The Long-Promised Reboot!
FROM THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT:
TO: Thomas O. Paine, (Acting) Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration:
You resignation letter of the 20th is accepted. May you have the best of luck in your future.
Signed,
Richard M. Nixon
...And let it be resolved:
George M. Low be appointed to the position of Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
YEA: 91
NAY: 6
ABSENT: 2
ABSTAIN: 1
MOTION ACCEPTED
Records of the United States Senate, March 7th, 1969
From the Low Diaries:
February 12th, 1970:
Agnew is as excited as a puppy about the space program, but everyone knows he has no power in the White House. The watchwords these days are "efficency" and "cost control", and with the space program being percieved as a Kennedy program, Nixon will not support massive expansion like the vice president wants. The Space Shuttle seems like the obvious follow-on choice, but the economics barely make sense, and it will cost billions to develop. I think I can sell continuing Apollo-type missions to him on cost concerns.
Houston Chronicle, October 17th 1970:
SHUTTLE CANCELLED; APOLLO FLIGHTS TO CONTINUE
With no new program, we were all just waiting for the axe to fall. All of us, made superflous at a stroke. When the pink slips started arriving the next week, it was almost a relief.
--Unnamed NASA engineer, quoted in Touching the Sky
PROPOSED LAUNCH SCHEDULE, 1971-1975
MANNED:
Apollo 14, January 1971; Crew: Shepard, Roosa, Mitchell
Apollo 15, July 1971; Crew: Scott, Worden, Irwin
Apollo 16, April 1972; Crew: Young, Mattingly, Duke
Apollo 17, December 1972; Crew: Cernan, Evans, Lind*
Apollo 18, June 1973; Crew: Gordon, Brand, Schmitt
Skylab 2, September 1973; Crew:Conrad, Weitz, Garriot
Skylab 3, December 1973; Crew: Bean, Lousma, Gibson
Skylab 4, March 1974; CREWS NOT YET ASSIGNED 1974 AND LATER
Skylab 5, June 1974
Skylab 6, September 1974
ASTP ('Apollo 19'), Feburary 1975
PROJECTED SATURN IB STOCK EXHAUSTION; IN-SERVICE DATE SATURN II
Skylab 7, June 1975
Skylab 8, September 1975
Skylab 9, December 1975
UNMANNED:
Skylab 1, September 1973
Mariners H and I: May 1971
Pioneer F: July 1972
Pioneer G: April 1973
Mariner J: November 1973
Vikings A and B: August 1975
--Report to the Administrator, December 5th 1970.
What most people don't realize is that Skylab was only originally designed to have enough consumables--food, air, water, fuel--to allow three 90-day habitations. But the plan up to 1975 had *8*, and no one thought that Skylab B would be launched until the later half of the decade, if ever. So, we had to figure out how to reengineer Skylab to be resupplied, and how to resupply it in the first place! Fuel was taken care of easily enough. Docked CSMs could provide reboosts and a degree of manuvering thrusters, and the station relied on gyroscopes to orient itself anyways. For air, water, and food, we were stumped. The CSM couldn't carry enough, of course, not with a crew on board. So we spent a few days going around and around, trying to think of something. Then, during one of our meetings, someone--I forget who--said, "Hey, what about the left-over LMs?". And we realized--yeah, there are a bunch of LMs that we've finished or partially finished that aren't going to the Moon. Maybe a couple of those could carry enough to support 3 guys for 90 days. So we started looking at it, and yeah, a modified LM--with the ascent stage replaced by a logistics container--could be launched by a Saturn II with a few tons of consumables on board. And that's how the LLLV was born.
--Unnamed NASA engineer, quoted in Touching the Sky
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* EDIT: I went back and reread the thread, and noticed that I had removed Kerwin from the moon flights for several reasons. I went back and edited this update to replace him with Lind, who (in light of the BigRIJoe) seemed a better fit for my "two-scientist" solution (sorry Engle). The reason Kerwin was in there in the first place was that I was working off the notes saved on my computer, which were *not* updated earlier. Let that be a warning to keep your notes and actual story in-synch!