Small Steps, Giant Leaps: An Alternate History of the Space Age
- Thread starter ThatCallisto
- Start date
Thanks, Kloka- that means a lot. I may post the renders of Starlab and the rest of the 80s spacecraft we were getting done, I don't know.
I'm honestly not sure what's going on with Callisto right now and I was just as surprised at their resignation as you were- I don't think things are going well for them IRL but I could be wrong, and I'm rambling now because I'm not in the best mental state.
We worked for four years on this, so I hope it's not truly the end, but if it is, I do want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who commented, liked, or just read this funny little space timeline.
Hey all.
I wanted to apologize for airing some of that personal stuff in public like that. I've deleted the post, as it was written from an emotional and frankly unhealthy place.
In short - I'm okay, I'm safe, KAL and I have talked it out.
That said, there was a grain of truth to the first bit of what I said - I just don't have creative energy like I used to, and I can't continue actively contributing and writing for SSGL.
But that doesn't mean the timeline has to end. KAL has been my partner in this creative process since day one - this timeline is as much his as mine. Given where I'm at and probably will be for some time, KAL is gonna be taking the mantle fully as head writer, with some contributions from friends along the way (I'll leave it to him to talk more on that if he wants); I'll be around and add in where I can.
Thank you all for sticking by this timeline through the years, and here's to the future. Ad Astra.
Callisto
I wanted to apologize for airing some of that personal stuff in public like that. I've deleted the post, as it was written from an emotional and frankly unhealthy place.
In short - I'm okay, I'm safe, KAL and I have talked it out.
That said, there was a grain of truth to the first bit of what I said - I just don't have creative energy like I used to, and I can't continue actively contributing and writing for SSGL.
But that doesn't mean the timeline has to end. KAL has been my partner in this creative process since day one - this timeline is as much his as mine. Given where I'm at and probably will be for some time, KAL is gonna be taking the mantle fully as head writer, with some contributions from friends along the way (I'll leave it to him to talk more on that if he wants); I'll be around and add in where I can.
Thank you all for sticking by this timeline through the years, and here's to the future. Ad Astra.
Callisto
No STS-2? 😛And while we're here, I might as well post the final teaser for the next installment of SSGL that's thankfully actually happening:
Kitty Hawk docking with Skylab on STS-3 / Skylab 6, by beanhowitzer
Chapter 2, Part 3: From Skylab to Starlab
Small Steps, Giant Leaps - Chapter 2, Part 3: From Skylab to Starlab
STS-1, being the first flight of the Space Shuttle, is often thought of as “the test flight”; however, this was not remotely the case. As with Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo before it, the Space Transportation System would have to perform multiple orbital tests before being officially certified by NASA as an operational system - the difference here being, due to the nature of Space Shuttle missions, every test would be a crewed flight unto itself.
Almost as soon as Kitty Hawk rolled to a stop at Edwards Air Force Base at the end of STS-1, preparations were underway for STS-2. This mission would test important objectives like full-duration life support, payload deployment and retrieval, and orbital maneuvering, and would, rather crucially for the program, be the first re-flight of an orbital spacecraft.
After a triumphant return to Kennedy Space Center, Kitty Hawk was offloaded from the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and returned to the Orbiter Processing Facility. Initial inspections found the Space Shuttle Orbiter to be in remarkably good shape, the most notable and slightly concerning issue being damage to thermal tiles due to foam shedding from the External Tank during launch. Some of this was to be expected, but nevertheless preventative measures such as de-icing the External Tank and some minor design modifications to the tank itself would be implemented starting on STS-2 to lessen the impact of this issue going forward.
For STS-2, in addition to the Development Flight Instrumentation, Kitty Hawk’s payload bay would contain two new payloads: Canadarm, and SPARTAN 101.
Canadarm, the primary Canadian contribution to the Shuttle program, was a robotic manipulator arm built by SPAR Aerospace and derived from robotic systems utilized in servicing Canadian nuclear reactors. Used for moving and grappling payloads in orbit, the system was capable of moving about 100 metric tons in microgravity.
SPARTAN 101, the first in a series of satellites bearing the name, was a satellite meant to be deployed from the Shuttle to carry out independent research before returning to the Shuttle and being stowed in the Payload Bay at the end of a mission. As a test article, SPARTAN 101 carried only basic telemetry equipment, but future versions would integrate a number of instruments and experiments, mainly focused on astronomy.
In addition to its “firsts”, STS-2 also had two rather notable “lasts”. Testing had revealed the Shuttle’s External Tank to be resilient enough to UV radiation to ditch its protective white paint, with the added benefit of over 100 kilograms of mass savings. All future External Tanks would be the now-iconic unpainted orange of the SOFI insulation, but STS-2’s tank was too far along in production, so the white-painted tank would fly for a second and final time on that mission.
STS-2’s second “last” was less visible, but nonetheless significant. While neither STS-1 nor STS-2 had been planned with an extravehicular activity in mind, all Shuttle flights would fly with spacesuits aboard in case of emergencies. With the new Extravehicular Mobility Unit suits still undergoing final certification at the time of its flight, STS-2 would be the final mission to fly with A7LB spacesuits aboard.[1]
STS-2 would reach the pad after 7 months’ turnaround from STS-1. The mission, commanded by Apollo 14 veteran Ken Mattingly and piloted by rookie Karol Bobko, lifted off on October 30, 1980, with Kitty Hawk performing near-flawlessly for her second ascent to orbit.
Mattingly and Bobko spent Flight Day 1 checking Shuttle systems, including the newly-installed galley and “space toilet”, vastly improving both meal and hygiene quality, as well as crew morale surrounding both. Flight Day 2 saw Bobko power up Canadarm for the first time in space, expertly running it through a full range of motion and latching it onto its first payload, repeatedly grabbing and letting go of the still-secured SPARTAN 101. The crew also celebrated Halloween, with Mattingly revealing a miniature pumpkin and a collection of space-safe candy flown amongst his personal items and the crew wishing the country’s children good luck trick-or-treating during a television broadcast.
Flight Day 3 saw SPARTAN 101 deployed into space and Kitty Hawk maneuvering to different orbits using its Orbital Maneuvering System and RCS thrusters. STS-2’s mission passed relatively uneventfully from there until Flight Day 6; Kitty Hawk returned to her original orbit and rendezvoused once more with SPARTAN 101, retrieving the satellite and stowing it once more in the Payload Bay. Flight Day 6 also happened to be Election Day back on the ground; the crew of STS-2 could not vote from orbit, and instead had submitted absentee votes just prior to their flight.[2]
STS-2 concluded on Flight Day 8, with Kitty Hawk deorbiting and returning safely to landing at Edwards Air Force Base. From there, she would be ferried once more back to KSC to begin preparations for STS-3, planned for February 1981.
Liftoff on STS-2, November 1980. Image credit: NASA SpaceFlight
STS-3 MET 2 DAYS, 19 HOURS
"Okay, Buzz, you're looking good. Right on the money."
"Thanks, Gordon. How's Skylab looking?"
"Skylab is lined up as well, docking port's still pointed right at us. We should be go for docking whenever Houston is ready."
"Copy, Kitty Hawk. We're showing the same. You're cleared to take her in."
Although the rendezvous maneuvers had gone smoothly enough, the first docking of the Space Shuttle program was proving to be a bit awkward. The Shuttle's first operational payload, a modified Docking Module flight spare from Apollo-Soyuz, was perched precariously atop its docking port, blocking the docking camera. This forced mission Pilot Gordon Fullerton to float up by the upper windows in Kitty Hawk's cabin, eyeballing in directions to Commander Buzz Aldrin at the controls. In addition, with the final approach having the unfortunate timing of occurring over East Asia, they were on a tight time limit for this first attempt: Once they passed out of range of the ground station in Japan, mission rules would require Kitty Hawk to abort docking until contact could be regained over Hawaii.
"You're looking good, Buzz- a little to the left, now, there we go, now up a little- yeah, okay, zero out our lateral velocity- right down the centerline. What's our distance looking like?"
Buzz checked his console. "Rendezvous radar says 18 meters, closing rate of 0.2 m/s. Slowing down a little."
"Okay, we're still lined up, easy does it- move down now, okay, hold here, looks good. Ports look lined up."
"Kitty Hawk, we're tracking the same. Houston is Go for docking."
Buzz pulsed Kitty Hawk's RCS thrusters again, beginning a slow final approach to the waiting docking port.
"We've got contact! Looks like soft dock to me, what about you, Houston?"
"We confirm. Go for hard dock."
Latches that had gone unused for half a decade pulled in, and-
"Hard dock confirmed. Houston, be advised, Kitty Hawk has caught herself a space station."
The final test flight of the Space Shuttle, STS-3, would prove to be the most demanding yet. With the Shuttle having proven itself capable of safely flying to and from orbit, supporting a crew, delivering and retrieving payloads, and performing rendezvous maneuvers, the only remaining test objectives were demonstrating docking with a space station and performing EVA operations. Under the mission plan, Kitty Hawk would rendezvous and dock with Skylab using a modified Apollo-Soyuz Docking Module, and her crew would use the new EMU spacesuits for the first time to conduct an EVA inspection of the station.
STS-3, the last two-person mission of the Shuttle program, would be commanded by Gemini 12 and Apollo 19 veteran Buzz Aldrin. Similarly to STS-1 and STS-2, this would be Aldrin’s final spaceflight and the first for his Pilot C. Gordon Fullerton, with NASA planning to use the test flight Pilots and other early Shuttle fliers to gain more experienced astronauts to command future missions.
After a flawless launch on January 18th, 1981, the crew would spend their first day in orbit checking Kitty Hawk’s systems and moving into a rendezvous orbit to reach Skylab. On Flight Day 2, Fullerton used the Canadarm to extract the Docking Module from the payload bay and mount it to Kitty Hawk’s docking port, while Aldrin flew the Shuttle through additional maneuvers to continue the rendezvous.
The Docking Module is grabbed by Canadarm and maneuvered to Kitty Hawk’s APAS-79 docking port, January 19th, 1981. Image credit: beanhowitzer
Late on Flight Day 3, the crew made a smooth docking with Skylab, marking the first time the Space Shuttle had docked to another spacecraft and the first visit to Skylab since Skylab 5- the docked portion of the mission was designated as Skylab 6 internally to the Skylab program, in addition to the overall designation of STS-3. The crew would not enter Skylab immediately, instead resting while ground control verified that Skylab was in good condition to board.
On Flight Day 4, the astronauts opened up the hatch between the Docking Module and Skylab, and were greeted with an unwelcome surprise. The interior of the station was filled with mold, evidently caused by five years of abandonment leaving any mold spores that had escaped pre-launch sterilization and in-orbit cleaning to spread wildly. In addition to the general mess, the mold also made Skylab’s interior effectively unusable, meaning that experiments the crew had brought up on Kitty Hawk to conduct on-station would have to be canceled. Without nearly enough supplies to deal with the problem, the crew evacuated and the hatches were quickly closed before the infestation could spread to the Docking Module. Although Kitty Hawk was performing well, STS-3 would be cut short, with planned operations inside Skylab impossible.
Flight Day 5 would see the first EVA of the Shuttle program, with both crew members using the EMU suits and Shuttle airlock for the first time and conducting maneuverability tests in the payload bay and around Skylab; an EVA inspection of the station thankfully revealed everything to be in order, meaning that future missions would only have the mold to contend with. The crew would take a day off from strenuous activity and spend Flight Day 6 performing more testing and a truncated set of experiments in Kitty Hawk’s crew cabin, while Flight Day 7 would see the second and final EVA of the mission. On EVA 2, the astronauts connected power cables and coolant lines from Skylab’s solar arrays and radiators to the Docking Module and replaced Roadrunner’s film canisters. The venerable ATM had spent five years dutifully gathering data on the Sun which astronomers were eager to have returned and developed. Finally, on Flight Day 8, the Shuttle would undock and make a successful landing at Edwards, bringing the Space Shuttle’s test program to a close.
Kitty Hawk docked to Skylab during STS-3, January 1981. Image credit: beanhowitzer
With the knowledge gained from STS-3, NASA finally determined Skylab’s long-term future. Once the mold was cleaned out, a task planned for the eventual second Shuttle-Skylab flight, Skylab would be used as a quiet, stable platform for experiments that needed to be returned via Shuttle but would otherwise be disturbed by the expected activity around Starlab, in a “Crew-Tended Free Flyer” configuration. Skylab would provide power, thermal control, control, and a pressurized environment if necessary to experiments that would otherwise have needed to fly on independent satellites such as the planned Long-Duration Exposure Experiment, saving NASA a considerable amount of money. Although not nearly as exciting as its upcoming replacement, Skylab would have a comfortable retirement mission for the foreseeable future.
With the Space Shuttle operational, there was no doubt as to what its first mission would be. Starlab was essentially ready for launch and had been for over a year by the time STS-3 launched, being simply an upgrade of the existing Skylab design rather than an entirely new system like the Shuttle. Both Starlab and Shuttle program managers wanted the station to fly as soon as possible; the former for somewhat obvious reasons, and the latter because Starlab’s launch would finally allow LC-39B to be converted for Shuttle use rather than remaining frustratingly in the Saturn configuration necessary to launch Starlab.
STS-4, flying with a full crew of 7 for the first time, was planned to launch just a day after Starlab. Like Skylab 2 before it, the crew would transform Starlab’s Orbital Workshop from an empty fuel tank into a home and laboratory in orbit and settle in as its first long-duration crew. Kitty Hawk would leave five crew members in orbit to form the crew of Starlab 2 (with Starlab 1 being the station’s launch similarly to Skylab 1), while the Commander and Pilot would return home in the Shuttle. Starlab 2 was planned to occupy the station for six months, until STS-6 would retrieve them and drop off Starlab 3 to continue permanent habitation of the station. In addition to the first flight of the ESA-built Sortie Lab module, carrying additional supplies and equipment to outfit the station, Kitty Hawk would also carry a special piece of cargo: the Apollo ACRV.
Even with Apollo-Soyuz as the final dedicated Apollo mission, the end was not yet to come for Apollo - it would live on at Starlab. By the nature of the Space Shuttle’s limited on-orbit lifespan, there would be long periods of no Shuttle on-station at Starlab, only briefly punctuated by resupply missions and crew rotations. In order to ensure a safe method of evacuation for a space station crew, Starlab would require an “Assured Crew Return Vehicle” present at all times in case a Shuttle was not present or could not be launched in time. Apollo could fill such a role easily without expensive development of a new system.
The Apollo Assured Crew Return Vehicle (ACRV) would be built largely out of spare parts, with a few new components ordered from Rockwell as needed from previously-mothballed tooling. The ACRV CSM would be stripped significantly from its previous role, with batteries charged from Starlab’s solar arrays replacing its fuel cells and a bare minimum of deorbit fuel loaded into the SM. With seats arranged in the “Skylab Rescue” configuration, it could safely return five crew members, setting the limit for Starlab’s crew capacity. Luckily, an Apollo CSM of standard proportions was small enough to easily fit in the Space Shuttle’s payload bay, providing a natural launch vehicle with the retirement of the Saturn IB. The Shuttle would deliver the ACRV to orbit and rotate out vehicles as needed, with the CSMs being returned in the payload bay for refurbishment.[3]
Three ACRV CSMs would be built for the Starlab program. Although two were new-build CSMs using spare parts and tooling, CSM-119 was the long-grounded Skylab Rescue CSM, offered a new lease on life. Together, CSMs 119, 123, and 124 would provide Starlab with a critical crew return capability, and continue Apollo’s legacy into the 1980s.
Kitty Hawk and the last Saturn IB prepare for Starlab’s launch, spring 1981. Image credit: Talv / Jess
OV-099 Challenger is rolled out of the Palmdale plant for delivery to NASA in spring 1981, a sign of things to come for the Shuttle Program. Image credit: NASA History Office
Notes:
[1]: This marks the 21st and final flight to use an A7L-family suit. The A7LBs used on STS-1 and STS-2 are closer in design to those used on the Apollo landings to those used on Skylab, using a PLSS instead of the front-pouch and umbilical setup due to Shuttle’s lack of support for umbilicals (being designed with EMU in mind).
[2]: IOTL, US astronauts voting from space did not begin until 1997, and did not become common until 2004. Suffice to say, there’s no reasonably secure method of voting from orbit yet ITTL.
[3]: Various OTL studies into the maximum on-orbit lifespan of a modified Apollo capsule suggest that NASA considered two years the absolute upper limit for endurance on e.g. an Apollo Applications Mars mission, and ITTL’s NASA will be swapping out vehicles more often in order to avoid overstressing the capsule, which is why two new CSMs are required in addition to CSM-119.
I'd also like to thank everyone for sticking with us throughout the various hiatuses and the recent drama, you all mean the world to us. Be sure to send your support to Callisto, who's still going through a pretty rough time as I understand it.
[1]: This marks the 21st and final flight to use an A7L-family suit. The A7LBs used on STS-1 and STS-2 are closer in design to those used on the Apollo landings to those used on Skylab, using a PLSS instead of the front-pouch and umbilical setup due to Shuttle’s lack of support for umbilicals (being designed with EMU in mind).
[2]: IOTL, US astronauts voting from space did not begin until 1997, and did not become common until 2004. Suffice to say, there’s no reasonably secure method of voting from orbit yet ITTL.
[3]: Various OTL studies into the maximum on-orbit lifespan of a modified Apollo capsule suggest that NASA considered two years the absolute upper limit for endurance on e.g. an Apollo Applications Mars mission, and ITTL’s NASA will be swapping out vehicles more often in order to avoid overstressing the capsule, which is why two new CSMs are required in addition to CSM-119.
I'd also like to thank everyone for sticking with us throughout the various hiatuses and the recent drama, you all mean the world to us. Be sure to send your support to Callisto, who's still going through a pretty rough time as I understand it.
Brilliant first Part with you at the helm, KAL. This timeline is in incredibly good hands. The Shuttle era is going to be a lot of fun in SSGL - just to mention one part, Skylab as a Crew-Tended Free Flyer is an approach I've not seen done and something I really liked dreaming up.
I'll echo myself and KAL here again in thanking everyone for reading, for sticking with us, particularly with the recent kerfuffle. On my end, I'm taking care of myself best I can, and things are gonna turn out alright.
I'll echo myself and KAL here again in thanking everyone for reading, for sticking with us, particularly with the recent kerfuffle. On my end, I'm taking care of myself best I can, and things are gonna turn out alright.
Nice start for the shuttle program with the reuse of Skylab and the rise of Starlab.
Esp like the inclusion of a lifeboat on Starlab. Can that ship get to Skylab if required?
Where all the crews American white men? Or has NASA diversified?
Be interesting what the other space agencies answer to the Shuttle program are.
Esp like the inclusion of a lifeboat on Starlab. Can that ship get to Skylab if required?
Where all the crews American white men? Or has NASA diversified?
Be interesting what the other space agencies answer to the Shuttle program are.
Seconded - Frank Borman really did seem like a swell guy from all the interviews and footage I've seen, and with his passing, no more OTL Apollo crews have every astronaut still living. It's a real shame, but man, what a life.
The airlock now is its own chamber with two doors and can be depressurized separately from the rest of the MDA. You can also see some other modifications, like the Gemini door being replaced with a larger hatch to accomodate the bulky EMU suits.
Chapter 2, Interlude 3: Probes, Progress, and Politics
Small Steps, Giant Leaps - Chapter 2, Interlude 3: Probes, Progress, and Politics
Following on the success of Mars 9, the Soviet planetary program would continue developing more ambitious missions to see the program into the 1980s, with three major new programs being initiated along with a continuation of Mars and Venera.
Having finally achieved a reliable Mars landing system, the Soviets were not about to throw it away. Mars 10 and 11 would be near carbon-copies of Mars 8 and 9, with minor tweaks and improvements and aiming for new landing sites to better characterize Martian geology and especially to investigate the recently-discovered evidence of past water. To aid in this goal, the orbiters would have modifications made to their high-gain antennas so that they could be used as an admittedly primitive orbital ground-penetrating radar, which along with hydrogen spectrometers would enable subsurface mapping for any lingering groundwater- the mystery of where exactly Mars' water had gone was still, at this point, very much an open question. Although less far along in development, Mars 12 and Mars 13 were planned to be similar: the major improvements would be upgrading the Prop-M microrover to a new model with tank treads instead of skids, which had proven to get stuck in sand easily, and a set of cameras and spectrometers instead of the seismometer, enabling them to function as proper exploration vehicles for the region around the landing site within range of their tethers.
Venera, by contrast, would see marked improvements- the last flights to Venus had been the failed Venera 10 and the remarkedly successful Venera 11, older-model 4MV probes. The switch to the new 5MV bus would see Venera 12 and 13 first launched to a heavily modified design, swapping out their landers for extra fuel for orbital insertion and a high-powered radar, enabling them to peer past Venus' all-encompassing clouds and build a proper map of the planet for the first time. In addition to a vast improvement on the extremely low-resolution and fuzzy maps attainable from Earth-bound radar, it would also enable a landing site selection strategy for future landers more sophisticated than "release it anywhere and pray".
In contrast to the earlier Venera missions and the ongoing Mars program, the next landers, Venera 14 and 15, would not have their transfer spacecraft brake into orbit. This was due to a simple factor: In order to get even a modest increase in both scientific payload delivered to the surface and in the amount of time the landers could survive in Venus' hellish conditions, the landers' mass had ballooned- additional coolant and more batteries to resist the heat longer were, unsurprisingly, heavy. The 5MV probe bus could thus only carry enough fuel for course corrections en route to Venus. Adding enough propellant to brake into orbit after releasing the lander would put the spacecraft above the mass limit Gorizont could throw to a trans-Venus trajectory, even with the Blok-D upper stage and Blok-E kick stage.
This would not be a problem for Venera 14 and 15, as even the upgraded landers were planned to last only two hours at most on the surface, but future missions planning to function for longer would need a dedicated relay orbiter, and thus either an expensive second landerless probe or an improvement to the N11 design.
These improvements were coming, as the USSR was finally pursuing hydrogen-oxygen rocket technology in earnest. The gigantic Energia rocket would use four massive RD-0120 engines, roughly equivalent to the Space Shuttle's RS-25 main engines, in its core stage, and Energia's upper stage options would include several planned hydrolox stages. As both a side effect of this development and as a step towards it by demonstrating the technology, the Blok-K hydrogen upper stage had been under development since 1979. Hydrogen upper stages, and even more exotic options like a methane-fluorine cycle, had been investigated for the N1 family ever since Korolev's initial proposal, but future developments had been put off during the Rodina moonshot in an effort to get the rocket flying in the first place as soon as possible. Well after N1's retirement, its smaller cousin would finally receive the result of these efforts.
Blok-K was a balloon tank hydrogen-oxygen upper stage with the same diameter as Blok-D for easy replacement, with two highly efficient RD-0140 engines utilizing an efficient expander cycle enabling it to throw the same payloads as Blok-D much farther, or to carry heavier payloads to the same orbit. Unsurprisingly, given its similarities to a certain American rocket stage, it quickly became known among Western observers as "Centaurski". With an initial test launch planned for 1982, Blok-K would hopefully be ready in time for the other major probe programs that would require it, the earliest of which would be Vega.
Actually an acronym for "Venera-Gallei" (Venus-Halley), Vega would be a modified pair of Venera spacecraft utilizing the Blok-K's extra mass to carry more propellant, a slightly heavier lander, and upgrades to the flyby spacecraft's instruments to enable it to study two targets. Planned to take advantage of the return of the famous Halley's Comet to the inner Solar System, the two Vega probes would fly by Venus and release their landers like a normal Venera mission, but their flybys would be carefully arranged so that Venus would provide a gravity assist, sending them towards the comet for a flyby at its perihelion in 1986. Vega would use the gravity assist for a more rapid transit to Halley than would otherwise be possible. This had two benefits- firstly, it would allow the USSR to claim the title of "first spacecraft to visit a comet", and more practically, it would enable the unshielded Venus-designed Vega spacecraft on more distant flybys to perform an initial reconnaissance of Halley and provide targeting and dust environment information to the recently-announced (as of Vega's design) European Giotto and American Newton probes, which would be heavily shielded for an attempt to brave the maelstrom of icy dust that surely awaited them as they made close flybys of the nucleus of the comet itself.
The landers, slightly heavier than a normal upgraded Venera such as the ones on Venera 14 and 15, would be carrying two extra pieces of equipment: spotlights that would illuminate the landing site and enable images to be taken of the probe's surroundings, due to the gravity assist towards Halley requiring that the flyby of Venus and thus the landers' landings be done over the night side of the planet, and a small balloon probe. The balloon probes, the first of their kind, would carry an instrument package suspended under a helium-filled balloon coated with Teflon to resist the corrosive sulfuric acid rain known to be present at their operational altitudes. Although small and battery-powered with an operational lifespan of only three days, the balloons would, it was hoped, better characterize the atmosphere and pave the way for longer-duration balloon missions.
Two other missions were already planned to take advantage of Blok-K, although later in the decade and much later respectively. Fobos would be, as its name implied, a modified Mars 5MV sent on a mission to Mars' tiny asteroid-like moons Phobos and Deimos, flying by and studying both moons before landing on Phobos and deploying several small hopping rovers. Yupiter, by contrast, was still in an early concept phase and planned for sometime in the 1990s due to both budget limitations and available technology - Soviet dreams of beating the planned American Galileo spacecraft had quickly met hard reality. Although the probe's exact design had yet to be determined, it was planned to be a belated follow-up to Adventure, carrying fuel to brake into orbit of Jupiter, instruments to study the planet and its many moons, and one or more atmospheric probes to drop into the gas giant itself. Due to the large mass of such a probe, it would either launch directly to Jupiter on an Energia or use a Gorizont-Blok-K to set it on a series of gravity assists from Venus and Earth for a longer, more indirect route.
[An artist's impression of a Fobos probe attached to the Blok-K upper stage in space, shortly after trans-Mars injection. Image credit: beanhowitzer]
[An artist's impression of Vega approaching Venus on its way to Halley's Comet. Image credit: beanhowitzer]
While the US had essentially taken a break from space stations after Skylab 5 due to the switch to the Shuttle, the Soviet station program had been far from idle. Launched on November 5th, 1978 atop an N11 Gorizont launch vehicle - the first Soviet space station to do so rather than flying on Proton - Zarya 5 offered numerous upgrades over both its successful civilian predecessors Zarya 1 and 3, and the two Almaz military space stations which had preceded it.
Even if Zarya 1's mission had not been cut short by the grounding of Soyuz in the wake of the Rodina 5 Disaster, the station's single docking port and limited supplies gave it a lifespan of only three crews and no ability to resupply, and Zarya 3 shared the same limitation. Zarya 5 would solve this bottleneck by incorporating a new service module; instead of the Soyuz-derived one of earlier stations, this one would be built to accommodate a secondary docking port and crew access tunnel, allowing both a Soyuz and a resupply vehicle or, for on-orbit crew rotation, a second Soyuz, to dock at once.
A week after Zarya 5's launch and initial checkout, Cosmonauts Vladimir Kovalyonok and Valery Ryumin would ride Soyuz 26 to orbit as the station's first crew, designated EO-1. In addition to completing checkout and activation, the crew would conduct a number of biological, medical, and materials science experiments, and take deliveries of supplies from a new automated resupply vehicle - a first for a space station.
Zarya 5's resupplies, and the vehicle which accomplished it, deserves particular attention here. Dubbed "Progress", the initial variant of the spacecraft was effectively a modified Soyuz, incorporating technology from the upcoming Soyuz 7K-TS upgrade (and handily providing a way to test those systems without risking crew). The Orbital Module remained largely unchanged, save for the removal of crew systems and the addition of an external docking camera, with the pressurized space inside able to carry cargo. The Descent Module was replaced with a similarly-shaped fuel compartment, carrying extra propellant and fitted with pumps to refuel the station it docked to, while the engine compartment remained entirely unchanged from Soyuz. Unlike its crewed peers, Progress had no way of returning home after a mission; there was no heat shield, no parachutes, and in fact no way to even separate the modules as Soyuz did before re-entry. Instead, the automated craft would burn up in the atmosphere after every mission.
Progress 1 - the first flight of the resupply vehicle, with no test mission being necessary due to its similarity to Soyuz - arrived at the station in January of 1979, carrying new experiments and equipment to further outfit Zarya 5, including a backup high-gain antenna which would be installed on an EVA later that month, in only the second EVA of the Zarya program. Progress 2 would follow in March, with additional experiments and life support supplies.
Following Progress 2 hardly a week later in March, the station's next crew would arrive aboard Soyuz 27 - the first Soyuz 7K-TS vehicle. Similar to the previous 7K-T design in many respects, the biggest changes incorporated were to the interior layout of the Descent Module, allowing an additional pressure-suited cosmonaut to fit within the now ludicrously-cramped confines.[1] With Soyuz 27's crew aboard the station to begin EO-2, Soyuz 26 departed to complete EO-1, successfully completing history's first in-space crew changeover. Operations would continue in a similar fashion on Zarya 5 through a series of crews throughout the end of the 1970s. In August of 1980, however, the station would receive a new spacecraft, this time here to stay, as TKS-2 docked to Zarya 5's rear port.
The story of the TKS' journey to flight is one of the longer and more convoluted ones in spaceflight history: originally conceived as a spacecraft to resupply the Almaz military space stations with only one docking port, TKS would consist of a new VA reentry capsule mounted to the front of a large service module that essentially formed a miniature space station in its own right, with a pressurized cargo area accessed via a hatch in the heat shield similar to American plans for MOL's Gemini-B and a rear docking port. A series of delays caused by testing issues, launch failures of the Proton rocket, and a redesign of the entire spacecraft to launch on Gorizont due to Proton's imminent retirement would conspire to push the first flight of the spacecraft further and further into the future.
With the cancellation of Almaz coupled with the development of Progress and future stations all planned to have multiple docking ports, TKS' original use case was no longer necessary, and launching the equivalent of an entire small space station for every crew rotation would be ludicrously expensive, leaving Soyuz as the vehicle of choice for the Soviet space program. TKS would live on in a new form, however, as mission planners recognized the utility of the service module as a space station component.
For the upcoming VKS station, planned to test modular construction and long-term crew habitation before the ever-delayed MKBS-II could see the light of day (similarly to the American Starlab paving the way for SOC), TKS would offer a flexible and cheap space station module with minimal modifications. The VA reentry capsule, no longer needed, would be replaced with a front adapter and forward docking port, enabling it to be mounted to the side of VKS' planned central hub module while still allowing a visiting vehicle to dock with it. The FGB service module would be more specialized, outfitted with additional storage space, life support systems, or scientific equipment as needed.
Now folded into the Zarya/VKS program, TKS would finally get a chance to launch in October of 1979, with the first vehicle, TKS-1, blasted into orbit on a Gorizont for an independent test flight. Under ground control, TKS-1 rendezvoused with the N11's expended Blok-G upper stage and performed a variety of orbital maneuevers to stress-test its propulsion system. The service module's life support was tested supporting a crew of flies inside a VA test article, the only time the capsule would end up flying to space. After a successful test flight, TKS-1 deorbited and burned up over the Pacific.
TKS-2 would fully test the system's capability as a space station module. After docking with Zarya 5, the resident crew of EO-7 boarded a TKS in space for the first time, reporting that the module was functioning well and offered some much-needed extra leg room to the small station. TKS-2 was performing so well, in fact, that its planned temporary stay on Zarya 5 was extended indefinitely, with equipment to convert it from a test article into a new crew quarters and storage module planned for launch on future Progress flights.
[A diagram of TKS-2 docked to Zarya 5. Image credit: Netpedia: The Web's Encyclopedia]
Meanwhile, back on the ground, work was continuing on VKS. The station had by now received its permanent name; ultimately, it was decided that it was not enough of a departure from the earlier station design to warrant a new program name, and VKS would simply be dubbed Zarya 6. The newly-christened Zarya 6 Core Module, an expanded DOS block with a docking hub attached to the front, was completing assembly and would soon be transported to Baikonur for final testing and a planned launch sometime in mid-1981. Following shortly behind it would be a second DOS module that would house more life support and crew equipment to enable a permanent crew of 6, and two TKS modules filled to the brim with lab equipment. The station would essentially resemble a cross once fully assembled, with the four modules arranged around the central docking hub and visiting Soyuz and Progress spacecraft docking to the docking hub's dorsal and ventral ports and to the ports on the rear of the modules.
Back on the other side of the Iron Curtain, the old curse "may you live in interesting times" would prove all too true for the Dole Administration during the 1980 election. Throughout the latter half of the 1970s, the United States had faced numerous challenges - economic "stagflation" at home, the Iran hostage crisis and reignited Cold War nuclear tensions with the Soviets overseas - the blame for which the electorate placed squarely on President Dole and his party. Although most of this was unfair (stagflation, historians generally agree today, being more an aftereffect of the 1973 and 1979 oil crises than anything to do with Dole's policies), the reelection trail would prove to be an uphill climb for Bob Dole, with the Oval Office being essentially the Democrats' to lose.
Certainly not helping Dole's cause was the highly-publicized scandal surrounding the Jaunary 1979 death of Vice President Nelson Rockefeller. 70 years of age at the time of his fatal heart attack, Rockefeller died in his New York townhouse, alone save for the presence of a young female executive aide, whom it soon became clear had been engaged in, to quote news reports from the time, "extramarital intimate contact", with the Vice President. [2] The aftermath of this fact being reported posthumously smeared Rockefeller's legacy, all but destroyed the career of the poor young woman involved, and seriously hurt Bob Dole's image despite the President having entirely no involvement in the entire snafu. Rockefeller would ultimately be replaced as Vice President - and subsequently on the re-election ticket - by Republican House Majority Leader Bob Michel of Illinois. [3]
Initially a wide and diverse field, the Democratic primary would ultimately narrow to three major candidates: former Vice President and former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter, planning to match up once more against Dole; California Governor Edmund Gerald 'Jerry' Brown; and Ohio Senator and former NASA astronaut John Glenn. This field would narrow to two following Jimmy Carter's withdrawal after a poor early showing - primary voters, it seemed, believed the man who'd lost to Dole once was in danger of losing to him again, and rejected his second Presidential bid. This left Brown and Glenn vying for the nomination.
Although both Brown and Glenn shared similar platforms - economic reforms to combat stagflation and the reintroduction of RFK-era healthcare and tax reforms to lighten the average American's burden - Glenn's additional spirited campaigning for science and education funding to help low-income communities, and especially his pledge to host nuclear arms reduction talks with the USSR, are considered key factors in his eventual primary victory. Glenn would, in the end, choose his runner-up as his running mate, with the Glenn-Brown ticket advancing to the general election.
Given the policital environment, Bob Dole would likely have struggled against any decently-popular run-of-the-mill opponent. Against war hero, Mercury Seven astronaut, First American in Orbit and household name John H. Glenn Jr., to put it delicately, Bob Dole never stood a chance.
Although not completely a landslide, the Election of 1980 would see encouraging results for the Democratic Party at all levels. While the Republicans held the House of Representatives by a small margin, the Senate once more became a Democratic majority. Most crucially of all, the Glenn-Brown campaign swept into the Oval Office on a comfortable Popular and Electoral College majority, making Bob Dole the first one-term president to be voted out of office since Herbert Hoover in 1932. [4]
[An electoral map of the 1976 election. Credit: fivefortyfive.com]
[An electoral map of the 1980 election. Credit: fivefortyfive.com]
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Notes:
-Fobos and Vega need a new LH2 stage due to them carrying more equipment and thus being significantly heavier than OTL: Vega's lander, for instance, is bigger than OTL's, but more on that once we actually get to their launches.
[1]: Soyuz 7K-TS effectively incorporates the 3-crew redesign of OTL's Soyuz-T, but lacks some of the more significant electronics upgrades and is still fundamentally part of the 7K family of vehicles. What does the S stand for? Who knows.
[2]: This actually happened OTL, albeit after Rockefeller had left office. Read the death section of his Wikipedia page, it's hilarious.
[3]: OTL, Bob Michel was House Republican Whip in 1979, so we don't think it's unreasonable for him to be Majority Leader in a slightly alternate 1979 House and thus to be appointed to the VP seat when Rockefeller kicks it.
[4]: JFK doesn't count as a one-term president, given his assassination.
Next time: Starlab, Starlab, Starlab!
-Fobos and Vega need a new LH2 stage due to them carrying more equipment and thus being significantly heavier than OTL: Vega's lander, for instance, is bigger than OTL's, but more on that once we actually get to their launches.
[1]: Soyuz 7K-TS effectively incorporates the 3-crew redesign of OTL's Soyuz-T, but lacks some of the more significant electronics upgrades and is still fundamentally part of the 7K family of vehicles. What does the S stand for? Who knows.
[2]: This actually happened OTL, albeit after Rockefeller had left office. Read the death section of his Wikipedia page, it's hilarious.
[3]: OTL, Bob Michel was House Republican Whip in 1979, so we don't think it's unreasonable for him to be Majority Leader in a slightly alternate 1979 House and thus to be appointed to the VP seat when Rockefeller kicks it.
[4]: JFK doesn't count as a one-term president, given his assassination.
Next time: Starlab, Starlab, Starlab!
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One heck of a Christmas present! It's always great to see more interplanetary missions. Also astronaut president!