Glad to see Kite once again getting her wings, and can't wait for the program to begin for real. This is such amazing progress, and I can't wait to see how the program picks up the pace. Knowing you, we're in for quite the ride
Let There Be Fire
- Thread starter Borb
- Start date
Chapter 3-4 Interlude: The Rise of Aurora
Alright, today I bring you an slightly long interlude in place of a chapter to show you what's been cooking behind all the testing. Also, I've caught myself back up so chapters should keep coming out at the rate they have been for a moment or two, so next week you'll get the last chapter before orbit, I promise we're almost there. Thanks to defconh3ck, especially with this chapter, you'll see it in a moment, but for reference the "double barrel" didn't exist until two days ago and now does thanks to their guidance through all this. Anywho, have fun with this one, it's got some wild stuff.
Chapter 3-4 Interlude: The Rise of Aurora
Alongside the noise and fire of testing, just outside of the public’s fixation on the test program, progress was being made on the projects that would be serviced by the developing system. NASA was making progress lining out the first flights of two parallel mission campaigns. Program Test Campaign (PTC), for the test missions, and Universal Transport System (UTS), for the mainline missions. This split system arose out of a funding bill that aimed to dedicate funds for continued testing of the system and its components for any major concerns NASA, or other entities, may have. The first two flights would fall under this PTC designation as PTC-1 and PTC-2, with Voyager going on PTC-1 to LEO for an orbital free flight, briefly visiting the ISS for a couple days, and again on PTC-2 for a free flight around the Moon carrying a MPLM full of various experiments mostly geared towards the extreme environment of cislunar space. NASA had also set sights on a (somehow) more ambitious mission, an In Flight Abort test to demonstrate the capability of Phoenix to safely abort a launch and potentially still be mostly reusable.
Also on the minds of mission planners was the consideration of large orbital projects, a consideration that had come up with about every system since the Mercury capsules. The rapid-launch capability of Phoenix, with multiple pads and the (soon coming) ability to clear the pad within even 24 hours of being called upon, would potentially allow for multiple orbiters to operate on the same mission on-orbit. This gave mission planners a very versatile mold to shape future missions with. That being said, some mission planners believed the system could do more than just orbit together. What was initially thrown out as a completely crack-pot idea, was later given a second look. What about launching multiple vehicles in a single window? It seemed to be an unprecedented option, but then again, so were the orbiters. The option to launch within moments of each other could streamline mission profiles as rendezvous would be nearly eliminated, adding back precious time to complete mission objectives. A study had started on these rather unique joint-missions, which soon gained them the codename “Starlight Brigades”.
In another effort, NASA was starting to string together a path towards Mars, creating the Aurora sub-program and getting to work on a transfer vehicle. After long internal debate, the fog of concept work was starting to clear, and what stood there was a strange and truly massive vessel. It would be composed of converted Block-1 Universal Core Stages, mostly in a "double-barrel" configuration, and a full vehicle length truss “spine” structure that would attach to the tanks’ LRB hold-down points. The propulsion module would be two cores of the UCS-LV, with their LOX tanks removed and engines replaced on orbit by nuclear-thermal engines and carrying two “saddle-bag” utility modules each, one on either side. They would handle attitude control and smaller orbital adjustments and the modules would resemble the cargo modules of the old Shuttle-B concept and would, likewise, launch with the UCS. One set of modules would provide solar power to the gargantuan vessel while the others would house the thermal control systems to maintain the hydrogen propellant and the nuclear engines. Moving up the vessel, the in-line drop tanks would have their engines removed on orbit as well and supply fuel for part of the vessel's journey before being cast into solar orbit. Ahead of that would sit the crew module, which would be one UCS, again stripped of its engines on orbit, and converted into a wet-workshop using a “work shed” module positioned above the stage’s nose and launched in a fairing with the core. This forward module would later act as additional hab space and would host an airlock module, the docking tunnel for the Mars Crew Lander (MCL), and a, more interesting addition, an APAS docking port and structural bracing at the very front of the vessel to carry a new variant of Phoenix all the way to the red planet. This new variant was the Extreme Duration and Range Orbiter (EDRO) which came equipped with two new OMS pods outfitted with nuclear-thermal engines, LH2 drop tanks, an onboard ISS-like ECLS system, and other upgrades to aid deep space operation. This orbiter would carry a smaller hab section of its own, created in cooperation with ESA for their expertise in operating the SpaceLab system. This module would house an airlock and docking port, the latter of which would be near the center of mass of the orbiter to ease structural strain on the whole system. The orbiter would serve in a similar role to the Orion spacecraft for the Constellation program’s proposed MTV’s. It would function as a bridge, lifeboat, and additional hab space (most likely for crew quarters). A cargo only MTV was also being developed in parallel which would be identical except for the hab being replaced by one or two Heavy Cargo Landers and/or MCL’s. Their function would be a little different, they would follow a free return-style cycler orbit and would keep their drop tanks’ LOX section in order to fuel the last-mile delivery stages and landers before releasing them to capture into Martian orbit and join the crewed MTV or directly land on the surface.
The initial MTV concepts; the final design, the initial design, and an alternate design that was ruled out in favor of the "Double Barrel" design
These landers, for the most part, were a new addition, coming from the former Constellation team’s work, having come up with a lander design to be launched aboard their Ares V rocket. Utilizing the flexibility LTBF had been selected for, NASA quickly adopted and adapted the lander into the new program. Teams immediately got to work completing and altering the design to handle the somewhat different mission profile and to be launched aboard a new lifter, Leviathan. NASA had need of a new super-heavy lift vehicle not weighed down by the cumbersome Phoenix orbiters to deliver fuel and their heavy landers to the waiting MTV’s. UCS-LV hosted an immense number of possible configurations, but one that met NASA’s needs soon arose. The configuration would become the second named variant of UCS-LV, after Phoenix, and would be comprised of a UCS, eight LRB’s (two LRB groups), and a Firelight 8 upper stage. The power possessed by this variant was immense, sitting at one-and-a-half times the liftoff thrust of the Saturn V. To drive the idea home, NASA also began a small study for a new engine unit for the program’s LRB fleet which would host four RS-25E engines instead of the Cobras, nearly doubling the boosters’ thrust and raising the liftoff thrust to just over twice that of the Saturn V.
The Heavy Cargo Lander carrying a proposed surface habitat.
Of all these new additions, the most ambitious was the wet-workshop hab. It had been an interesting choice among other options like an inflatable hab or a more ISS-like modular section. This option, however, was seemingly the fastest. While other options would take potentially years in development and testing, this hab theoretically already existed, excepting the method of outfitting the tanks. NASA had theorized a method involving a polymer-type liner over the installed metal floors and tank walls, similar to that used in marine inflatables, that would allow easy installation of both the liner and mounting points for containers, workstations and other items that would need to be secured for the long trip. In order to resolve concerns and guide final design choices, a proposal was made to conduct several incremental tests starting with a long duration pressurized free-flight of a UCS core all the way up to adding a UCS hab as a potentially permanent expansion to the ISS.
Needless to say, the program was beginning to turn heads everywhere and potential international partners began to pop up cautiously, but also eagerly. Canada would be first, with a proposed stronger version of the Canadarm system, which had been made for the Shuttle and augmented for Phoenix, as a robotic arm for the MTV’s to aid in inspection, EVA tasks, as well as the construction and maintenance of the MTV’s. Another prospective partner was Roscosmos, who seemed very eager to join the program, bringing multiple opportunities to the table. Their first proposal was a revival of the recent proposal of a small lifting-body crew vehicle, Kliper. Roscosmos sought funding aid for the vessel to advance their own crewed flight program and saw an opportunity to gain international support for the craft. They pitched the small vessel stating that it could act as a new lifeboat for the station and allow Phoenix to supply large crew rotations to the ISS and other possible projects without fear of leaving the massive orbiters wide open to micrometeorite or debris strikes during such a long stay. Their addition of the new lifeboat was readily welcomed by NASA as the Soyuz would simply not be a viable option to fill that role if they wished to pursue the mammoth expansion of the station.
More importantly, as a shock to most, Roscosmos expressed an extreme interest in assisting with the nuclear engines for the MTV’s and EDRO system, citing their own experience in the subject. Congress would need a lot of convincing, but eventually work began on a nuclear cooperation agreement between the two nations. The joint endeavor would soon receive the Boreal Project moniker, after the great Boreal Forest that spanned the two superpowers and to honor the new engine’s precursor, Project Timberwind.
Under the illumination of Aurora, NASA was now getting ready to bring the world along on a journey back to the moon on the wings of Phoenix, paving a path for larger vessels to send humans farther than ever before.
Chapter 3-4 Interlude: The Rise of Aurora
Alongside the noise and fire of testing, just outside of the public’s fixation on the test program, progress was being made on the projects that would be serviced by the developing system. NASA was making progress lining out the first flights of two parallel mission campaigns. Program Test Campaign (PTC), for the test missions, and Universal Transport System (UTS), for the mainline missions. This split system arose out of a funding bill that aimed to dedicate funds for continued testing of the system and its components for any major concerns NASA, or other entities, may have. The first two flights would fall under this PTC designation as PTC-1 and PTC-2, with Voyager going on PTC-1 to LEO for an orbital free flight, briefly visiting the ISS for a couple days, and again on PTC-2 for a free flight around the Moon carrying a MPLM full of various experiments mostly geared towards the extreme environment of cislunar space. NASA had also set sights on a (somehow) more ambitious mission, an In Flight Abort test to demonstrate the capability of Phoenix to safely abort a launch and potentially still be mostly reusable.
Also on the minds of mission planners was the consideration of large orbital projects, a consideration that had come up with about every system since the Mercury capsules. The rapid-launch capability of Phoenix, with multiple pads and the (soon coming) ability to clear the pad within even 24 hours of being called upon, would potentially allow for multiple orbiters to operate on the same mission on-orbit. This gave mission planners a very versatile mold to shape future missions with. That being said, some mission planners believed the system could do more than just orbit together. What was initially thrown out as a completely crack-pot idea, was later given a second look. What about launching multiple vehicles in a single window? It seemed to be an unprecedented option, but then again, so were the orbiters. The option to launch within moments of each other could streamline mission profiles as rendezvous would be nearly eliminated, adding back precious time to complete mission objectives. A study had started on these rather unique joint-missions, which soon gained them the codename “Starlight Brigades”.
In another effort, NASA was starting to string together a path towards Mars, creating the Aurora sub-program and getting to work on a transfer vehicle. After long internal debate, the fog of concept work was starting to clear, and what stood there was a strange and truly massive vessel. It would be composed of converted Block-1 Universal Core Stages, mostly in a "double-barrel" configuration, and a full vehicle length truss “spine” structure that would attach to the tanks’ LRB hold-down points. The propulsion module would be two cores of the UCS-LV, with their LOX tanks removed and engines replaced on orbit by nuclear-thermal engines and carrying two “saddle-bag” utility modules each, one on either side. They would handle attitude control and smaller orbital adjustments and the modules would resemble the cargo modules of the old Shuttle-B concept and would, likewise, launch with the UCS. One set of modules would provide solar power to the gargantuan vessel while the others would house the thermal control systems to maintain the hydrogen propellant and the nuclear engines. Moving up the vessel, the in-line drop tanks would have their engines removed on orbit as well and supply fuel for part of the vessel's journey before being cast into solar orbit. Ahead of that would sit the crew module, which would be one UCS, again stripped of its engines on orbit, and converted into a wet-workshop using a “work shed” module positioned above the stage’s nose and launched in a fairing with the core. This forward module would later act as additional hab space and would host an airlock module, the docking tunnel for the Mars Crew Lander (MCL), and a, more interesting addition, an APAS docking port and structural bracing at the very front of the vessel to carry a new variant of Phoenix all the way to the red planet. This new variant was the Extreme Duration and Range Orbiter (EDRO) which came equipped with two new OMS pods outfitted with nuclear-thermal engines, LH2 drop tanks, an onboard ISS-like ECLS system, and other upgrades to aid deep space operation. This orbiter would carry a smaller hab section of its own, created in cooperation with ESA for their expertise in operating the SpaceLab system. This module would house an airlock and docking port, the latter of which would be near the center of mass of the orbiter to ease structural strain on the whole system. The orbiter would serve in a similar role to the Orion spacecraft for the Constellation program’s proposed MTV’s. It would function as a bridge, lifeboat, and additional hab space (most likely for crew quarters). A cargo only MTV was also being developed in parallel which would be identical except for the hab being replaced by one or two Heavy Cargo Landers and/or MCL’s. Their function would be a little different, they would follow a free return-style cycler orbit and would keep their drop tanks’ LOX section in order to fuel the last-mile delivery stages and landers before releasing them to capture into Martian orbit and join the crewed MTV or directly land on the surface.
The initial MTV concepts; the final design, the initial design, and an alternate design that was ruled out in favor of the "Double Barrel" design
These landers, for the most part, were a new addition, coming from the former Constellation team’s work, having come up with a lander design to be launched aboard their Ares V rocket. Utilizing the flexibility LTBF had been selected for, NASA quickly adopted and adapted the lander into the new program. Teams immediately got to work completing and altering the design to handle the somewhat different mission profile and to be launched aboard a new lifter, Leviathan. NASA had need of a new super-heavy lift vehicle not weighed down by the cumbersome Phoenix orbiters to deliver fuel and their heavy landers to the waiting MTV’s. UCS-LV hosted an immense number of possible configurations, but one that met NASA’s needs soon arose. The configuration would become the second named variant of UCS-LV, after Phoenix, and would be comprised of a UCS, eight LRB’s (two LRB groups), and a Firelight 8 upper stage. The power possessed by this variant was immense, sitting at one-and-a-half times the liftoff thrust of the Saturn V. To drive the idea home, NASA also began a small study for a new engine unit for the program’s LRB fleet which would host four RS-25E engines instead of the Cobras, nearly doubling the boosters’ thrust and raising the liftoff thrust to just over twice that of the Saturn V.
The Heavy Cargo Lander carrying a proposed surface habitat.
Of all these new additions, the most ambitious was the wet-workshop hab. It had been an interesting choice among other options like an inflatable hab or a more ISS-like modular section. This option, however, was seemingly the fastest. While other options would take potentially years in development and testing, this hab theoretically already existed, excepting the method of outfitting the tanks. NASA had theorized a method involving a polymer-type liner over the installed metal floors and tank walls, similar to that used in marine inflatables, that would allow easy installation of both the liner and mounting points for containers, workstations and other items that would need to be secured for the long trip. In order to resolve concerns and guide final design choices, a proposal was made to conduct several incremental tests starting with a long duration pressurized free-flight of a UCS core all the way up to adding a UCS hab as a potentially permanent expansion to the ISS.
Needless to say, the program was beginning to turn heads everywhere and potential international partners began to pop up cautiously, but also eagerly. Canada would be first, with a proposed stronger version of the Canadarm system, which had been made for the Shuttle and augmented for Phoenix, as a robotic arm for the MTV’s to aid in inspection, EVA tasks, as well as the construction and maintenance of the MTV’s. Another prospective partner was Roscosmos, who seemed very eager to join the program, bringing multiple opportunities to the table. Their first proposal was a revival of the recent proposal of a small lifting-body crew vehicle, Kliper. Roscosmos sought funding aid for the vessel to advance their own crewed flight program and saw an opportunity to gain international support for the craft. They pitched the small vessel stating that it could act as a new lifeboat for the station and allow Phoenix to supply large crew rotations to the ISS and other possible projects without fear of leaving the massive orbiters wide open to micrometeorite or debris strikes during such a long stay. Their addition of the new lifeboat was readily welcomed by NASA as the Soyuz would simply not be a viable option to fill that role if they wished to pursue the mammoth expansion of the station.
More importantly, as a shock to most, Roscosmos expressed an extreme interest in assisting with the nuclear engines for the MTV’s and EDRO system, citing their own experience in the subject. Congress would need a lot of convincing, but eventually work began on a nuclear cooperation agreement between the two nations. The joint endeavor would soon receive the Boreal Project moniker, after the great Boreal Forest that spanned the two superpowers and to honor the new engine’s precursor, Project Timberwind.
Under the illumination of Aurora, NASA was now getting ready to bring the world along on a journey back to the moon on the wings of Phoenix, paving a path for larger vessels to send humans farther than ever before.
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VERY excited about this, you've got such a cool naming scheme for things, I'm really looking forward to seeing what you do with this (even if I already sort of kind of know haha)
This will be an interesting sell, I look forward to seeing how you pull this off
Chapter 4: Dream Again
OK, we're early today, I probably won't be home for a while after work so I'm instead doing this on my phone from work. As a result, and for my own sanity, I'm going to come back to fix things and italicize vehicle names later because I don't have control-F. So, enjoy the last chapter before launch (there technically is one here, but you'll see) and thanks to defconh3k as always:
Chapter 4: Dream Again
With LTBF finally aiming its sights skyward, Kennedy Space Center somehow became even more of a hive of activity. The horizontal transport system was taking shape and while not quite ready for modal testing, the two transporters were almost complete and still sat outside the nearly completed FPF buildings. Wide double rail paths now ran all the way along the inside of the Crawlerway and reinforced crossings had been constructed to allow the passage of the heavy Crawler transporters. This mass of activity was only heightened by the arrival of UCS Polaris and the Seabound boosters. The components would arrive together with Polaris riding inside the Pegasus barge towed behind MV Freedom Star and the boosters following behind onboard one of the recovery barges towed behind MV Liberty Star. The group was met by some of Port Canaveral’s emergency response vessels shortly before entering the port and the flanking vessels welcomed the space-bound vessels with their water cannons. The celebration of the group’s arrival did not end upon reaching Turning Basin, though, as NASA had allowed the public media partners to watch the arrival. Polaris would be unloaded first and slowly carried up towards the VAB and would stop short of the entrance to await the unloading of the boosters. Once Pegasus had been moved, the LRB’s were offloaded as well and joined Polaris at the VAB’s side entrance. After NASA and the media had gotten their images, the components were rolled inside to Highbay 4 for storage and pre-stacking processing and inspection.
Not too far behind them, Voyager had rolled out at Palmdale less than a week after the successful second ALT attempt of Kite. The orbiter was met with even more enthusiasm than her test article predecessor, leaving aboard a freshly retrofitted NASA 988. This C-5 was originally similar to the base model utilized by the Air Force and was the standby in case 944’s new tail assembly gave trouble in its own test flights. After the assembly proved effective, 988 received her new tail as well and returned to California to meet Voyager. During the departure ceremony, once again the media looked not only at the completed Voyager, but past her into the busy assembly hangar. This time they would see a nearly-completed Drifter and a somewhat underway Wayfarer. After the ceremony, 988 and Voyager flew out flanked by the adjacent airbase’s F-16’s. Due to the high profile nature of the flight, multiple “shifts” of escorts would assist and document the pair in their journey across the country. Eventually, after an uneventful flight, the two great crafts touched down at the Shuttle Landing Facility, which had just finished receiving a fresh coat of paint in preparation for the wild cadence that awaited the Space Coast. After leaving the runway, cranes assisted Voyager off of 988. Later, this task would be handled by a retrofitted version of the existing mate-demate device (identical to the one used for Kite at Dryden), however, as STS was still flying, NASA decided not to build a new structure only for the old device to become useless once STS soon ceased operations.
Now that all components had arrived, Polaris and the Seabound boosters came out of storage in Highbay 4 to meet the new orbiter at the front door. Another arrival event was held, this time with the full vehicle set for the first flight. The public was ecstatic, the first fully reusable rocket was together at last, all at the KSC. Once the vessels had their brief time in the spotlight, the vessels were rolled back inside for their final pre-assembly inspections. Stacking occurred rather quickly, aiming only to structurally complete the stack in order to run some modal testing by rolling the stack out and returning shortly after. After the bare-bones assembly had been completed, the stack crept out of Highbay 2 in a calm mid-August evening, hoping to catch the calm nighttime weather for the nearly half-a-day journey to LC-39B. The Voyager-Polaris stack and its Seabound tugs would not be alone in the roll-out, pausing as Endeavor on STS-141 rolled out just ahead of them, taking time for photos as they passed. The huge convoy consisting of Voyager-Polaris, STS-141, and all of the related support vehicles rolled out toward Complex 39 and the two vessels went their separate ways. STS-141 went straight on to LC-39A and Voyager-Polaris hung a left then a right on to LC-39B. In the late morning light, NASA sent out T-38’s to fly over and caught a marvelous photo of the two monumental vessels on their respective pads, but also something else. Groundwork could be seen in the background for a new member of the Complex 39 family, LC-39C, being built to assist the soon expected high flight rate of the LTBF program. All that existed of the new pad and the crawlerway extension so far was a flat patch of dirt where land had been cleared and leveled, but it was an immense sight of progress.
After arrival at LC-39B, Voyager-Polaris would undergo a multitude of tests at the pad. Most notably, a test involving the recently retrofitted Rotating Service Structure (RSS), which had be upsized to accommodate the longer payload bay (rendering it incapable of servicing the old Shuttle in the process), would see the structure wrap around the orbiter to provide cleanroom access to Voyager’s bay. A simple boilerplate test structure, made to the rough size and shape of a typical payload, would be installed in the payload bay and the RSS would rotate away for a few days while teams kept a careful eye on the loaded structure. One of the two new Crew Access Arms (CAA’s) was rotated into place and was utilized to test crew ingress and a few simulated dry-dress rehearsal countdowns with the checklists. NASA astronauts John Bailey and Ann Moore were onboard Voyager for some of the tests. Soon the process was reversed and the boiler plate was removed. Eventually, the time came for STS-141’s launch into a late-summer night sky illuminating Voyager-Polaris and the fledgling LC-39C in golden light. This stay at the pad during the launch was partially a test as well, allowing observations of the stack’s ability to withstand parallel launch campaigns.
After a brief look-over, Voyager-Polaris crawled back to Highbay 2 to complete assembly and further inspection in order to pursue a wet dress rehearsal. While not overwhelmingly necessary for the system in general after the Kite-Ursa tests at Stennis, this was a new stack with orbital capability and tile-covered vehicles and NASA wanted to ensure the new vessels were up to the task. This also gave KSC teams ample opportunity to run a non-altered countdown, unlike Kite-Ursa where an altered timeline was utilized to fit the unique circumstances. With the stack readied, it once again made way out to LC-39B. After the long trek, the system made it and the crawler departed. Within the week the first runs were underway, starting again with a dry dress rehearsal. After a couple successful dry runs, the time came to start loading propellant. The on-site tanks had been filled in the week ahead by the reestablished rail line to the pad and NASA cautiously began the first wet dress rehearsal. This run went fine until, at the T-3:55 point the following engine gimbal test, a valve in Voyager’s #1 engine registered as open, which was not only not supposed to be open, but this reading was not supported by surrounding sensors. The onboard system immediately threw a flag and, knowing it would continue to do so, mission controllers stood down from the attempt the address the issue along with a minor hydrogen leak that had developed in the attachment between the ML and the pad umbilical that would provide fuel, power, and data connections to both the ML and the eventual transporter-erector launch mounts. A week passed and the system had been given another lookover and the issue with the valve sensor had been corrected by replacing a loose telemetry cable. The hydrogen leak had been determined as well; it seemed that the transition from slow to fast fill had forced the connector open by a near-immeasurable amount, allowing hydrogen to seep out faster than expected. This was resolved by replacing the sealing ring and applying a temporary fix by bracing the connector more in the meantime while a more permanent solution was developed by the pad system's contractor.
The second test ran all the way to the planned end point at T-11 seconds, just before the ROFI’s would start firing. Satisfied with their results, NASA brought the stack back to the VAB one last time to make final preparations for PTC-1, the first flight of LTBF. Late October rolled around and Voyager-Polaris made way for LC-39B once more. This time, all was in order for flight. NASA had planned a “quick trip around the block” for the mostly-autonomous first flight, stopping at the ISS for flight days 2 through 4 before departing for a several day free-flight, landing back at Edwards AFB on flight day 9. The weather looked clear in the coming week and NASA targeted October 29, 2013 hoping to reach the ISS just in time for Halloween.
Chapter 4: Dream Again
With LTBF finally aiming its sights skyward, Kennedy Space Center somehow became even more of a hive of activity. The horizontal transport system was taking shape and while not quite ready for modal testing, the two transporters were almost complete and still sat outside the nearly completed FPF buildings. Wide double rail paths now ran all the way along the inside of the Crawlerway and reinforced crossings had been constructed to allow the passage of the heavy Crawler transporters. This mass of activity was only heightened by the arrival of UCS Polaris and the Seabound boosters. The components would arrive together with Polaris riding inside the Pegasus barge towed behind MV Freedom Star and the boosters following behind onboard one of the recovery barges towed behind MV Liberty Star. The group was met by some of Port Canaveral’s emergency response vessels shortly before entering the port and the flanking vessels welcomed the space-bound vessels with their water cannons. The celebration of the group’s arrival did not end upon reaching Turning Basin, though, as NASA had allowed the public media partners to watch the arrival. Polaris would be unloaded first and slowly carried up towards the VAB and would stop short of the entrance to await the unloading of the boosters. Once Pegasus had been moved, the LRB’s were offloaded as well and joined Polaris at the VAB’s side entrance. After NASA and the media had gotten their images, the components were rolled inside to Highbay 4 for storage and pre-stacking processing and inspection.
Not too far behind them, Voyager had rolled out at Palmdale less than a week after the successful second ALT attempt of Kite. The orbiter was met with even more enthusiasm than her test article predecessor, leaving aboard a freshly retrofitted NASA 988. This C-5 was originally similar to the base model utilized by the Air Force and was the standby in case 944’s new tail assembly gave trouble in its own test flights. After the assembly proved effective, 988 received her new tail as well and returned to California to meet Voyager. During the departure ceremony, once again the media looked not only at the completed Voyager, but past her into the busy assembly hangar. This time they would see a nearly-completed Drifter and a somewhat underway Wayfarer. After the ceremony, 988 and Voyager flew out flanked by the adjacent airbase’s F-16’s. Due to the high profile nature of the flight, multiple “shifts” of escorts would assist and document the pair in their journey across the country. Eventually, after an uneventful flight, the two great crafts touched down at the Shuttle Landing Facility, which had just finished receiving a fresh coat of paint in preparation for the wild cadence that awaited the Space Coast. After leaving the runway, cranes assisted Voyager off of 988. Later, this task would be handled by a retrofitted version of the existing mate-demate device (identical to the one used for Kite at Dryden), however, as STS was still flying, NASA decided not to build a new structure only for the old device to become useless once STS soon ceased operations.
Now that all components had arrived, Polaris and the Seabound boosters came out of storage in Highbay 4 to meet the new orbiter at the front door. Another arrival event was held, this time with the full vehicle set for the first flight. The public was ecstatic, the first fully reusable rocket was together at last, all at the KSC. Once the vessels had their brief time in the spotlight, the vessels were rolled back inside for their final pre-assembly inspections. Stacking occurred rather quickly, aiming only to structurally complete the stack in order to run some modal testing by rolling the stack out and returning shortly after. After the bare-bones assembly had been completed, the stack crept out of Highbay 2 in a calm mid-August evening, hoping to catch the calm nighttime weather for the nearly half-a-day journey to LC-39B. The Voyager-Polaris stack and its Seabound tugs would not be alone in the roll-out, pausing as Endeavor on STS-141 rolled out just ahead of them, taking time for photos as they passed. The huge convoy consisting of Voyager-Polaris, STS-141, and all of the related support vehicles rolled out toward Complex 39 and the two vessels went their separate ways. STS-141 went straight on to LC-39A and Voyager-Polaris hung a left then a right on to LC-39B. In the late morning light, NASA sent out T-38’s to fly over and caught a marvelous photo of the two monumental vessels on their respective pads, but also something else. Groundwork could be seen in the background for a new member of the Complex 39 family, LC-39C, being built to assist the soon expected high flight rate of the LTBF program. All that existed of the new pad and the crawlerway extension so far was a flat patch of dirt where land had been cleared and leveled, but it was an immense sight of progress.
After arrival at LC-39B, Voyager-Polaris would undergo a multitude of tests at the pad. Most notably, a test involving the recently retrofitted Rotating Service Structure (RSS), which had be upsized to accommodate the longer payload bay (rendering it incapable of servicing the old Shuttle in the process), would see the structure wrap around the orbiter to provide cleanroom access to Voyager’s bay. A simple boilerplate test structure, made to the rough size and shape of a typical payload, would be installed in the payload bay and the RSS would rotate away for a few days while teams kept a careful eye on the loaded structure. One of the two new Crew Access Arms (CAA’s) was rotated into place and was utilized to test crew ingress and a few simulated dry-dress rehearsal countdowns with the checklists. NASA astronauts John Bailey and Ann Moore were onboard Voyager for some of the tests. Soon the process was reversed and the boiler plate was removed. Eventually, the time came for STS-141’s launch into a late-summer night sky illuminating Voyager-Polaris and the fledgling LC-39C in golden light. This stay at the pad during the launch was partially a test as well, allowing observations of the stack’s ability to withstand parallel launch campaigns.
After a brief look-over, Voyager-Polaris crawled back to Highbay 2 to complete assembly and further inspection in order to pursue a wet dress rehearsal. While not overwhelmingly necessary for the system in general after the Kite-Ursa tests at Stennis, this was a new stack with orbital capability and tile-covered vehicles and NASA wanted to ensure the new vessels were up to the task. This also gave KSC teams ample opportunity to run a non-altered countdown, unlike Kite-Ursa where an altered timeline was utilized to fit the unique circumstances. With the stack readied, it once again made way out to LC-39B. After the long trek, the system made it and the crawler departed. Within the week the first runs were underway, starting again with a dry dress rehearsal. After a couple successful dry runs, the time came to start loading propellant. The on-site tanks had been filled in the week ahead by the reestablished rail line to the pad and NASA cautiously began the first wet dress rehearsal. This run went fine until, at the T-3:55 point the following engine gimbal test, a valve in Voyager’s #1 engine registered as open, which was not only not supposed to be open, but this reading was not supported by surrounding sensors. The onboard system immediately threw a flag and, knowing it would continue to do so, mission controllers stood down from the attempt the address the issue along with a minor hydrogen leak that had developed in the attachment between the ML and the pad umbilical that would provide fuel, power, and data connections to both the ML and the eventual transporter-erector launch mounts. A week passed and the system had been given another lookover and the issue with the valve sensor had been corrected by replacing a loose telemetry cable. The hydrogen leak had been determined as well; it seemed that the transition from slow to fast fill had forced the connector open by a near-immeasurable amount, allowing hydrogen to seep out faster than expected. This was resolved by replacing the sealing ring and applying a temporary fix by bracing the connector more in the meantime while a more permanent solution was developed by the pad system's contractor.
The second test ran all the way to the planned end point at T-11 seconds, just before the ROFI’s would start firing. Satisfied with their results, NASA brought the stack back to the VAB one last time to make final preparations for PTC-1, the first flight of LTBF. Late October rolled around and Voyager-Polaris made way for LC-39B once more. This time, all was in order for flight. NASA had planned a “quick trip around the block” for the mostly-autonomous first flight, stopping at the ISS for flight days 2 through 4 before departing for a several day free-flight, landing back at Edwards AFB on flight day 9. The weather looked clear in the coming week and NASA targeted October 29, 2013 hoping to reach the ISS just in time for Halloween.
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marathag
Banned
Do you know of the Chrysler SERV, Single Stage to Orbit, proposed back in the original Shuttle development?
Massive aerospace engines, with 15X the thrust of the Shuttle main engines, but used 28 air breathing turbojet for the tail sitting return landing to pad?
Chapter 4-5 Interlude: Ascension
Ok, back again, got a little bit caught up in planning again, but I'm now back up to speed. Unfortunately, I didn't get back up to speed until yesterday, so today it'll be a reasonably sized interlude I was going to post earlier if I got caught up. I have a couple fun images to make up for it though, so today, you get to see the duality of my art capability with one that took me a week and another that took me five minutes and a post-it note. As is tradition, thanks to defconh3ck for keeping me doing things that are only mostly off the rails and enjoy the launch on PTC-1, the ascension of Phoenix:
Chapter 4-5 Interlude: Ascension
Mission patch for PTC-1
(00:00) "And launch commit. Onward Voyager-Polaris, show us the dream!"
(00:02) "Aft pyros disarmed. Abort zone A-1"
(00:23) "Voyager-Polaris, now rotated around to the correct azimuth, is continuing her ascension. We've got clear skies and calm winds here at the cape, so hopefully that brilliant plume will continue to grow taller and taller, we might even get a little rain out of it down here on the ground."
(00:53) "Voyager-Polaris now throttling back and approaching max-Q."
(01:02) “Max Q”
(01:15) “Throttle returning to normal.”
(02:00) "Voyager-Polaris, with boosters nearly depleted, is now coming up on booster shut-down and separation, this is what we've been holding our breath for, folks. Godspeed, Voyager-Polaris, we'll see you on the other side."
(02:15) "And there go the boosters, the plumes of their separator motors obscuring our view for a moment."
(02:19) "Visual contact! Voyager-Polaris, clear of booster separation, ascending through the smoke and powering onward!"
(02:24) “Nominal UCS fuel level.”
(02:32) "LRB-EU jettison, all transponders active, all valves closed."
(02:37) "The boosters, now split into their base components, are clear from each other and are being tracked by the recovery crews as they return to the Earth.
(02:58) "Voyager-Polaris is still going strong, no major issues at this time."
(03:28) “And there's the drogue deployment on all booster components."
(04:17) "Main chutes deployed and good inflation of the Cobra rafts."
(04:32) "Looks like the first catches of the day are safely on their way home, now slowly descending under their parachutes."
(04:56) "Voyager-Polaris, still on track."
(05:10) “The Cobra rafts are still holding, ready to protect the fragile engines from the Atlantic.”
(06:04) "We're now seeing the boosters setting down into the Atlantic, fast boats already rushing to secure their parachutes, welcome home, Seabounds."
(06:15) “With the boosters home, we can now turn our attention back to the stars of the show, still making their way uphill. Next up will be shutdown of the core engines.”
(07:50) “UCS MECO confirmed.”
(07:53) “The Polaris core has now shut down to ease the transition out of powered flight easier on the two vessels.”
(08:12) “MECO, Phoenix.”
(08:19) "We're almost there folks. With all RS-25E engines shut down, Voyager and Polaris now prepare to go their separate ways, hopefully not for the last time."
(08:30) "UCS separation."
(08:32) "Both vehicles now pulsing their reaction control thrusters to widen the gap between them. Soon, Polaris will deploy her four fins and reorient herself in preparation for her journey around the world in ninety minutes before returning back to us here at complex 39B."
(09:32) "Voyager now opening her payload bay doors and preparing to fire her OMS engines in a little while for a short duration at apogee to place the orbiter into her stable target orbit. We’ll take a quick break and be back in about ten minutes."
(24:19) “Good light.”
(24:28) “Shutdown, nominal orbit.”
(24:32) “We now enter another quiet period for both vehicles for about forty minutes. We will resume coverage just past the T+ one hour, right before entry interface for Polaris, which will be around the T+ one hour and ten minute mark. We’ll see you then, but for now enjoy the views out of Voyager’s payload bay as she approaches her first orbital sunset.”
(65:57) “This is Mission Control Houston, now at one hour and six minutes into the maiden flight of Let There Be Fire. As you can maybe tell from the images you’re seeing now, it's still a little dark up there, but Voyager is still healthy and continuing her journey to the International Space Station. Looks like Polaris is about to steal the show, though, now approaching entry interface, for those of us used to the STS program, this is where things start getting a bit off of the beaten path. The first thing we'll see is entry interface, which should come about any time around ten to twenty minutes from now. That will be when our descent gets properly underway.”
(70:15) “There we go, Polaris is now hitting entry interface. We expect some communications loss here soon so, good luck Polaris and we’ll see you when you get through.”
(70:27) “Alright, there’s plasma blackout, a period of expected communications loss from atmospheric plasma building up around the vehicle. We expect this to last just a little longer than normal due to the cylindrical shape of the core stage, which may trap more plasma behind it than a more typical entry vehicle shape, this should last about four minutes. While we wait, we should be getting some visual contact from one of our faithful WB-57 tracking aircraft sometime during this phase.”
(72:30) “There she is! Polaris has been locked onto by the WB-57 aircraft, now only visible as a streak of light over North America. If you’re here from the Midwest, weather permitting, you may be able to see her shooting by. The Southeastern US should be able to see her shortly, if you’re in one of those areas along the path, look up and let us know if you saw her!”
(89:22) “Next up, once the vehicle is through reentry and a little east of Florida, is what mission controllers have begun calling the “Stall-back”, where Polaris will slow down horizontally and reverse her flight direction from nose-first to engine-first flight back to the Kennedy Space Center.”
(100:42) “Looks like Polaris just hit the stall point and is now falling back to the Space Coast. Utilizing her flaps and body lift, generated by the surface area now exposed to oncoming air, she will now attempt to glide her way back to the cape.”
(104:27) “It’s a pretty quick fall for Polaris now, she’s already halfway down from her stall point, taking the shuttle’s long standing mantle of “flying brick” for herself. Next up, in about five minutes, is the wild part. We’ve never really tried a propulsive landing from orbit, much less with a vehicle this large, so we aren’t entirely sure what to expect. But we’re all crossing our fingers so hard our nails are turning blue down here on the ground. Come home safe for us, Polaris.”
(109:12) “Now getting quite close, Polaris is now getting ready to light up three of her RS-25 engines to shed what’s left of her velocity.”
(110:04) “And there we go! Engine start and Polaris is now attempting to power herself into a stable hover. And she’s upright and stable! Now shutting down her center engine and deploying her landing gear, Polaris is beginning to slowly traverse and drop down onto the concrete pad below her. Come on Polaris, you’re almost home! Touchdown, Polaris! Standing strong and becoming the first ground landing of the program! Polaris will now vent her tanks to bring herself to a safe and stable state for recovery crews to approach her and bring her first flight to a close. Hopefully, we’ll have a lot more of these spectacular landings to see going forward. On the other end of the mission, Voyager is still well on her way to the ISS. For now, though, that will conclude our commentated coverage until the rendezvous with the ISS. Until then, there will continue to be video coverage from the orbiter and we’ll be back here on Thursday, October 31st at 12:30 PM Central for live coverage of the approach and docking with the ISS. Congratulations to all involved with this incredible moment, the dream is alive once more!”
Chapter 4-5 Interlude: Ascension
Mission patch for PTC-1
(00:00) "And launch commit. Onward Voyager-Polaris, show us the dream!"
(00:02) "Aft pyros disarmed. Abort zone A-1"
(00:23) "Voyager-Polaris, now rotated around to the correct azimuth, is continuing her ascension. We've got clear skies and calm winds here at the cape, so hopefully that brilliant plume will continue to grow taller and taller, we might even get a little rain out of it down here on the ground."
(00:53) "Voyager-Polaris now throttling back and approaching max-Q."
(01:02) “Max Q”
(01:15) “Throttle returning to normal.”
(02:00) "Voyager-Polaris, with boosters nearly depleted, is now coming up on booster shut-down and separation, this is what we've been holding our breath for, folks. Godspeed, Voyager-Polaris, we'll see you on the other side."
(02:15) "And there go the boosters, the plumes of their separator motors obscuring our view for a moment."
(02:19) "Visual contact! Voyager-Polaris, clear of booster separation, ascending through the smoke and powering onward!"
(02:24) “Nominal UCS fuel level.”
(02:32) "LRB-EU jettison, all transponders active, all valves closed."
(02:37) "The boosters, now split into their base components, are clear from each other and are being tracked by the recovery crews as they return to the Earth.
(02:58) "Voyager-Polaris is still going strong, no major issues at this time."
(03:28) “And there's the drogue deployment on all booster components."
(04:17) "Main chutes deployed and good inflation of the Cobra rafts."
(04:32) "Looks like the first catches of the day are safely on their way home, now slowly descending under their parachutes."
(04:56) "Voyager-Polaris, still on track."
(05:10) “The Cobra rafts are still holding, ready to protect the fragile engines from the Atlantic.”
(06:04) "We're now seeing the boosters setting down into the Atlantic, fast boats already rushing to secure their parachutes, welcome home, Seabounds."
(06:15) “With the boosters home, we can now turn our attention back to the stars of the show, still making their way uphill. Next up will be shutdown of the core engines.”
(07:50) “UCS MECO confirmed.”
(07:53) “The Polaris core has now shut down to ease the transition out of powered flight easier on the two vessels.”
(08:12) “MECO, Phoenix.”
(08:19) "We're almost there folks. With all RS-25E engines shut down, Voyager and Polaris now prepare to go their separate ways, hopefully not for the last time."
(08:30) "UCS separation."
(08:32) "Both vehicles now pulsing their reaction control thrusters to widen the gap between them. Soon, Polaris will deploy her four fins and reorient herself in preparation for her journey around the world in ninety minutes before returning back to us here at complex 39B."
(09:32) "Voyager now opening her payload bay doors and preparing to fire her OMS engines in a little while for a short duration at apogee to place the orbiter into her stable target orbit. We’ll take a quick break and be back in about ten minutes."
(24:19) “Good light.”
(24:28) “Shutdown, nominal orbit.”
(24:32) “We now enter another quiet period for both vehicles for about forty minutes. We will resume coverage just past the T+ one hour, right before entry interface for Polaris, which will be around the T+ one hour and ten minute mark. We’ll see you then, but for now enjoy the views out of Voyager’s payload bay as she approaches her first orbital sunset.”
(65:57) “This is Mission Control Houston, now at one hour and six minutes into the maiden flight of Let There Be Fire. As you can maybe tell from the images you’re seeing now, it's still a little dark up there, but Voyager is still healthy and continuing her journey to the International Space Station. Looks like Polaris is about to steal the show, though, now approaching entry interface, for those of us used to the STS program, this is where things start getting a bit off of the beaten path. The first thing we'll see is entry interface, which should come about any time around ten to twenty minutes from now. That will be when our descent gets properly underway.”
(70:15) “There we go, Polaris is now hitting entry interface. We expect some communications loss here soon so, good luck Polaris and we’ll see you when you get through.”
(70:27) “Alright, there’s plasma blackout, a period of expected communications loss from atmospheric plasma building up around the vehicle. We expect this to last just a little longer than normal due to the cylindrical shape of the core stage, which may trap more plasma behind it than a more typical entry vehicle shape, this should last about four minutes. While we wait, we should be getting some visual contact from one of our faithful WB-57 tracking aircraft sometime during this phase.”
(72:30) “There she is! Polaris has been locked onto by the WB-57 aircraft, now only visible as a streak of light over North America. If you’re here from the Midwest, weather permitting, you may be able to see her shooting by. The Southeastern US should be able to see her shortly, if you’re in one of those areas along the path, look up and let us know if you saw her!”
(89:22) “Next up, once the vehicle is through reentry and a little east of Florida, is what mission controllers have begun calling the “Stall-back”, where Polaris will slow down horizontally and reverse her flight direction from nose-first to engine-first flight back to the Kennedy Space Center.”
(100:42) “Looks like Polaris just hit the stall point and is now falling back to the Space Coast. Utilizing her flaps and body lift, generated by the surface area now exposed to oncoming air, she will now attempt to glide her way back to the cape.”
(104:27) “It’s a pretty quick fall for Polaris now, she’s already halfway down from her stall point, taking the shuttle’s long standing mantle of “flying brick” for herself. Next up, in about five minutes, is the wild part. We’ve never really tried a propulsive landing from orbit, much less with a vehicle this large, so we aren’t entirely sure what to expect. But we’re all crossing our fingers so hard our nails are turning blue down here on the ground. Come home safe for us, Polaris.”
(109:12) “Now getting quite close, Polaris is now getting ready to light up three of her RS-25 engines to shed what’s left of her velocity.”
(110:04) “And there we go! Engine start and Polaris is now attempting to power herself into a stable hover. And she’s upright and stable! Now shutting down her center engine and deploying her landing gear, Polaris is beginning to slowly traverse and drop down onto the concrete pad below her. Come on Polaris, you’re almost home! Touchdown, Polaris! Standing strong and becoming the first ground landing of the program! Polaris will now vent her tanks to bring herself to a safe and stable state for recovery crews to approach her and bring her first flight to a close. Hopefully, we’ll have a lot more of these spectacular landings to see going forward. On the other end of the mission, Voyager is still well on her way to the ISS. For now, though, that will conclude our commentated coverage until the rendezvous with the ISS. Until then, there will continue to be video coverage from the orbiter and we’ll be back here on Thursday, October 31st at 12:30 PM Central for live coverage of the approach and docking with the ISS. Congratulations to all involved with this incredible moment, the dream is alive once more!”
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LET THERE BE FIRE INDEED! So stoked to see us get off the ground at last, tally ho ISS!
Chapter 5: Rising From The Ashes
Ok, whoops, I'm sick currently so I took off work and forgot it was Friday, twice, so I'm a bit late. I'm also slightly braindead so if something's sketchy (formatting wise like a missing word because I accidentally overwrote it while trying to italicize it, etc.) , I apologize. Thankfully I'm a little ahead of schedule again so at least the chapter wasn't written while I was two seconds from falling asleep. Thanks as always to defconh3ck and on with the show;
Chapter 5: Rising From The Ashes
Now cruising steadily towards the ISS, Voyager, at command of Houston, began to check over her systems. The checks revealed good news, Voyager had risen from her first launch unscathed. Most importantly, her heat shield, now pointed at the sun, registered no temperature anomalies across her many sensors, allowing mission controllers a much hoped for sigh of relief. Now with the almost two day free flight, mission control began to relax somewhat as the first hard part had passed. The next complication would be reentry at the end of the vessel’s almost two week sortie, but for now, the next task would be the, mostly proven, approach and docking operations with the ISS. Currently on station, would be NASA astronaut, Patrick Olson, launched on STS-141 and hoping to be the first astronaut aboard the mammoth orbiter in space. Olson had been one of the astronauts working closely with the LTBF program and was already slated for a crew mission, his upcoming experiences moving around and operating in the modernized cockpit of Voyager would be instrumental to the finalization of procedures prior to launching crews aboard the new system.
Voyager would soon come into view as a black speck against an illuminated horizon for the crew of the ISS, now watching excitedly from the cupola module. The orbiter would carefully drift her way into the approach ellipsoid on the morning of Halloween shooting telemetry data to both the station and TDRS. After a while of loitering the orbiter began her approach finally reaching the keep out sphere and holding before resuming her approach, skipping approach abort tests as they had already been completed aboard STS. Voyager halted at 50m and switched from autonomous to manual control as Olson and Houston took turns at the wheel. The vessel responded happily, though with a little expected delay from Houston's command. After some shuffling around, Voyager entered autonomous control once more and brought herself closer to the station's forward port and made it to soft-lock in, what most of the U.S. would consider, the early-afternoon. Soon the ports would move to hard-lock and crews aboard the station would begin to anxiously monitor the vestibule pressure.
Eventually the hatch would open and the crew would hold a ceremony, after which they would enter Voyager’s airlock and venture further into the lower deck. The crews were greeted by a relatively familiar looking deck and orbiter’s meager supply load. After a quick look, they then made their way to the flight deck, with Olson going first. The flight deck was drastically different in appearance from the orbiters of old, utilizing the advantages of modern equipment. After giving the people on the ground and their Russian counterparts a tour and unpacking their Halloween deliveries, including gifts from their families, the station crew would begin the two day process of trying out the orbiter’s systems on orbit. Overall, Voyager responded well to the crew’s inputs as they ran through various checklists and only minor changes to procedures were made. Eventually, the orbiter would finally depart, leaving her “first” flight crew behind on the ISS as she ventured back off into the void to spend several days in free flight.
Voyager’s free flight would be mostly uneventful, with exception of some minor communication issues arising between the vessel and Houston. The issue was traced back to a TDRS handover that was missed by a couple of the redundant flight computers which continued to insist on contacting the old satellite, now over the horizon, before being overruled by the other computers and passing the signal correctly. In the nine days of free flight, the orbiter would run through many procedures from orbit raising to remote use of the Canadarm2X (the new version of Canadarm2 tailored to Phoenix’s payload bay). Voyager successfully demonstrated that the new system was more than capable of carrying the mantle of the Space Shuttle.
With her flight nearing an end, Voyager rolled over and conducted a brief deorbit burn, placing her on a safe return to Earth. The control room at Houston would once again settle into silence as the orbiter neared entry interface. Ideally this should be nearly identical to the reentries they had all grown accustomed to, but the ever-present worry of the new vessel’s performance loomed over the room just as it always had before. Voyager would soon hit the 0.5G acceleration waypoint indicating that the orbiter was now well on her way into the fiery descent. She would soon begin to be enveloped by a trail of plasma as her heat shield continued to punch a hole through the upper atmosphere. Foregoing the usual communication loss of other vessels, just like her forbearer, Voyager continued transmitting her vital telemetry.
Just over the Pacific, the WB-57 aircraft had locked Voyager in its sights and began tracking the vessel through reentry. For the observation aircraft, the sight was familiar, a dot of light shooting overhead and beginning to bank for its S-turns. Soon, Voyager would clear entry interface and continue her fall towards the Edwards AFB. The familiar double sonic boom would hit California moments later as the orbiter dropped speed and altitude rapidly. Though she flew somewhat better than her predecessor, she was still a brick designed to create massive amounts of drag to bleed off speed as fast as possible. Voyager drew closer to the runway and was joined by T-38’s which rapidly moved to observe the orbiter for any immediate damages. The orbiter spiraled through the heading alignment cone and exited into the marked runway, setting down as gently as ever under her own control. Shortly after touching the runway, she deployed her drag chute and began to nose down, bringing her nose gear into contact with the ground as well. Voyager rolled to a stop and was soon swarmed by recovery personnel once she had wound down from her descent. Similar to Kite’s debut at White Sands, both media and public had arrived to see the product of almost a decade of work. Voyager was rolled off the runway and by the crowd to be lifted onto her transport back to the KSC, modified from the from their previous configuration for STS.
Her next mission would soon be upon her once she finished post-flight inspections. This next flight would demonstrate the capability that had driven the program’s development. Voyager would be outfitted with the necessary drop tanks for her OMS pods and be lofted by UCS Copernicus and the Lakebound boosters to lunar orbit. These components had recently arrived and begun their own preparations. Voyager herself would spend four-and-a-half months in preparation and although a new vehicle, her turnaround time benefited massively from lessons learned by her predecessors. The Voyager-Copernicus stack surrounded by the Lakebound “tugs” began to rise in the VAB, ready to break the barrier of LEO that had bound Phoenix’s precursor for so many years.
April of 2014 would soon roll around and the Voyager-Copernicus stack would inch out of the VAB and continue to LC-39B. The stack would pass by signs of old and new as it crept down the crawlerway. First, on the left was the first FPF facility and the accompanying horizontal transporters, now almost ready. The transporters were two parts, a strongback and the transporter. The full stack would be assembled and stored on the strongbacks and would be picked up and carried by the transporters, pulled by four EDM SD40-2 diesel locomotives, bought from Norfolk Southern, to the pad. The transporters would then verticate the structure and back away once the strongback had been successfully attached to the pad, plugging into the MLP’s modified umbilicals. The necessary systems were in place and nearly ready to support their first launch in the horizontal configuration, aimed to be the primary method for all payloads that could be horizontally integrated, enabling the hangar-to-launch in under 24 hours as the program was intended. Next on the glacial road trip was LC-39A, which had recently hosted the last STS mission, STS-142, seeing Atlantis fly for the last time. Now beginning its own refit, to match LC-39B, to support the new program, including preparation to extend or raise various components to accommodate the taller system. New to LC-39A, however, would be the umbilicals required for the other variants of the UCS-LV system, especially the upcoming Leviathan. Also new would be the addition of a second crew access arm to support the horizontal configuration which would need to be placed on the pad “backwards”, losing access to the umbilical and access arms. LC-39B would be getting these additions once LC-39A was ready to support launches once more. LC-39C, its construction undergoing just as drastic of a change, was still making progress with foundation work now well underway.
The mammoth stack would finally take up its temporary residence on LC-39B and prepare for launch. Voyager sat proud once more on the pad, this time looking a bit strange by comparison to her first flight. The drop tanks were an odd sight on an orbiter, but it was also hard for many to grasp the thought that this shuttle would be going all the way to the Moon. It would be a massive jump in capability from the STS program. But this jump would be met with an equally massive jump in power, between the new cryogenic boosters, the powered core and the added OMS fuel capacity in the drop tanks, this vessel held the power to potentially go even further. Though, this much reach was likely to never be utilized in a solo flight. Soon Voyager-Copernicus would get her chance, rising into the spring air and setting her sights on the far-off Moon.
Chapter 5: Rising From The Ashes
Now cruising steadily towards the ISS, Voyager, at command of Houston, began to check over her systems. The checks revealed good news, Voyager had risen from her first launch unscathed. Most importantly, her heat shield, now pointed at the sun, registered no temperature anomalies across her many sensors, allowing mission controllers a much hoped for sigh of relief. Now with the almost two day free flight, mission control began to relax somewhat as the first hard part had passed. The next complication would be reentry at the end of the vessel’s almost two week sortie, but for now, the next task would be the, mostly proven, approach and docking operations with the ISS. Currently on station, would be NASA astronaut, Patrick Olson, launched on STS-141 and hoping to be the first astronaut aboard the mammoth orbiter in space. Olson had been one of the astronauts working closely with the LTBF program and was already slated for a crew mission, his upcoming experiences moving around and operating in the modernized cockpit of Voyager would be instrumental to the finalization of procedures prior to launching crews aboard the new system.
Voyager would soon come into view as a black speck against an illuminated horizon for the crew of the ISS, now watching excitedly from the cupola module. The orbiter would carefully drift her way into the approach ellipsoid on the morning of Halloween shooting telemetry data to both the station and TDRS. After a while of loitering the orbiter began her approach finally reaching the keep out sphere and holding before resuming her approach, skipping approach abort tests as they had already been completed aboard STS. Voyager halted at 50m and switched from autonomous to manual control as Olson and Houston took turns at the wheel. The vessel responded happily, though with a little expected delay from Houston's command. After some shuffling around, Voyager entered autonomous control once more and brought herself closer to the station's forward port and made it to soft-lock in, what most of the U.S. would consider, the early-afternoon. Soon the ports would move to hard-lock and crews aboard the station would begin to anxiously monitor the vestibule pressure.
Eventually the hatch would open and the crew would hold a ceremony, after which they would enter Voyager’s airlock and venture further into the lower deck. The crews were greeted by a relatively familiar looking deck and orbiter’s meager supply load. After a quick look, they then made their way to the flight deck, with Olson going first. The flight deck was drastically different in appearance from the orbiters of old, utilizing the advantages of modern equipment. After giving the people on the ground and their Russian counterparts a tour and unpacking their Halloween deliveries, including gifts from their families, the station crew would begin the two day process of trying out the orbiter’s systems on orbit. Overall, Voyager responded well to the crew’s inputs as they ran through various checklists and only minor changes to procedures were made. Eventually, the orbiter would finally depart, leaving her “first” flight crew behind on the ISS as she ventured back off into the void to spend several days in free flight.
Voyager’s free flight would be mostly uneventful, with exception of some minor communication issues arising between the vessel and Houston. The issue was traced back to a TDRS handover that was missed by a couple of the redundant flight computers which continued to insist on contacting the old satellite, now over the horizon, before being overruled by the other computers and passing the signal correctly. In the nine days of free flight, the orbiter would run through many procedures from orbit raising to remote use of the Canadarm2X (the new version of Canadarm2 tailored to Phoenix’s payload bay). Voyager successfully demonstrated that the new system was more than capable of carrying the mantle of the Space Shuttle.
With her flight nearing an end, Voyager rolled over and conducted a brief deorbit burn, placing her on a safe return to Earth. The control room at Houston would once again settle into silence as the orbiter neared entry interface. Ideally this should be nearly identical to the reentries they had all grown accustomed to, but the ever-present worry of the new vessel’s performance loomed over the room just as it always had before. Voyager would soon hit the 0.5G acceleration waypoint indicating that the orbiter was now well on her way into the fiery descent. She would soon begin to be enveloped by a trail of plasma as her heat shield continued to punch a hole through the upper atmosphere. Foregoing the usual communication loss of other vessels, just like her forbearer, Voyager continued transmitting her vital telemetry.
Just over the Pacific, the WB-57 aircraft had locked Voyager in its sights and began tracking the vessel through reentry. For the observation aircraft, the sight was familiar, a dot of light shooting overhead and beginning to bank for its S-turns. Soon, Voyager would clear entry interface and continue her fall towards the Edwards AFB. The familiar double sonic boom would hit California moments later as the orbiter dropped speed and altitude rapidly. Though she flew somewhat better than her predecessor, she was still a brick designed to create massive amounts of drag to bleed off speed as fast as possible. Voyager drew closer to the runway and was joined by T-38’s which rapidly moved to observe the orbiter for any immediate damages. The orbiter spiraled through the heading alignment cone and exited into the marked runway, setting down as gently as ever under her own control. Shortly after touching the runway, she deployed her drag chute and began to nose down, bringing her nose gear into contact with the ground as well. Voyager rolled to a stop and was soon swarmed by recovery personnel once she had wound down from her descent. Similar to Kite’s debut at White Sands, both media and public had arrived to see the product of almost a decade of work. Voyager was rolled off the runway and by the crowd to be lifted onto her transport back to the KSC, modified from the from their previous configuration for STS.
Her next mission would soon be upon her once she finished post-flight inspections. This next flight would demonstrate the capability that had driven the program’s development. Voyager would be outfitted with the necessary drop tanks for her OMS pods and be lofted by UCS Copernicus and the Lakebound boosters to lunar orbit. These components had recently arrived and begun their own preparations. Voyager herself would spend four-and-a-half months in preparation and although a new vehicle, her turnaround time benefited massively from lessons learned by her predecessors. The Voyager-Copernicus stack surrounded by the Lakebound “tugs” began to rise in the VAB, ready to break the barrier of LEO that had bound Phoenix’s precursor for so many years.
April of 2014 would soon roll around and the Voyager-Copernicus stack would inch out of the VAB and continue to LC-39B. The stack would pass by signs of old and new as it crept down the crawlerway. First, on the left was the first FPF facility and the accompanying horizontal transporters, now almost ready. The transporters were two parts, a strongback and the transporter. The full stack would be assembled and stored on the strongbacks and would be picked up and carried by the transporters, pulled by four EDM SD40-2 diesel locomotives, bought from Norfolk Southern, to the pad. The transporters would then verticate the structure and back away once the strongback had been successfully attached to the pad, plugging into the MLP’s modified umbilicals. The necessary systems were in place and nearly ready to support their first launch in the horizontal configuration, aimed to be the primary method for all payloads that could be horizontally integrated, enabling the hangar-to-launch in under 24 hours as the program was intended. Next on the glacial road trip was LC-39A, which had recently hosted the last STS mission, STS-142, seeing Atlantis fly for the last time. Now beginning its own refit, to match LC-39B, to support the new program, including preparation to extend or raise various components to accommodate the taller system. New to LC-39A, however, would be the umbilicals required for the other variants of the UCS-LV system, especially the upcoming Leviathan. Also new would be the addition of a second crew access arm to support the horizontal configuration which would need to be placed on the pad “backwards”, losing access to the umbilical and access arms. LC-39B would be getting these additions once LC-39A was ready to support launches once more. LC-39C, its construction undergoing just as drastic of a change, was still making progress with foundation work now well underway.
The mammoth stack would finally take up its temporary residence on LC-39B and prepare for launch. Voyager sat proud once more on the pad, this time looking a bit strange by comparison to her first flight. The drop tanks were an odd sight on an orbiter, but it was also hard for many to grasp the thought that this shuttle would be going all the way to the Moon. It would be a massive jump in capability from the STS program. But this jump would be met with an equally massive jump in power, between the new cryogenic boosters, the powered core and the added OMS fuel capacity in the drop tanks, this vessel held the power to potentially go even further. Though, this much reach was likely to never be utilized in a solo flight. Soon Voyager-Copernicus would get her chance, rising into the spring air and setting her sights on the far-off Moon.
Sorry for being late today, I also won't be posting a chapter today. Between getting Covid at the beginning of the week (I'm over it now) and moving into college again tomorrow, (for which I was packing for until just a moment ago) I haven't had a chance or the mind to write up a chapter this week. Early next week, I may be able to get out a brief interlude to somewhat fill the gap. I hope to be rolling again next Friday, but the first week of classes may steamroll me so stay tuned.
Chapter 5-6 Interlude: 23 Minutes
Alright, I'm less dead than I thought. I'm still on the fence about getting out a chapter this Friday, but I'm nearly back on track, so if not Friday, there will be one next week. In the meantime, thanks to defconh3ck and enjoy this short interlude to make up for last week where everything is absolutely fine:
Chapter 5-6 Interlude: 23 Minutes
Mission patch for PTC-2 showing the Moon, Earth, and the eventual goal of Mars
“This is Phoenix mission control with 51 minutes into the flight of PTC-2, If you’re just joining us, we had a beautiful liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center over in Florida, with stage separation and UCS jettison happening on track and on schedule, placing Voyager onto her path to the Moon. As for right now, I’m afraid I may have some bad news, but first, we’ll get the good news, Voyager is continuing to perform as expected and remains on course as she continues on her path to skirt the edge of the Van Allen belt. As for Copernicus, though, after the deorbit burn conducted moments ago, flight controllers have now noticed a higher than expected rate of boil off for both the liquid hydrogen and oxygen propellants. Our data shows this rate has been slowly growing since reaching orbit, but it’s been under the radar for most of the flight. As of right now controllers are evaluating the issue and trying to determine if a safe return of the stage is still possible. We’ll come back with some more information in a few moments.”
“This is Phoenix mission control now at 56 minutes into the PTC-2 mission. Voyager continues to be nominal, but Copernicus is now edging dangerously close to the point of no return with no sign of her unexpected boil off slowing down anytime soon. This issue has been so far determined to only be boil off, which comes as a source both relief and dread as the vessel’s many systems have behaved correctly, but something may be fundamentally wrong with the core stage and, unfortunately, we may not get the chance to physically evaluate the issue back here on the ground. Mission controllers are currently looking at next steps with the stage currently continuing on its trajectory back to complex 39B and, as of now, they have about twenty-three minutes to find a way home for Copernicus, if they can. The clock is ticking, Godspeed, Copernicus.”
“OK folks, we’re now at T+65 minutes for the PTC-2 mission and 15 minutes from entry interface. Copernicus’s situation has not improved, in fact, we’re now past the point where we’re certain she lacks the fuel required to complete her landing burn. Mission controllers haven’t given up yet, though, they think there may be a way to get her down in one piece, she won’t be able to fly anymore, though. Currently, they’re looking at a way to drop the stage into the Atlantic using what fuel she has left, but we may not be able to make that kind of change to her flight software this late.”
“We’re now about 5 minutes from entry interface and we have some good news. Copernicus still lacks propellant sufficient for a normal landing, that hasn’t changed, unfortunately, but mission controllers believe they have found and, hopefully, implemented a solution to bring her safely into the Atlantic. We can’t make any large changes, but we can alter the numbers streaming into her flight computers. Controllers have altered two things, first is her landing location, this is a standard feature, so this really wasn’t much of an alteration, but she is now aiming for a typical “ditch” location just off the coast. Support vessels now wrapping up booster retrieval are being relieved of the recovery barges by tugs from Port Canaveral and being redirected towards this new landing site. Second, controllers have implemented an alteration to Copernicus’s radar altimeter, her flight computers currently believe the vessel to be 500 feet above her real altitude. That altitude difference won’t make much difference this far up, but it will once we start closing in on the landing site. 500 feet is the typical height of the hover stage of the landing burn, the point at which the vessel would bring her velocity to roughly zero before descending onto the landing pad. While we don’t have the fuel for a full landing, we believe we may have enough to achieve this hover, which will now be a mere few feet above the water, hopefully setting her somewhat gently into the Atlantic just before, or as, she runs dry. She won’t be airworthy again and certainly her engines won’t fly again, but we will get a complete core stage back that we can study for faults, giving us a better picture of what could have caused this problem and how we can fix it. We’ll be waiting for you Copernicus, come home safe.”
Copernicus, powered through reentry just as Polaris before her, seemingly unaware of her destination. She slowly turned her nose up, coming to a vertical position, stalling east of Florida, and beginning the quick fall back to the coast. Support ships were waiting at the edge of the recovery area, fast boats already being lowered down to the water, waiting for their moment to descend upon the stage and stabilize her on the waves. Copernicus, descended through the clouds and faithfully executed her deceleration burn, uprighting herself and coming to a stop just over the water’s surface, shoving it out of the way as her center engine shut down. She made it to the stopping point just a few feet above the surface and began to start a typical descent, but her engines choked, her fuel now depleted, and dropped into the waiting Atlantic. Copernicus bobbed upright for a few seconds before leaning and quickly falling, with her nose impacting the waves. The fast boats were released and sped towards the battered core, support vessels trailing behind.
Copernicus’s RS-25 nozzles were crumpled and shattered, tiles were missing from her fall, and two fins were laying limp, having broken free of their locks. Soon support craft surrounded her, strapping inflatable rafts meant for the boosters to her in an attempt to keep her above the surface and stable. After her long and eventful flight, Copernicus was home at last, not as anyone had hoped, but she was home.
Chapter 5-6 Interlude: 23 Minutes
Mission patch for PTC-2 showing the Moon, Earth, and the eventual goal of Mars
“This is Phoenix mission control with 51 minutes into the flight of PTC-2, If you’re just joining us, we had a beautiful liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center over in Florida, with stage separation and UCS jettison happening on track and on schedule, placing Voyager onto her path to the Moon. As for right now, I’m afraid I may have some bad news, but first, we’ll get the good news, Voyager is continuing to perform as expected and remains on course as she continues on her path to skirt the edge of the Van Allen belt. As for Copernicus, though, after the deorbit burn conducted moments ago, flight controllers have now noticed a higher than expected rate of boil off for both the liquid hydrogen and oxygen propellants. Our data shows this rate has been slowly growing since reaching orbit, but it’s been under the radar for most of the flight. As of right now controllers are evaluating the issue and trying to determine if a safe return of the stage is still possible. We’ll come back with some more information in a few moments.”
“This is Phoenix mission control now at 56 minutes into the PTC-2 mission. Voyager continues to be nominal, but Copernicus is now edging dangerously close to the point of no return with no sign of her unexpected boil off slowing down anytime soon. This issue has been so far determined to only be boil off, which comes as a source both relief and dread as the vessel’s many systems have behaved correctly, but something may be fundamentally wrong with the core stage and, unfortunately, we may not get the chance to physically evaluate the issue back here on the ground. Mission controllers are currently looking at next steps with the stage currently continuing on its trajectory back to complex 39B and, as of now, they have about twenty-three minutes to find a way home for Copernicus, if they can. The clock is ticking, Godspeed, Copernicus.”
“OK folks, we’re now at T+65 minutes for the PTC-2 mission and 15 minutes from entry interface. Copernicus’s situation has not improved, in fact, we’re now past the point where we’re certain she lacks the fuel required to complete her landing burn. Mission controllers haven’t given up yet, though, they think there may be a way to get her down in one piece, she won’t be able to fly anymore, though. Currently, they’re looking at a way to drop the stage into the Atlantic using what fuel she has left, but we may not be able to make that kind of change to her flight software this late.”
“We’re now about 5 minutes from entry interface and we have some good news. Copernicus still lacks propellant sufficient for a normal landing, that hasn’t changed, unfortunately, but mission controllers believe they have found and, hopefully, implemented a solution to bring her safely into the Atlantic. We can’t make any large changes, but we can alter the numbers streaming into her flight computers. Controllers have altered two things, first is her landing location, this is a standard feature, so this really wasn’t much of an alteration, but she is now aiming for a typical “ditch” location just off the coast. Support vessels now wrapping up booster retrieval are being relieved of the recovery barges by tugs from Port Canaveral and being redirected towards this new landing site. Second, controllers have implemented an alteration to Copernicus’s radar altimeter, her flight computers currently believe the vessel to be 500 feet above her real altitude. That altitude difference won’t make much difference this far up, but it will once we start closing in on the landing site. 500 feet is the typical height of the hover stage of the landing burn, the point at which the vessel would bring her velocity to roughly zero before descending onto the landing pad. While we don’t have the fuel for a full landing, we believe we may have enough to achieve this hover, which will now be a mere few feet above the water, hopefully setting her somewhat gently into the Atlantic just before, or as, she runs dry. She won’t be airworthy again and certainly her engines won’t fly again, but we will get a complete core stage back that we can study for faults, giving us a better picture of what could have caused this problem and how we can fix it. We’ll be waiting for you Copernicus, come home safe.”
Copernicus, powered through reentry just as Polaris before her, seemingly unaware of her destination. She slowly turned her nose up, coming to a vertical position, stalling east of Florida, and beginning the quick fall back to the coast. Support ships were waiting at the edge of the recovery area, fast boats already being lowered down to the water, waiting for their moment to descend upon the stage and stabilize her on the waves. Copernicus, descended through the clouds and faithfully executed her deceleration burn, uprighting herself and coming to a stop just over the water’s surface, shoving it out of the way as her center engine shut down. She made it to the stopping point just a few feet above the surface and began to start a typical descent, but her engines choked, her fuel now depleted, and dropped into the waiting Atlantic. Copernicus bobbed upright for a few seconds before leaning and quickly falling, with her nose impacting the waves. The fast boats were released and sped towards the battered core, support vessels trailing behind.
Copernicus’s RS-25 nozzles were crumpled and shattered, tiles were missing from her fall, and two fins were laying limp, having broken free of their locks. Soon support craft surrounded her, strapping inflatable rafts meant for the boosters to her in an attempt to keep her above the surface and stable. After her long and eventful flight, Copernicus was home at last, not as anyone had hoped, but she was home.
Chapter 6: Back in Business
Alright this semester might only mostly suck, but it is time for a return to flight in the wake of Copernicus taking a small drink and some other steps toward the next flight, so thanks to defconh3ck for the assistance in these developments and on we go:
Chapter 6: Back in Business
Copernicus bobbed along assisted back to Port Canaveral between two tug boats and towed by MV Freedom Star. Visitors to Jetty Park and the rest of the port looked on as the battered Copernicus floated slowly by. The tugs pushed the stage up to a dock and cranes carefully fished it out of the water. The cranes held Copernicus over the edge of the concrete letting all the water drain out of her before swinging her over the ground to lower her onto a set of transporters that had only just arrived. Copernicus was hurried back to the VAB to begin inspection with no shortage of onlooker attention. NASA would maintain the accident was of little lasting concern, this was a test program after all, they would especially stated that it would be best to wait before jumping to conclusions. This didn’t stop some from beginning to doubt the system, but others would state the contrary, so far the system had only two flights, it was simply too soon to say. In any case, NASA began to work out where to go now, but it would take the partial completion of the investigation into Copernicus to know for sure. In the meantime, Voyager was still in the ring, so far nothing serious had arisen in the vessel and she continued her three day cruise to her short capture burn around the Moon.
Voyager’s capture burn would go as planned, placing the orbiter into a highly eccentric orbit which would bring her close to the lunar surface. The first pass would bring a photo in the works since 2005, Earthrise from Voyager’s flight deck. Combined with Voyager’s continued great health, the program appeared so close to returning humans to the Lunar surface already. Countering engineer’s concerns, the drop tanks were holding well and keeping the OMS engines fed for the trip so far. Also performing as hoped was the new solar-electric power system that had replaced the fuel cells, operating from a solar array mounted at the front of the payload bay in a similar arrangement to the Ku-band antenna, only on the other side. The system had functioned well on PTC-1 as well, but it was even more vital here. Over the course of a week, Voyager would help mission controllers refine lunar operations, especially communication through the Deep Space Network, a new operation in regards to a shuttle. Meanwhile, her MPLM collected data to guide mission planners in future operations. One of the many experiments aimed at future operations actually sat outside the MPLM. Dozens of swatches of potential space suit sections were placed in the payload bay where they could be exposed to the intense environment. Building on lessons learned from the suits used both around the ISS and in the Apollo missions, hoping to improve functionality and safety of the new suits with these materials.
Eventually, the time came to return and Voyager lit her OMS engines again, sending her into a return trajectory to Earth that would involve seven passes over the course of six days to slowly bring the orbiter down to a safe speed to descend through to Edwards AFB on the final pass. Voyager would orient herself to point towards the now oncoming Earth and sent the command to separate her, now purged, drop tanks. The tanks released their hold downs and fired their small separator motors, clearing them from the vehicle and lowering their orbit a little more and ensuring a safe disposal into the atmosphere. She would soon transition from the DSN back to TDRS as she passed under the relay network’s purview. Mission controllers would hold their breath as Voyager closed her bay doors and made her first pass. She would soon rise back out of the atmosphere, regaining a temporarily lost connection to TDRS and reopening her payload bay doors for the first go around. After a positive health check of the orbiter, Voyager would swing around and repeat the process five more times, slowly inching her orbit lower and lower. Eventually, the final stretch was upon her, hopefully this pass would be closer to a normal reentry now that her orbit had been dropped to a more typical altitude. One last time, Voyager opened her payload bay to allow her radiators to function, but she would not deploy her solar array or Ku-band antenna. As she made her just over 100-minute final orbit, observation aircraft made their way to their respective places for the final time to watch the orbiter hurdle in for landing. With exception of being slightly higher energy, Voyager made an excellent repeat of her performance on her previous mission. She lazily swung through her S-turns and brought herself closer to Edwards with the ever-familiar sonic booms, eventually bringing her legs down onto the marked runway in the desert. Her drogue chute weakly popped out and eventually deployed fully later than hoped. Thankfully with the long runway allowed the orbiter had the room to slow down safely. Later the issue would be discovered as a weak detonation of the deployment charge caused by additional resistance from trapped heat around the wiring only now arriving after slowly working through the heat tiles.
The aftermath of the mission was a mixed bag. On the one hand, the mission had been completed successfully, giving NASA plenty of data to work with. On the other, the loss of a brand new core stage and the weak drogue deploy were a bit worrying, though to very different degrees. NASA maintained that the loss, while certainly not hoped for, wasn’t entirely out of the question for the fledgling system and the lasting effects would hopefully be minimal. The parachute was also noted as being a relatively simple fix. Either way, NASA would suspend flight operations for about a month while they mulled over the data and the watered down Copernicus. It didn’t take long for NASA, in cooperation with the other governmental agencies, to narrow down the problem, the boil off was just faster than projected, not at all assisted by this stage's prolonged direct exposure to the sun, something absent from Polaris’s mostly night flight. Following a report that Copernicus had done everything as correctly as she could have and the issue was out of her hands, NASA partially lifted the suspension, still keeping the hold on high energy flights until corrective measures, yet to be determined, could be implemented. Eventually, corrective measures would be found, the “chandelier” landing tanks would be moved from their place, up against the tank wall to hanging from the center. The added stability from the offset center of mass was noted from the first two flights as negligible, its help would not make up for a malfunctioning fin or otherwise. Additionally, better, and heavier, insulating materials would be used and the mass limit for high energy payloads would be somewhat lowered to provide a larger propellant buffer for boil off. By an extreme stroke of luck, UCS Vega was entering the stage of production at Michaud where these changes could be inserted without major disruption and minimal backtracking, after a brief hold on production to design the new configuration, the altered tank would be installed. Once Vega would arrive at KSC, NASA planned to send Tauri back for the retrofit of the tanks, followed by Polaris once Tauri had returned.
The loss of Copernicus had also managed to revive something from the initial planning stages back in 2005. So far, UCS had two “blocks”; Block 1, the “expendable” or the later “special request” version and Block 2, the primary version with propulsive landing. Besides that, however, there initially existed another option for the Block 2, a flyback stage. The current Block 2 had won out with the possibly higher payload up mass from the obvious lack of having wings to weigh it down. With the potentially permanent reduction of the capability of Block 2, however, the flyback variant, now being labeled as Block 3, was back on the table. It offered an advantage that only increased as the stage went farther away from the Earth. While Block 2 would need more and more propellant to sate the inevitable boil off, even with the boost back burn to return the stage home sooner (which itself dug into propellant margins), Block 3 would only need propellant for the boost back burn. Block 2 would still be the king of lower altitude flights, with the short flight time meaning less of a boil off buffer required and lacking the "dead weight" of wings, and, with restrictions, it could still handle some higher flights, but Block 3 would restore most of the lost up mass capacity to farther destinations. This would take time in development for certain, but thankfully the temporary solutions put in place wouldn’t suffocate the program and amended plans would soon begin to march onward.
Speaking of which, Voyager was now getting her first partner. Drifter arrived while Voyager was cleaned up after her long ride. While Voyager got a heavy inspection, Drifter began preparations to carry out the grand honor of the first crewed flight of the system under the PTC-3 mission, aiming for a six day LEO free flight. Over in California, another orbiter was almost done as well. Work on Wayfarer was winding down as the final touches were being made. Next door, Traveler was halfway through construction herself, soon hoping to bring the Phoenix fleet up to four. Enough vehicles were arriving to set up the rapid cadence always envisioned for such a system. Also in support of this goal, the horizontal transporters had finally been completed along with the two FPF’s.
Groundwork was also starting to roll on an adjacent facility, the Emergency Call Orbiter (ECO) facility, which would be similar in style to the FPF’s, instead having bays to support two Phoenix stacks horizontally and a workspace in between. This facility would keep one stack in a “ready to go” state should an emergency ever arise, requiring the rapid launch of another orbiter. Ideally, this setup would minimize disruption to other ongoing operations in the midst of whatever chaos arises while scrambling a stack, also aiming to lower the risk of “rushing” a stack to the pad as it would already be ready. Realistically, though, the ECO program was an elaborate excuse to conduct regular maintenance on the various vehicles of the program without inconsistently scheduled maintenance interrupting an otherwise busy cadence. The processing flow would be somewhat complicated, starting with the new stack coming in for ECO service being “field stripped” having all removable sub-assemblies removed, such as engines, OMS pods, airlocks, etc. Once those were taken off, the components removed from the previous ECO stack from when it entered service, now inspected and repaired as needed, would be installed on the incoming stack. When the fresh components were installed, the former ECO stack leaves, reentering active service and the new stack goes “on duty” while its former components are inspected and repaired for the next stack.
Moving back to the FPF’s, FPF-1 was getting ready to host its first mission, UTS-1 which would be the first of the “buffer manifest”, a group of missions that NASA would need to fly and could not risk missing due to a late launcher, such as cargo resupplies or crew rotations for the ISS. These missions were slated to fly on STS or UTS, in order to either give Phoenix something to do for early flights to build confidence in the system, or keep these needed missions running on STS if Phoenix ran behind schedule as it predictably was from the landing gear redesign. There were originally a total of nine missions, with four already being taken by STS in Phoenix’s absence. Voyager, once she had been inspected to within an inch of her life, would venture out once more for the first of these remaining flights, carrying seven crew and cargo on an ISS cargo resupply run. It would be a seemingly slow start, but among these first flights, the program would show no lack of ambition, aiming to soon take the first of many steps towards Mars.
Chapter 6: Back in Business
Copernicus bobbed along assisted back to Port Canaveral between two tug boats and towed by MV Freedom Star. Visitors to Jetty Park and the rest of the port looked on as the battered Copernicus floated slowly by. The tugs pushed the stage up to a dock and cranes carefully fished it out of the water. The cranes held Copernicus over the edge of the concrete letting all the water drain out of her before swinging her over the ground to lower her onto a set of transporters that had only just arrived. Copernicus was hurried back to the VAB to begin inspection with no shortage of onlooker attention. NASA would maintain the accident was of little lasting concern, this was a test program after all, they would especially stated that it would be best to wait before jumping to conclusions. This didn’t stop some from beginning to doubt the system, but others would state the contrary, so far the system had only two flights, it was simply too soon to say. In any case, NASA began to work out where to go now, but it would take the partial completion of the investigation into Copernicus to know for sure. In the meantime, Voyager was still in the ring, so far nothing serious had arisen in the vessel and she continued her three day cruise to her short capture burn around the Moon.
Voyager’s capture burn would go as planned, placing the orbiter into a highly eccentric orbit which would bring her close to the lunar surface. The first pass would bring a photo in the works since 2005, Earthrise from Voyager’s flight deck. Combined with Voyager’s continued great health, the program appeared so close to returning humans to the Lunar surface already. Countering engineer’s concerns, the drop tanks were holding well and keeping the OMS engines fed for the trip so far. Also performing as hoped was the new solar-electric power system that had replaced the fuel cells, operating from a solar array mounted at the front of the payload bay in a similar arrangement to the Ku-band antenna, only on the other side. The system had functioned well on PTC-1 as well, but it was even more vital here. Over the course of a week, Voyager would help mission controllers refine lunar operations, especially communication through the Deep Space Network, a new operation in regards to a shuttle. Meanwhile, her MPLM collected data to guide mission planners in future operations. One of the many experiments aimed at future operations actually sat outside the MPLM. Dozens of swatches of potential space suit sections were placed in the payload bay where they could be exposed to the intense environment. Building on lessons learned from the suits used both around the ISS and in the Apollo missions, hoping to improve functionality and safety of the new suits with these materials.
Eventually, the time came to return and Voyager lit her OMS engines again, sending her into a return trajectory to Earth that would involve seven passes over the course of six days to slowly bring the orbiter down to a safe speed to descend through to Edwards AFB on the final pass. Voyager would orient herself to point towards the now oncoming Earth and sent the command to separate her, now purged, drop tanks. The tanks released their hold downs and fired their small separator motors, clearing them from the vehicle and lowering their orbit a little more and ensuring a safe disposal into the atmosphere. She would soon transition from the DSN back to TDRS as she passed under the relay network’s purview. Mission controllers would hold their breath as Voyager closed her bay doors and made her first pass. She would soon rise back out of the atmosphere, regaining a temporarily lost connection to TDRS and reopening her payload bay doors for the first go around. After a positive health check of the orbiter, Voyager would swing around and repeat the process five more times, slowly inching her orbit lower and lower. Eventually, the final stretch was upon her, hopefully this pass would be closer to a normal reentry now that her orbit had been dropped to a more typical altitude. One last time, Voyager opened her payload bay to allow her radiators to function, but she would not deploy her solar array or Ku-band antenna. As she made her just over 100-minute final orbit, observation aircraft made their way to their respective places for the final time to watch the orbiter hurdle in for landing. With exception of being slightly higher energy, Voyager made an excellent repeat of her performance on her previous mission. She lazily swung through her S-turns and brought herself closer to Edwards with the ever-familiar sonic booms, eventually bringing her legs down onto the marked runway in the desert. Her drogue chute weakly popped out and eventually deployed fully later than hoped. Thankfully with the long runway allowed the orbiter had the room to slow down safely. Later the issue would be discovered as a weak detonation of the deployment charge caused by additional resistance from trapped heat around the wiring only now arriving after slowly working through the heat tiles.
The aftermath of the mission was a mixed bag. On the one hand, the mission had been completed successfully, giving NASA plenty of data to work with. On the other, the loss of a brand new core stage and the weak drogue deploy were a bit worrying, though to very different degrees. NASA maintained that the loss, while certainly not hoped for, wasn’t entirely out of the question for the fledgling system and the lasting effects would hopefully be minimal. The parachute was also noted as being a relatively simple fix. Either way, NASA would suspend flight operations for about a month while they mulled over the data and the watered down Copernicus. It didn’t take long for NASA, in cooperation with the other governmental agencies, to narrow down the problem, the boil off was just faster than projected, not at all assisted by this stage's prolonged direct exposure to the sun, something absent from Polaris’s mostly night flight. Following a report that Copernicus had done everything as correctly as she could have and the issue was out of her hands, NASA partially lifted the suspension, still keeping the hold on high energy flights until corrective measures, yet to be determined, could be implemented. Eventually, corrective measures would be found, the “chandelier” landing tanks would be moved from their place, up against the tank wall to hanging from the center. The added stability from the offset center of mass was noted from the first two flights as negligible, its help would not make up for a malfunctioning fin or otherwise. Additionally, better, and heavier, insulating materials would be used and the mass limit for high energy payloads would be somewhat lowered to provide a larger propellant buffer for boil off. By an extreme stroke of luck, UCS Vega was entering the stage of production at Michaud where these changes could be inserted without major disruption and minimal backtracking, after a brief hold on production to design the new configuration, the altered tank would be installed. Once Vega would arrive at KSC, NASA planned to send Tauri back for the retrofit of the tanks, followed by Polaris once Tauri had returned.
The loss of Copernicus had also managed to revive something from the initial planning stages back in 2005. So far, UCS had two “blocks”; Block 1, the “expendable” or the later “special request” version and Block 2, the primary version with propulsive landing. Besides that, however, there initially existed another option for the Block 2, a flyback stage. The current Block 2 had won out with the possibly higher payload up mass from the obvious lack of having wings to weigh it down. With the potentially permanent reduction of the capability of Block 2, however, the flyback variant, now being labeled as Block 3, was back on the table. It offered an advantage that only increased as the stage went farther away from the Earth. While Block 2 would need more and more propellant to sate the inevitable boil off, even with the boost back burn to return the stage home sooner (which itself dug into propellant margins), Block 3 would only need propellant for the boost back burn. Block 2 would still be the king of lower altitude flights, with the short flight time meaning less of a boil off buffer required and lacking the "dead weight" of wings, and, with restrictions, it could still handle some higher flights, but Block 3 would restore most of the lost up mass capacity to farther destinations. This would take time in development for certain, but thankfully the temporary solutions put in place wouldn’t suffocate the program and amended plans would soon begin to march onward.
Speaking of which, Voyager was now getting her first partner. Drifter arrived while Voyager was cleaned up after her long ride. While Voyager got a heavy inspection, Drifter began preparations to carry out the grand honor of the first crewed flight of the system under the PTC-3 mission, aiming for a six day LEO free flight. Over in California, another orbiter was almost done as well. Work on Wayfarer was winding down as the final touches were being made. Next door, Traveler was halfway through construction herself, soon hoping to bring the Phoenix fleet up to four. Enough vehicles were arriving to set up the rapid cadence always envisioned for such a system. Also in support of this goal, the horizontal transporters had finally been completed along with the two FPF’s.
Groundwork was also starting to roll on an adjacent facility, the Emergency Call Orbiter (ECO) facility, which would be similar in style to the FPF’s, instead having bays to support two Phoenix stacks horizontally and a workspace in between. This facility would keep one stack in a “ready to go” state should an emergency ever arise, requiring the rapid launch of another orbiter. Ideally, this setup would minimize disruption to other ongoing operations in the midst of whatever chaos arises while scrambling a stack, also aiming to lower the risk of “rushing” a stack to the pad as it would already be ready. Realistically, though, the ECO program was an elaborate excuse to conduct regular maintenance on the various vehicles of the program without inconsistently scheduled maintenance interrupting an otherwise busy cadence. The processing flow would be somewhat complicated, starting with the new stack coming in for ECO service being “field stripped” having all removable sub-assemblies removed, such as engines, OMS pods, airlocks, etc. Once those were taken off, the components removed from the previous ECO stack from when it entered service, now inspected and repaired as needed, would be installed on the incoming stack. When the fresh components were installed, the former ECO stack leaves, reentering active service and the new stack goes “on duty” while its former components are inspected and repaired for the next stack.
Moving back to the FPF’s, FPF-1 was getting ready to host its first mission, UTS-1 which would be the first of the “buffer manifest”, a group of missions that NASA would need to fly and could not risk missing due to a late launcher, such as cargo resupplies or crew rotations for the ISS. These missions were slated to fly on STS or UTS, in order to either give Phoenix something to do for early flights to build confidence in the system, or keep these needed missions running on STS if Phoenix ran behind schedule as it predictably was from the landing gear redesign. There were originally a total of nine missions, with four already being taken by STS in Phoenix’s absence. Voyager, once she had been inspected to within an inch of her life, would venture out once more for the first of these remaining flights, carrying seven crew and cargo on an ISS cargo resupply run. It would be a seemingly slow start, but among these first flights, the program would show no lack of ambition, aiming to soon take the first of many steps towards Mars.
How we build ourselves up from the aftermath of disasters is so crucial, and I'm really excited to see what you have in store. Having the Emergency Call Orbiter as an available tool is a really nice touch as well, looking forward to seeing how you explore this further!
Thanks! A Lunar station has definitely been running through my mind and I won't say it's completely out yet because, frankly, I haven't completely decided yet. That being said, I do have some later plans that may get close to that mark which you might find interesting
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Chapter 7: Rolling Start
Back again, this week has slowed me down a small amount, so there exists the possibility there may not be a chapter next week. I'm maybe only a day behind, but if next week is similar it may put me yet another behind, so we'll have to wait and see, I suppose. In the meantime, though, thanks to defconh3ck and I hope you have some fun with this week's chapter!
Chapter 7: Rolling Start
Mid-2014 rolled around and Drifter prepared to make her sprint for orbit as she was stacked on the Tauri core stage with the Baybound LRB’s. Much like the first flight, it would be an all new set for the mission. The next mission, also starting the early stages of preparation in FPF-1, would face a mild dilemma, however. While less nervous about the reuse of the orbiters for their familiarity or the boosters that didn’t have to put up with the harsh environment of reentry, NASA was wary about reusing the UCS system this early, especially with crew. Polaris would have to step up to the plate after Vega was held back at Michoud for retrofitting. After over a year of inspection and some small alterations, Polaris seemed to take the flight and return well. Just to be safe, however, many of Polaris’s “primary” components (components critical to launch, not reuse) had been removed and replaced while the old components made their way across the country to their various testing locations to demonstrate their continued ability to function in less risky environments. Refurbishment was something NASA would hope to avoid as much as possible in the future, but for this point, they were still somewhat wary of that level of reuse. That being said, it would come soon enough anyway, only moving up the manifest by one flight and NASA would make the exception, albeit with heavy review of the veteran UCS.
Back across the crawlerway, Drifter-Tauri started her slow roll out of the VAB and on towards a July launch attempt. The space-bound stack would pass some items that would come as a bittersweet sight. Still rolling out of the back of the VAB, the crawler would pass pile after pile of hardware gutted from the OPF’s as the KSC started converting the rest of them to support the incoming fleet. The STS days were coming to a close, the program had no more scheduled flights, but NASA, in an ineffective attempt to bluff a “backup plan” for public reassurance, would state that the orbiters, along with some other spare hardware, would not completely retire just yet, in case Phoenix ground to a screeching halt during the first few buffer flights, but afterwards that would be the end for certain. With no major hold-ups on the horizon, though, it looked as though this was it for the old guard and many would say their goodbyes to the marvelous vessels that had brought the future within reach of its successors, flown by those they had inspired for so many years.
Drifter-Tauri’s time would soon come in the mid-July heat, her crew settled in and anxiously counting the seconds. In both the Firing Room and Houston, the air of excitement that loomed over the previous two launches had been somewhat diluted with unease. Though the addition of crew shouldn’t change anything major, the teams had plenty of practice, the procedures had been refined, they even had a couple full launches under their belts. By all accounts, this should be easier, but the inevitable worries of crew settled in anyway. Countdown would go smoothly and the moment of ignition would come without a hitch. The crew would shout with excitement as the stack lurched off the pad and picked up speed.
Upon reaching orbit, the crew got up and peered out at the world below them. They would soon give their remarks of their wonderful journey, with Shuttle veteran, Amy Bryant, stating the flight was certainly a bit smoother than her last trip. After remarks, they would settle in for their first rest period, ready to start their testing of the new vessel in free flight. With the aid of notes taken by the PTC-1’s “crew”, the mission would pass with ease and with a safe return to the Kennedy Space Center, the crew was met with fanfare. It would be the first time crew could return to the SLF since STS ceased operations, which granted, hadn’t been long, but it would still be a well received milestone.
NASA would immediately get hard at work with the remaining red tape to place the system into active service. In the meantime, the FPF’s were prepping for their first flight, with the first horizontal stacking of Voyager-Polaris, together again atop the Lakebound tugs. The rail transporters had both received names as well, with Transporter-1 receiving the name Endurance and Transporter-2 receiving the name Resolute. Both were named after ships that had once carried explorers to the far reaches of the Earth in history just as they would carry these vessels on the first step of their great voyages. The newly christened Resolute made way to LC-39B carrying an empty strongback to conduct some various modal testing during the wait for UTS-1. After depositing the strongback and launch plate, Resolute backed down to the bottom of the ramp and looked on as the new structure underwent testing, including rapidly pulling away from a simulated launch and cryogenic testing of the various fuel lines. To the relief of engineers and administration alike, no major issues would arise from testing, signaling one of the final green lights for the first operational flight.
With a few more good results, Resolute once again grabbed the strongback and returned to rest in front of FPF-2, making way for Voyager-Polaris to soon take her place atop the freshly completed LC-39A. The pad had finished receiving the numerous upgrades for the “backwards” positioning of the stack and now stood ready. While most of the pad had been left alone, the tower had evolved into a strange monstrosity of limbs, with two sets of umbilical and access arms, both the original and another set, mirrored in position and one level lower. Also new were the added levels and set of umbilical arms to support other incoming variants of the UCS-LV system. The addition consisted of three arms with a small amount of actuation. Two of which support both propellants for the three variants of the Firelight upper stages and one for the environmental and electrical control lines to support the various needs of the payloads. For Voyager-Polaris this arm would remain well out of the way, but its appearance would mark the beginning of the program’s non-shuttle operations. Another strange alteration would be the tower escape system which had been lowered by a half level, with both crew access levels having a small ramp to reach the baskets.
Voyager-Polaris, with a roar from her supporting locomotives rolled out of the FPF, already speeding past the crawlers’ glacial pace. Ground crews would wave as the gargantuan transporter rolled by the crowd gathered outside, with one worker shouting down, “All aboard Endurance, servicing the International Space Station, Moon, and Mars!” Once at the pad, Voyager-Polaris was brought upright by the hydraulics of Endurance to stand proud once more and after some lengthy testing to finish up validation, the pair would power away from the pad on the maiden flight if the main UTS program with the strongback falling away. The stack would light up the November night sky as she rose from the KSC on her way to the ISS. It would be a mundane first few flights, but it would be a start. Plenty of time to ease concerns of potential payload providers and plenty of time for the first development hardware for both the Moon and Mars to begin showing up.
Over at Michoud, the first of this hardware was soon to make an appearance. Working alongside the almost finished Vega, the first Block 1 was nearing completion as well as it geared up to handle the Absurd-Duration Atmospheric Pressure Test (A-DAPT). The new stage was somewhat bland in appearance, lacking landing legs, RCS thrusters, heatshielding, etc. Effectively, just a tank with some engines and a boat-tail. The Block 1 was already showing the versatility of what was effectively just a blank frame. The Block 2’s avionics had been placed in their typical location inside the intertank to give the stage the ability to be controlled during its long duration mission. Also shoehorned to the outside the interstage was a small deployable solar array that would keep the stage powered, noticeable only by its aerocover that would pop off during the last stages of ascent. The decision had been made that the UCS would receive a dedicated mission to ensure the stage’s operations would start correctly and to place it on a different orbit than the ISS, which would be where the stage would be placed if it were to rideshare on another mission.
For UTS-1, the return would be textbook, with another safe return from all components. The milestones kept rolling in with the first reflight of UCS and an orbiter-UCS pair. Many more firsts were clear on the horizon, but so were steps forward. Phoenix had not lost sight of her reason to exist, after all. Rapid Lunar return was still on the docket and its time was approaching.
Chapter 7: Rolling Start
Mid-2014 rolled around and Drifter prepared to make her sprint for orbit as she was stacked on the Tauri core stage with the Baybound LRB’s. Much like the first flight, it would be an all new set for the mission. The next mission, also starting the early stages of preparation in FPF-1, would face a mild dilemma, however. While less nervous about the reuse of the orbiters for their familiarity or the boosters that didn’t have to put up with the harsh environment of reentry, NASA was wary about reusing the UCS system this early, especially with crew. Polaris would have to step up to the plate after Vega was held back at Michoud for retrofitting. After over a year of inspection and some small alterations, Polaris seemed to take the flight and return well. Just to be safe, however, many of Polaris’s “primary” components (components critical to launch, not reuse) had been removed and replaced while the old components made their way across the country to their various testing locations to demonstrate their continued ability to function in less risky environments. Refurbishment was something NASA would hope to avoid as much as possible in the future, but for this point, they were still somewhat wary of that level of reuse. That being said, it would come soon enough anyway, only moving up the manifest by one flight and NASA would make the exception, albeit with heavy review of the veteran UCS.
Back across the crawlerway, Drifter-Tauri started her slow roll out of the VAB and on towards a July launch attempt. The space-bound stack would pass some items that would come as a bittersweet sight. Still rolling out of the back of the VAB, the crawler would pass pile after pile of hardware gutted from the OPF’s as the KSC started converting the rest of them to support the incoming fleet. The STS days were coming to a close, the program had no more scheduled flights, but NASA, in an ineffective attempt to bluff a “backup plan” for public reassurance, would state that the orbiters, along with some other spare hardware, would not completely retire just yet, in case Phoenix ground to a screeching halt during the first few buffer flights, but afterwards that would be the end for certain. With no major hold-ups on the horizon, though, it looked as though this was it for the old guard and many would say their goodbyes to the marvelous vessels that had brought the future within reach of its successors, flown by those they had inspired for so many years.
Drifter-Tauri’s time would soon come in the mid-July heat, her crew settled in and anxiously counting the seconds. In both the Firing Room and Houston, the air of excitement that loomed over the previous two launches had been somewhat diluted with unease. Though the addition of crew shouldn’t change anything major, the teams had plenty of practice, the procedures had been refined, they even had a couple full launches under their belts. By all accounts, this should be easier, but the inevitable worries of crew settled in anyway. Countdown would go smoothly and the moment of ignition would come without a hitch. The crew would shout with excitement as the stack lurched off the pad and picked up speed.
Upon reaching orbit, the crew got up and peered out at the world below them. They would soon give their remarks of their wonderful journey, with Shuttle veteran, Amy Bryant, stating the flight was certainly a bit smoother than her last trip. After remarks, they would settle in for their first rest period, ready to start their testing of the new vessel in free flight. With the aid of notes taken by the PTC-1’s “crew”, the mission would pass with ease and with a safe return to the Kennedy Space Center, the crew was met with fanfare. It would be the first time crew could return to the SLF since STS ceased operations, which granted, hadn’t been long, but it would still be a well received milestone.
NASA would immediately get hard at work with the remaining red tape to place the system into active service. In the meantime, the FPF’s were prepping for their first flight, with the first horizontal stacking of Voyager-Polaris, together again atop the Lakebound tugs. The rail transporters had both received names as well, with Transporter-1 receiving the name Endurance and Transporter-2 receiving the name Resolute. Both were named after ships that had once carried explorers to the far reaches of the Earth in history just as they would carry these vessels on the first step of their great voyages. The newly christened Resolute made way to LC-39B carrying an empty strongback to conduct some various modal testing during the wait for UTS-1. After depositing the strongback and launch plate, Resolute backed down to the bottom of the ramp and looked on as the new structure underwent testing, including rapidly pulling away from a simulated launch and cryogenic testing of the various fuel lines. To the relief of engineers and administration alike, no major issues would arise from testing, signaling one of the final green lights for the first operational flight.
With a few more good results, Resolute once again grabbed the strongback and returned to rest in front of FPF-2, making way for Voyager-Polaris to soon take her place atop the freshly completed LC-39A. The pad had finished receiving the numerous upgrades for the “backwards” positioning of the stack and now stood ready. While most of the pad had been left alone, the tower had evolved into a strange monstrosity of limbs, with two sets of umbilical and access arms, both the original and another set, mirrored in position and one level lower. Also new were the added levels and set of umbilical arms to support other incoming variants of the UCS-LV system. The addition consisted of three arms with a small amount of actuation. Two of which support both propellants for the three variants of the Firelight upper stages and one for the environmental and electrical control lines to support the various needs of the payloads. For Voyager-Polaris this arm would remain well out of the way, but its appearance would mark the beginning of the program’s non-shuttle operations. Another strange alteration would be the tower escape system which had been lowered by a half level, with both crew access levels having a small ramp to reach the baskets.
Voyager-Polaris, with a roar from her supporting locomotives rolled out of the FPF, already speeding past the crawlers’ glacial pace. Ground crews would wave as the gargantuan transporter rolled by the crowd gathered outside, with one worker shouting down, “All aboard Endurance, servicing the International Space Station, Moon, and Mars!” Once at the pad, Voyager-Polaris was brought upright by the hydraulics of Endurance to stand proud once more and after some lengthy testing to finish up validation, the pair would power away from the pad on the maiden flight if the main UTS program with the strongback falling away. The stack would light up the November night sky as she rose from the KSC on her way to the ISS. It would be a mundane first few flights, but it would be a start. Plenty of time to ease concerns of potential payload providers and plenty of time for the first development hardware for both the Moon and Mars to begin showing up.
Over at Michoud, the first of this hardware was soon to make an appearance. Working alongside the almost finished Vega, the first Block 1 was nearing completion as well as it geared up to handle the Absurd-Duration Atmospheric Pressure Test (A-DAPT). The new stage was somewhat bland in appearance, lacking landing legs, RCS thrusters, heatshielding, etc. Effectively, just a tank with some engines and a boat-tail. The Block 1 was already showing the versatility of what was effectively just a blank frame. The Block 2’s avionics had been placed in their typical location inside the intertank to give the stage the ability to be controlled during its long duration mission. Also shoehorned to the outside the interstage was a small deployable solar array that would keep the stage powered, noticeable only by its aerocover that would pop off during the last stages of ascent. The decision had been made that the UCS would receive a dedicated mission to ensure the stage’s operations would start correctly and to place it on a different orbit than the ISS, which would be where the stage would be placed if it were to rideshare on another mission.
For UTS-1, the return would be textbook, with another safe return from all components. The milestones kept rolling in with the first reflight of UCS and an orbiter-UCS pair. Many more firsts were clear on the horizon, but so were steps forward. Phoenix had not lost sight of her reason to exist, after all. Rapid Lunar return was still on the docket and its time was approaching.