MacCaulay
Banned
...so this one got me thinking.
There were a lot of cancelled Space Shuttle flights, especially in the early days. Alot of the cancellations were mostly a confluence of NASA spitballing missions it'd like to see the Space Shuttle used for, and the Space Shuttle not being able to do anything.
But in 1979, with the Skylab vacant and the management pretty much ready to let it go, some folks hatched a plan: use the new Shuttle system to send a two-man crew up to Skylab and boost it into a higher orbit.
It got so far up the chain that it was the first seriously pursued Shuttle mission: the plan was to initially elongate the life of the Skylab by five years, then to look at further options after that. There was a stash of water and supplies left on the station by the departing crew, leaving less of a burden on the first crew up.
Further missions were planned, including strapping a booster to the station that could keep it up and allow it to adjust it's orbit autonomously.
But that thought is interesting. And from a storytelling point of view, the crew of the shuttle flight was interesting: the shuttle commander was to be Fred Haise, who was the pilot on Apollo 13.
Just thought I'd throw this out there.
There were a lot of cancelled Space Shuttle flights, especially in the early days. Alot of the cancellations were mostly a confluence of NASA spitballing missions it'd like to see the Space Shuttle used for, and the Space Shuttle not being able to do anything.
But in 1979, with the Skylab vacant and the management pretty much ready to let it go, some folks hatched a plan: use the new Shuttle system to send a two-man crew up to Skylab and boost it into a higher orbit.
It got so far up the chain that it was the first seriously pursued Shuttle mission: the plan was to initially elongate the life of the Skylab by five years, then to look at further options after that. There was a stash of water and supplies left on the station by the departing crew, leaving less of a burden on the first crew up.
Further missions were planned, including strapping a booster to the station that could keep it up and allow it to adjust it's orbit autonomously.
But that thought is interesting. And from a storytelling point of view, the crew of the shuttle flight was interesting: the shuttle commander was to be Fred Haise, who was the pilot on Apollo 13.
Just thought I'd throw this out there.