconds into flight the engine would shut off, Having completed its task the command is sent to detach the Abort tower, And separate the capsule, With small rocket engines firing to detach the two of them, Friendship 7 rotating around to view the Booster, And the Floridian Coast silently drifting across the window
Time up here was limited though, Under 3 minutes later the command would be given to Alan that it was time to fire the retrocket, Which promptly flared to life and pushed him into his seat, just 10 minutes ago he was firmly on the ground bound by earth’s gravity, just 5 minutes he was pushing against it, And now Earth is pulling him back down, Accelerating almost 10m/s every single second, In just a few moments his capsule would slam into the atmosphere, engulfed in plasma with no way out should something go wrong, These thoughts were quickly interrupted with a clunk sound as the Retropack jettisoned, leaving the heat shield fully exposed for reentry. Outside the window the dark, foreboding abyss of space would give way to a deep harrowing crimson as what little air was outside was being condensed and heated to a bright glow, The capsule detected deceleration was beginning and began to roll the capsule to disperse the heat easier, The sun whirling its light around the capsule, now barely visible through the bright oranges and reds scraping against the window. As the bright colours of the plasma faded, and the comforting blue of our atmosphere washed across the capsule, The drogue parachute would deploy, safely slowing him down even further. The landing bag deploys, pushing the heat shield down as the “air snorkel” deploys, letting the outside atmosphere into the cabin. He had done it. The first american to see the sights of space, the rolling clouds over the Bahamas, the beautiful fury of reentering the atmosphere, and the joy of returning safely to the Earth.
Just a few weeks after Alan Shepard’s successful spaceflight, The President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, Would give a speech before congress, It reads as follows “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. We propose to accelerate the development of the appropriate lunar spacecraft. We propose to develop alternate liquid and solid fuel boosters, much larger than any now being developed, until certain which is superior. We propose additional funds for other engine development and for unmanned explorations. explorations which are particularly important for one purpose which this nation will never overlook: the survival of the man who first makes this daring flight. But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the Moon, if we make this judgement affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there”. It was official, America would shoot for the moon. But the soviets wouldn’t be far behind
One thing the soviets were certainly ahead at was Unmanned exploration. Having sent 2 probes to Mars, (Accidentally) Sending the first impactor to another planet, And sending the first probes to Venus, Which are mere hours away from their closest approach. Although it was only at a distance of 60,000km This would still permit a decent amount of data to be gained. For one, this world once hoped to be flourishing with life, A world full of rainforests and lakes concealed behind a veil of clouds, Was revealed to be a hellscape, incapable of having any life at all living on it. An atmosphere not of oxygen and water vapour, But of Carbon Dioxide and Sulphur, The surface so hot that the molten sulphur that rains from the sky can’t even reach the surface before evaporating, Surface pressure so immense that the foolhardiest crafts would buckle under the weight of the air around it, This is a forsaken world, One that feels like it was never meant to be known about, That we’d be better off in ignorance. This world has no moons, It is far too close to the sun for any to stick with it, And its surface is immensely flat, It may have had plate tectonics at one point in the past, along with oceans and maybe even life, But those days are long gone. The very atmosphere of this planet would have eventually choked anything that may have been living there, Now nothing remains of what may have been there. Just a charred, molten world who’s exploration must be confined to uncrewed robotic probes, sent off to die. Planning would begin on a mission, Venera 3 Would be an entry probe, To peer underneath the cloud tops for as long as it could handle, Venera 4 would be a lander, Along with Venera 5. These worlds will become known to us, no matter the struggles.
It was time for Gus Grissom’s turn in space, A mission largely similar to Alan’s, But what was notable is that this would be the last American crewed spaceflight until Mercury-Vulcan 4, In which John Glenn would become the first American in orbit.
As the Redstone rocket yet again flared to life, Gus was propelled into a suborbital trajectory, Almost exactly the same path as the previous, The flight would go fantastically until before the landing, Just after the Air snorkel deployed, An odd banging sound would be heard in the capsule. Though what this was would not be apparent for just under a minute, when the door to the capsule shot off into the distance due to a misfire. The recovery helicopters, Flying towards the visible parachute reported seeing a small object fly away from the capsule, striking the ocean
shortly after, Gus inside the capsule could not use anything inside to block the hatch, meaning he would have to get out and swim once landing to not be dragged to the sea floor when the capsule begins to fill with sea water. Luckily, he had not taken his suit off yet, the air inside would give him some extra buoyancy.
As the capsule splashed down it immediately began to flood water inside, Gus getting out and swimming alongside it in hopes that the recovery helicopters would see.
It would take a few minutes for the helicopters to arrive, at which time the capsule was already deep below the waves. When they did arrive, The pilot of the helicopter, George Cox, promptly tossed the Lifeline down to Gus, who quickly wrapped himself into it.
Despite this near-misses with disaster across the mission, Gus Grissom would become the 2nd American to reach space and return alive.
Back in the soviet union, Vostok 2 would launch, This time crewed with Gherman Titov, Who at just 25 years old would fly into orbit. The launch would go well, With nothing out of the ordinary occurring, At least until Gherman tried to eat one of the onboard meals, He would be the first victim of “Space Sickness”, Essentially motion sickness caused by the sensation of weightlessness. Gherman would also take the first photos of earth from space by a human, And be the first to fall asleep in space. Once his 24 hours in space were up, The reentry operation would be performed. However, the Service module would not separate from the crew capsule, Causing them both to shake violently while entering the atmosphere, Thankfully the service module was not made with the same heat considerations as the crew capsule allowing for the intense heat of the atmospheric plasma brushing against its metallic skin to burn through it and the wires connecting the two parts of the spacecraft, After which the crew capsule stabilised and the rest of the landing went off without a hitch, Gherman ejecting out of the spacecraft and parachuting to the ground separately, just as planned.
The previous ASAT Test performed by the United States Air Force would not go unnoticed by the many countries of the world. In the USSR Plans were being discussed on how to counter any possible American anti-satellite attacks, with most considerations being impossible to perform, No amount of shielding that could be placed on a satellite at the time would be able to stop an impact at orbital velocities, Wilder options such as intercepting an ASAT Vehicle before impact were considered, but were deemed too unlikely to succeed, at least until better manoeuvring systems were developed. There is one idea however, that went strangely unthought of. Just don’t get hit! Some details on the Pilot ASAT Vehicle were known to the Soviets, The most crucial of which being the payload mass. No more than 10kg could be placed into orbit, That’s too small for a true Manoeuvring system to be implemented, And this is where the USSR’s Zenit satellites come in handy. It is a Vostok Derived Spy Satellite mission, And so launches on the same Vostok rockets, Having first launched in October. If the design could be simplified and lightened slightly, there would be space to add small solid rocket motors which could move the satellite if ever targeted by an ASAT.
Or, instead of simplifying the design, A better rocket could be used. A new spacecraft program was being developed known as Voskhod, And it was accompanied by its own more powerful rocket, The development of this rocket could be accelerated to allow for no gap between the Vulnerable Zenits and the New Zenits. Korolev especially advocated for this, As it would free up the Vostok pad for more frequent Crew launches.
Amidst all this discussion about Space weaponry, A Concept for a rocket which could easily be mistaken as one would be put forth for review. Its name was Superraket, A Massive rocket larger than any rocket ever built before, With a unique design quirk about it. It was nuclear. The upper stage of this rocket would use Nuclear Engines to propel its payload further and further. Though this rocket was out of scope for current technology, It would prompt investigation into a larger rocket, One to be designated as the N1
Meanwhile, The USAF Had their own plans brewing, Still bitter about their defeat at the hands of NASA’S Gemini program, work would continue on Spearhead in secret, Small scale models of them being tested in wind tunnels to verify aerodynamic stability, Work on a new launcher for it, and possible operations. They had ended up with a pitch for 2 spaceplanes, Both under the Spearhead title. These would be named “Constitution” and “Independence”. Independence would, fittingly, Be strictly a LEO Operations craft, Having a passive docking port and advanced Rendezvous systems, As well as 2 seats, A dedicated Airlock/Docking port and a Small cargo bay, Capable of bringing a few hundred kilos Up and Down. Constitution would be fitted with an Active docking port, Allowing it to dock at a station concept still in the works called Fletcher. Constitution would have slightly simpler rendezvous systems, And no cargo bay, The space being used as extra crew and system space, To allow for longer flights docked to Fletcher. The station has a unique design as well, it is what is known as A Wet workshop. Once its carrier rocket had reached orbit it would drain any remaining fuel, And fill with an Oxygen atmosphere in preparation for the crew to arrive and get everything into order. It would have 5 sections to it, Each under 2m Tall. The Airlock at the “Base” of the station, Leading to outside where handles would be placed on the sides of the station for easy traversal around the 2 Solar panels powering the station. Next is The Laboratory for Science experiments, The Reconnaissance Base, where cameras would be controlled to look at the earth below, The crew area filled with Personal compartments and Beds, and the Docking/Storage module. The station would be fitted with a Passive docking port, letting Constitution to dock. This docking port imbalance would also allow Constitution and Independence to Dock together, allowing for in-space crew transfers.
The heat shields on the space planes would be a brand new state of the art technology, Consisting of specialised heat-tiles that could be reused and refurbished after every mission, Capable of withstanding the full brunt of the atmospheric plasma. And just in case any tiles are damaged during launch, or other phases of the missions, The spaceplane’s skin would be a strong metal alloy known as Rene 41, The same as used on the Mercury capsule.
The spaceplanes would be launched on a modified Titan II with Solid rocket motors on the side to give it the push it needs to get off the launchpad.
This idea, This design, All the testing done on it, Would not be pointless, For the USAF Would officially gain the funding it needed to bring Spearhead, And Fletcher to life.
Vostok 3 would launch around midday crewed with Andriyan Nikolayev, With Vladimir Komarov launching the next day on Vostok 4 into a similar orbit to 3, This was the first Simultaneous spaceflight ever performed. The 2 craft would frequently communicate with each other. Their spaceflights would both last around 3 and a half days, Tests being performed frequently to make sure that Humans can function efficiently during long periods of spaceflight. This mission would lay the foundations for longer and longer spaceflights, putting the Moon firmly in the realm of possibility
And these Lunar dreams would not subside, The United States had a new lunar exploration program, One named Ranger. This would be a fleet of Lunar Impactors, taking photos of the moon on their journey to their regolith graves. Ranger 1 was launched a few months earlier, though it would not reach the moon, Issues had emerged with the Agena stage, a defective gyroscope had caused it to begin rotating uncontrollably, Forcing the fuel inside the tanks to be pushed to the edges of the tank due to the Centrifugal force they would experience, causing the fuel to be unable to drain into the engines, Stranding the spacecraft in a low earth orbit, Quickly deorbiting in just a few weeks. The Launch of Ranger 2 had gone much more successfully, After a thorough pre-flight test of all systems and components. And now it was on its way to the moon. It had no specific landing site, Just a simple Impact somewhere on the moon. After launch it had been found that its impact site would be within 50km of the Crater Aristarchus. During the long coast to the Moon, many observations would be performed, Doppler tests and Gamma Ray Spectroscopy, In the final few minutes more and more experiments would happen, The Radar Altimeter would report the distance to the lunar surface while the Video camera would take images of the surface far below, and it would continue to for as long as it could. Racing towards the grayscale terrain scratched with canyons and scarps, dotted with craters and mountains, Though an immense contrast with Earth’s varying blues and greens and whites, It was still a beautiful view.
The final image transmitted by Ranger 3 would be taken just 450 metres above the surface, Though you couldn’t tell it from an image taken 45 Kilometres up, its terrain a fractal of pockmarks and craters down to the millimetre. She would never finish transmitting its last image though, Colliding with the surface after just over half the image was sent. Ranger 3 shall forever rest in the rocks of Aristarchus.
Just a month after Ranger 3’s impact, The Soviet Union would try to send another probe to the moon’s surface, Though the intent was not an impact, But a landing. Luna 5 would be sent all the way to the moon from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Where just above the surface, retrorockets on the main probe bus would fire, slowing it down, at which point the lander would separate from the bus and bounce across the surface, before settling and deploying its systems. Unfortunately it would not succeed at first, The retrorockets had failed to fire, The lander still separated as planned but the impact velocity was too high and damaged the systems, It was unknown if it had landed successfully as no signals were ever received, but it is certainly possible that it survived, just barely.
These Luna missions would signify the Soviet’s dreams of exploration, While Vostok would show their ambition of human spaceflight. America had been lagging behind in terms of both types of space exploration, But behind closed doors there was more progress than visible on the outside, at least for now. Soon these hidden programs would be revealed, And all of humanity’s sights would be set on mankind taking more and more steps into the cosmic ocean.
Considering the background seems to be about the same they the US is headed for the Moon and the Soviets still have no real incentive to do more than play to their current strengths and continue to grab the "low hanging fruit" firsts that are going to continue to embarrass the Americans till they get serious.
