On Brazen Wings - From the Pseudo Space Race to Independence and Beyond.

[Gth]

1983
Scares and Repairs​

"C'mon you stupid piece of shit..."

George Nelson was muttering to himself again. It was his job to take the MMU out to the Solar Max and capture it, but it was proving to be a lot more difficult than anyone had anticipated, as for some reason the TPAD mechanism refused to latch on properly. Bob Crippen, the mission commander, would have to remind him, "George everybody can hear you remember? And be careful it looks like its starting to tumble a bit there...why don't you back off and wait for sunrise?"

Nelson backed himself out from the sattelite to compose himself and observe its movements. "RIGHT...sorry boss.", he said, as he aimed his helmet light around. Their orbit was just crossing over Kazakhstan and Russia on the night side, and as Nelson looked about, seeing all the lights below him and then back to the brightly lit cargo bay of Discovery, he remarked "Sure seems quiet down there tonight..."

James Van Hoften, mission specialist, was sitting in the cargo bay, ready to assist with locking Solar Max down for the repair. He chuckled at Nelson over the radio. "Sure...just don't look at Afghanistan."


Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, a small figure was seen floating between four massive sattelites, working his way back to the Sova. While hardly the most glorious mission to fly before retirement, for Alexei Leonov it was no less important, for he'd end his cosmonautic career in the same way it began: walking in space.

The mission, Sova 3, was the first in what would become a routine mission for the MKS program. With the successful deployment of the initial control sattelites for the USSR's global navigation system taking place a month prior, before the system could be completed, it needed to be demonstrated that the intended servicing model was indeed as viable as intended.

So, after a month of operation, the four huge sattelites used their onboard propellants to meanuever themselves out of their operational orbit, parking in a position where a rendezvous with an MKS orbiter could take place. From there, the orbiter would be able to refuel the sattelites and swap out certain components as needed, all automatically as part of the basic servicing model. For more complicated repairs, such as what was being simulated on Sova 3, cosmonauts would be flown on the orbiter as well.

For Leonov, his job was simple. As the sattelites internal computers were still brand new and there was little sense in replacing or otherwise tampering with them, what Leonov would do instead is access each sattelites control unit, and perform basic tests of the components, demonstrating the tools future cosmonauts would use on their flights.

And as he finished this, and began directing himself back to Sova using his flight pack, he started to comment on what he was seeing. While the mission was largely classified, it was public knowledge that this was Leonov's last flight, and to this end as he completed his last spacewalk, his words would be broadcast back to the Soviet people and the world at large.

"In all my years, never have I been quite as proud of what we've built and accomplished as I am now. These little birds of ours have brought to light the spirit of what we can do, and it is beautiful.

And as I look up, we're coming up on America. They have curious little birds too, and it is a bright evening they're having down there. I can see calm seas, I can see the wispy clouds over their Rocky Mountains, and I can even see Houston! Hello Houston...I wonder if they can hear me?"


Back across the world, in Russia and the greater Soviet Union, most people were asleep. It was just about midnight in Moscow, but in a bunker not too far outside the city, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislov Petrov most certainly was wide awake.

He had just returned from a break from his station, and had been listening in to broadcast from Baikonur. He thought Leonov had gotten a bit too long winded; he rambled about the sights over America for a while and was still going when Petrov stowed his radio and sat down at his station. He put that out of his mind to focus on his task, however

Charged with monitoring the new early warning system against nuclear launches, the job was mostly dull, comprising largely of tests and staring at computer read outs. But, just minutes after he would sit down, the unthinkable would happen.

The computers reported that a single intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from the United States. Almost immediately as he saw it, he considered it an error. He knew that any kind of first strike out of the US would involve hundreds of launches, not just one, as thats what it would take to do any serious damage to the USSRs ability to strike back. He also knew that the reliability of the system was in question, having been privy to earlier tests that reported problems with false positives, and while it was asserted that they were fixed, he didn't find it too credible that anything actually was.

And as he sat contemplating this and whether or not to inform his superiors, the computers reported in again minutes later that four more launches were detected. With a strained look as he read this, he turned his radio back on. Leonov was still rambling about what he could see below him; he was just over New York, and apparently all was still well, and when he mentioned that he could even still see the Pacific, Petrov felt more at ease in his assessment.

While he didn't know for certain if missiles could be visible to Leonov or the other cosmonauts, he reasoned that even a small launch like this couldn't have gone unnoticed. And so he waited, tracking the computers estimates, and sure enough, no such missiles arrived.

He would later report the incident, explaining why he didn't report it immediately. His superior would congratulate him, but over time as the news of the incident worked its way up the ranks, the perception of it would change. For Petrov, however, his actions would consistently be noted for avoiding what could have been a disaster, and he'd receive a promotion later in the year before being quietly reassigned to a less sensitive post.

In time, the incident would be recognized as one of the closest the world came to nuclear war, and Petrov is now recognized and remembered as one of those brilliant few who managed to save the world. But even so, tensions between the United States and the USSR were no closer to easing, and in a year of rising anxieties on part of the Soviets, the incident was effectively just one more trigger in a long line.

====
*To give an idea on the size of the GNS sats, they're pretty close to Hubble in size. As for why all four are in such close proximity, its for speed purposes, so the constellation can be restored quickly.

If all thats needed is refueling, they can do two at a time. Component swap outs and any human based repairs can obviously only work on one at a time.

*While a bit silly to have happen on a classified Soviet mission, its also Alexei Leonov, soo...😁

 

[Kloka]

Well,at least Two Sides of the Moon will be a more interesting (and longer) book in this universe.

 

[Gth]

Well,at least Two Sides of the Moon will be a more interesting (and longer) book in this universe.

Indeed. And its funny you mentioned that as I was tempted to finagle some way of keeping Scott active like Leonov, specifically because I read that book myself, but I felt that was going a bit far.

 

[Gth]

1983
The End of an Era

Originally scheduled to launch a week prior, but delayed due to an unexpected fuel leak, the aborted launch of Soyuz T-48 would be the final nail in the coffin for the venerable Soyuz program. Amidst an already slowed down production and flight rate for the Soyuz in favor of the MKS program, the abort and tragic death of Chinese cosmonaut Shao Chao was simply too much for the program to weather.

The fire that had started the incident was the result of a bad valve in one of the boosters, which caused the turbopump to start spinning out of control past design limits, eventually causing a rupture, spilling RP-1 propellant and rapidly igniting the vehicle.

The abort of the crew capsule was nearly made impossible as the fire had quickly destroyed the cables that launch control would use to initiate the abort, and the crew had no way to initiate it themselves. Fortunately, the backup systems worked, removing the cosmonauts from the direct harm of the Soyuz boosters eventual explosion, which destroyed the pad at Gagarin's Start after nearly 24 hours of continuous burning.

However, Shao Chao would lose his life due to injuries sustained from the abort. While at the time it was unclear as to why this had happened, declassified reports in later years would reveal that prior to the fire Chao had inadvertently dislodged himself from his seat in such a way that he was not properly secured, and so when the abort system engaged, the high g-forces would cause substantial injury to his abdomen and lungs, causing the eventual internal bleeding that claimed his life. This was found to be the case through forensic reconstruction of the injuries, and corroborated through a camera feed in the cabin that confirmed this to be the case.

The incident, despite the Soviets largely avoiding any accusations of negligence, resulted in a dire aftermath for Sino-Soviet relations that was already strained to its limit by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and other disputes. The Chinese would informally withdraw from the Interkosmos program within the month, ceasing cosmonaut participation, and only maintaining funding for Chinese experiments aboard Salyut.

The Soviets meanwhile quietly accepted this arrangement, finding themselves more concerned with the catastrophic failure in the Soyuz and the state of their overall program. Originally, Soyuz was slated to be phased out, with the final launches coinciding with the end of Salyut's operational lifetime in 1986, as aside from the rare military flight, Salyut was the only thing maintaining the need for Soyuz.

With the destruction of the T-48 Booster and Gagarin's Start, it was decided that it was prudent to instead change course, both to save on budgetary concerns, but also to simplify the overall space program and reduce the needed training for cosmonauts.

Gagarin's Start would be cleaned up, but would instead serve as a historical site rather than an operational launchpad, and Komarov's Rest, the second MKS launch site, would see its construction accelerated in its place.

Meanwhile, the production of the Soyuz boosters would come to a formal end, with all related programs transitioning to an MKS based architecture, and the unfinished assets either scrapped, sold to interested parties, or relegated for display purposes.

This left just the still flying Soyuz spacecraft in orbit, docked with Salyut. Mission planners were torn on what precisely to do regarding these, as it was considered unthinkable to abandon the station, but at the same time they weren't designed to remain in orbit forever. Eventually, based on the assumption of MKS being used as both the crew and cargo transport, as well as the Earth return vehicle, it was decided that the Soyuz's in orbit would be returned to Earth following some changes to the station.

As built, Salyut with the Tongzhi airlock could only support one MKS orbiter at a time, and this would not work if the orbiters were to sufficiently rotate the crews. As such, they would need a second means of docking an orbiter. To this end, it was decided that the current airlock would be disassembled from the station and replaced with a new module, that could support two orbiters at the same time using extendable docking tunnels, ensuring that both the orbiters could deliver the module to the station, but also dock with it at the same time with a safe distance between the extremities of both docked spacecraft. This found quick approval from all sides as it not only gave valuable experience for the next generation of space stations, but also bought the politicians some clout, as Tongzhi would be able to be returned to the country that had built it as a sign of goodwill.

To support the station in the interim, MKS flights in the immediate future, such as Laika 6 the following month, would rendezvous with Salyut and either perform its mission while docked, or in the immediate vincinity. This allowed the station some redundancy, as MKS would both be able to rescue the crew or the station if something should go wrong with the Soyuz spacecraft still docked to it, and if the station had to be abandoned when an MKS mission was not in orbit, it would not disturb mission planning as the orbiters would be travelling to the station regardless.

So, as China mourned its lost cosmonaut, and the Soviet Union quietly dismantled their original workhorse that had won them the early Space Race and kept them flying throughout the 60s and 70s, spaceflight still continued. Life aboard Salyut was undisturbed and neutral to the drastic changes it was about to see, and across the world the United States was plugging along with their own ambitions, pushing their Space Shuttles harder and faster with each mission.

 

[Gth]

So some questions for my somewhat silent readers.

As of now, Im pretty content on sticking with the year by year format up to, uh, that year, and up to the end of what Im deeming "Part 1" but Im curious as to what might be preferred once we get to Part 2, which im expecting to start somewhere in the 90s.

Is the year by year breakdown better? Or might a broader look like the earlier posts before 1980 be more interesting?

The year by year format, if any haven't guessed, is basically counting down to what was alluded to in the prologue, but without that thematic element lurking in the background, Im still wracking my brain on if I want to keep it going like that all the way through. Some posts, in Part 1 and definitely in the future, will necessarily have to break away from that format, but Im willing to be convinced one way or another on which way to go.

So let me know your thoughts.

 

[Sceonn]

Both seems good. I don't really have a preference.

 

[5je1ryj]

The year by year breakdown seems better. It is more detailed, so more interesting, at least for me

 

[Gth]

1983
The Day After a New Age​

This is an NTC Special Report! Please stand by!

...

...

Good afternoon, we are getting conflicting reports coming in now from the German border that shots have been fired...

...

...

...unclear who started the fighti-what? One moment ladies and gentleman!

...

...

Our affiliate in Cape Canaveral is reporting that there was a dogfight in space between the Soviet Space Shuttle Ptichka and Space Shuttle Explorer. Reports indicate-

...

...

Ladies and gentleman, the President of the United States.

...

My fellow Americans-

The Television cuts off; and a blinding light fills the room, fading slowly before the windows blow out, covering the family in shattered glass and dust. A horrible booming sound echos as the camera closes up on the child. He refuses to open his eyes.


Director Nicholas Meyer's The Day After aired on the ABC television network on November 20th, 1983, to an enamored nation. Following a marketing campaign that was as vague and mysterious as it was tantalizing, the film was watched by a record-shattering 150 million people in the United States. The film, depicting the outbreak of war between the Warsaw Pact of the Soviet Union and the US lead NATO, sought not to glorify the terrible war or dramatize the bigger than life leaders that might be wrapped up in such an event, but instead to look to the average person, and see the effect the immediate outbreak would have on, as commercials often used as a tagline, families just like your own.

While well received by general audiences, despite its bleak and often depressing outlook on the real fears American's were facing, critics were very deeply divided on the film. Some would argue that despite its tone, the film was glorifying nuclear war while others insisted that it was actually far too tame in depicting the sheer horror of it. Others meanwhile were heavily critical of the film's apparent refusal to point a finger at anyone as to who started the war, with right wing critics going as far as to call Meyer a traitor, for suggesting that the United States could doom its own citizens.

In a notable protest by local members of the Syn Society, picketing outside ABC headquarters in Burbank, California, would call for Meyer's arrest, accusing him of both being a Soviet sympathizer and a liar, perpetuating the myth that nuclear weapons exist.

But perhaps its greatest impact was on none other than President Ronald Reagan himself, who watched the film a month prior in an early screening. In a room filled with some of the most powerful men on the planet, it was said by one official that if you wanted to draw blood, you wouldn't even need to strap down an arm. Reagan himself would write in his diary that the film left him deeply depressed, and served, among other things, as the culmination of his beliefs on seeing nuclear weapons neutered, and indeed had changed his mind even entertaining the notion of allowing such events to happen.

While The Day After certainly tapped into the pulse of the nation, and indeed much of the world at large, 1983 as a whole was not all doom and gloom for the world, and indeed, one could say that 1983, as much as it drove up fears for the future, also gave hope for it, with the beginnings of what would come to define the world in the coming decades. Computers across the world were starting to be connected with each other in vast networks, which themselves were being interconnected, creating an unprecedented web of connectivity unlike anything the world has ever seen. The first cell phone call would be made, and even as a result of Cold War tensions boiling over, the American Global Positioning System would be made available for public use, and the Soviet Union's Global Navigation System would follow suit, bringing the world total access to technology that would revolutionize how navigation is performed in the civilian sphere.

And for those efforts being made in space, as 1983 drew to a close a new era was rapidly approaching. For as the USSR worked around the clock to make their final, total commitment to their own Shuttle program, 1984 would be the first escalation in NASA's goal at pushing their Space Shuttles to that all important launch rate, with a record 9 flights scheduled for the year, and the hopeful inaugural use of the new military launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base aimed at the end of the year. For all the gloom, the future was still bright.

 

[RanulfC]

Year by year works well

 

[Kloka]

I don’t care....because either way this is an awesome timeline.

 

[Gth]

So, kind of a freebie post as I work through some more writers block. I compiled all my notes together and worked to clean up some of the inconsistencies I found. I did a lot of this on paper like, months ago now and Ive since misplaced those bits, so I had to backtrack a bit. The numbers may still be a bit off, but for each variant in the chart I assumed that each one would try to leave as close to 1km/s in fuel when it hits a target.

This is to account for a less than in-depth dive into the exact performance, as well as what I would assume would be a real allowance anyway, if a bit smaller. (Or bigger; hard to figure out what Im supposed to ask google to get an answer lmao)

If anyone cares to Im totally open for a double check or any general scrutiny. Im not that terribly focused on having dead accurate stats, but theres never a bad time to kill a cat or two with curiosity.

So without further ado:

Z2 - This stage is effectively identical to the second stage of OTLs Zenit SL2, and I imagine there would be other options, but for what Ive covered and intend to cover, not much a point to peel back that paint.

Energia M1 - Also effectively identical to Zenit SL2. Assumes Z2

Energia M3 - This is 3 OTLs Zenits strapped together, as a bizarro partially reused Soviet Falcon Heavy, essentially. The core wouldnt be recovered. Assumes Z2

MKS/130 - The TWRs are different as the structural supports are lighter for non-MKS Vulkans.

RLA 150 - She scary.

RLAs in general: all assume any third/fourth stages are within the payload.

And as for the orbiters themselves, I dont have a spiffy chart, but I will go ahead and compile their basic stats here:

Baseline Model aka OK-95 (ca 1972)

Wet Mass: 125 tons
Dry Mass: 70 tons
Dry Mass (Aborted): 60 tons


OK-951 Laika "Barker" (ca 1981)
-6 tons mass. TPS and internal refinements.

OK-952 Sova "Owl" (ca 1982)
-10 tons mass. Airframe refinements in addition to previous.

OK-953 Buran "Snowstorm" (ca ???)
[REDACTED]

All models assume as part of its drymass enough jet fuel to allow for a minimum 2.5/hr flight in atmosphere, or up to 2500km in distance, as well as up to half a ton in dedicated water for the transpiration cooling system.

Max payload for all models remained and remains frozen at 30 tons, as the design is limited in its possible downmass after an abort.

 

[Kloka]

I want some pretty pictures of all these rockets someday

 

[Gth]

I want some pretty pictures of all these rockets someday

Same lol. If i was able to Id have already been using Kerbal to illustrate this, as long before I ever started writing anything down I built what I was imagining in that game and very accurately too to boot.

But until Im in a better life situation Im basically stuck on that. Best believe though as soon as I can, there's gonna be soooo much lol.

Fortunately, however, for some of whats being flown, like the RLAs, illustrations already exist though they're obviously not specific to this timeline.

 

[TimothyC]

11K37, the Soviet Zenit-heavy design, used common tankage for all three to five cores (Soviet and post-Soviet designs call for variants with two, three or four boosters), but the plan was for three RD-120 engines on the center core. I would have to look up if these engines were the altitude or surface optimized versions.

 

[Gth]

11K37, the Soviet Zenit-heavy design, used common tankage for all three to five cores (Soviet and post-Soviet designs call for variants with two, three or four boosters), but the plan was for three RD-120 engines on the center core. I would have to look up if these engines were the altitude or surface optimized versions.

Huh! I hadnt run into that one when I was researching thats funny.

But god, some of these illustrations are giving me SRB-X vibes

I'll never understand how these kinds of Shuttle derived vehicles tend to end up so inelegant looking.

But at least it seems that one did get there eventually

 

[Gth]

1984
Toys and Sattelites​

Throughout the early Space Shuttle program, certain among space enthusiasts are wont to levy accusations that the program was not doing much for the effort, and perhaps most importantly the money, that was spent on it. And central to these complaints is how often the Space Shuttle served the purpose of deploying relatively small and uncomplicated communications satellites, payloads that were argued would have been cheaper and safer to deploy on conventional rockets. And while there certainly is merit to that idea, often times the early Shuttle program suffers from a simple lack of perception. Unlike Apollo or the large, flashy Salyut, or indeed the space stations of the future, the early Shuttle program was self-contained, and short of those satellites it deployed, it left behind comparatively little to point at as something it did. And as it happens, this simple perception was of course, totally inaccurate.
Contrary to the view that the Space Shuttle in the early 1980’s was holding American spaceflight back, in truth the only thing it wasn’t accomplishing at the time that a space station could have, the only other real option that could have happened, was in having something flashy to put to its name. Indeed, practically every flight aboard one of the Orbiters was in effect its own, albeit shortened, Skylab-like stay in orbit, and even on flights with the lightest manifests in the unpressurized cargo bay, the Orbiter’s Mid-Deck provided adequate space for experiments that, while they may well have flown as part of a space station’s manifest, were no less important or useful simply because of a change in venue.
Covering nearly all sciences, these experiments formed the backbone of the program’s manifests, and while very few of them were of the sort that the typical person could point to and get excited about (and such persons are special indeed), they are a crucial part of evaluating the Space Shuttle program that all too often, are forgotten or glossed over, or worse downplayed as mere nothings. Even disregarding the rather sad and pathetic attitude that one must have to treat these experiments so callously, it simply cannot be understated that these experiments were what made the Space Shuttle more than just a rocket, and more than just a spacecraft. To do so, is to treat Apollo 8, or 9, or 10, as if they were mere joyrides, because they never touched lunar regolith. To do so, is to say that Salyut was just a shoddy hotel with a pretty view. It's to say that the Moon’s the Moon, or that astronauts are just spam in a can. The work being done is no less valuable, simply because it lacks the flash of the more ambitious or the more historical, and simply because they could have been done by some other means, does not mean the Shuttle did not still carry them to space.

But even despite all this bluster, truthfully even the deployment of satellites, something that absolutely could just be done by any conventional rocket, is not something that can just be scoffed at on that basis, simply because one wants to find a reason to say the early Space Shuttle was bad or inefficient; after all, for every flight that carried a satellite into orbit, also carried with it a reason to fly, and thus, a reason to research and to experiment. And as 1984 opened, this is where we find the Shuttle program, as STS 14 in February and STS 16 in April rocketed into the sky, bringing the Anik C1 and D2 satellites with them, alongside Leasat 1 and 3, also known as Syncom 1 and 3.

The former pair of satellites, Anik, were launched for Telesat Canada. The satellites, building on the earlier A and B series of Anik satellites, which were the first national satellites in the world (prior to these, all satellites were transcontinental, reaching multiple countries), broadcast Canada’s first premium television channels, and reinforced the reach of the Canadian Broadcast Corporations own public television channels. It would be through these satellites that Canada would be able to watch the 1984 Olympic Games live as they happened.

The Leasats, or Syncoms, were commercial satellites intended for military use by the United States and its allies (hence the name “Leasat”, short for leased satellite), offering a range of channels suited to different needs. But curiously, these particular satellites were unique in that they were the first satellites to be designed specifically for the Space Shuttle. Carried inside a standard sunshade in the payload pay, the seven-ton satellites are spin-stabilized at 30 RPM, with a fixed, non-spinning antenna and communications section, giving the appearance of a lively and active machine as it floats along in space. The first such satellite was already deployed the year previously, and STS 14 and 16 would see the next two launched. Leasat 1 would deploy perfectly, along with its accompanying Anik, but Leasat 3 would find itself stuck, having failed to begin its automated procedure to send itself into its intended orbit.

It was found that this was due to a sequencer lever that was intended to be tripped during the satellites release, but had decidedly missed. The crew, with the help of Mission Control, would devise a solution to this problem as the sequencer merely needed to be yanked into position to send the satellite on its way. To do this, the crew was able to construct a “fly swatter” device that would be attached to the Orbiters RMS, and used to catch onto and flip the lever. Though many attempts were tried, unfortunately the makeshift device was not able to get the necessary tension on the lever, and so it was determined to leave the stranded satellite for another mission, as the orbiter had no means of recovering it.

Despite this unfortunate failure, the remainder of both STS 16 and indeed, STS 14, were resounding successes. Of note on STS 14 was the DMOS Experiment, or the Diffused Mixing of Organic Substances experiment. This was sponsored by the 3M corporation, and studied, as the name implies, the effect of the microgravity environment on the mixing of various organic substances, creating polymers and other mixes. And on STS 16, perhaps one of the most striking of these mid-deck experiments was in fact its absolute simplest: a series of physics demonstration objects known as T.O.Y.S.

As part as the early Teacher in Space Program, the idea was to provide simple video snippets of the various toy objects being used in zero g, giving students a memorable and amusing visual to basic physics concepts, such as the types of momentum in a yo-yo or the effect of magnetism on magnetic objects, with specialist Jake Garn, who was interesting in his own right, given he was the first sitting member of the United States Congress to travel into space, demonstrating how a small marble’s flight path gets curved by a magnet he held in his hand.

The sight is something that, to this day, continues to astonish those bright few who can find themselves excited by such, relatively mundane things, and while of course a simple marble being affected by magnetism is hardly as spectacular as a man’s boot-print on the Moon, or the spooky images of another world, what it still is, is yet another example of one of those baseline reasons to go to space. Not merely to satisfy one’s ego, or do their duty to their nation, but simply to find wonder in the world around us.

===
If it hasnt been noticed Im a total Shuttle hugger.

 

[Kloka]

What was STS-15?

 

[Gth]

What was STS-15?

Tune in tomorrow 😉

 

[ByteMe]

If it hasnt been noticed Im a total Shuttle hugger.

Completely unnoticeable

 

[sonofpegasus]

I suggest that the shuttle will be hugging Gth by now, with all that love!