What if NASA had used as much existing Apollo hardware as possible for the Space Shuttle?

[David Flin]

Allen W. McDonnell and Jeff Provine have written an article on the Space Shuttle, originally published in Today in Alternate History.

 

[Thande]

You've linked to the original article David, here's the SLP version: https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post...-existing-apollo-hardware-as-possible-for-the

I do find this kind of thing a fascinating WI, it's somewhat similar (though not the same) to the "Eyes Turned Skyward" TL on the other place by e of pi and someone else whose name escapes me, but @Brainbin may know.

Also, that first design concept image from the article was used in a book I just read to inspire the design of a (never built in OTL) 'Shuttle II'. You can see a later evolution of it here: http://spaceflighthistory.blogspot.com/2017/02/nasa-johnson-space-centers-shuttle-ii.html although that can't be what the author I'm alluding to used, as he was writing in 1985 and that Shuttle II design concept is from 1987. Evidently NASA and its partners were very reluctant to let go of the idea of a shuttle with a winged booster. The book I read also implied it would launch horizontally.

 

[Coiler]

The AH tidbit I remember about the Shuttle is its use by some interneter to demonstrate the fallacy of looking that things that were never actually built. "Look at this amazing thing that could be reusable and pay for itself with commercial launches!".

 

[Brainbin]

I do find this kind of thing a fascinating WI, it's somewhat similar (though not the same) to the "Eyes Turned Skyward" TL on the other place by e of pi and someone else whose name escapes me, but @Brainbin may know.

At the time he was writing as truth_is_life, though he's since changed his handle to Workable Goblin.

Incidentally, @e of pi is actually a member here. I keep trying to encourage him to bring over all of his TLs, including Eyes Turned Skyward.

 

[Charles EP M.]

This is cool stuff, though a big takeaway I have is "good thing the Shuttle was too expensive" if we avoided militarising space!

 

[Coiler]

Also any serious explorations of a POD where NASA just stops the Shuttle completely after Challenger?

 

[e of pi]

At the time he was writing as truth_is_life, though he's since changed his handle to Workable Goblin.

Incidentally, @e of pi is actually a member here. I keep trying to encourage him to bring over all of his TLs, including Eyes Turned Skyward.

I tried simultaneous posting of Boldly Going when we were releasing that, and it drew...dramatically less comments and discussion for the effort, hence not being particularly interested in putting in the effort for long-finished TLs.

Also any serious explorations of a POD where NASA just stops the Shuttle completely after Challenger?

I can't recall seeing any, in part because it'd be pretty apocalyptic for US human spaceflight--probably a solid ten year gap, with launches of humans not resuming until the mid-to-late 90s, and quite possibly totally derailing efforts towards station (which is what's sustained and gown spaceflight since the 90s, anchoring the latter years of Shuttle and nurturing SpaceX's commercial space efforts) with the need for the spending to replace Shuttle.

I do find this kind of thing a fascinating WI, it's somewhat similar (though not the same) to the "Eyes Turned Skyward" TL on the other place by e of pi and someone else whose name escapes me, but @Brainbin may know.

I co-wrote with Workable Goblin on Eyes. If anything this is a bit more like Right Side Up that I wrote with Polish Eagle (link is to nixonshead's art for the TL), though this adds in the whole orbital weapons stuff which I find a bit implausible and seems to kind of ignore the much more relevant questions of architecture, safe flight rate, commercial payloads, and the sort of stuff that has a lot more to do with cost to orbit and what happens there.