Per Aspera Ad Astra: Cooperative Alternate Space Exploration History Timeline

Per Aspera Ad Astra: Collaborative Alternate Space Exploration History Timeline

So I have this idea for a coop alternate space exploration timeline that has women astronauts and cosmonauts from the very start. Basically, USAF General Donald E. Flickinger manages to take his idea for a "girl astronaut" program further. The Mercury 12 become formal astronauts and join NASA in 1960.

Here's what I have so far:

1961- The Atlas is finished earlier and John Glenn becomes the first American is space, orbiting the Earth three times. Later that year, Jerrie Cobb becomes the first woman in space.

1969- Apollo 9 (NASA saves two Saturn Vs by completing OTL Apollo 9's LM a few weeks earlier, launching it on Apollo 8 and doing all the flight testing needed around the Moon) lands on the Moon, with Buzz Aldrin and Sarah Gorelick becoming the first people to walk on the Moon.

1972- Nixon opts not to go for the Shuttle program, so NASA is forced to continue Earth orbit Apollo flights. The Soviets manage to successfully launch the N1 on their fourth try!

1973- Skylab is launched with a slightly different design then in OTL, allowing it to be resupplied by modified LMs more easily.

1974- Apollo 18 (the equivalent of OTL's Apollo 20) is the final Apollo lunar mission until 1981. The first black man on the Moon is on this mission as the LM's pilot.

1976- Vikings 1 and 2 (with the Wolf Trap on board) find signs of life on Mars. Viking 2 digs slightly deeper with its sampler scoop then in OTL and finds water ice on Mars! The Soviets launch a military space probe to survey the south lunar pole to test various military space sensors and find water ice on the Moon.

1979- Skylab-B, a six-person, ten-meter space station, is launched. The Soviets use a multi-launch profile to land cosmonauts at the south lunar pole and announce their plans to build a lunar base! President Carter attempts to play down the significance of this, but pledges to go to Mars after the public gets whipped up by a former USAF general's book on how the Soviets could use the Moon to attack the Earth, despite experts saying that is impossible.

1981- Reagan is elected president and continues NASA's plans to go to Mars and build a lunar base.

1989- Athena 5, a six person mission, is the first to land on Mars. Sally Ride is the first person to walk ton Mars!
 
Last edited:
So instead of a revivified late-Cold War arms race, there's a fresh round of the space race?
Quite a few of the same aerospace firms that flourished in OTL would presumably thrive, and I'd imagine W. Europe and Japan would contribute as well (think 80's "space station freedom" plan). While inferior as pure propaganda, a successful effort to reign in the cost of near earth orbit (say the original, c.1970 specification for the space shuttle, which was to fly every 2 weeks) would ultimately be more impressive than one-off Mars shot.
 
So instead of a revivified late-Cold War arms race, there's a fresh round of the space race?
Quite a few of the same aerospace firms that flourished in OTL would presumably thrive, and I'd imagine W. Europe and Japan would contribute as well (think 80's "space station freedom" plan). While inferior as pure propaganda, a successful effort to reign in the cost of near earth orbit (say the original, c.1970 specification for the space shuttle, which was to fly every 2 weeks) would ultimately be more impressive than one-off Mars shot.

Okay, I meant to say collaborative instead of cooperative. This TL is meant to be a collaborative effort, so suggest ideas, people! And Nixon probably wouldn't want to spend that much money on space, so we'll have to do it the very slow way.

Random ideas that might work:

NASA uses four Saturn Nova (based upon the design for the Saturn V-23- http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/satnv23l.htm ) launches to do a manned Mars mission. The first launch in 1984 brings a return stage into Mars orbit, and also puts a used S-IVB stage in orbit around Mars to be used as a space station similar to NASA's OTL proposal for Moonlab. The second and third launches in 1985 by way of flying by Venus bring supplies for the two and a half year stay, a nuclear reactor for power, and a reusable Landing/Ascent Vehicle (L/AV )based upon a expanded version of the Apollo CM for landing and taking off from Mars, along with landing two S-IVB stages on Mars (dubbed the Mars Exploration Modules, or MEM, by NASA- http://beyondapollo.blogspot.com/2010/01/lass-1966.html ). The fourth launch in 1988 brings a six-person Apollo capsule direct to Mars, with the used S-IVB stage serving as a wet workshop for the crew to live in during the trip to Mars and back to Earth. The entire assembly aerobrakes into Mars orbit after six months and the crew uses the L/AV to land on mars in January 1989. They stay two and a half years, using the L/AV to make short hops around Mars to explore whatever NASA wants them to (using the Sabatier reaction to refuel the vehicle). In July 1991, the crew launches in the L/AV one final time, do a brief stopover at Phobos, dock with the return stack, and go home, splashing down in January 1992.

Also, perhaps NASA could somehow get extra funding to build the two Saturn Vs that were scrapped in real life?
 
Top