Great stuff as always, looking forward immensely to what comes next. Seeing the moments where SSGL aligns with real life and splits away again is always fascinating, I really really enjoy the whole process. Looking forward to a bright future with Starlab!
Small Steps, Giant Leaps: An Alternate History of the Space Age
- Thread starter ThatCallisto
- Start date
Yeah, admittedly Shuttle is, IOTL and ITTL, a swerve away from tried and tested stuff. We've been frank about the fact that part of what kept Shuttle in this timeline was a desire to use OTL imagery, to some extent. But yeah, Skylab lives on, and Apollo Applications through Starlab - and we'll be seeing about Apollo.
Perhaps TTL's Shuttle swerves a bit closer to the design used in Boldly Going, due to a slightly higher NASA budget and a cooperative DoD enabling them to go straight to LRBs? Or, alternatively, you could borrow launch imagery from Right Side Up, and go for a Reusable S-IC - Expendable Upper Stage - Reusable Orbiter approach.
Sure that's not going to be "STARlab" as in "Space Technology And Research-lab"? Because that' the whole reason "I" stole the name
Randy
Depends on what the 'criteria' for the Shuttle is TTL but I suspect it's essentially going to be the same with many of the same constraints and compromises.
Personally I'd like to see a recoverable S-1B stage, (down-range water recovery as that's the cheapest and most worked-up method and they had already proved out most of the system, including the engines, could easily handle it) with an S-IVB based "personnel" Shuttle flyback vehicle or a "cargo" module that can be ballistically recovered ala the Bono S-IVB recovery plan.
Unfortunately it's most likely still going to require the payload mass and size of OTL Shuttle and therefore the big and expensive S-1C stage which is both harder to recover and less sure of working out as they hadn't tested anything yet. Plus the big size Shuttle and costs are going to spiral quickly
Randy
Part 12 goes over Shuttle development in some detail. The long and short of it is that Shuttle is basically the same as OTL, both for the aforementioned imagery reasons and also because the political forces largely shaping the Shuttle Decision haven't diverged sufficiently ITTL in our opinion.Depends on what the 'criteria' for the Shuttle is TTL but I suspect it's essentially going to be the same with many of the same constraints and compromises.
Personally I'd like to see a recoverable S-1B stage, (down-range water recovery as that's the cheapest and most worked-up method and they had already proved out most of the system, including the engines, could easily handle it) with an S-IVB based "personnel" Shuttle flyback vehicle or a "cargo" module that can be ballistically recovered ala the Bono S-IVB recovery plan.
Unfortunately it's most likely still going to require the payload mass and size of OTL Shuttle and therefore the big and expensive S-1C stage which is both harder to recover and less sure of working out as they hadn't tested anything yet. Plus the big size Shuttle and costs are going to spiral quickly
Randy
Ah but you forgot to take into consideration the standard AH formula where on page 37, paragraph 142, subsection A4C where it states "And then a Miracle Happens!" which was what I was taking into account
Randy
Hey gang, progress continues behind the scenes as usual. Chapter 1 of this madness should be done by the end of the summer, and then we can move on to Chapter 2 and the 80s! In the meantime, @Kolbie5874 has been updating their model of Skylab with some new KSP parts, and I think it turned out pretty great!
Part 13A: A Handshake in Orbit
Small Steps, Giant Leaps - Part 13A: A Handshake in Orbit
For Release: March 1976
Two manned spacecraft will be launched into Earth orbit May 12 -- one from Merritt Island, Florida, and the other from Central Asia -- to bring into reality the 1972 agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union to work toward a common docking system for future generations of spacecraft.
The nine-day Apollo Soyuz Test Project mission will mark the first time that manned spacecraft of two nations have met in space for joint engineering and scientific investigations.
First to go into space will be the Soviet Union's Soyuz spacecraft with Commander Aleksey Leonov and Flight Engineer Vitaly Sevastyanov aboard, lifting off at 8:20 am Eastern Daylight Time May 12 from the Soviet Cosmodrome at Baykonur. Seven and a half hours later, at 3:50 pm Eastern Daylight Time, Apollo will lift off from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39B with Commander John L. Swigert Jr., Command Module Pilot Fred W. Haise Jr. and Docking Module Pilot Joe H. Engle aboard.
Control Centers in Houston and Moscow will exercise joint ground control over the mission through exchange of communications and tracking data as a further means of fulfilling the agreement on space cooperation…
The international mission of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) presented a number of challenges - both technical and human - to its planners, which would have to be reconciled over the course of 4 years from approval to launch.
From a purely technical point of view, Soyuz and Apollo were very different spacecraft, designed in different nations with different priorities in spaceflight; they would be launched from different points on Earth and have to come together in the same orbit. The two spacecraft had vastly different docking systems, communications bands, and even atmospheres: Apollo maintained a low-pressure, mostly-oxygen environment while in orbit, while Soyuz used a more standard oxygen-nitrogen mixture pressurized to near sea level. To bridge the gap between the two spacecraft, a specially-designed Docking Module would be used, functioning both as an airlock between the two craft and as a docking adapter to connect Apollo’s probe-and-drogue system to the new Androgynous Peripheral Attachment System (APAS) designed for the mission which would fly on the Soyuz.[1]
[A diagram of the docking system used by Apollo-Soyuz - Soviet version on the left, American version on the right. Image credit: Netpedia: The Web's Encyclopedia]
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The crews of Apollo and Soyuz were selected and announced in early 1973.
The American crew:
- Commander John L. “Jack” Swigert Jr., one of the first men around the Moon on Apollo 8
- Command Module Pilot Fred W. Haise Jr., 6th man to walk on the Moon as Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 13
- Docking Module Pilot Joe Engle, previously backup Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 15
- Commander Alexei Leonov, first human to perform a spacewalk on Voskhod 2 and first Soviet moonwalker as Commander of Rodina 4
- Flight Engineer Vitaly Sevastyanov, who previously flew on the 1970 Earth orbit mission of Soyuz 9
- (originally) Research Engineer Boris Andreyev, who would’ve assisted in joint science experiments
Training and testing for Apollo-Soyuz began almost as soon as the crews were selected. The Soviet crew visited NASA facilities in Houston and Florida a total of 4 times from 1973 to early 1976, while the American crew visited the USSR a total of 3 times, including becoming the first Americans to watch a Soviet space launch in-person when they observed the launch of Soyuz 17 on their August 1975 visit to Baikonur Cosmodrome.[2] The crews trained together to gain familiarity with each others’ spacecraft, mission procedures, and rather importantly, languages. The two crews bonded with a visit to the Russian ballet, a livestock show in Houston, and other such group social outings during these various trips - including, at one point, a snowball fight during a stop on the way to Star City.[3]
The tragic loss of the crew of Rodina 5 in September of 1973 did have a knock-on effect on Apollo-Soyuz - a NASA/Soviet committee convened in the months following the disaster determined that the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project would still go forward, with the launch date delayed a year from July of 1975 to May of 1976, to ensure the newly-updated Soyuz spacecraft would be ready. The biggest change to the mission was the shift from 3 crew aboard Soyuz to 2, as the safety changes necessitated spacesuits for the crew, limiting the already-small available space aboard the vehicle. Research Engineer Boris Andreyev was removed from flight, but remained active in mission planning and continued to train as a reserve crew member.[4]
The redesign of Soyuz over the course of late 1973 and early 1974 and the successful missions of Soyuz 13, 14, and 15 reassured NASA that Soyuz would, indeed, be ready - a sentiment only slightly dampened by Soyuz 16’s failure to dock with the Soviet Zarya 2 space station, the failure being attributed to a docking system not present on the 7K-TM design to be used on Apollo-Soyuz.[5] The subsequent successful missions of Soyuz 17 and 18 in 1975 and Soyuz 19 only three months before ASTP’s launch would further serve to reinforce sentiments that Soyuz, despite its past failings, would be up to the task. Final Flight Readiness Reviews for both Soyuz and Apollo in February of 1976 determined that both spacecraft and launch vehicles were ready.
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The mission of Apollo-Soyuz officially began at 8:20 AM EDT (Florida time) on May 12th, 1976, when Soyuz 20 - callsign Юпитер (“Yupiter”) - lifted off from Site 1/5 at Baikonur Cosmodrome and lofted cosmonauts Leonov and Sevastyanov to orbit. Apollo followed later that same day with a 3:50 PM launch from Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, carrying the un-numbered mission - callsign Fortune, after the Roman goddess of luck - safely to orbit as well.
[The launches of Apollo Fortune (left) and Soyuz 20 Yupiter (right) on May 12th, 1976. Image credit: NASA and RKK Energia]
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Upon reaching orbit, the crew of Fortune performed the final transposition-and-docking maneuver of the Apollo program, separating their CSM from the stack and turning it around to capture the Docking Module still nestled atop the S-IVB upper stage. From there, it would be two days of waiting on-orbit, with careful maneuvering from both Apollo and Soyuz to bring them together on May 14th. In the meantime, both crews performed science experiments, ate, rested, and dealt with the usual onslaught of low-level noncritical problems every spaceflight dealt with - a nonfunctional television camera on Soyuz, a minor problem with Apollo’s probe assembly resolved after a night’s sleep, a false alarm from the guidance system.
[Left: Fortune captures the Docking Module during the final transposition-and-docking maneuver of the Apollo Program. Right: The final unmodified S-IVB to fly drifts away following jettison. (The S-IVB would fly one final time in 1981, as the S-IVW “wet workshop” core of the Starlab space station.) Image credits: NASA History Office]
May 14th, 1976
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project MET 43 hours
Callsign: Fortune
"I've got two messages for you: Moscow is go for docking; Houston is go for docking, it's up to you guys. Have fun."
“Copy that, thank you Rich.”
There it was. Right there out the window, a small blotch of green against a blue and white Earth.
Soyuz.
At half a mile out (as Jack had just radioed to Commander Leonov in clipped Russian) Soyuz was distinctly visible as a three-lobed shape, with the rounded Orbital Module and the bell of the Descent Module in emerald green while the white-skirted service module and engine compartment blended somewhat with the clouds below, outlined by the protruding navy rectangles of the two solar arrays.
Given NASA’s propensity for simple, angular shapes and striking monochrome blacks, whites, golds and silvers in spacecraft design, Soyuz looked less like any space vehicle Fred Haise had ever seen and more like some kind of alien creature, or a strange little green beetle crawling across the window. Sure wouldn’t be the first bug Apollo had brought aboard, Lunar Modules notwithstanding - the crew had discovered a fat Florida mosquito stowed away with them upon reaching orbit, which had somehow survived launch and now struggled confusedly around in microgravity with the rest of them.
As Apollo and Soyuz approached, the Earth slipped below to become almost a carpet of blue and white; the two spacecraft flew facing one-another nose-to-nose, lined up for docking.
Despite the title, the Command Module Pilot did little Command Module piloting during an Earth orbit mission like this; in these final moments, Fred was more just an observer, and it was Commander Swigert who sat in the pilot’s seat, watching Soyuz out the window and making the calls in Russian:
“Pyatʹ metrov, Tri metrov, Odin metrov-”
From Soyuz on the same communications link, the ever-recognizable tone of Alexei Leonov announced as the two vehicles knocked together, “We have- contact and capture.”
Fred reached over and gave Jack a pat on the back. The Commander let out a laugh, and seemed to struggle to find the words. “Да, Да, Zakhvatyvatʹ.”
Leonov put it best in the next seconds in his own jovial accented English. “Soyuz and Apollo are shaking hands now!”
[Film (left) and TV (right) camera views of Soyuz from Apollo immediately after docking. Image credit: NASA/Retro Space HD]
Following the historic docking, the two crews prepared to meet each other face-to-face in space for the first time. Using the Docking Module as an airlock, the American crew switched from Apollo’s atmospheric mixture to Soyuz’s, and the hatches were unsealed.
After exchanging friendly greetings, Commanders Swigert and Leonov performed their first proper ceremonial handshake in the Docking Module, signifying both strong international cooperation in space and the close friendship the two crews had developed during training. The crew then exchanged various gifts and tokens, such as flags, a ceremonial plaque, and seeds and food from their home countries. To conclude the Americans’ time aboard Yupiter, the joint crew participated in a phone call with President Kennedy, who expressed his commitment to international cooperation and wished the crew a safe return. Finishing the day’s joint activities, the American crew invited the Soviets over onto their side of the mission and prepared dinner aboard Fortune before final goodnights were exchanged.
The second day of docked operations would see the crew conduct joint scientific investigations, prepare another meal together, and perform several television broadcasts, with the Americans giving Soviet TV viewers a Russian-language tour of the Apollo Command Module and the Soviets reciprocating aboard the Soyuz. Both crews also broadcast window views of Earth and the other spacecraft. Concluding the second day was a joint press conference, where the crew took questions from both Soviet and American news media. The crews then retired to their respective spacecraft for the night, with both running routine housekeeping tasks before a final meal and rest period.
May 15th, 1976
Soyuz 20 MET 83 hours
Callsign: Юпитер (Yupiter)
The hatches were closed, now. All that filled the space were the quiet, familiar sounds of a Soyuz. How much a relief they seemed, after the busiest day Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov felt he had ever worked.
Hours upon hours (or so it felt) of television broadcasts, joint scientific experiments, spacecraft operations; it was exhausting, if expected. The press conference, at least, had been easy; the questions selected for cosmonauts and in this case astronauts always tended to be the same things, about the meaningfulness of the flight or the taste of the food, peppered with a handful of Moon questions; those which would follow him to the end of his days, as the first Soviet and 13th human being to walk on the Moon: “What was it like?” They would ask, and he would always answer; “Lonely, but beautiful,” “Very dusty,” “The Earth hanging in the black sky,” and so on and so on.
Fred, the American pilot, gave similar such answers during the press conference. The two of them shared that bond, that mirrored experience of being thrust under the lunar spotlight; pilots who had been handed the title of “moonwalker”, of “historical figure”.
As he contemplated, Alexei finished his dinner - a can of thick beef stew with a block of dense space-rated bread - savoring what flavor broke through the usual dulling of taste which spaceflight inflicted upon the body. He would not miss this part of it, when he returned from this third and final journey into space-
Abruptly, the cosmonaut was shaken from his reverie by a distant, muted thump, like a heavy book dropped on the floor of a nearby room, just cutting through the low and constant hum of Soyuz’s systems.
It was only perhaps by the luck that Alexei had chosen to dine in the Descent Module, that he was in the correct place to notice as the attitude indicator began to shift, accompanied by a warning light indicating solar panel misalignment. Confused, he reached for a headset to call home.
“Control, Yupiter. Control, Yupiter.”
“This is Control.”
As Alexei called home, his Flight Engineer poked a head in through the hatch to the Orbital Module, raising a quizzical eyebrow.
“The spacecraft’s attitude indicator has unexpectedly changed positions, and we are indicating a misalignment of the solar panels."
A momentary pause as Moscow discussed amongst themselves. Vasily, content to finish his own meal until called upon to assist, grabbed his own headset to listen in and disappeared once more past the hatch.
“We are analyzing the problem at this time. There is no indication of any system failure.”
Alexei sighed - little more than an answer of ‘We don’t know either.’ Hopefully this would resolve quickly, and the pair of them up here could get to bed.
“Understood. We will continue to monitor the vehicle’s systems from here-”
An urgent shout, from Vitaly in the Orbital Module. “Comrade Commander!”
Alexei wasted no time in clambering up through the hatch to join his crewmate. The man seemed glued to the window.
“What is it?”
Vitaly pointed out the window with a finger, a deathly grim tone to his voice. “The problem, it is not with Soyuz. Apollo- Apollo is bleeding.”
On the edge of the window’s periphery where the Apollo spacecraft was just visible, shreds of silver foil tumbled out into the void in a steady stream of escaping vapor from the Service Module. The High Gain Antenna was bent back as if in a strong wind. Additional metallic debris was just barely visible over the lip of the Command Module's edge, still clinging to some unseen damaged section.
The American spacecraft had been, by some unknown assailant, grievously wounded. Fortune lay dying, still desperately clutching onto Yupiter.
[TO BE CONTINUED]
Uh oh.
Callisto’s notes for Part 13A:
[1]: The docking system is the same as the OTL APAS-75, although the OTL Apollo-Soyuz press kit strangely refers to it as “APDS”, which was never an official designation.
[2]: IOTL the American crew did visit Baikonur, but as far as I can tell they did not observe a launch. ITTL, Soyuz 17 is - similar to OTL Soyuz 16 - a test of the Soyuz 7K-TM spacecraft design to be used on Apollo-Soyuz.
[3]: This actually happened IOTL, as per Edward and Linda Neuman Ezell’s The Partnership: A NASA History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
[4]: IOTL the Soyuz on ASTP only had 2 crew from the start, due to the loss of Soyuz 11 in 1971 and the subsequent redesign of Soyuz. ITTL, as the loss of Rodina 5 only occurs in late 1973, the crew is selected when Soyuz still carries 3 crew, and thus has to change along with the spacecraft itself.
[5]: this docking system, the automated “Igla” system, was only used for Soviet space stations both IOTL and ITTL. This failure is similar to the OTL docking failure of Soyuz 15.
Callisto’s notes for Part 13A:
[1]: The docking system is the same as the OTL APAS-75, although the OTL Apollo-Soyuz press kit strangely refers to it as “APDS”, which was never an official designation.
[2]: IOTL the American crew did visit Baikonur, but as far as I can tell they did not observe a launch. ITTL, Soyuz 17 is - similar to OTL Soyuz 16 - a test of the Soyuz 7K-TM spacecraft design to be used on Apollo-Soyuz.
[3]: This actually happened IOTL, as per Edward and Linda Neuman Ezell’s The Partnership: A NASA History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
[4]: IOTL the Soyuz on ASTP only had 2 crew from the start, due to the loss of Soyuz 11 in 1971 and the subsequent redesign of Soyuz. ITTL, as the loss of Rodina 5 only occurs in late 1973, the crew is selected when Soyuz still carries 3 crew, and thus has to change along with the spacecraft itself.
[5]: this docking system, the automated “Igla” system, was only used for Soviet space stations both IOTL and ITTL. This failure is similar to the OTL docking failure of Soyuz 15.
Holy shit, whether an MMOD strike or a failure of the service module, this is decidedly not good. "Apollo is bleeding" is a phrase that will haunt me for a long time, I look forward to learning what the cause was, and hopefully, come to a safe recovery of the crew. Godspeed, Fortune...
Got DAMN. "Fortune lay dying, still desperately clutching onto Yupiter." haunts as well - Haise and Swigert can't catch a break in any timeline, but I do hope Swigert at least lives a bit past '82 ITTL. Oh, and Engle, too. I'm not *that* versed on my Apollo crew members. Godspeed, Yupiter and Fortune.
Let me guess, SM-109 was used for Apollo-Soyuz after getting dropped during construction of Apollo 13 ITTL? At least this time it’s close to home.
Well, that's going to be a curveball and a half - although this might actually have some good effects on joint US-Soviet relations, if the Soviets rise to the occasion in terms of helping keep the Apollo crew alive long enough for some sort of recovery mission (or just going with a plan B "have Soyuz de-orbit the entire mission, and then have the Soyuz crew bail out of their spacecraft as it spalshes down and ride out recovery in Apollo", which might actually work).
I'm now imagining a scenario where both the USSR and the US grimly order the cosmonauts to separate themselves and return to Earth, and the cosmonauts just go "fuck that", though that's probably too 'action movie.'