Sputniks... an Alternate Space Race
- Thread starter neopeius
- Start date
yes.....more workforce.....however, NASA won't be able to downsize as easily if ITTL space race winds down....too many people
This is the mode ultimately selected:
Artemis consists of three components.
The Command Module (or CM) is the primary living quarters for the crew. It is the only component of the assembly which will return to Earth.
The Service Module (or SM) houses the life support and ascent engine for the CM.
The Lunar Descent System (or LDS) is the throttable engine which will decelerate the spacecraft into lunar orbit and land the assembly on the moon.
Finally, the transtage is a modified Saturn upper stage which will launch the assembly from Earth orbit towards the moon.
The mission:
The lunar mission will go as follows. A Saturn V will launch a fully fueled transstage into orbit. This transstage will be docked with the space station where it can be kept stable pending the next launch. A second Saturn V will launch with the CSM and LDS on board. These will dock in lunar mission configuration and then dock with the transstage which will boost them towards the moon.
The transtage jettisoned, the LDS will brake the assembly into lunar orbit. It will then be used to land the CSM and LDS on the moon for a many day mission. At the end of the mission, the ascent stage on the CSM will fire, propelling the CSM back into lunar orbit. A second firing will return the spacecraft to Earth. A final firing will decelerate the craft whereupon the CM will detach and re-enter into the Pacific ocean.
---
The advantage to EOR is all astronauts get to land.
The Soviet EOR L3 had a similar profile with a 200 ton stack lasting on the moon for 5-10 days. 254 tons would have at least that capability.
Perhaps I was overly optimistic. I envisioned something more austere than OTL Apollo, perhaps using solar panels rather than fuel cells. I think 10-14 days is not unreasonable.
OTL, when LOR beat EOR, it was judged to be just 10-15% cheaper (by people championing LOR!) The number of boosters is not the only factor. (Historically, the Saturn launch made up a third of the cost of each mission--economy of scale will mean two launches is about half the cost of the entire mission, but the mission lasts longer and has three sets of boots on the moon).
As to whether or not the thing actually flies, well, you'll just have to stay tuned.
Artemis consists of three components.
The Command Module (or CM) is the primary living quarters for the crew. It is the only component of the assembly which will return to Earth.
The Service Module (or SM) houses the life support and ascent engine for the CM.
The Lunar Descent System (or LDS) is the throttable engine which will decelerate the spacecraft into lunar orbit and land the assembly on the moon.
Finally, the transtage is a modified Saturn upper stage which will launch the assembly from Earth orbit towards the moon.
The mission:
The lunar mission will go as follows. A Saturn V will launch a fully fueled transstage into orbit. This transstage will be docked with the space station where it can be kept stable pending the next launch. A second Saturn V will launch with the CSM and LDS on board. These will dock in lunar mission configuration and then dock with the transstage which will boost them towards the moon.
The transtage jettisoned, the LDS will brake the assembly into lunar orbit. It will then be used to land the CSM and LDS on the moon for a many day mission. At the end of the mission, the ascent stage on the CSM will fire, propelling the CSM back into lunar orbit. A second firing will return the spacecraft to Earth. A final firing will decelerate the craft whereupon the CM will detach and re-enter into the Pacific ocean.
---
The advantage to EOR is all astronauts get to land.
The Soviet EOR L3 had a similar profile with a 200 ton stack lasting on the moon for 5-10 days. 254 tons would have at least that capability.
Perhaps I was overly optimistic. I envisioned something more austere than OTL Apollo, perhaps using solar panels rather than fuel cells. I think 10-14 days is not unreasonable.
OTL, when LOR beat EOR, it was judged to be just 10-15% cheaper (by people championing LOR!) The number of boosters is not the only factor. (Historically, the Saturn launch made up a third of the cost of each mission--economy of scale will mean two launches is about half the cost of the entire mission, but the mission lasts longer and has three sets of boots on the moon).
As to whether or not the thing actually flies, well, you'll just have to stay tuned.
Two launches means more chances for something to go wrong. The Saturn V worked reliably OTL though.
Correct. And that is taken into account.
that however, may not be due to rocket reliability, but rigorous safety checks....after all, a 4 kiloton equivalent TNT bomb going off , wreaking the launch pad, and injuring observers is not good.....but NASA will have a very hurried schedule this time round....thinks slip...
Space station?? What space station??
Did anyone else notice plans for a space station that I would have overlooked when I just paged back through the thread looking for it?
Mind you, I think it's a very good idea to have one. We really should have done that OTL, sooner than Skylab. Note that my Lego/Meccano Madness 9-launch proposal for Artemis did include a "space station" of sorts, which I envisioned as a sort of manned forming platform for the gradually-assembled single translunar engine cluster, to piece it together, as well as stashing the LM and providing a big stable platform with backup resources for the CSM to mate up to the assembly on. And I assumed with the sort of technology they'd be projecting they'd have nearly a decade hence in the early 60s they'd commit to making that a manned station, which means not one but two manned launches in the mix, and half the Artemis team never even leaves Earth orbit.
And while manfully restraining himself from verbally beating me to a pulp for this harebrained scheme of mine, e of pi also mused about the virtues of a fuel dump station.
Space stations are nice things to have. By all means if the Artemis program does include one, that would be cool. Even cooler if the plan is to keep the station going and expand it, though OTL experience suggests that perhaps, even aside from issues like orbital decay, a space station is a structure that suffers from the demands placed on it and sooner or later you have to junk at least the oldest modules! If the thing is rooted in these as we would expect it would be to grow naturally, either someone has to reconfigure it so the former center can be removed (presumably stripped for still-useful parts in situ), or the whole station's shelf life is limited by its oldest and most critical part.
Well, anyway, I think this is the first you've mentioned this timeline's NASA actually not only having a station of any kind, but making it integral to Artemis.
So please tell us more about this station!
I'm trying to remember my Greek myths right now, to see if Artemis had a special home away from Olympus, or a sidekick.
Hmmn, the mythology of Artemis seems rather dark; that could be because of the perspective of later Hellenic era scribes, looking back from a particularly misogynistic and patriarchal perspective on myths from an earlier time when perhaps women's different perspectives were more heard. Certainly she seems a bit terrifyingly misandric!
The best names I can come up with within the traditions of Artemis as sketched by Wikipedia would be either her mother, Leto, or a goddess I've certainly never heard of before (whose role in myth Artemis herself eventually supplanted), Eileithyia, a goddess of midwifery and childbirth. These seem appropriate insofar as the station's main role is seen to be a platform for assembling Artemis mission elements. The island of Delos was held to be her place of birth (and Apollo's, he being her twin brother) so the station might also be called Delos station; finally, if Von Braun is on an extended Classical kick and he and other planners are looking ahead to post-Artemis missions with grandiose Classical divine names, they might start with a station called Olympus!
If Eileithyia were not so darn obscure and weird to write by modern English conventions, I'd be championing naming the station that. But then again if the station is to have future roles beyond the Artemis missions, its functions would be diverse and Olympus, as a general residence of the gods, would seem more apt.
Wait for the updates, silly.
I'm not afraid to admit to being "silly." However I just thought that considering all the other detail you've offered thus far about the plan, a lack of it regarding the "space station" beyond its bare mention in just so many words (two!) meant that silly me, I must have overlooked it somehow up above. But darn if I can find anything.
So consider it a very effective teaser! I am well and truly teased.
I have bad news for my fans (both of you). We've had a flood, and my main computer is out of action for a bit. This makes it impractical to post updates. I won't be down long, and I have several more already written (and the entire story is plotted to 1973, so I won't leave you hanging), but this week's update is a bust.
As a consolation prize, here are pictures of the two Sputniks teams for 1961-2 (October 2004).
Jessie as Hugh Dryden, Nathan as Jim Webb, Janice as Jack Kennedy, John as Joe Charyk (Director, NRO), the tall blond gentleman is Justin, playing MacNamara, and the fellow to the far right is Aaron representing AT&T.
The Russian team:
(L to R): Yost, as Chelomei (also Shelepin, head of the KGB); 'Berto, as Korolev; Dave, Khruschev; and Jesse, Yangel (and Ustinov, Deputy Minister of Defense)
(in later games, I did away with the dual roles and added another player)
As a consolation prize, here are pictures of the two Sputniks teams for 1961-2 (October 2004).
Jessie as Hugh Dryden, Nathan as Jim Webb, Janice as Jack Kennedy, John as Joe Charyk (Director, NRO), the tall blond gentleman is Justin, playing MacNamara, and the fellow to the far right is Aaron representing AT&T.
The Russian team:
(L to R): Yost, as Chelomei (also Shelepin, head of the KGB); 'Berto, as Korolev; Dave, Khruschev; and Jesse, Yangel (and Ustinov, Deputy Minister of Defense)
(in later games, I did away with the dual roles and added another player)
Post when you can! This sounds really fun, I wish I could have done some of the RP.
Sorry for the delay. I now have my computer set up in my Emergency Bridge. I think you will like this update.
Update #7, a chronology of manned flights from mid-1961 to the end of 1962.
[NASA's first manned flights]
After the stunning success of Crossfield's X-15b flight, NASA's little Magellan seemed like an also-ran. The death of Gherman Titov rocked the world, however. On July 18, 1961, the world held its breath for the countdown of the first American civilian mission: Alan Shepard's Redstone-launched "Freedom 7." There was jubilation in the free world after Shepard's 15-minute suborbital flight as well as somewhat disdainful praise from the Soviets (which sounded a bit hollow, all things considered). Space was safe again, at least for the Americans.
As quickly as those fears were dispelled, they returned with a vengeance. On September 1, 1961, Virgil I. Grissom (known to the world as "Gus") narrowly avoided catastrophe when his Atlas booster failed just seconds after liftoff. Luckily for him, the escape tower worked as advertised, propelling the Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft away from the blossoming fireball. Grissom was saved; a career characterized by luck and fame had begun.
No one criticized Jim Webb when he urged caution anymore. More suborbital flights were scheduled to iron out any bugs. In the meantime, an unmanned Atlas-launched Magellan flew on its first orbital test, September 13, 1961.
[The Soviet Reply]
The Soviet manned program was dealt a serious blow by the death of Gherman Titov, but with mounting pressure from the American X-15b and Magellan-Redstone flights, Korolev's OKB-1 engineers worked around the clock for months to isolate and fix the issues that had killed the pilot of the second manned Nievo.
Their hard work was rewarded. On October 7th and 8th, 1961 (just in time for the 43rd anniversary of the October Revolution), the Soviets stunned the world again with the launch of Nievos III *and* IV (the ninth and tenth Nievo missions). The first capsule was manned by Cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev. It was the second which made the big international waves--at its controls was the first female cosmonaut, Sveta Sokolova. Nikolayev and Sokolova passed within just 5km of each other in an unguided rendezvous. Nikolayev returned to Earth on October 11, but tragedy struck the Soviets again when Sokolova, the first woman in space, died upon landing after her parachute snagged on the Nievo's RFPK-10 antenna.
The Soviets reverted to their old habits. Nievo IV's failure was not announced to the public. Instead, it was announced that another woman cosmonaut, a Valentina Tereshkova, had actually made the flight. For decades, Comrade Tereshkova was a celebrity. She made good-will tours of various Communist nations, and she married (and divorced) fellow cosmonaut Nikolayev. Only recently, with the fall of the Iron Curtain, has the true story been learned.
[Back and Forth]
Space season had truly begun with flights increasing in frequency. Gus Grissom got a second chance to show his stuff. His flight on November 1, 1961, was a repeat of Shepard's in virtually every way (including the subsequent meet and greet with President Kennedy). Grissom, already a hero for the steel nerves he displayed in his last flight, became a national sensation.
The last of the chimponauts, LINDY, became the first primate in orbit on November 29, 1961, when MA-5 made three circuits of the globe. The temperamental Atlas booster was declared man-rated. The next flight was not to be an orbital one, however. In the wake of one catastrophe and one near-catastrophe, NASA opted for one more suborbital flight. Deke Slayton completed the third 15-minute suborbital flight in his Delta 7 on January 5, 1962.
An eleventh Nievo was launched in secret on February 21, 1962, without a cosmonaut aboard. The flight was politically motivated: After Gagarin's flight, rumors had begun to spread that Gagarin had not landed with his spacecraft. This fine point was actually critical--according to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, the international sports-flight organization, a person had to land with his/her spacecraft to qualify for any records. If word got out that Gagarin had jumped ship early, the laurels won for the first orbital flight would go to Scott Crossfield! Thus, Nievo XI tested a newly-developed soft-landing system, which could then be publicized as the one Gagarin had used. The results were less than optimal--had a cosmonaut been on board, he/she would have likely suffered some broken bones. Still, the Soviets were pleased enough, and the system was implemented on all future Nievo flights.
1962 was an American year for the most part. Scott Carpenter's Aurora 7 on March 1, 1962, was the last of the suborbital missions. Despite some minor malfunctions, which caused spurious warning lights to active, the Magellan spacecraft was declared man-rated for orbital travel.
It was a foregone conclusion who would be the first American to orbit in a Magellan. 38-year old Marine John Glenn was the most wholesome and charismatic of the Magellan 7. The grinning redhead's three-orbit flight on May 29, 1962 in Friendship 7, was an unqualified success, and Glenn became the next member of the Space Hero club. His mission was followed by Walter M. Schirra Jr.'s August 15, 1962 flight in Sigma 7. The mission-profile was identical, and no problems were encountered on Schirra's three-orbit flight. NASA gave Magellan the green light for longer flights.
The Soviets were not about to be upstaged. On August 18, 1962, the twelth (and last) Nievo Mk. 1 was launched with Pavel Popovich at the helm. The flight was hailed by the Soviets as the first "International" mission (Ukraine had an independent seat at the United Nations). Popovich stayed in orbit for an unprecedented 9 days, 13 hours. The cosmonaut returned to Earth with wobbly legs but otherwise in good health. The Russians had leapfrogged ahead in the Space Race.
1962 ended with an American flight, albeit an underwhelming one. On December 31, 1962, Gordon Cooper flew his Faith 7 spacecraft around the Earth six times in an engineering flight described as "textbook."
[The Next Step]
Both the Americans and Soviets already had plans for evolutionary developments of their single-man spacecraft in addition to and in support of their lunar mission plans. Plans to enhance the Magellan for longer flights, even including a small laboratory module, were shelved in 1962 in favor of an enlarged, two-man version of the Magellan called the Delphi (ostensibly named as an "oracle" of things to come in the Artemis program). Delphi was a pilot's spacecraft, with 16 thrusters for deft maneuvering. It was more advanced than the Artemis, having been initiated a year later, and it proved a very versatile design spawning two successor spacecraft.
Delphi's Soviet counterpart looked much like the Nievo, but instead of being a simple cannonball with a retrorocket, the aptly named Novii (New) Nievo also had manuevering capability (even more than the Delphi, in fact) as well as the ability to seat two cosmonauts, three in a pinch. This was the spacecraft Korolev had wanted (and was working on) all along. The capabilities of this fully-realized Nievo would later put in inadvertent competition with the as-yet undeveloped lunar spacecraft, the Moryak.
[The Cuban Missile Crisis]
For two weeks in October 1962, missiles took the center stage in a decidedly non-Space related context. Yangel's R-16s had just come online at bases in the Soviet Union providing that nation with its first true ICBM force. In addition to this force, the USSR also began building R-12 missile bases in Cuba for a truly rapid nuclear strike right on the American doorstep. The tense events of those eleven days has been dramatized several times (perhaps most notably in the television play, "Betrayal."), and they have become iconic historical scenes: The sharp debate in the U.N.; the assertion of sovereignty by Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro; the end of the American blockade and subsequent dismantling and removal of the Soviet IRBMs; the controversial revelation a decade later that President Kennedy had secretly agreed to recognize the Communist Cuban government, leading to the eventual thawing of relations between the two countries.
The Crisis was the first in a series of nuclear showdowns, any one of which might have left the Earth a radioactive cinder. Its immediate result was the establishment of "The Hotline:" a direct telephone link between the White House and the Kremlin.
(Kennedy and Khruschev, as played in 2004)
Update #7, a chronology of manned flights from mid-1961 to the end of 1962.
[NASA's first manned flights]
After the stunning success of Crossfield's X-15b flight, NASA's little Magellan seemed like an also-ran. The death of Gherman Titov rocked the world, however. On July 18, 1961, the world held its breath for the countdown of the first American civilian mission: Alan Shepard's Redstone-launched "Freedom 7." There was jubilation in the free world after Shepard's 15-minute suborbital flight as well as somewhat disdainful praise from the Soviets (which sounded a bit hollow, all things considered). Space was safe again, at least for the Americans.
As quickly as those fears were dispelled, they returned with a vengeance. On September 1, 1961, Virgil I. Grissom (known to the world as "Gus") narrowly avoided catastrophe when his Atlas booster failed just seconds after liftoff. Luckily for him, the escape tower worked as advertised, propelling the Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft away from the blossoming fireball. Grissom was saved; a career characterized by luck and fame had begun.
No one criticized Jim Webb when he urged caution anymore. More suborbital flights were scheduled to iron out any bugs. In the meantime, an unmanned Atlas-launched Magellan flew on its first orbital test, September 13, 1961.
[The Soviet Reply]
The Soviet manned program was dealt a serious blow by the death of Gherman Titov, but with mounting pressure from the American X-15b and Magellan-Redstone flights, Korolev's OKB-1 engineers worked around the clock for months to isolate and fix the issues that had killed the pilot of the second manned Nievo.
Their hard work was rewarded. On October 7th and 8th, 1961 (just in time for the 43rd anniversary of the October Revolution), the Soviets stunned the world again with the launch of Nievos III *and* IV (the ninth and tenth Nievo missions). The first capsule was manned by Cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev. It was the second which made the big international waves--at its controls was the first female cosmonaut, Sveta Sokolova. Nikolayev and Sokolova passed within just 5km of each other in an unguided rendezvous. Nikolayev returned to Earth on October 11, but tragedy struck the Soviets again when Sokolova, the first woman in space, died upon landing after her parachute snagged on the Nievo's RFPK-10 antenna.
The Soviets reverted to their old habits. Nievo IV's failure was not announced to the public. Instead, it was announced that another woman cosmonaut, a Valentina Tereshkova, had actually made the flight. For decades, Comrade Tereshkova was a celebrity. She made good-will tours of various Communist nations, and she married (and divorced) fellow cosmonaut Nikolayev. Only recently, with the fall of the Iron Curtain, has the true story been learned.
[Back and Forth]
Space season had truly begun with flights increasing in frequency. Gus Grissom got a second chance to show his stuff. His flight on November 1, 1961, was a repeat of Shepard's in virtually every way (including the subsequent meet and greet with President Kennedy). Grissom, already a hero for the steel nerves he displayed in his last flight, became a national sensation.
The last of the chimponauts, LINDY, became the first primate in orbit on November 29, 1961, when MA-5 made three circuits of the globe. The temperamental Atlas booster was declared man-rated. The next flight was not to be an orbital one, however. In the wake of one catastrophe and one near-catastrophe, NASA opted for one more suborbital flight. Deke Slayton completed the third 15-minute suborbital flight in his Delta 7 on January 5, 1962.
An eleventh Nievo was launched in secret on February 21, 1962, without a cosmonaut aboard. The flight was politically motivated: After Gagarin's flight, rumors had begun to spread that Gagarin had not landed with his spacecraft. This fine point was actually critical--according to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, the international sports-flight organization, a person had to land with his/her spacecraft to qualify for any records. If word got out that Gagarin had jumped ship early, the laurels won for the first orbital flight would go to Scott Crossfield! Thus, Nievo XI tested a newly-developed soft-landing system, which could then be publicized as the one Gagarin had used. The results were less than optimal--had a cosmonaut been on board, he/she would have likely suffered some broken bones. Still, the Soviets were pleased enough, and the system was implemented on all future Nievo flights.
1962 was an American year for the most part. Scott Carpenter's Aurora 7 on March 1, 1962, was the last of the suborbital missions. Despite some minor malfunctions, which caused spurious warning lights to active, the Magellan spacecraft was declared man-rated for orbital travel.
It was a foregone conclusion who would be the first American to orbit in a Magellan. 38-year old Marine John Glenn was the most wholesome and charismatic of the Magellan 7. The grinning redhead's three-orbit flight on May 29, 1962 in Friendship 7, was an unqualified success, and Glenn became the next member of the Space Hero club. His mission was followed by Walter M. Schirra Jr.'s August 15, 1962 flight in Sigma 7. The mission-profile was identical, and no problems were encountered on Schirra's three-orbit flight. NASA gave Magellan the green light for longer flights.
The Soviets were not about to be upstaged. On August 18, 1962, the twelth (and last) Nievo Mk. 1 was launched with Pavel Popovich at the helm. The flight was hailed by the Soviets as the first "International" mission (Ukraine had an independent seat at the United Nations). Popovich stayed in orbit for an unprecedented 9 days, 13 hours. The cosmonaut returned to Earth with wobbly legs but otherwise in good health. The Russians had leapfrogged ahead in the Space Race.
1962 ended with an American flight, albeit an underwhelming one. On December 31, 1962, Gordon Cooper flew his Faith 7 spacecraft around the Earth six times in an engineering flight described as "textbook."
[The Next Step]
Both the Americans and Soviets already had plans for evolutionary developments of their single-man spacecraft in addition to and in support of their lunar mission plans. Plans to enhance the Magellan for longer flights, even including a small laboratory module, were shelved in 1962 in favor of an enlarged, two-man version of the Magellan called the Delphi (ostensibly named as an "oracle" of things to come in the Artemis program). Delphi was a pilot's spacecraft, with 16 thrusters for deft maneuvering. It was more advanced than the Artemis, having been initiated a year later, and it proved a very versatile design spawning two successor spacecraft.
Delphi's Soviet counterpart looked much like the Nievo, but instead of being a simple cannonball with a retrorocket, the aptly named Novii (New) Nievo also had manuevering capability (even more than the Delphi, in fact) as well as the ability to seat two cosmonauts, three in a pinch. This was the spacecraft Korolev had wanted (and was working on) all along. The capabilities of this fully-realized Nievo would later put in inadvertent competition with the as-yet undeveloped lunar spacecraft, the Moryak.
[The Cuban Missile Crisis]
For two weeks in October 1962, missiles took the center stage in a decidedly non-Space related context. Yangel's R-16s had just come online at bases in the Soviet Union providing that nation with its first true ICBM force. In addition to this force, the USSR also began building R-12 missile bases in Cuba for a truly rapid nuclear strike right on the American doorstep. The tense events of those eleven days has been dramatized several times (perhaps most notably in the television play, "Betrayal."), and they have become iconic historical scenes: The sharp debate in the U.N.; the assertion of sovereignty by Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro; the end of the American blockade and subsequent dismantling and removal of the Soviet IRBMs; the controversial revelation a decade later that President Kennedy had secretly agreed to recognize the Communist Cuban government, leading to the eventual thawing of relations between the two countries.
The Crisis was the first in a series of nuclear showdowns, any one of which might have left the Earth a radioactive cinder. Its immediate result was the establishment of "The Hotline:" a direct telephone link between the White House and the Kremlin.
(Kennedy and Khruschev, as played in 2004)
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And we're back and in colour! (I mean no harm with the Spaceballs reference! )
Good that Gus Grissom gets some luck after TTL's version of The Four Inch Flight, I have to ask how realistic is it the Soviets could have put Tereshkova in a dead woman's shoes? In order for the hoax to be plausible wouldn't they have had to tightly monitor the transmission from the flight so no one knew that Tereshkova hadn't been on board, IIRC the Americans were able to listen in on the early Soviet flights?
Good to see the R-16 ready for service at the end of TTL's Cuba, it's often speculated that had the Nedelin Catastrophe not happened and the missile been ready in time then Khrushchev may not have felt the need to put IRBM's in Cuba. But that's another story!
) Good that Gus Grissom gets some luck after TTL's version of The Four Inch Flight, I have to ask how realistic is it the Soviets could have put Tereshkova in a dead woman's shoes? In order for the hoax to be plausible wouldn't they have had to tightly monitor the transmission from the flight so no one knew that Tereshkova hadn't been on board, IIRC the Americans were able to listen in on the early Soviet flights?
Good to see the R-16 ready for service at the end of TTL's Cuba, it's often speculated that had the Nedelin Catastrophe not happened and the missile been ready in time then Khrushchev may not have felt the need to put IRBM's in Cuba. But that's another story!
And we're back and in colour! (I mean no harm with the Spaceballs reference!
Good that Gus Grissom gets some luck after TTL's version of The Four Inch Flight, I have to ask how realistic is it the Soviets could have put Tereshkova in a dead woman's shoes? In order for the hoax to be plausible wouldn't they have had to tightly monitor the transmission from the flight so no one knew that Tereshkova hadn't been on board, IIRC the Americans were able to listen in on the early Soviet flights?
1) The Soviets announced missions after they happened. Failures were covered up. OTL and TTL.
2) There is a risk the Americans might find out.
3) I used to torture my NRO player by giving him juicy tidbits like the above piece of information, and then I wouldn't let him tell anyone else for fear of "compromising his sources." However, this is a secret the Soviets managed to keep.
Good to see the R-16 ready for service at the end of TTL's Cuba, it's often speculated that had the Nedelin Catastrophe not happened and the missile been ready in time then Khrushchev may not have felt the need to put IRBM's in Cuba. But that's another story!
A fascinating what-if. Still, there was not much time between the Cuban R-12 deployment and the R-16 deployment OTL and TTL. I think the Soviets just wanted to conserve their options.
tis alive
Very. I've actually got the next three updates in the can and several more started. There shouldn't be any more interruptions.
...
Good to see the R-16 ready for service at the end of TTL's Cuba, it's often speculated that had the Nedelin Catastrophe not happened and the missile been ready in time then Khrushchev may not have felt the need to put IRBM's in Cuba. But that's another story!
The accounts of the crisis I've seen stress that Khrushchev made his decision rather abruptly and emotionally; the ability to directly threaten US territory with a Soviet missile was actually a minor consideration. He did it largely as a tit-for-tat counter to the US deployment of Jupiter IRBMs in Turkey; in fact he came up with the Cuban scheme while vacationing on the Black Sea (where I think he was when the announcement of the US plan being made definite came in) so he would personally have been at that point at point-blank range of one of those Turkey-based missies! He decided the Soviet Union had to show that it too could threaten its rival with missiles based on a nearby ally; the plan was also to announce the deployment--once it was successfully made. The US plans had never been secret; since the purpose was not to actually make a surprise attack on the USA, nor even mainly to serve as a crucial component of the Soviet strategic threat to the USA (clearly though the intermediate range missiles could devastate much of the United States, larger areas of it were immune, after all) so secrecy would defeat the purpose--if sustained that is. As the actual crisis did demonstrate, the US was in a much stronger position to shut down the deployment before it was complete. Hence secrecy until the missiles became operational (or, in the event, until their cover was blown despite Soviet/Cuban efforts).
Another key reason for the scheme was of course to set up a "tripwire" defense of their Cuban ally; with Soviet missiles controlled by Soviet officers on Cuban soil, clearly any invasion or other drastic action such as bombing Cuba would directly threaten Soviet forces and so, the Russians hoped, such moves the Americans might make would be deterred.
So you see, the question of whether the Soviets had a true ICBM that could directly attack the US was not relevant; the purpose was first to mirror the US action in Turkey, then to bring Cuba itself firmly and clearly under the Soviet nuclear umbrella.
So with or without a true long-range missile in their arsenal, the decision to set up a Soviet missile base in Cuba would go forward.
If anything the deployment of true ICBM might have encouraged the Russians to persist and be bolder!
Hopefully one of the updates coming soon will tell us more about the scope and design of the Artemis program space station.
True, the design will hardly be frozen yet (though OTL I think 1962 was not long before Apollo designs were) but the general concept of its role should be well-defined enough to have at least a draft description.
I'm so interested in it because it is the biggest divergence in the proposed moon mission from anything considered at this point for Apollo, and because depending on just what it is and how stable its orbit will be, it might have a permanent place in the US program and thus continue to attract a certain amount of manned space activity even after the moon race is over. This means that early on, thought would be given to designing systems to efficiently reach it and to send cargo to it, systems that might seem more economically sustainable than the monster rockets needed for a 2-launch Lunar direct landing mission.
So it has my attention!
True, the design will hardly be frozen yet (though OTL I think 1962 was not long before Apollo designs were) but the general concept of its role should be well-defined enough to have at least a draft description.
I'm so interested in it because it is the biggest divergence in the proposed moon mission from anything considered at this point for Apollo, and because depending on just what it is and how stable its orbit will be, it might have a permanent place in the US program and thus continue to attract a certain amount of manned space activity even after the moon race is over. This means that early on, thought would be given to designing systems to efficiently reach it and to send cargo to it, systems that might seem more economically sustainable than the monster rockets needed for a 2-launch Lunar direct landing mission.
So it has my attention!