Dark Moon Rising: Archibald space TL

I like the related nickname: Willy Fudd (was he related to Elmer ?)
Comes from the old designation for the plane. W for radar lugger, F for Grumman. The US phonetic alphabet had W as "William" and F as "Fox", but there was variation allowed, especially if you were repeating the same letter or number.


Also Stoof with a roof, LMAO.
The S-2 Tracer was the S2F under the old designations. S for ASW support, 2nd aircraft by Grumman (F). And then the WF/E-1 has a big radome over the top of what looks like the S2F airframe.
 
1982

NATO new nightmares.

By 1967 courtesy of McNamara the US government had essentially settled on a thousand of Minuteman in silos: and nothing else outside a handful of Titan IIs. Crucially, mobile ballistic missiles had always been stillborn, and remained so for the immediate future. Things like Minuteman on trains, or a smaller Minuteman on trucks.

The Soviets however had gone the opposite way.

Starting very late with solid-fuel, the RT-1 and RT-2 had been half baked failures - from the classic rocket OKBs like Korolev's OKB-1. Things started to change after 1966 when Nadiradze entered the picture. By 1969 he essentially restarted solid-fuel missile design from a clean sheet of paper - and was tremendously successful.

Within the span of the 1970's he created an entire family of road and rail mobile ballistic missiles: called by NATO SS-16, SS-20 and SS-25. The former and the latter were ICBMs, and SS-20 was intermediate range. By 1979 SALT-II treaty successfully eliminated SS-16 - except the Soviets just recycled the technology for the other two. SS-20 used a loophole to evade any treaty; SS-25 essentially was an upgraded SS-16 for the 1980's, after SALT-II was left to die by Reagan and Andropov. And as if that wasn't enough, the former Yangel design bureau in Ukraine created its own, mostly similar family of solid-fuel ballistic missiles: although only the SS-24 made it to service. It was yet another rail-based mobile ICBM, complementary of the SS-25 and just like it, thrieving on SALT-II expiration.

And thus by the early 1980's the Soviets had three, if not four, mobile ballistic missiles.

This send NATO scrambling for an answer: two answers, actually. They were the Tomahawk cruise missile and the Pershing II ballistic missile.
A teething issue however would be how to pin down the many SS-20, SS-24 and SS-25 mobile missiles so that the new B-2 bomber could nuke them before they nuked NATO. Later in the decade LACROSSE radarsats provided a partial answer, with a ground resolution of 1 m to 0.3 m. But they covered broad swath of Eurasia: way too much for even a squadron of B-2s to digest. Plus the satellites sped out in orbit, and they had to contend with Earth rotation moving the targets away.

Bottom line: some kind of intermediate system would be needed, akind to a loitering U-2... but much less vulnerable as it needed to loiter above the Warsaw Pact if not USSR proper: to hunt the SS-20, SS-24 and SS-25 playing hide and seek. This was a return to pre-spysat era overflights of the U-2, something abandonned for two reasons: provocation and spysats. Except with the twin revolutions of drones and stealth. The Ryan COMPASS ARROW however could not accomplish the mission, but it showed the way nonetheless: stealth included.

In the end the NRO and Air Force realized they needed the bastard child of a COMPASS ARROW and a B-2 to do the job. That is: a giant flying wing, stealth drone flying at a minimum of 80 000 ft if not outright 100 000 ft. A drone that could receive large amounts of LACROSSE data it would then thin, pinning down the elusive Soviet missiles whatever their moves. After what it would beam back its finding to Milstar relay satellites, in turn feeding B-2s coming for the fight just after WWIII broke out.

That was the plan, and it was no picnic: but there no other way around. The Soviet mobile missiles had severely disturbed the precarious nuclear balance in central Europe and in case of war they would have to be nuked first: before they could cripple NATO.

The plan however had major issues, one of them being cost. B-2 and Milstar promised to be eye-watering expensive, and the big stealth drone would be no cheaper. It was soon codenamed QUARTZ: also AARS - Advanced Airborne Reconnaissance System. It started with DARPA, then NRO got involved, and then the Air Force Strategic Air Command. In passing, AARS also become the SR-71 successor. Speed was no longer a shield against the colossal Soviet networked air defense system; the one and only way to penetrate Soviet airspace was full blown stealth. Not even F-117 faceted shape but B-2 with curves. AARS had its own weird shape called the flying clam. It looked like an half of a flying saucer in the front with an immense straight wing in the back: and no surfaces control whatsoever.

The B-2 and AARS would fly symbiotically, talking to each other via Milstar. Unfortunately they had a common issue: they were subsonic, with severe basing issues.

It was quite a vexing problem with no clear-cut answer.

If based in the USA, they could be kept absolutely secret far more easily: at well guarded places like Groom Lake or Area 51. Unfortunately the Warsaw pact and USSR would be a very long way around, wasting precious loitering time and fuel during transits. But if based in, say, Great Britain (as were U-2s and SR-71s) the risk of being unmasked were just too strong. B-2 and AARS technological packages were by far the most advanced in the entire world... and keeping them secret was paramount.

Overall, it was a quixotic choice. To solve the issue and also to save some precious time early in WWIII, the AARS studies also considered an ultra high speed platform. In that regard, Vandenberg AFB multiple secret squadrons of spaceplanes came in handily.
 
If based in the USA, they could be kept absolutely secret far more easily: at well guarded places like Groom Lake or Area 51. Unfortunately the Warsaw pact and USSR would be a very long way around, wasting precious loitering time and fuel during transits. But if based in, say, Great Britain (as were U-2s and SR-71s) the risk of being unmasked were just too strong. B-2 and AARS technological packages were by far the most advanced in the entire world... and keeping them secret was paramount.
Groom Lake IS Area 51.
 
D'oh, silly me.
In other news: never had before realized how big AARS / QUARTZ was. Imagine, a 250 ft span drone part B-2, part Lockheed RQ-3 DarkStar.
 
One character story recap.

Alan Gordon

Starts working at Avro Canada circa 1954; with a stint on the Avro Arrow. But he makes a mistake when he picks to join John Frost SPG (Special Project Group: that flying saucer thing), working on a Mach 4 VSTOL Arrow lookalike. He befriends GREEN / LIND... a Soviet spy inside Avro. Which puts him inside the RCMP spy game, also Avro leadership. Alan is smart enough to see the whole scheme and is disgusted by it, with LIND help he becomes a traitor. John Frost SPG is thrown under the KGB bus to intoxicate LIND.

Alan is not caught and decides to bail out, back to the Arrow: Floyd and Pesando own special project group. About air launching rockets from the Arrow. But the CF-105 is drastically cut, to 66 airframes. Disgusted, Alan tells the KGB he will move to Boeing: and they tell him to go spying the Minuteman missile. Since they already have Ted Hall and Kotloby inside that spy ring.

Alan's Minuteman spying mission is a success, and during the 1960's he will do the same with DynaSoar and the SST: also Boeing products.

Successive cancellations however greatly frustrate Alan who decides to kiss the KGB goodbye and vanish. He pulls out the D.B Cooper spectacular hijacking and escape across the border to Toronto... only to be caught back by the KGB and secretely deported by the KGB to Moscow, where he will meet and befriend Kim Philby... and plot a vengeance.
 
NRO Program C

CONFIDENTIAL

CRISIS RECONNAISSANCE OFF AIRCRAFT CARRIER DECKS - AND BOOMERS

The HIGH TOWN Mk.1 vehicle and the Agena are first and foremost, just another ammunition onboard any aircraft carrier. In that regard, they are similar to Bullpup missiles in the sense that their hypergolic propulsion systems are sealed at the contractor factory: Boeing and Lockheed, respectively. Once mated the satellite and the Agena are placed into a frangible contenair for additional safety and easier use. The contenair is then rolled into the Skywarrior bomb bay, the plane is placed on the carrier C-14 catapult, and the ship moves in the direction of the equator to benefit from Earth rotation.

The A-3 is catapulted and flies to Mach 0.9, 50 000 ft and 30 degree angle of attack: optimal air launch parameters. Because of the lack of a solid fuel booster the Agena has to burn to depletion. HIGH TOWN Mk.1, being a derivate of Lunar Orbiter, still has the 1100 m/s of delta-v it takes for injection into lunar orbit. This propellant is used for the final push into orbit and then for limited orbital manoeuvering. The satellite near real time imaging system is then connected to a terminal on the carrier. The ship also features a photo-interpretation room with analysts. Such crisis reconnaissance capability makes possible to check positions of Soviet warships at sea and assess the threat level. Additional satellites can be launched for improved coverage. The imagery collected and interpreted can then be fed into the carrier Combat Information Center. In that regard, HIGH TOWN Mk.1 could be a symmetrical answer to the Soviets own use of satellites to track down warships across the oceans.

It is rumored that the Soviets have began launching Radar Ocean Reconnaissance and Electronic intelligence Ocean Reconnaissance Satellites (RORSAT and EORSAT) into low earth orbit. RORSAT and EORSAT were primarily intended to expand the maritime areas covered by the Soviet Ocean Surveillance System (SOSS), a networked ‘system of systems’ that fused data from a wide variety of remote sensors to locate, identify, track, and target U.S. Navy forces at sea. In theory, Soviet standoff bombers might not have needed the support of pathfinder scouts if SOSS operators were able to provide a raid with high confidence, targeting-quality tactical pictures derived from RORSAT, EORSAT, and perhaps other remote sensor sources.

In the big scheme of the outer air battle, there is no doubt satellites will play a key role - on both sides.
...
The soviet satellite systems to monitor foreign fleet movements split into two families, the passive US-P program and the active radar equipped satellites designated US-A which carries nuclear reactors because of the high power consumtion of the active radar.

Both types share the same bus, which provides maneuvering capabilities to the spacecraft. US-P uses an passive ELINT devices to track naval vessels from space by registering their electronic emmissions. As the passive detection systems does not need as much power as the active radar system of the US-A, it is fitted with solar arrays.
...
"... and the Navy really wants a system to kill those pesky US-A and US-P eavesdropping their moves across the oceans. In that regard, HIGH TOWN is almost too good to be true. Remember how we put an Agena as a Polaris second stage and the whole thing in a boomer launch tube ? The Navy adopted it for spaceborne reconnaissance, but now they realize an ASAT variant would be very worthwhile. Against those goddamn Soviet nuclear radarsats. I told you that all that manoeuvering capability provided by Agena plus a modified Lunar Orbiter would be very useful someday."

"So a carrier or a boomer could kill Soviet radarsats harassing them ? Makes some sense."
...
 
"The word spaceliner has naturally flowed as a logical complement to airliner. But what is a spaceliner ? some would say: just a practical, cheap enough passenger transportation system to orbit; whatever compromises it takes.

But I disagree with that definition: too vague.

To me, a spaceliner must have a direct continuity with airliners. That is: it must takeoff horizontally from an ordinary airstrip. It must have wings and jet engines to integrate seamlessly into FAA and ATC stringent rules. Ballistic, gliding and staging launch vehicles simply can't do that: only a well defined rocketplane. But going to orbit is so difficult, that rocketplane needed a disruptive breakthrough idea: suborbital manoeuvering: either docking or refueling. Both also logical developments of existing techniques: aerial refueling and orbital docking; both moved to suborbital flight !"
 
"The word spaceliner has naturally flowed as a logical complement to airliner. But what is a spaceliner ? some would say: just a practical, cheap enough passenger transportation system to orbit; whatever compromises it takes.

But I disagree with that definition: too vague.

To me, a spaceliner must have a direct continuity with airliners. That is: it must takeoff horizontally from an ordinary airstrip. It must have wings and jet engines to integrate seamlessly into FAA and ATC stringent rules. Ballistic, gliding and staging launch vehicles simply can't do that: only a well defined rocketplane. But going to orbit is so difficult, that rocketplane needed a disruptive breakthrough idea: suborbital manoeuvering: either docking or refueling. Both also logical developments of existing techniques: aerial refueling and orbital docking; both moved to suborbital flight !"
I simply do not comprehend why you appear to think an HTHL TSTO like Saenger (if it were actually feasible) "simply can't" integrate seamlessly into FAA and ATC stringent rules, but suborbital refueling effortlessly would??? Note that for a while there was a concept of a hypersonic airliner based on the Saenger airbreathing carrier stage. Note also that platforms like the Pegasus carrier aircraft as well as the Stratolaunch Roc do not appear to have any problems operating in FAA controlled airspace.
 
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Fair enough.

1969
"Okay let's suppose the Soviets decide to play hardball; to target our spysats like they target our spyplanes when they cross borders into their airspace. I mean: an Istrebitel Sputnikov onslaught on CORONA and GAMBIT-3. Compared to them, HIGH TOWN would be much less vulnerable as we have a full bag of tricks to screw the Soviet ASAT system.

Key to that are three fundamental aspects of HIGH TOWN. First, it can fly either orbital or suborbital profiles. Something Istrebitel Sputnikov can't do: it can't kill single orbit or suborbital missions. Second feature is the combination of Agena and Lunar Orbiter propulsion systems. This provides HIGH TOWN with a lot of orbital manoeuverability which is paramount to escape the Soviet killer satellites.

Worst case, we could sacrifice the Agena and escape the attacker by separating the Lunar Orbiter platform. Another advantage is the system low cost and air-launch: if the Soviets starts destroying HIGH TOWN spysats, then we just throw more of them via B-52 or via B-70.

Don't forget the crisis reconnaissance spysat weights merely 900 pounds... when the aforementioned air launch systems can lift 10 000 to 20 000 pounds in orbit. Bottom line: we could launch small HIGH TOWN constellations to saturate the Soviet ASAT. Replacement launches will cost them much more as they use R-36 boosters which, even mass produced by a cheap labor force, remain complex and expensive.
 
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Silly me. I did not realized until today that the R-36 / Tsyklon rocket launched three important Soviet space systems
-the Istrebitel Sputnikov ASAT
- FOBS
-the US-A (and US-P) radarsats tracking USN warships at sea from orbit.

-Plus the R-36 monster ICBM could throw a 20 megaton warhead on Minuteman silos to obliterate them.

 
January 1966

Story England hated the guts of General Shoemaker and as result, had (stubbornely) decided he had an important mission on Earth to accomplish. Two missions, actually. Mission one was to put distance between Owen and General Shoemaker, who he saw as utterly nefarious if not twisted. Mission two was to keep Owen morale from collapsing into depression.

England happened to have a powerful leverage tool: suborbital rides to chase Agenas. And he insisted to have Owen in the backseat of his NF-104B. After all nobody in the entire world knew Agenas better than Owen.

"It wasn't too hard to get the authorizations for this. I'm the best pilot, and you are the Agena top specialist."

And so they flew chase, peaking way above 100 000 ft. From Edwards AFB and Vandenberg, Eglin and The Cape. Not only air launches, but also classic rockets, such as the Atlas-Agena flying targets for Gemini. Also a few KH-7s and KH-8s out of Vandenberg.

Whatever the takeoff place, the view from 110 000 feet was stunningly beautiful. Owen felt privilegied. Even more when Story was authorized to chase Apollo launches out of CCAFS skid strip. The pretext found here related to PERSEUS Mk.1 being part of the missions. They chased the PERSEUS Titan III first, and since the NF-104B was now at The Cape, it could be used as an Apollo high chase plane.

Story had a wicked sense of humor.

"Do you know the story of Mercury MA-3 and Gus Grissom ? No ? Well you should be aware of what happened that day, since we will chase rockets with aircraft.

So Cooper and Grissom had proposed to check the ascent of the very unreliable Atlas Mercury: from low and high altitude fighter planes. Grissom was the one who flew low, and as soon as the Atlas took off manoeuvered his F-106 to follow it. Bad luck: the rocket was doomed.

As the Mercury capsule popped out and escaped, command was send from the ground to the Atlas to commit suicide: and KABOOM it went. Except everybody had forgotten Grissom in his F-106... and he found himself very uncomfortably close from the fireball.

He was able to turn away from it and went looking for the Mercury hanging to its parachute: somewhere off the Florida coastline. All of sudden however his saw some stuff flying around his F-106 and instinctively thought "birds ! seagulls !" - if they went into his jet engine he would die... but those things were not seagulls. They were flaming bits of Atlas rocket falling all over the place. He was lucky none hit his plane.

Meanwhile on the ground a few spectators thought Grissom plane had flown right into the fireball and, well, had died. So as you can see, it was quite a memorable experience."
"Not very reassuring. Even less with you daredevil as my pilot."
 
PROLIFERATION OF AIR-LAUNCH CRISIS RECONNAISSANCE SYSTEMS

CONFIDENTIAL

From a C-130 or B-52 wing pylon:

DRONES:
-------Lockheed D-21 (cancelled)
-------Ryan AQM-91 COMPASS ARROW

SPACE VEHICLES
-------unmanned: HIGH TOWN MK.1
-------manned: ISINGLASS/RHEINBERRY - DYNASOAR - GEMINI-B
 
Capture d'écran 2024-03-27 110058.png

The CIA had identified a major gap in China air defenses: along the Pakistanese border with Xinjiang. And they were willing to fly drones right there. By 1967 this put the spooks on a collision course with two major historical events. First was the Cultural Revolution chaos and secondly: the Sino-Soviet clashes which almost ended with a nuclear exchange. The CIA had now a vantage point to observe the strife: from 80 000 feet high.

What made matters worse was the spying of USSR major test centers in Kazakhstan: Sary Shagan, Baikonur and Semipalatinsk; on top of Lop Nor. The two nuclear test grounds were merely 800 miles apart, so it was tempting to use the drone to monitor them from afar and above. The ideal mission would have been: Peshawar - Baikonur - Sary Shagan - Semipalatinsk - Lop Nor - back to Peshawar. A grand slam not unlike the fateful U-2 mission of May 1960; a massive borders penetration flight. But at 6000 km long the trip far exceeded the drone range: by a factor of two.

If plotted on a map that flight path formed a giant rectangle on the face of Earth. The CIA decided the best way to proceed was to patrol inside the rectangle, on the Xinjiang side: as chinese air defenses were far weaker if not non-existing, compared to the Soviet on the other side of the border. With a C-130 carrying it from Peshawar airfield to the border, a COMPASS ARROW drone could fly all the way to Lop Nor and back, monitoring the nuclear blasts from its vantage point.

The CIA then got into a dangerous mission drift... and mission creep. First, instead of Lop Nor they got the drones loitering above Xinjiang: going in circles; gathering electronic intelligence while peering across the border: into Soviet territory; in conjunction with vulnerable RB-57Fs doing the same job yet staying inside Pakistan airspace. Together they would eavesdrop Sary Shagan and Baikonur telemetry.

Then the CIA went a step further. They realized they had not much to lose testing COMPASS ARROW stealthness again Soviet air defenses. It was just a matter of getting closer and closer from Soviet airspace: probing their radars. If the drone was detected, then its onboard warning systems would raise alarm and the spooks would simply retreat: turning away from the border.

It was a return, somewhat, to the heydays of U-2 border penetration flights: 1956-1960. Except at far lower risk: no pilot and semi-stealth characteristics greatly helped.
 
NASA headquarters

February 1972


"Maybe the Shuttle is not completely dead. Maybe we could revive a few pieces of it. North American once got a contract study to mount their own S-II stage on the back of a Shuttle flyback booster. They needed that to lift the Reusable Nuclear Shuttle in orbit: the NERVA space tug, if you prefer."

"A S-II ? 33 ft in diameter ? must be an ackward arrangement, imagine: booster is also 33 ft !"

"Sure, but it doesn't seems to be a problem. And this has all kind of interesting ramifications. Even more if the flyback booster is a modified S-IC.

"I see where this is going... flyback S-IC with S-II is a heavy lifter and a partially reusable Saturn V: which is nothing short of amazing. But the same flyback S-IC obviously could handle the much smaller S-IVB: only 22 ft diameter.

"Perhaps with an Apollo at the tip ? saving the Shuttle Orbiter development expense.

"Damn interesting: a family of partially reusable Saturn - Apollo boosters. An intriguing path not taken... "

"Plus the nuclear shuttle. If delivered that way, fully-fueled to Earth orbit then it could make a roundtrip to cislunar space, delivering a chemical space tug turned lunar lander: they call this the LM-B, and it features a crew cabin. Once again, the LM-B could make a roundtrip to the lunar surface and back."

"And the whole stack would replace Apollo moonshots, hopefully at lower cost.

"Flyback booster + S-II + RNS + LM-B + crew module. That's a rather different architecture than Apollo: with bits of reusability inserted here and there."
 
Korolev's OKB-1
Moscow

In 1964 OKB-1 was tasked with improving on the newly operational Zenit-2 reconnaissance satellites. But Korolev had way too much on his plate and passed that work to his long time associate Kozlov, in Kuibyshev.

Kozlov defined three streams of work: modifying Zenit-2 spy satellites (into 2M and 4M); a manned spysat called Soyuz-R; and a new photoreconnaissance satellite based on Soyuz-R.

The third stream was code-named Yantar and initially there were to be two types - Yantar-1 for medium resolution imaging and Yantar-2 for high resolution. In typical Soviet fashion all three paths would go in parallel: and more. In 1967, a new high resolution satellite was proposed called Yantar-2K. Although it preserved the Soyuz components, at first glance it looked very little like it.

All these proposals had the cameras inside the return capsule, along with the film: a marked difference with the american spysats which only recovered the film in smaller buckets. The Zenit capsules were very much Gagarin's Vostok, and the tradition would carry on with Soyuz-R. Only Yantar truncated cone recovery apparatus would have no connection to manned spaceflight.

On the near-real-time, film-readout front the Soviets once had their own failed SAMOS E-1 / E-2 system: called Baikal. It did no better and was quickly dropped. Much like the americans however the lure was too strong and soon a few second generation systems were started. And just like FROG laser-scan landing on the MOL, Chelomei's Almaz got that Soviet second generation system. It was called Televizionnaya globalnaya razvedka - TGR: with variants called Kometa-11 and Mars.

The capture of the COMPASS LINK laser-scanning ground station during the Tet offensive, Vietnam, 1968, impacted all the aforementioned projects.
While Soyuz-R was toast, laser-scanning could be applied to Zenit, Yantar and Almaz' Kometa and Mars payloads.
...
 
So, once upon a time in Vietnam...



Ooops !


"There will be blood".

Long story short: the Soviets OTL tolerated the CORONA and GAMBIT "classic" spysats. Could have shot them down, U-2 style, with their Istrebitel Sputnikov ASAT system. But instead a precarious stalemate with the NRO was accepted.

My fictionnal crisis reconnaissance spysats (called HIGH TOWN Mk.1 and Mk.2) on the contrary will prodigiously worry and piss off the Politburo - for a host of reasons (just like the Space Shuttle and SDI drove them paranoid crazy a few years apart)

It happens that, by 1966-67 the coming Mk.2 system use the exact same revolutionnary laser-scanning gizmo as COMPASS LINK. The latter however is not in space but at Tan Son Nhut, Vietnam: on a trailer and van near the runways.
Why ? because the laser-scanning gizmo is fed with RF-4C tactical reconnaissance pictures; which are then beamed at the speed of light (through satellites relays) to McNamara in the Pentagon, for micro-management of the Vietnam war. Nowadays its routine, but 55 years ago it was brand new exciting stuff.

So what will happen ? The Soviet will send a small KGB commando near Tan Son Nhut airbase and use the Tet offensive chaos to steal the COMPASS LINK van and trailer. Doing that, they will gain access to HIGH TOWN Mk.2 technology.

It's just pragmatic reasonning: it is much easier to steal spysat technology in Vietnam than in space !
 
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So what will happen ? The Soviet will send a small KGB commando near Tan Son Nhut airbase and use the Tet offensive chaos to steal the COMPASS LINK van and trailer. Doing that, they will gain access to HIGH TOWN Mk.2 technology.

It's just pragmatic reasonning: it is much easier to steal spysat technology in Vietnam than in space !
I'd be absolutely shocked if there was NOT a plan to do this in the real world...
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Program_437

Johnston Island
1963


"Ever heard of Program 437 at Johnston Island ? no ? It is the closest thing in existence from an ASAT and a SAINT system: satellite killer or just satellite inspectors. We should really meet them and coordinate our efforts with that program.

"The US's first anti-satellite system was Program 505, based at the Kwajalein Missile Range: a little farther in the Pacific: about halfway between Hawaii and the Philippine islands. This system has become operational last year. Based on the Nike Zeus anti-ballistic missile that is being tested at that site. The missiles have been modified for greater range, but even with these modifications the system can only intercept satellites that fly very close to the base: maximum altitude around 170 miles. A system with longer range seemed like the next logical step, and this became Program 437. It is based on a Thor IRBM: in fact the missiles once deployed in Europe: Great Britain, Italy, Turkey. We have a stock of these decommissioned missile, and it would be a shame to waste them.

"Operation Fishbowl has launched eight Thor missiles last year: May 2, 1962 to November 1, 1962. The whole thing has been a bloody mess, all the way from the island itself to space. Bluegill Prime had a Thor exploding on the island and burning its plutonium bomb. A month later Starfish Prime fucked up power grids across the entire Pacific: also frying one-third of the satellites in orbit. They nonetheless proposed an ASAT program using the island infrastructure.

"Gimme a break... they want to throw nuclear-tipped Thors against Soviet satellites ?

"That's the basic concept, yes. Not in orbit: just direct ascent. Track the commie satellite, wait and calculate an approach, then launch the Thor and - KABOOM. If the satellite ain't vaporized, it will be fried either by the electromagnetic pulse or by the radiation."

"Sweet Jesus... well I don't see how this madness is of interest to us."

"There has been a recent development of Project 437 that is indeed more interesting to us. Well we should use it as template, and then thrieve on the system weaknesses : which are many. In my opinion, we can do much better than both 437 and 505 systems."
...
On 23 May 1963, the Air Force directed the Air Force Space Systems Division to study the possibility of using Program 437 to act as a satellite inspection system. Program 437AP (advanced payload) would provide the ability to examine an orbiting satellite.

This new program was vital if the president needed more information to determine whether an orbiting satellite constituted a threat to US national security and vital national interests and, thus, should be destroyed. Intelligence agencies, like the CIA, could look at a photograph to see if the space vehicle was an intelligence gathering, communications, or Multiple Orbit Bombardment Satellite.

The Air Force and General Electric, the developer of the defunct Satellite Inspector system, urged the Air Defense Command to take on Program 437AP and its satellite photographing mission. Program 437AP would incorporate a modified Mark 2 reentry vehicle using a camera from the National Reconnaissance Office’s (NRO) successful Corona imagery satellite.

On 9 December 1963, Under Secretary of the Air Force Brockway McMillan requested that LeMay complete a development plan for Program 437AP not later than 23 December. McMillan, who also served as the director of the NRO, may have had other reasons to develop Program 437AP. As the director of the NRO, he was responsible for much of the nation’s space reconnaissance efforts, including imagery. The Corona satellite was an integral part of the NRO’s assets. The capability to gather imagery intelligence of an orbiting Soviet intelligence satellite would allow the NRO to examine these systems close up.

Using the NRO’s camera from the Corona satellite, hence the term “Corona camera,” would reduce the cost and development time for the program. The Corona camera could take five to seven photographs in daylight at an altitude between 70 to 420 miles. After the Program 437AP inspector satellite photographed a target, it would eject a film canister as its orbit passed near Hawaii. A specially modified C-130 aircraft from Hickam AFB, Hawaii, would recover the film as it parachuted towards earth.

"Program 437AP’s concept of operations is simple. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) develop a satellite target list. The Air Defense Command’s mission is to photograph and analyze the targets and send the information to intelligence agencies for further review. The JCS priority target list allows the 10th Air Defense Squadron to schedule Thor preparations and arrange C-130 recovery support on a routine basis."
...
"See ? the NRO and CIA are interested in 437AP. And this is the exact place we step in. I want to snatch 437AP mission of imaging satellites: as HIGH TOWN secondary mission. Correcting 437 many limitations through air-launch and near real time film readout. Indeed several factors limit the feasibility of Program 437AP.

For a start the highest possible altitude possible using Thor boosters is 725 nautical miles. This ceiling let the Air Defense Command inspect targets only in low earth orbit.

Second, the recovery C-130 aircraft requires time to calculate and find the recovery site. The Johnston Island location, ground guidance system, and intercept geometry restrict the Program 437AP’s capability.

Third, the panoramic camera onboard the Thor can operate effectively only within certain parameters. The target satellite has to be illuminated in direct sunlight and the Thor needs to put the camera at a 45-degree crossing angle.

Fourth, the booster and payload do not separate until 160 seconds after liftoff, thus limiting the Program 437AP missions to a minimum intercept altitude of 100 nautical miles. The Air Defense Command crews estimate the optimal intercept altitude is 400 nautical miles at a maximum range of 800 nautical miles.

Finally, accurate tracking of space vehicles in high-drag orbits, below 250 nautical miles, is unreliable and interceptions below that altitude are impractical.

"I see. If played well, air launch and film readout will anihilate all five issues."

"My point exactly."

What Owen failed to grasp at this moment was that HIGH TOWN secondary mission opened new perspectives for Shoemaker. HIGH TOWN would start as a crisis reconnaissance spysat. And then it would shift to the Satellite Inspector mission. From there it would only take a small step to go ASAT. Probably not nuclear, as even Shoemaker acknowledged that Operations Dominic and Fishbowl had been nuclear insanity. Instead Shoemaker intended to go co-orbital with non-nuclear weaponry. As the 1960's came and gone, the Soviets provided Shoemaker with a dream target called FOBS: Fractional Orbital Bombing System.

----------------

Vandenberg AFB
California
1966


At Johnston island the 10th ADS kept both Thor boosters on ASAT alert for a dual launch capability. Countdown would proceed until T minus eight hours to launch. If it was to be a photographic inspection mission, the launch crew and support personnel would then remove and replace the nuclear warheads with a photographic payload on both Thors. Depending on the target, the Johnston Island or Vandenberg AFB ground guidance station would provide SPADATS, target intercept, and timing data along with other support to the launch crew.

A reserve launch crew at Vandenberg would stand ready to go to Johnston Island for further assistance. If deployed, this backup crew would transport a Thor booster to Johnston Island. The 10th ADS kept two cameras ready for launch and had a backup on the island. The other two cameras remained in storage at Vandenberg AFB. The 10th ADS required at least 15 days to refurbish and prepare the site to launch either another photographic or an ASAT mission.

Shoemaker pointed how air-launch vastly simplified logistics. Test flights would prove him right.

Douglas Aircraft contractors and 10th ADS crews conducted several Program 437AP test launches: from 7 December 1965 through 2 July 1966. They explored the capabilities of the primary panoramic and secondary index cameras. The tests required more precise guidance and interception data than 437 ASAT mission.

Several of these tests failed. However, the feasibility of Program 437AP had been proven. On 7 December 1965, a Thor-launched satellite photographed an expended Agena rocket body. The Thor’s payload flew within 0.56 nautical miles and took only 8.18 minutes to intercept the target. A subsequent launch on 18 January 1966 was another unqualified success. The Thor booster put the photographic payload within range of another Agena. And this time the the Air Force-crewed C-130 recovered the film capsule.

Another test launch on 12 March 1966 met with similar success. And Owen Gordon had been part of that: from the Lockheed side of the fence as usual. He had the Agena pictures framed on his desk. Officially, they had been taken by NASA Gemini astronauts.

He had to admit Shoemaker had been right, three years before. The possibility of photographing another nation’s satellites was an interesting proposition for US intelligence agencies. Except HIGH TOWN could do that far better than 437AP. To Shoemaker delight it had demonstrated the ability to uncloak “secret” Soviet space systems. It also thrieved on 437AP many flaws and limitations.

For example the Air Force had scheduled a fourth test launch for 6 April 1966 to photograph a Soviet satellite. The Joint Chief of Staf and the United States Intelligence Board (USIB) however vetoed the proposed mission for a couple of interesting reasons.

First, they thought the flight was too provocative. Shoemaker immediately countered by borrowing a NRO mission called Sat-Squared: satellite-to-satellite. Quite simply, it would use a very ordinary spysat to opportunistically image a Soviet satellite passing by: merely a secondary mission done quietly. In that regard, HIGH TOWN was far superior to GAMBIT or CORONA.

It would be launched for a reconnaissance and crisis mission, except by pure luck its orbit would provide a few close encounters with a Soviet satellite. Of course it wouldn't be pure luck but actually a deliberate move... except that, thanks to orbital mechanics singularities, it would be impossible to prove the deliberate side of that business. Plus HIGH TOWN Agena and Lunar Orbiter platforms had huge on-orbit delta-v to manoeuver from an initial, innocuous orbit. To another one where they could quietly go "sat squared" on that Soviet satellite. If played smart the deception would be almost too good to be true: there would be no provocation whatsoever.

Then Shoemaker found another argument to bury 437AP even deeper.

Despite the April 6 test being vetoed, Harold Brown, now secretary of the Air Force, requested funding from McNamara to support at least 10 more Program 437AP missions. Yet the spooks USIB opposed Program 437AP launches from Johnston Island.

The reason given: since the Soviets undoubtedly had identified that location as a hub for ASAT operations, they might well regard any launch from Johnston Island as a nuclear attack on their space assets. The USIB suggested the Air Force build another base to launch Program 437AP missions. However, because the costs to replicate the launch facilities were too high, enthusiasm for Program 437AP among DOD and national security agencies waned.

Shoemaker lost no time pointing that air-launch instantly nixed the issue, and requesting, too, ten missions. And he triumphed. The Air Staff not only decided not to build a separate Program 437AP launch facility. On 30 November 1966 they cannned 437AP altogether.
HIGH TOWN had carried the day. But for Shoemaker it was only a beginning: as FOBS entered the picture exactly at this point of time. He told Gordon it was almost too good to be true.

Despite increasing Soviet space activity in the 1960s, Program 437AP did not target any specific space threats: other than a hypothetical FOBS or MOBS deployment: fractional orbit or multiple orbits nuclear weapons.

This very mission however soon got a major boost from the CIA. Its 1966 National Intelligence Estimate projected that the Soviets had conducted several test FOBS launches, but the CIA was not convinced the launches would lead to a MOBS capability.

The following year, the CIA revealed that the USSR had been experimenting with a FOBS capability as early as 1965. The agency’s analysts concluded that the Soviets would likely deploy it. The CIA thought the Soviet Union had the ability to launch a few FOBS attacks against the United States and that Program 437 might be able to handle the threat.

The Soviet Union’s SS-9 ICBM was thought to be the FOBS booster. In the USSR’s 1965 May Day celebration, its Strategic Rocket Forces proclaimed that the SS-9 had “an orbital weapons application.”

As proof of this capability, the Soviets made no less than 15 test FOBS launches. Most of the tests were conducted from January to October 1967. On 25 January 1967 an SS-9, Cosmos 139, was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and its payload landed 90 minutes later near the Soviet military rocket range of Kapustin Yar.

Secretary McNamara revealed that Cosmos 139’s purpose was an orbital nuclear weapons test. If the Soviets used FOBS to attack the United States, then the nation would not have adequate warning time for an immediate nuclear response. What if the SS-9 put the MOBS payload into a higher, more permanent orbit? Although short warning times made Program 437 a questionable defense against suborbital FOBS, the Thor-based ASAT weapon system might be capable of intercepting an orbiting MOBS.

Not only was short warning time a problem against a FOBS, so was the location of the Thor launch site. Indeed, Johnston Island’s location proved to be distinctly disadvantageous to the successful intercept of a FOBS threat. Since the FOBS was a suborbital weapon, its altitude would normally be below 250 nautical miles—not optimal for a Program 437 interception.

Additionally, as noted above, Soviet launches from less than 57 degrees or between 65 and 80 degrees latitude would be outside the coverage areas of then existing US radar systems.

Though the Thors could be launched to attack any target in any direction from Johnston Island, only those targets on a inclination between 57 and 65 degrees or above 80 degrees latitude would be detectable by US warning radar and thus susceptible to attack by the Thor. Incoming targets above 80 degrees latitude would likely be well out of range of Johnston Island. For example, if the Soviets used the Tyuratam space launch complex (or any other site) to launch a suborbital attack on a path between 49.5 to 50 degrees latitude, then the Thor could not intercept the incoming Soviet warhead(s).

When Shoemaker learned about all the above, he just couldn't believe his luck. Not only air-launch would, once again, anihilate every single of these issues: another victory for HIGH TOWN against 437AP. But there was more than that: even more exciting.
Shoemaker imagined to launch a HIGH TOWN to chase one of these FOBS spacecraft.

He wouldn't destroy it with a nuke, nor even with conventional weaponry - not at the beginning at least. Instead, the HIGH TOWN would image the FOBS: bringing back Satellite Inspector: SAINT.

Eventually after a few successful interceptions Shoemaker would found himself in a position of strength to move from SAINT to ASAT: from inspection to destruction. Crucially, HIGH TOWN flight profile was exactly a mix of FOBS and MOBS. That is: a fraction of an orbit; or just one complete orbit; or multiple orbits. And as such, it would be ideal to chase, image and eventually destroy the Soviet weapon.
Shoemaker had now between his hand a mission even more exciting that crisis reconnaissance. One that served his unflinching long term goal of Air Force space dominance across Earth sphere of influence: 1 million miles.

On 30 March 1967, the Continental Air Defense Command, a joint defense command that included the Air Defense Command, conducted a simulated orbital bomb system attack on the United States. The 10th ADS’s reaction was judged a success when a simulated ASAT payload intercepted a designated position in space within two nautical miles.

More than ever Shoemaker argued and insisted that the possibility of Soviet FOBS and/or MOBS strikes provided a new reason to retain a SAINT and/or ASAT capability. And that HIGH TOWN would do it far better than 437AP. His efforts were not in vain, as the Air Defense Command soon prooved they still believed in an ASAT mission.

But instead of a direct ascent system like Thor, the command requested that the Air Staff approve a replacement system based on a co-orbital interceptor. To Shoemaker delight, the Air Defense Command issued a required operational capability (ROC) statement that defined this proposed system on 17 March 1967.

It reflected the Air Defense Command’s desire to get the Air Staff to approve the development of a non-nuclear ASAT system. This system would intercept, inspect, negate, and conduct a post-attack assessment of a space vehicle. The Air Staff however disapproved the ROC and the Air Defense Command continued to operate Program 437.

Against that dismal background, Shoemaker proposed a different, phased approach. Involving HIGH TOWN spacecraft, obviously.
1-crisis reconnaissance
2-sat-squared (= opportunistic SAINT from ordinary spysats)
3-SAINT (= deliberate SAINT)
4-co-orbital ASAT.

HIGH TOWN secondary mission was more and more exciting - to Shoemaker at least. Gordon as usual was rather frightened by the prospects of harassing a Soviet orbital nuke platform. The same year 1968 Clarke published a companion novel to 2001. While it somewhat differed from the movie, it also provided interesting background to Heywood Floyd futuristic world. And Clarke wasn't exactly optimistic.

In the 2001 world, FOBS platforms were ubiquitous doosmday machines: deployed well beyond USSR.
...
"In a million years, the human race had lost few of its aggressive instincts; along symbolic lines visible only to politicians, the thirty-eight nuclear powers watched one another with belligerent anxiety. Among them, they possessed sufficient megatonnage to remove the entire surface crust of the planet. Although there had been - miraculously - no use of atomic weapons, this situation could hardly last forever.
And now, for their own inscrutable reasons, the Chinese were offering to the smallest have-not nations a complete nuclear capability of fifty warheads and delivery systems. The cost was under $200,000,000, and easy terms could be arranged. Perhaps they were only trying to shore up their sagging economy, by turning obsolete weapons systems into hard cash, as some observers had suggested."
 
Canadair
1959


"Lockheed wants so much selling Starfighters to us, we could name the plane CF-104 just to piss them. CF-103 however was the "bridge" design between the CF-100 and the Arrow. Would be nice to return to our roots."
...
CANADAIR CF-103 SKYLANCIER
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 53 ft 9.75 in (16.4021 m)
Wingspan: 33 ft 6 in (10.21 m) wings spread
Width: 27 ft 6 in (8.38 m) wings folded
Height: 14 ft 10 in (4.52 m)
Wing area: 557 sq ft (51.7 m2)
Powerplant: 1 × Orenda PS-13 Iroquois afterburning turbojet engine, 19,350 lbf (86.1 kN), without afterburning; 25,600 lbf (114 kN), with afterburning.
Empty weight: 17,444 lb (7,912 kg)
Gross weight: 28,739 lb (13,036 kg) with full internal fuel + 2x AIM-7 Sparrow II AAMs
ARMAMENT
Guns: 4 × 20 mm (0.79 in) autocannon
Missiles:
4 × AIM-9 Sidewinder or 2 × Sparrow III
AVIONICS
Radar - AN/APQ-72
...
"Orenda told us that Lockheed and General Electric tried to bait them with a J79 deal - for F-104s, obviously. Note that the Skylancier could have swapped its J57 for that engine. But Orenda got a different idea. They noted that the Arrow was to shift from J75 to Iroquois... and that J57 is kinda J75 "father". So Orenda wondered about an Iroquois Skylancier. With so much thrust, it would become a a hot rod. With Bull fly-by-wire to tame it, it would be a very powerful aircraft."
 
NASA Headquarters
Washington DC


The Space Shuttle program over its last few weeks of existence essentially split into four factions.
-the fully reusable vehicle, mostly toast after June 1971
-downrated concepts, hopefully cheaper.
Change 1 - external tankage orbiter, booster unchanged
Change 2 - external tankage orbiter, S-IC booster (flyback or parachutes or expendable)
Change 3 - external tankage orbiter, downrated boosters (solids / pressure fed)

The latter needed additional power to compensate for the low-performance boosters. Consideration was given to use the orbiter engines right off the pad. But this needed a far larger exernal tank. Reasoning was three points a) tankage is cheap b) SSME can help and c) both makes the booster smaller and easier too recover.

Change 1 was left to contractors: an example being Grumman H-33.
Change 2 was NASA prefered path: requested in September 1971.
Change 3 was pushed only by an outsider: Mathematica, Inc.

Only Change 3 made the Shuttle substantially cheaper. At the expense of somewhat flawed designs. History of Mathematica Inc. involvement in the Shuttle design, and the concepts they pushed, remain largely obscure.

General consensus is that had history turned differently, Change 2 would have eventually been picked by Nixon's OMB and submitted to the President approval. SSME would lit in flight, external tank would be of reasonable size, and S-IC, reusable or not, would preserve Saturn / Apollo industrial base. It is somewhat significant that Change 2 become the starting point for Shuttle II studies.
 
NASA Headquarters
Washington DC


The Space Shuttle program over its last few weeks of existence essentially split into four factions.
-the fully reusable vehicle, mostly toast after June 1971
-downrated concepts, hopefully cheaper.
Change 1 - external tankage orbiter, booster unchanged
Change 2 - external tankage orbiter, S-IC booster (flyback or parachutes or expendable)
Change 3 - external tankage orbiter, downrated boosters (solids / pressure fed)

The latter needed additional power to compensate for the low-performance boosters. Consideration was given to use the orbiter engines right off the pad. But this needed a far larger exernal tank. Reasoning was three points a) tankage is cheap b) SSME can help and c) both makes the booster smaller and easier too recover.

Change 1 was left to contractors: an example being Grumman H-33.
Change 2 was NASA prefered path: requested in September 1971.
Change 3 was pushed only by an outsider: Mathematica, Inc.

Only Change 3 made the Shuttle substantially cheaper. At the expense of somewhat flawed designs. History of Mathematica Inc. involvement in the Shuttle design, and the concepts they pushed, remain largely obscure.

General consensus is that had history turned differently, Change 2 would have eventually been picked by Nixon's OMB and submitted to the President approval. SSME would lit in flight, external tank would be of reasonable size, and S-IC, reusable or not, would preserve Saturn / Apollo industrial base. It is somewhat significant that Change 2 become the starting point for Shuttle II studies.

Looking at the historical, current and future mess of programs and controversies surrounding the SRB, NASA's use of it, their politics and contractor - Thiokol and its successors but not only them, we remember the 2024$4.2Billion equivalent spent on the california-made ASRM supposedly needed for an unrealistic Freedom, until they weren't; I really do wonder what kind of Political-Industrial shenanigans could appear with a Saturn-shuttle (no matter the form the "Saturn" part takes), it could be fun to write about.
A good Political conjuncture, and I could already see NASA contracting another company than Boeing to build the S-IC in the middle of the program.
 
Well I used the Titan SRMs as a "lightning rod" to channel the solid-fuel lobby... away from OTL madness.

As for the Saturn-Shuttle... there is a S-IC lobby (Boeing) a F-1A & J-2 lobby (Rocketdyne) a XLR-129 lobby (Pratt). Plus the NASA centers that need the Saturn: Stennis, Marshall (not sure about JSC: I "bought" them with a space station on top of Big Gemini)

They all pin their hopes on a Shuttle II in the 1980's. And yes, it is not pretty. Including when JSC "returns" and can't conceive they don't get the Shuttle II plum development contract.

Except that the "solid fuel lobby" falls in love with the SRM+S-IVB concept (what I call the SATAN rocket: part SAturn, part TiTAN), which was one of the biggest lost opportunities of OTL Shuttle program. And the concept collides head-on with the Shuttle II.

"SRM can be fished off at sea and Philip Bono provided a recipe to recover S-IVB from orbit, at the cost of a 8000 pound "recovery kit" - Wait, we have a fully reusable TSTO, the simplest way ! who needs a partially reusable Shuttle ? Even more if we put a fat lifting body on top of our launcher..."

So hell yes, the Shuttle II program past 1980 is a complete mess. The proverbial "be careful what you wish for."
 
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Well I used the Titan SRMs as a "lightning rod" to channel the solid-fuel lobby... away from OTL madness.

As for the Saturn-Shuttle... there is a S-IC lobby (Boeing) a F-1A & J-2 lobby (Rocketdyne) a XLR-129 lobby (Pratt). Plus the NASA centers that need the Saturn: Stennis, Marshall (not sure about JSC: I "bought" them with a space station on top of Big Gemini)

They all pin their hopes on a Shuttle II in the 1980's. And yes, it is not pretty. Including when JSC "returns" and can't conceive they don't get the Shuttle II plum development contract.

Except that the "solid fuel lobby" falls in love with the SRM+S-IVB concept (what I call the SATAN rocket: part SAturn, part TiTAN), which was one of the biggest lost opportunities of OTL Shuttle program. And the concept collides head-on with the Shuttle II.

"SRM can be fished off at sea and Philip Bono provided a recipe to recover S-IVB from orbit, at the cost of a 8000 pound "recovery kit" - Wait, we have a fully reusable TSTO, the simplest way ! who needs a partially reusable Shuttle ? Even more if we put a fat lifting body on top of our launcher..."

So hell yes, the Shuttle II program past 1980 is a complete mess. The proverbial "be careful what you wish for."
And NASA stumbles upon Hermes, what could go wrong.
 
The general shape: SRB+SIVB, with a downgraded shuttle on top "fat lifting body", it's reminiscent of Hermes, well this launcher is claimed to be a fully reusable TSTO... But I doubt it'll be that easy or economical.

Hmm, so I imagine the SIVB, instead of the shuttle, would finish the orbital insertion if it was meant to have a controlled reuse/recovery?
 
The general shape: SRB+SIVB, with a downgraded shuttle on top "fat lifting body",
either four UA1207 SRB on SIVB or third stage (centaur or transtage ?)
Lifting body NASA and USAF had allot concept for that either HL-10 or X-24 or Big Gemini.
 
Three 120-7 Titan SRMs plus one XLR-129 "S-IVC" (with optimal / optimistic mass fraction and isp) could orbit almost the exact same payload as the Shuttle: 65 000 pounds. Also the same cost: $260 a pound, according to Bellcomm documents.

Readily agree that beast would not be that easy nor economical. Plus three 120-7 SRMs = 21 segments linked by 18 O-rings. Chalenger managed to go kaboom with less than half that number and only two SRBs.

- - - - - - -
 
I just learned an interesting tidbit. I had never understood how United Technologies had lost the Titan IVB upgraded booster to Hercules, circa 1987.
Hercules had not been part of the Big Solids Craze of the 1960's
-120-inch = UTC
-156-inch = Thiokol & Lockheed
-260-inch = Aerojet

At the time Hercules was merely doing the Minuteman third stage... except they eventually lost it to UTC on Minuteman III. More generally, Minuteman (and Peacekeeper, and SLBM) were fractioned between the solid-fuel contractors. I suppose it was a matter of redundancy and resiliency.

Minuteman I : Thiokol + Aerojet + Hercules
Minuteman II : Thiokol + Aerojet + Hercules
Minuteman III: Thiokol + Aerojet + United Technologies

So how did Hercules "stole" UTC the Titan IVB, booster upgrade: called USRM ?

I came to understand that Hercules had their breakthrough in the big SRB business... via SLC-6 Shuttle Filament Wound Casings. Albeit Thiokol would still provide the solid-fuel inside !
FWCs were already in doubt before Challenger as the hills surrounding SLC-6 might reverberate the Shuttle noise and wreck the lighter casings. Challenger of course killed them for good.

Yet Hercules bounced back and scored their USRM victory. Albeit it was kinda bittersweet for everyone.

Later ATK brought together Hercules and Thiokol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliant_Techsystems

Lockheed and UTC solid-fuel businesses had been closed down, and this left ATK as the solid-fuel lobby that still does a lot of damage to NASA and its politics (sigh).

ITTL without Shuttle SRB massive elephant in the room, the solid-fuel-booster business may contract faster. Although ICBM and SLBM won't go away, that big cake.
 
1977
"United Technologies (UTC) has decided to go all out with their Titan large boosters. With no orders for a cancelled Space Shuttle program, as well as the conclusion of the AGM-69 SRAM project the Lockheed Propulsion Company was to be closed.
Instead it has been sold to UTC. This leaves Aerojet, Thiokol, and Hercules: who presently are sharing the Minuteman (and Polaris too) missile program, and will probably share a Minuteman replacement the same way: someday. Unless of course UTC buy one of the three to get a foothold in the large missile business: on top of their Titan booster stronghold. Of the three, Hercules might be the easiest to grab.

Whatever.

UTC solid fuel lobby is presently playing on Air Force doubts over NASA Shuttle II; after cancellation of the first Shuttle." Shoemaker was evidently baffled. "They say Shuttle II ain't fully reusable, because external tank while F-1A recovery is doubtful: S-IC or flyback boosters: not convincing. Nor is Shuttle II able to replace Titan IIIM for KH-9s and KH-11s. And indeed a traumatized NASA don't want to hear about more than 25 000 pounds to Space Station Liberty: back to 1969. There is no way they return to 1971, that is USAF requirements - which are actually driven by NRO spysats to polar orbit. Yet the Air Force want a modular launcher to replace Thor, Atlas and Titan altogether. Finally the solid fuel lobby dropped two bombshells.
First, their concept - SATAN - is fully reusable: from the sea and from Philip Bono old recipe.
Second bombshell amounts to a outright declaration of war to NASA's Shuttle II. Big Gemini or a lifting body on top of a SATAN, who needs Shuttle II ?"
 
NASA has decided to go all-out on public-private partnerships. They are just one spaceline customer: buying services. And they have a roadmap for that.

1-Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (read: space station cargo missions)
---Capability level A: External unpressurized cargo delivery and disposal
---Capability level B: Internal pressurized cargo delivery and disposal
---Capability level C: Internal pressurized cargo delivery, return and recovery
---Capability level D: Crew Transportation (was not funded, but formed the basis of CCDev)

2-Commercial Crew Development (space station crew rotations)

3-Commercial LEO Destinations (next generation space stations)

4-Commercial Lunar Payload Services (lunar cargo)

5-Human Lunar Landing System (lunar crews)

Next step: Mars !
...
Nine companies have been selected to conduct early-stage studies of concepts for commercial services to support lower-cost, higher-frequency missions to Mars.

NASA has identified nine U.S. companies to perform a total of 12 concept studies of how commercial services can be applied to enable science missions to Mars. Each awardee will receive between $200,000 and $300,000 to produce a detailed report on potential services — including payload delivery, communications relay, surface imaging, and payload hosting — that could support future missions to the Red Planet. The companies were selected from among those that responded to a request for proposals from U.S. industry.
NASA’s Mars Exploration Program initiated the request for proposals to help establish a new paradigm for missions to Mars with the potential to advance high-priority science objectives. Many of the selected proposals center on adapting existing projects currently focused on the Moon and Earth to Mars-based applications.

They include “space tugs” to carry other spacecraft to Mars, spacecraft to host science instruments and cameras, and telecommunications relays. The concepts being sought are intended to support a broad strategy of partnerships between government, industry, and international partners to enable frequent, lower-cost missions to Mars over the next 20 years. Now is the right time for NASA to begin looking at how public-private partnerships could support science at Mars in the coming decades.

a-Small payload delivery and hosting services
b-Large payload delivery and hosting services
c-Mars surface-imaging services
d-Next-generation relay services

These studies could potentially lead to future requests for proposals but do not constitute a NASA commitment.
 
The above is a fun and fascinating exercise. I collected all NASA private-public partnerships since COTS, 2006 : and adapted the whole thing to my story.
The Mars one is only a few days old.
Now we have public-private partnerships stretching all the way from Earth solid ground to Mars orbit.
 
Sometimes there are documents that are gifts from the heavens. Check that one: looks like a promotional HIGH TOWN brochure from Lockheed.
- air-launch : check
- from a B-52: check
- electronic readout: check
- SPIN SCAN: check.
 

Attachments

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Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS)
1975


Saturn IB's launch area 37 is very close from Titan III Vehicle Integration Building. They are merely two miles appart, separated by the Banana river. Two causeways stretch across the water: Parole road and Titan III road.
Saturn S-IVB would be processed at LC-37. Titan solids would be stacked at the SMAB: Solid Motors Assembly Building. And the two could meet halfway: at the Vehicle Integration Building or, at Pad 40. In the latter case the S-IVB would come there from Pad 37, following the coastline. And solids would come from the SMAB, as they do for Titan III launches.
Whatever the meeting place, solid and S-IVB would be stacked to create a SATAN rocket. With the pads connected it could launch directly from LC-40 or head north to 41; or press south, to the Saturn IB area. A total of five launch pads.

itl-iss.jpg
 
Nota bene: OTL when in 1986 Titan IVA salvaged the 7-segment SRM from the MOL days, SMAB ended too short. Could not process more than 5-segments, as used from Titan IIIC to Titan 34D. The solution for Titan IVA was to add the two segments on the pad. As for Titan IVB and its brand new 3-segment SRMUs, they got the SMARF build just for them in the early 1990's. SMAB as been demolished since then but SMARF seemingly has survived in the EELV days (think Atlas V found it a new mission).
ITTL there is no point in building SMARF as Titan IVB doesn't exists. Instead the money spent on SMARF is instead invested in raising the SMAB roof so that it can stack 7-segments.

The SRM-S-IVB, also known as ARES (Advanced REcoverable Solid) is interesting for many reasons. Including that launch pads closeness. Would be fun to consolidate Saturn IB and Titan III launch areas into a single one.

By the way - d'oh, silly me. Simpsons moment. I've just realized they essentially did that OTL, for the EELVs. Since Delta IV got pad 37 and Atlas V, 40 & 41.
 
Remember that thread ? no ? Whatever. I've found a much better solution: through the two documents attached.



POSSIBILITY OF FUTURE POLAR ORBITS FROM CAPE KENNEDY

NASA Deputy Administrator Dr. SEAMANS. I am sure that the committee appreciates that polar orbit launches from Cape Kennedy, with or without a dogleg, raise safety and other problems which require very careful consideration. These questions are being examined by our people working with the Air Force range safety people. Our hope is that we will be able to make dogleg polar orbit launches from Cape Kennedy after the reliability of the Saturn IB launch vehicle has been established. The increased performance of the Saturn IB launch vehicle indicated above gives a good reason to believe that a dogleg flight profile that meets safety and other problems can be developed which will permit us to launch Apollo vehicles into polar orbit from Cape Kennedy.

At the time, about a year ago, when we were jointly studying with the Department of Defense the possible application of the Saturn IB in the MOL program, the basic payload capability of the Saturn IB was estimated to be 36,500 pounds for an easterly launch into an orbit of 100 nautical miles altitude. The capability for a southerly launch from Cape Kennedy into polar orbit was estimated at 30,500 pounds.
Present figures for the capabilities of the Saturn IB show an increase as the result of development and manufacturing progress since last year. We now can say that the basic capability of the Saturn IB vehicles we will be launching in the next 2 years will be 40,000 pounds for an easterly launch compared to the 36,500 stated a year ago. Weight reduction and improved methods of fuel utilization are the chief factors which have brought about this increased capability. For polar orbits out of Cape Kennedy, there is a corresponding increase to 32,500 pounds for a southerly launch. A maximum of 28,000 pounds is estimated for a polar orbit with a dogleg maneuver to avoid the Florida coastline.

So this figure of 28,000 is the figure to use in connection with the MOL discussion here today.

But we found a way to improve that number: to compensate for the dogleg. We are considering a Saturn IB launch of a manned CSM spacecraft into an 81 x 120 nm initial insertion orbit; with a propulsive assist from the CSM during the ascent. This is commonly called a 2-1/2 stages-to-orbit launch, with subsequent CSM Hohmann transfer maneuvers to a final circular orbit. A significant gain in payload is realized by that use of the CSM to assist in the ascent to the insertion orbit. For low altitude - low inclination orbits, this gain is about 3000 lbs.

......

Project SCOOP office
Vandenberg AFB


"I recently discussed with Lew Allen and he made a pretty interesting point. About General Electric bonkers proposal to NASA, called PERCHERON. Who wants my spare KH-7s ? discount price ! And remember how NASA has just moved UPWARD from "Apollo in lunar orbit" to "AAP, Earth orbit". Lew Allen dryly noted that this amounts to a manned KH-7; in direct competition with the KH-10. Allen is not the only one: Congress and McNamara are on that case, too. They wonder whether the two... manned spy stations should be consolidated ?
Technically speaking, Allen has identified a few options: all of them fascinating.

First option: ditch the KH-10 entirely and have military astronauts fly aboard the AAP wet workshop cluster. Where they would use UPWARD (5) or PERCHERON (6) cameras: both of KH-7 legacy. Mind you, that's eleven KH-7 optics ! Enough to mount a manned spying program twice bigger than the MOL five to six missions. Can you believe that ?

Second option: a man-tended KH-10 visited by an Apollo with a military crew from time to time. No more Gemini capsule: crew launched separately. In this scenario, the AAP cluster would be sacrificed in favor of similar NASA missions. In simple english: the MOL pressurized tin can becomes an Apollo mission module, providing such goodies as a toilet. To both USAF and NASA.

Besides intractable national security issues, another matter complicating consolidation is the Air Force dislike of Saturn boosters: with no Vandenberg pads to launch them to polar orbit. It could be done from The Cape but the necessary dogleg to avoid Cuba brings a huge ascent performance penalty; as if Saturn IB wasn't already insufficient to boost a full weight Apollo. Or maybe they could use the Apollo big engine as a kind of third stage."

"At the end of the day Lew Allen recognized there are next to none chances this ever happens. The Air Force manned space mission - the MOL justification - is already frail enough: no way they want NASA onboard."

"There might be a different way. Let's suppose the Air Force makes the MOL man-tended: that is, exactly halfway between unmanned and manned. Ok ? They launch that in polar orbiter, with Titan III, from Vandenberg: the whole nine yards."

"Except there is manned, in man-tended... but would you get your military astronauts there ? Gemini-B is gone, and Apollo only launch from Cape Canaveral with Saturn IB... all three items alien if not anatema to the Air Force. On top of that, Cape Canaveral can't launch anything in polar orbit for fear of dropping chunks of Saturn all the way from the East Coast to Florida to the caribbean, Cuba included."

"All good points, but I think we may work our way around them. The key is: dogleg manoeuver during ascent."

"Of course, but it screws Saturn IB throw weight to orbit to such a point, it couldn't orbit an Apollo even with the Service Module propellant tanks completely dry."

"Bingo. The Service Module, let's talk about this one. How about using it as a third stage ?

"Firing the SPS during ascent ? is that even feasible ?

"Apollo abort modes says yes. What's more, Bellcomm did the math about this some years ago. End result: can add 3000 pounds to Saturn IB payload. Just enough to compensante the dogleg !"

"Excellent ! I see where this is going: that Apollo with a two man crew could join that man-tended MOL in polar orbit. That's amazing."

"What's more, at CCAFS Saturn IB launch complexes (34, 37A, 37B) are very close from the Titan III integration area.

"Wonder whether the Air Force would pay for his own astronaut training for such... Blue Apollo ? should we call it that way ? Or would they just infiltrate military astronauts into NASA Houston ? I can see a typical bureaucratic name like Manned Spaceflight Engineer. No clue about anything military in the name."

"Sounds good ! I wonder whether we should pitch that to Lew Allen ?"
...
 

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February 20, 1969

CONFIDENTIAL
to:
-Lew Allen, SAFSP: National Reconnaissance Office, Program A
-Alexander Flax, DNRO

VERY HIGH RESOLUTION (VHR) : THE MAN-TEND OPTION(S).

We have ran the gammut of every single VHR proposal: derived from KH-8, KH-9 and KH-10; or mixing the three into hybrids.

The term man-tended has recently been forged by NASA, related to future space observatories. It stands exactly between manned and unmanned: the MOL perenial debate, with both variants on the drawing board.

Despite what some people believe, making the MOL unmanned doesn't save that much development cost, for a simple reason: the whole system has been designed with man-on-the-loop. Against that background, man-tended would amount to separate, periodic astronaut visits. To fix broken stuff and also reap the benefits of humans-in-the-loop: mainly, avoiding cloud covers and picks targets of opportunity. Initially we thought man-tended could only apply to the KH-10; but we realized NASA is presently doing something similar with KH-7 / KH-8: through UPWARD, PERCHERON and their combination called PERSEUS. For the Moon, obviously: we have made clear they should never, ever fly that in Earth orbit, for example for AAP. Much like an hypothetical man-tended MOL, PERSEUS is expressly designed for both manned and unmanned operations. It has three flight profiles: Apollo, Agena or flyalone, the latter using the KH-7 Orbital Control Vehicle (OCV).

In turn, this has led to the so-called Blue Apollo proposal.

The MOL unmanned and man-tended variants both drop the Gemini-B. While we could launch a fly-alone Gemini-B on a Titan IIIB from Vandenberg, its orbital endurance is only 14 hours and could not dock backwards to the MOL: only on the nose with mandatory external transfer to the KH-10.
Against that background, a Saturn IB / Apollo stack from Cape Canaveral AFS is an intriguing concept, despite the well-known issues in launching to polar orbit from there.
A major breakthrough has been to compensate the ascent dogleg payload penalty through the use of Apollo Service Module as a makeshift Saturn third stage. This makes launchings of Apollos to polar orbit from The Cape a possibility. And once there, they could meet a PERSEUS or KH-10 man-tended spysat; to perform the VHR mission.

Going to the deep end of that proposal, one can wonder whether the man-tended KH-10 is worth developping if NASA conveniently paying and developping a KH-7/KH-8 hybrid. It should be noted however that PERSEUS will already provide a technical baseline for HIGH TOWN Mk.2: same GAMBIT 1/3 hybrid spacecraft. The only major upgrade will be swap the old analog flying spot scanner for the CBS laser-scan gadget.

Going another step further, the logical end of all this might be: to just put a docking collar on HIGH TOWN Mk.2: for a Blue Apollo to eventually visit it. The crew would fix broken stuff, pinpoint targets of opportunity through cloud covers, and eventually laser-scan bits of film with the best pictures they took.

From all this, we recommend: first, to turn the MOL into man-tended; secondly, to compare that variant to PERSEUS / HIGH TOWN Mk.2 for the VHR mission.

It should be noted however that the advent of ILRV and the closely related Space Shuttle may sweep all this into oblivion. By providing a brand new capability: palletized spysat optics in the payload bay: returned, refurbished, re-flown.
 
I'm having so much fun exploring all the (endless) possibilities related to that spysat stuff off the 1960's. Main problem is that I have way too much ideas on my plate. So I'm using the coming Shuttle unique capabilities to put a damper on the proliferating concepts, however sexy they are (and Blue Apollo is very sexy). It's the only solution unless I decide to go full multiverse with strategic reconnaissance systems, in the second half of the 1960's.
Of course once the Shuttle will kick the bucket late 1971 all these proposals will come boiling up again. But time will have cleared the ranks.
 
Vandenberg AFB

At Project SCOOP office Shoemaker had started keeping tab of spysat interactions: inside and outside the National Reconnaissance Program. He tried to map the whole thing on a chalkboard: and ended somewhat baffled by its exponential like nature. There were interactions at so many different levels; it was overwhelming.

One startling example was Itek optical bar cameras, which were seemingly everywhere: balloons, CORONA, U-2, SR-71, Apollo's PanCam, COMPASS ARROW drone, KH-9 HEXAGON.

Another asset that blurred many lines, classified or not, was the Agena: which tied together NRP, SAINT, ASAT and even ABM; and was also at the center of the air-launch craze, snatching even more missions that way.

A third asset that proliferated was film readout - FRO. The largely obsolete analog flying spot scanner was giving way to laser technology, triggering a whole bunch of proposals: FROG, FASTBACK-B, SPIN SCAN, COMPASS LINK and DORIAN.

And it wasn't the end of the story, by a long shot. On top of the in-service CORONA and GAMBIT baseline missions (broad mapping, pinpointing details), the spooks wanted: Near Real Time, Very High Resolution, crisis reconnaissance and manned spaceflight. Missions that sometimes mixed together, as in the case of the MOL.

Next: things got even worse when agencies outside the classified realm got involved: namely, NASA. Starting with Lunar Orbiter Apollo was making a collection of aerial and spysat cameras. Apollo Applications somewhat overlapped with MOL, yet the same MOL could be used for astronomy: running head-on into the Apollo Telescope Mount and the OAO spaceborne observatories. Also, the last two could be adapted to a MOL 72-inch mirror and a GAMBIT 44-inch reflector; it was only a matter of time before NASA got that idea.

Next was arms control, with its dedicated agency semi-independant from the Ste Department: called ACDA. Also Project ARGO, which amounted to a carefully controlled leak of spysat imagery to a few selected people at agencies.

Shoemaker could see how spysat technology was spilling out of the National Reconnaissance Program. Whether spooks liked it or not, it was flowing.
...
 
This is the kind of real-world stuff that inspired me. Things like "Skybolts leftovers used for an air launch spysat proposal".


In my TL early 1963 the now orphan Skybolt task force at Eglin AFB, Florida, gets into a shotgun marriage with another canned program: SAMOS (all of them, from E-1 to E-6 plus all the derivates).

B-52G + Skybolt stage 1 + Agena + SAMOS camera package.

Way to go.
 

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