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  1. A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    Hard to say. Britain does have the dubious distinction of being the only country (to date IOTL) of developing an independent launch capability, and then giving it up. Just another example of UK myopic short-termism demonstrated IMHO - and part of the reason France made sure that pulling out...

  2. A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    Congrats on taking both wins there ^_^

  3. A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    Just voted Fingers crossed this TL takes the wins

  4. 2024 Turtledoves - (Closes (15/02/24) - Best Spaceflight and Technology Timeline Nominations and Seconds

    Thirded.

  5. A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    Well. That happened. But having a Cosmonaut die (from the looks of things, ending it on his own terms before Radiation Poisoning could) during such a mission, and the fact such an operation had to be performed in the first place. The reputational damage to the Soviet Union is gonna be, at...

  6. A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    Sounds like 1989 is going to be a poor year for the Soviet Space programme if I read the last part right, can't say it's surprising given how much stress that economy is under by that point. Not gonna look good if my prediction is correct. Having the beginnings of a permanent Manned Lunar...

  7. A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    IIRC the OTL Hermes reached 23,000 Kg, which combined with soaring costs, and the need to reduce the ESA budget due to Germany absorbing the cost of reunification and the economic downturn in the early 1990's, made the programme financially - and politically IMHO - untenable. Even with a...

  8. A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    Well, that's different. But with all the pieces on Terra Firma, and the damage only happening on touchdown - minus the TPS Damage during the launch - it should be a little easier to piece together the precise sequence of events that led to the final outcome. Plus, having Skylab B proving...

  9. A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    Did my eyes deceive me? Or did I just see a Soviet Blok-V-III using a common bulkhead for the LH2 & LOX? I'll reiterate my previous statement that I can't see many flights of Baikal - even if they can have more thanks to not needing to design, build, and test a whole new LV from the ground up...

  10. A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    Given the state of the Soviet Economy at this time - and Reagan's policies not helping them any - I'm not seeing too many flights of Baikal... Love the render though. Is that during take-off? Or landing?

  11. A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    IMHO, in some ways, developing the LOX/LH2 Block-V-III 3rd stage for the N1 would be the simpler solution for them. I think it's already in development for the Baikal Orbiter, so it makes perfect sense to me for them to use it for another purpose, in this instance, allowing for a larger Block...

  12. A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    The main advantage I see here, is a greater engine-out capability. While the 30-engine N1 Black-A could lose up to 4 of its 30 engines before even clearing the launch tower without affecting the mission. In reality, due to the need to shut down the opposing engine to maintain thrust...

  13. A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    Frank Borman? Interesting choice, though I see just 4 years on the job there. As I see it, the repeated pushing for Grandiose Missions with Price Tags to Match could well have done more to cripple Post-Apollo efforts than any other single factor - to go back to my earlier mention of 'Apollo's...

  14. A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    A little late posting here, but... Lunar Dust, I'll admit that's not something I really considered for these longer-duration Manned Lunar Missions, and being forced to cut their landing/mission short on account of it wasn't something I saw coming. Still, at least they got back none-the-worse...

  15. Iceberg does Less damage to the titanic

    IIRC, the Titanic was designed to remain afloat if any 2 or 3 of its 16 watertight compartments were flooded - or the forward 4 - which actually exceeded the Maritime Regulations of the day. But since the forward 5 were taking on water - with the 5th surpassing the ability of the pumps to...

  16. Just a Bit More Steam - An Alternate Titanic Disaster

    From what I gather here - and recall from OTL... Titanic was cruising about 2.5Kn faster than OTL, which over the course of several hours will have a significant impact on its location, given the OTL 20.5Kn put it right on course for that Iceberg. Assuming the course is changed further to...

  17. A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    L3M appears to be coming along well enough. From the sounds of things, they're almost ready, were it not for Baikal... And as @fasquardon has already said, this does provide great PR Material to feed into the 'managed belief' that the USSR were playing the Long Game, not to mention that it...

  18. A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    So they got half a Mars Mission here? Better than before, but still a ways to go. Based on events, I'd say that they were two primary possibilities for the partial failure: 1) Porous Ground - Such terrain I believe would soak up radar signals, keeping the landing system from achieving a...

  19. A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    Sounds like they're learning that Manned Military Platforms aren't really worth the added expense and complexity when unmanned systems can do the job just as well - kinda like OTL if I remember right. But one major provocative move made there, there will be consequences - exactly what they'll...

  20. A Sound of Thunder: The Rise of the Soviet Superbooster

    I suppose even then, there'd be some major divisions regarding opinion with respects to the US Space Effort, made more apparent with the Soviet Union having a working SHLV in Groza. If they only knew... Only £0.30 in 1977? Prices have really climbed in the years since - £5.25 today last I...
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