TLiaW: Dawn of the Dragon

So...any comments or questions? I sort of threw that together quickly and was wondering if there were other things people were interested in seeing, but I guess it answered every question anyone had?
 
Interesting. Seems China's run up against the limits of their hardware. The nice thing about a depot-based architecture, though, is that a lot of it can probably be used to serve even larger stages and spacecraft with minimal modification, if China ever gets around to building those. I think the equipment they already have can be stretched to a very quick, small asteroid mission, but that's about it before they need a new set of larger stages and modules.

I suspect the Artemis Program and the Chinese lunar landings will steal a lot of the cultural and research momentum that IOTL went to Mars--if there's a TTL analogue to SpaceX, they might be explicitly lunar-focused.

Any chance that NASA might follow up Shuttle-C with the bigger Shuttle-Z variant proposed IOTL, with the bigger fairing and large upper stage? Or is there really no need for it?

If developing nations like to use a manned space program to demonstrate their progress, is there any chance Ukraine might build its own manned spacecraft? They've already got Zenit, so the cost for them shouldn't be too great. On the other hand, that might just infuriate Russia too much.
 
What are the plans for the Chinese? Are they looking to upgrade their capsule? Are LH/Lox rockets on the horizon for them? Do they have plans to make a Hab module to allow for longer stays?
 
Very fun! Just finished reading. As I said on the Eyes thread, I think much of the architecture can be carried out with the expanded Gemini/MOL/Titan parts in my KSP mod. I like the idea of stretching the capabilities of smaller/more primitive systems - though I feel you may have found one of the few justified ways of living that out. There isn't much you can do besides massive handwaving to explain, for example, a fully Titan/Gemini based lunar architecture for America in the 60s.

Now that I've finished this and Eyes, what do I read?
 
Something big is coming...T-41 hours and counting.

Call to stations from Polish Eagle and e of pi.
 

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