A Vision of Jupiter

[Usili]

OOC: Moving it over from AH at the moment.

I

“We will give NASA a new focus and vision for exploration... They [Meriwether Lewis and William Clark] made that journey in the spirit of discovery, to learn the potential of vast new territory, and to chart a way for others to follow... America has ventured forth into space for the same reasons... In the past 30 years, no human being has set forth on another world, or ventured farther upward into space than 386 miles... America has not developed a new vehicle to advance human exploration in space in nearly a quarter century. It is time for America to take the next steps. Today I announce a new plan to explore space and extend a human presence across this solar system... Our first goal is to complete the International Space Station by 2010... Our second goal is to develop and test a new spacecraft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, by 2008, and to conduct the first manned flight no later than 2014... But the main purpose of this spacecraft will be to carry astronauts beyond our orbit to other worlds... Our third goal is to return to the moon by 2020... Eugene Cernan, who is with us today – the last man to set foot on the lunar surface – said this as he left: 'We leave as we came, and God willing as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.' America will make these words come true... With the experience and knowledge gained on the moon, we will then be ready to take the next steps of space exploration: human missions to Mars and worlds beyond... We do not know where this journey will end, yet we know this: human beings are heading to the cosmos... As one family member said, 'The legacy of Columbia must carry on – for the benefit of our children and yours.' The Columbia crew did not turn away from this challenge and neither will we. Mankind is drawn to the heavens for the same reason we were once drawn into unknown lands and across the open sea. We choose to explore space because doing so improves our lives, and lifts our national spirit. So let us continue the journey.”-President Bush's Announcement of a Vision for Space Exploration, 1/14/04

On February 1st, 2003, the Space Shuttle Program would be struck with a blow like it had faced nearly seventeen years prior. The Space Shuttle Columbia would find itself destroyed in the skies above Texas, breaking up in re-entry. As news would find itself spreading of the disaster, NASA would mobilize itself to deal with the disaster and the loss of the shuttle and her crew. Two of the immediate steps would be the creation of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) and the recovery of debris from Columbia. Over the next months, the full investigation would take swing, and the recovery of the flight data recorder (which had never been removed after her initial flights) on March 19th, would aid significantly in the work by the CAIB in the determination of the failure and cause. Tests on both the carbon fiber re-entry tiles and the external tank's foam were underway, but it would be noted that the issue of the 'piece' of foam that had been shed could not have come from an installation defect by July. A decision would be made (in part by one of the Board members) to fully fuel an ET tank, defuel it, and then to begin X-Ray tests of it. The full test of the External Tank was expected to take until October to fully culminate, delaying the report from an expected August end-date to one more likely until November. As the report came out on November 12th, 2003, it confirmed that foam from the ET struck the leading edge of the left wing causing the breakup of the Columbia. It underlined significant organizational and cultural issues also present in NASA which had caused the Columbia accident, combined with the issues in the ET forcing work to 'remove' the foam from each other (to prevent it from being layered on top of each other). The last major component outlined proposed rescue plans for Columbia, which involved the usage of Atlantis (on the pad preparing for STS-114) to be able to retrieve the astronauts, while sending Columbia into the Pacific Ocean; it outlined proposed rescue procedures to be handled by NASA in the event of a similar disaster to allow damage to be checked, crew rescue and the possible 'rescue' of a shuttle.

The announcement of the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) by President Bush on January 14th, 2004, would give NASA a new goal and mission to be faced after the Space Shuttle Program. This had interfered with proposals by NASA to keep the Space Shuttle running up until 2020 (which had been believed prior to the Columbia disaster) and to create a second-generation human reusable vehicle similar to the Space Shuttle. The deadline of 2010 for the Space Shuttle ordained by President Bush had sent outrages throughout NASA, seeing as even if a new crewed vehicle and rocket started at that moment, there would still be a significant period of no available human spaceflights by NASA. Per the announcement by President Bush, Administrator Sean O'Keefe of NASA would make the first steps necessary to comply with the VSE by creating the Office of Exploration Systems (OES). Rear Admiral Craig E. Steidle (ret.) would be chosen by the Administrator to act as the associate administrator of the new OES. The OES was intended to manage the new programs, guidelines, and other components of the VSE, which would start off with the primary launcher requirement for the new 'lunar' agenda. The OES had outlined two primary plans to be acknowledged for the launcher capacity, with the first plan being an EELV-focused launch plan to assemble the stacks in orbit, and the second being one more dedicated for heavy lift using a shuttle-based architecture. Neither plan would be determined with the bids to determine which plan to follow for the Crew Exploration Vehicle.

The Crew Exploration Vehicle was the first vehicle to be designed from the Office of Exploration Systems, as the eventual replacement for the Space Shuttle. The clarification of the Vision for Space Exploration had set the two main deadlines for the CEV, a prototype by 2008, and the manned first flight by 2014. As such, Administrator O'Keefe would 'borrow' a concept from the United States Air Force for the determination of the winner of the competition. The concept, called the 'Flight Applications of Spacecraft Technologies' (FAST) was intended to see either a suborbital or orbital fly off between the two selected CEV designs which would secure the intended contract for NASA. The series of steps made for the initial designs would start off on December 9th, 2004 with the Draft Statement of Work being issued, followed by a Draft Request for Proposal on January 21st, 2005, to be concluded with the Request for Proposal on March 1st, 2005. Following that, on June 10th, NASA would announce the two 'consortia' who had proceeded to secure their way into FAST, that being Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman in partnership with Boeing. As part of the consortia who had secured their way, they also had a series of subcontractors to be arranged into 'teams' to design their prototype spacecraft, which would outline primary mission proposal (in terms of EOR, LOR, or Direct Ascent) and the launchers for it. The Lockheed Martin main subcontractors would consist of EADS SPACE Transportation, Honeywell, Orbital Science Corporation, Wyle Laboratories, and United Space Alliance; the Northrop Grumman-Boeing main subcontractors would consist of Alenia Spazio, Aerojet, Hamilton Sundstrand (part of the UTC), Draper Laboratory, and United Space Alliance. Both teams would set to work, with the deadline set for August 31st, 2008.

As the announcements for the Crew Exploration Vehicle were underway, other measures would find themselves occurring within NASA as Administrator Sean O'Keefe would announce his retirement in December of 2004. With the announcement of his retirement, new choices would have to be made in terms of the new Administrator to head NASA in the transition period and it's future. The front-runner would be seen as Lieutenant General Ronald Kadish (ret.), who would be nominated and confirmed by the Senate in mid March of 2005. The nomination of Kadish set forth the new agendas to be faced by NASA for the rest of the decade. It was the start of something entirely new, an agenda which would hopefully move forth.

[Usili]

II

“Some things simply are inherent to the design of the bird and cannot be made better without going and getting a new generation of spacecraft. That's as true for the Space Shuttle as it is for your toaster oven.”-NASA Administrator Ronald Kadish, Prior to Launch of STS-114, 6/28/05 (Originally Spoken By Administrator Michael Griffin on 7/25/05 Prior to Launch of STS-114)

On June 29th, 2005, after eight hundred and eighty days since Columbia had left Earth for the last time, LC-39B would be met with the smoke and sight of a launch as the next Space Shuttle flight, STS-114 lifted off into space. The long drought since Columbia was over as Atlantis sailed into the beyond on STS-114, her payload being the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) and the External Stowage Platform-2. The mission had originally been planned for the Return to Flight as soon as the report by the CAIB had been published, but the increasing amount of tasks required as part of the mission would force the 'separation' of the Return to Flight in two-planned flights, STS-114 and STS-121. The two flights would be intended for both an extensive checkout of the new systems combined with a heavy logistics checkout for the Space Station after nearly two and a half years without any major Space Shuttle resupply missions. The entire launch would be nearly perfect, with the sole exception of frozen ice hitting the orbiter following SRB separation. Flight Day Two would see the OBSS used to check over Atlantis following the launch to make sure no damage had been encountered in the launch. Following the check, Atlantis would proceed to the International Space Station on it's third day in orbit for docking and 'handover' of the MPLM. A total of three EVAs would be conducted, with the first one demonstrating repair techniques, the second one replacing a failed Control Movement Gyroscope and installing the External Stowage Platform, and the third 'repairing' the Shuttle by removing gap filler in between the tiles. Flight Day Ten would see Raffaello re-secured in the cargo bay, and Atlantis on its way back to Earth. On Flight Day Twelve, Atlantis touched down at Kennedy Space Center, bringing the first post-Columbia Shuttle mission to a close.

The launch of STS-114 on June 29th, was the start of the planned 24-mission schedule dictated by NASA to finish the International Space Station by 2010 as dictated as part of the Vision for Space Exploration. A total of twenty-three missions had been outlined for the International Space Station, with a single mission set for either a Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, or a retrieval of the Hubble Space Telescope (Administrator Kadish was waiting for word on Congress for NASA's next budget on the choice there). The next five Shuttle flights, STS-121, STS-115, STS-116, STS-117, and STS-118 were all major works for the International Space Station, with STS-121 oriented for another resupply mission, STS-115 oriented for the installation of the P3/P4 truss, STS-116 oriented for the installation of P5 truss along with logistics and supplies, STS-117 oriented for the installation of the S3/S4 truss, and STS-118 oriented for the installation of the S5 truss along with installation and supplies. All of the missions were based around the required installation of the Integrated Truss System, which was vital for power on the International Space Station, and the future modules to be built. Atlantis and Discovery were intended to handle the flights up to the ISS until STS-117 when Endeavour would rejoin them after it's major refit.

As August rapidly flew by, STS-121 was entering the first stages of final checkout before being rolled to the launchpad. On August 17th, Discovery was rolled from Orbiter Processing Facility Two to the Vehicle Assembly Building to be mated with the ET-SRB pair. On August 20th, Discovery would be mated with the pair, and scheduled to leave the VAB on August 23rd. However, before that could be done on August 23rd, Tropical Storm Katrina would be on an apparent course towards Kennedy Space Center delaying the roll-out until it passed. The rapid escalation of Tropical Storm Katrina into a Category One Hurricane would see minor wing damage to LC-39B delaying the roll-out until it was fixed. However, as Hurricane Katrina entered the Gulf of Mexico it rapidly grew into a Category Three and then a Category Five Hurricane before striking New Orleans. The strike upon New Orleans impacted NASA significantly, with the Michoud Assembly Facility being damaged (but not flooded) in the disaster. Michoud Assembly Facility was the site of the External Tank construction for NASA, vital for Space Shuttle missions. A total of three External Tanks were already at Kennedy Space Center, ET-120 (mated with STS-121), ET-122 (being readied for STS-301 if needed and then STS-115), and the recently arrived ET-123. This guaranteed a total of two Shuttle Flights with a necessary backup to the International Space Station depending upon how long it would take for Michoud Assembly Facility to get back into production. The devastation New Orleans had suffered did not put this as likely, but with two other external tanks in the progress of building (both in different set of stages in building) it was hoped that by December a single external tank could be shipped out to Kennedy to allow a third 'backup' tank prior to STS-115.

STS-121 would finally launch on September 21st (just ahead of Hurricane Rita) sending Discovery towards the International Space Station. STS-121's payload consisted of the MPLM, Leonardo, and an Integrated Cargo Carrier carrying a variety of additional components for work on the Integrated Truss System. Thomas A. Reiter, would be brought along as the third astronaut of Expedition 12 (to be launched on October 4th) which was intended to start seeing the ISS manned once more by a total of three astronauts. Gap fillers would be noticed in the surveying of the shuttle after launch, with the one on the nose of concern. Following the docking, the first spacewalk would be done as part of a 'repair' technique using the OBSS as a work platform for repairs on the Shuttle's TPS. The results would be met with positives on the usage of the OBSS as a work platform, and would proceed with the rest of the spacewalks required for the ISS. The second spacewalk saw required equipment installed on the Integrated Truss System in preparation for STS-115, and suffered the single implication of a loss of a screwdriver during the EVA. The third spacewalk fully demonstrated the repair techniques taught on pre-damaged tiles, and like the first went around. Once Leonardo was re-secured in the cargo bay and the equipment off-loaded (primarily to Destiny), Discovery would undock from the station bound back towards Earth. Due to concerns from an emerging weather front (which would become Tropical Storm Tammy), Discovery would land on October 3rd at Edwards Air Force Base, her mission drawing to a close.

Due to concerns about the next External Tank being prepared for STS-117, STS-115 would find itself delayed until January for a launch window drawing 2005 to a close for Space Shuttle launches. The launch of both Return to Flight missions had succeeded and the Space Shuttle had been reestablished as a launch platform. The next Space Shuttle missions were being prepared and readied, as Michoud Assembly Facility began to bring themselves back into a working order and set sail ET-124 in mid-December. As this was going on, STS-115 would on December 19th be 'wheeled' onto the pad at LC-39B, nearly a month away from her expected launch date. The Space Shuttle Program appeared to be in a bright state after the tragedy that had been faced nearly thirty months prior.

[Usili]

III

“Our goal is nothing less than to establish the United States as the preeminent spacefaring nation. And next, for the new century, back to the Moon, back to the future, and this time back to stay. And then, a journey into tomorrow, a journey to another planet, a manned mission to Mars.”-President Bush's Speech Outside the Smithsonian for the 20th Anniversary of Apollo 11, 7/20/89

The Vision for Space Exploration called for a grandiose plan, one in which the solar system would be explored by man starting once more with the moon and eventually extending towards Mars. While the moon had already been accomplished, Mars was of a much different challenge and the necessary experience needed for the moon required a diverse series of new technological projects to be commenced. The Office of Exploration Systems would begin the initial work into the major research programs and other new exploratory systems that would be required for such an eventual goal as mandated by the Vision for Space Exploration. Heading to Mars was a daunting technological journey, but the needed building blocks could be started now so then the 'house' could be ready for the voyage to another planet. Some of the initial technological studies that would begin as part of the Office would consist of improving orbital cryogenics storage, development of 'propellant' transfer and storage in orbit, methane-liquid oxygen (metholox) based engines and control systems, and in situ resource utilization. Each study was related to the eventual more long-term goal of heading to Mars and expanding human spaceflight in the solar system. The OES was also making the general outline of the CEV and investigating the planned launch architecture for the general future of human spaceflight for NASA.

As Rear Admiral Steidle (ret.) was working on the blueprint for the outline of the CEV and its main launcher, Administrator Kadich had received the certain terms from Congress (and those who worked on behalf of NASA for lobbying) that the future NASA launcher(s) to replace the Space Shuttle, had to be based around the Shuttle as a 'Shuttle Derived Launch Vehicle'. This had been due to the large amount of jobs involved in the National Space Transportation System (STS), commonly known as the Space Shuttle and the associated industrial work for the Congressmen whose districts they were in. The issue however was in regards to the matter of crew launches to the International Space Station, and the 'efficiency' of launching an SDLV which might lead to a significant waste of 'empty' payload being launched. The option for an EELV on pure crew launches would allow the capability to supply the ISS without the need of a large payload waste, but then of course it would be against Congress' interests in maintaining and launching an EELV first. Combining that with the planned flight schedule of the CEV (unmanned fly off in 2008, unmanned tests in 2012, and manned flight by 2014) would see a four year shortfall in manned spaceflight when the Space Shuttle was retired in 2010. Eventually, the decision would have to be made for a modification of the immediate contract requests in order to prevent such a dangerous shortfall and the issues that would emerge for flight operations. The immediate modifications would scrap the unmanned fly off, with the proposals entirely due by July 1st, 2006 for immediate evaluation by NASA. The design must be capable of flying six astronauts to the ISS (Block I) and four astronauts to the moon (Block II) in terms of crew capacity; the weight requirements of the Block I would require it to be capable of being lifted by an existing EELV (up to twenty tonnes fully loaded), while the Block II design was following an increased weight requirement (up to twenty-six tonnes fully loaded) due to the increased demands of the Block II CEV over the Block I (and also including the planned launcher configurations for both Block-type CEVs). Both Lockheed Martin and the Northrop Grumman-Boeing team would be met with annoyance at the modification of the schedules and designs but kept on working with them for the date of full evaluation by NASA.

The advance work in part from the Office of Exploration Studies in investigating commercial operation of space would finally culminate in the first major steps for the beginnings of a new authorized program, but prior to the OES creation of the main program for commercial space, it was already being built up by Congress and NASA. The first such major event by Congress would be the Commercial Space Act of 1998, which was to encourage development of commercial services by requiring the government to purchase transportation services from American commercial providers. The creation of the Decadel Planning Team (DPT) in 1999 (and then evolving into the NASA Exploration Team (NExT) in 2000) by Administrator Goldin advanced the steps further by laying a groundwork for NASA in working on commercial programs. Marshall Flight Center would proceed with their own work starting in 2000 known as the Space Launch Initiative (SLI) which was intended to reduce the cost of access into space and helping with the development of 2nd generation reusable launch vehicles. The Alternate Access to Station (AAS) as part of SLI would form the main brunt of it as it gave $902,000 to Andrews Space, Microcosm Inc., HMX Inc., and Kistler Aerospace Corps (divided among all four) for a ninety day study on a feasibility of developing commercial vehicles to supply the International Space Station. The loss of Columbia combined with the Vision for Space Exploration appeared to make it even likelier, but the flame that would ignite everything would be the winning of the Ansari X Prize to Scaled Composites, in which their spacecraft SpaceShipOne had managed to accomplish a suborbital flight to a hundred kilometers with a human crew and then do it again within the same week.

The first study started by the OES, the Concept Exploration & Refinement (CE&R), would begin in September 2004 to fully investigate the usage of commercial vehicles in space travel by awarding funds to eleven companies to investigate human lunar exploration and the Crew Exploration Vehicle. The ISS Commercial Cargo Services (ICCS) Program would also start up in early 2005 taking over from where AAS had, and would open up an industry work day at Johnson Space Center to discuss it. From the experiences gained, NASA would create the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) in late 2005 accompanied by the Commercial Crew & Cargo Program Office (C3PO) to manage it to fulfill the first main directives for such a mission of building up commercial services. Four capabilities were mandated in the minds of many for the creation of this, A) External Unpressurized Cargo Delivery and Disposal; B) Internal Pressurized Cargo Delivery and Disposal; C) Internal Pressurized Cargo Delivery and Return; D) Crew Transportation. The four capabilities were intended to allow the selection chosen by NASA as needed, but the full proposal to be released by NASA wasn't expected until January or February in the next year.

The next budget for NASA (for FY2006), was imperative for the continued operation of numerous NASA programs and operations for the coming years. Administrator O'Keefe prior to his resignation, would send a letter to President Bush advising over NASA's next budget, strongly recommending the continued funding of the Centrifuge Accommodations Module to allow for effective study of what long-term effects of low gravity would be on living beings. The letter would find its way into securing the Presidential request for funding of the Centrifuge Accommodations Module as part of that year's funding. The budget for NASA in FY2006 confirmed the twenty-four Shuttle launch flight schedule, set aside funding for Hubble, and continued to fund the Centrifuge Accommodations Module as the main points. The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter had been cut fully in terms of funding, but funding had been allocated for the next round of the Discovery Program and the emerging New Frontiers Program. Following that, the NASA Authorization Act of 2005, passed in December by Congress and signed by President Bush enforced several other components for NASA based off emerging developments. The Vision for Space Exploration was fully secured on part of NASA combined with an allocated amount of money to begin development of the SDLV/SDHLV to be developed by NASA (with no imperative for financing of a man-rated EELV) and a time-schedule for the Vision for Space Exploration had been done. The Crew Exploration Vehicle was to be ready as close as to 2010 as it was to be possible, and a return to the moon with a landing was to be done no later than 2020. A new 'part' of NASA had also been created known as the 'Exploration Systems Mission Directorate' which was to be formed out of the Office of Exploration Systems and function as the primary part of NASA handling the Vision of Space Exploration. The final part of the Authorization Act confirmed a Hubble repair mission was to take place with the direct funding requisitioned for it being approved. A last minute 'amendment' to the Authorization Act had given approval for NASA to purchase the Science Power Platform from Roscosmos/RKK Energia and outfit it for a flight to the International Space Station (funding would be approved for this as part of NASA's next budget, with 'reserve' money apportioned for funding in 2006).

[Usili]

IV

“It's human nature to stretch, to go, to see, to understand. Exploration is not a choice, really; it's an imperative.”-Michael Collins

The start of 2006 for NASA would see the launch of STS-115 from Kennedy Space Center on January 21st, carrying the P3/P4 truss assembly into orbit. Weather had delayed the launch by three days, but now Atlantis was heading towards the International Space Station. In preparation for the work to install the new truss assembly of the ITS, a new method of 'camping out' in the Quest Joint Airlock would be done so as to reduce the amount of nitrogen in the blood stream to help avoid the 'bends'. The first EVA done by both of the 'camped out' astronauts would be fully completed, installing the new truss assembly. The second EVA that followed encounter numerous minor problems in activating the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (vital in allowing the Solar Panels to track the Sun), but eventually handled them fully. The activation of the solar panels on the truss segment ran through a few minor issues, but would fully develop on Flight Day 6. The third and final EVA performed during STS-115's stay would be maintenance and repair tasks throughout the station, and would culminate in a minor leak on Astronaut Tanner's suit forcing an end to the EVA ahead of schedule. Neither of the solar panels would provide power to the International Space Station, ahead of an electrical rewiring operation to be handled on STS-116. On February 2nd, Atlantis would touch down at Kennedy Space Center on its first pass bringing an end to STS-115.

On January 28th, NASA would release the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services Announcement for Proposals. The Announcement of Proposals explained the background, primary types of missions that could be flown, provisions such as the company needing to be owned more than 50% by an American national or substantial evidence to the commitment of American interests, and a set page count for all proposals (which would vary depending upon what categories the design was selected as) stretching from 65 to 90 pages in all. By the time the March 7th deadline ended, a total of twenty-one proposals had been received from twenty separate companies for COTS. Six finalists would be selected representing a diverse set of technical approaches, which would be Andrews Space Corporation, Rocketplane Kistler Limited Inc., SpaceDev Inc., Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), SpaceHab Inc., and the Transformation Space Corp (t/Space). All six finalists would meet with NASA and discuss their proposals extensively for determination of who the two winners would be. On August 24th, NASA would announce the two winners of COTS I, SpaceX and (to the surprise of many) Rocketplane Kistler. The choice of Rocketplane Kistler by NASA had represented the choice of a strong and solid technical plan over financial concerns which were apparent for Kistler. SpaceX had opted for a single-use capsule design in either a crew or cargo configuration, while also working on developing their own launcher based off the in-progress Falcon 1 design to be known as the 'Falcon 9'. Rocketplane Kistler continued their design from the late 1990s, as a fully reusable two stage to orbit (TSTO) design known as the K-1. Of the 497 million assigned to COTS, 231 million would be given to SpaceX and 266 million would be given to Rocketplane Kistler; the money would be given in increments per completion of the required milestones as part of COTS I.

Following a roll out from the VAB on March 16th, Discovery (on STS-116) would launch on April 23rd heading towards the International Space Station carrying the P5 truss, Spacehab Logistics Module and an Integrated Cargo Carrier holding for sub-satellites. One of the primary goals for STS-116 (besides installing the P5 truss) was the plan to rewire the electrical system to allow the use of the new power from the P4 truss and to allow the Space Shuttles to draw electricity directly from the ISS when docked (which would require work on the Space Shuttles to handle). The handover of the P5 truss to the ISS's Canadarm-1 would be followed by an EVA to install and mount the P5 truss assembly which proceed without any major issues. The attempted retraction of the P6 port-side solar panel (to allow the P4 solar panels to start tracking) would be met with numerous issues, bringing it to a halt and plans for an EVA after the electrical system was rewired. The second and third EVAs would see work in the rewiring of the electrical power system to handle the P4 solar panels to start bringing in electricity for the rest of the station, and an 'add-on' to the end of the third EVA would see work at 'unsticking' the P6 port-side solar panel but not fully complete it, a fourth EVA would have to be done to unstick the port-side solar panel. The fourth EVA would finally managed to bring the port-side solar panel together and lock it close; the completion of the fourth EVA would bring Discovery's main mission on the ISS to a close as it undocked and proceeded to prepare to return home (all four sub-satellites would be deployed on the day before re-entry). Despite concerns of having to land at White Sands Space Harbor due to poor weather at both Kennedy Space Center and Edwards Air Force, Discovery would touchdown at Kennedy Space Center on May 5th with the weather having cleared up, and STS-116 would draw to a close.

The fourteen month study conducted by the Office of Exploration Systems/Exploration Systems Mission Directorate for the primary options capable of the SDLV/SDHLV would be fully completed in the middle of May and present three different radical options for the development of the future architecture. The first option expressed an option intended to use a 'crew' launcher and a 'cargo' launcher. The crew launcher had been fully intended to be provided as a man-rated EELV, while the cargo launcher was intended to be a side-mounted cargo payload on the existing Shuttle stack (similar to the Shuttle-C concept) for minimal costs and full separation of crew and cargo as recommended by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. The second option expressed a similar concept to the first option, although with the development of two entirely separate launch vehicles. The crew launcher was envisioned as being based around a solid rocket booster followed by an upper stage, while the cargo launcher was intended to be a full 'inline' based design from the Shuttle stack. This like the second option fully separated the crew and cargo parameters of the missions. The third option, suggested a rather different approach for a general 'evolutionary' approach for the launch development. A single launcher had been planned for development, which would form a 'core' for the launch vehicle intended to fly orbits just into Low Earth Orbit; the 'second' launcher intended to head to the moon (and bring up components for a Mars mission) would be based off the first launcher with an included second stage and additional engines on the first stage. The third option did not follow the supported plan of crew and cargo separation as advised by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board and kept the full integration of crew and cargo together. The options evaluated by NASA included the different proposed engine architectures with the two main ones presented being split from using the RS-25 SSME and the RS-68 (used on the Delta IV). The decision for the NASA launcher would be evaluated up until July, when the third option would be selected to be chosen despite the second option having expressed some significant benefits for a separation of crew and cargo launchers. The name of the launcher family would be selected as 'Jupiter', as the 'God' of the Planets and as a 'true' replacement for the former Saturn V.

The third Shuttle flight of the year would begin with the roll out of Atlantis to LC-39B on July 9th, only to be rolled back on the 12th as the port side Solid Rocket Booster showed a failed range safety battery. By July 25th, despite the battery being replaced it would be decided to rotate the stack slated for STS-117 with STS-318 and hoped that the port side Solid Rocket Booster could be fixed prior to any rescue mission if needed. After being mated with STS-318's stack on August 2nd, Atlantis was slated for roll out on the 11th but would be delayed to the 17th due to Hurricane Chris. The hopes for STS-118 launching that year were declining more and more with the persistent delays being suffered for the launch of STS-117, and it was being acknowledged a launch in January/February were becoming much more likely. Preparations for the September launch window would continue, but due to persistent bad weather at Kennedy along with the TAL sites would force Atlantis to be delayed by another month to November. Finally on October 21st (the third day of the launch window) Atlantis would roar into the skies above Kennedy Space Center heading towards the International Space Station. Debris from the ET would strike the Orbiter, but it would be determined that it caused no damage on the surveys after launch and continued with the planned docking with the International Space Station. Following docking, preparations for the first of three EVAs planned for STS-117 would begin with the intent to install the S3/S4 truss onto the International Space Station after having been removed from the Shuttle; the second EVA was planned for the checkout of the SARJ and along with the third EVA for the stowing of the starboard side of the P6 truss. The first EVA proceeded fully on schedule with no issues and the installation of the S3/S4 truss in a full intact position; deployment of the S3/S4 truss would be accomplished in the second EVA with the rest of the second EVA and third EVA fully stowing the starboard side of the P6 truss. With good weather and operations, Atlantis touched down on Flight Day 13 better known as November 4th, 2006. Endeavour was now next with STS-118 expected for a launch in January with the arrival and return of Atlantis.

[Usili]

V

“Today we have touched Mars. There is life on Mars, and it is us—extensions of our eyes in all directions, extensions of our mind, extensions of our heart and soul have touched Mars today. That's the message to look for there: We are on Mars. We are the Martians!”-Ray Bradbury speaking at The Search for Life in our Solar System symposium in JPL, 10/8/76

Despite the issues encountered with human spaceflight for NASA, they would continue with the large-scale of unmanned space exploration being operated. Existing programs for unmanned missions were expanded (to a limited extent) with a focus upon the mandates given by President Bush. The Discovery Program and Flagship Program were to be joined by another in part from a cancellation of an earlier probe, and the Red Planet was to be explored at a much more serious extent. Problems and failures would be encountered, but scientific success from other probes would be guaranteed for the next missions to follow on to the probes.

The Discovery Program was initiated by NASA in 1992 as a way to do lower cost, but higher focused scientific missions. This had been fully inspired from Administrator Goldin's motto of 'Faster, Better, Cheaper' scientific missions. A total of ten missions had been so far authorized and funded for under the Discovery Program, which were: Mars Pathfinder, NEAR Shoemaker, Lunar Prospector, Stardust, Genesis, Comet Nucleus Tour, MESSENGER, Deep Impact, Dawn, and Kepler. Stardust (Mission #4) was a sample return mission designed for the comet Wild 2, and as part of the 'Discovery Program' utilized an aerogel collector tray for the retrieval of dust from the comet. Following the launch on 2/7/99, it would commence its flyby of Wild 2 on 1/2/04 and collect the dust from the comet completing its primary mission; an adjusted course to flyby Earth would be accomplished and on 1/16/06, the Sample Return Capsule would separate landing near the US Army Dugway Proving Ground. Genesis (Mission #5) was also a sample return mission, but oriented for solar wind; it would launch on 8/8/01 and from 12/3/01 to 4/1/04 would commence its active retrieval of solar wind, and finally on 4/22/04 began its course back to Earth. The recovery of Genesis due to the wafers held inside was planned out for a mid-air recovery, similar to the recovery of the rolls of film on the early spy satellites. It had long been practiced, and as it came for a reentry on 9/8/04, everything would go to waste. The parachute would fail to deploy and the recovery capsule slam into the ground, cracking fully open; the undetonated pyrotechnic devices for the parachute deployment system and toxic gases from the batteries would delay the recovery of the capsule. The Investigation Board would determine that a G-switch had been flipped backwards in assembly, which had prevented the release of the parachute, and the crash into the ground. MESSENGER (Mission #7) (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) was designed for a detailed mission of Mercury, which had been limited in exploration since the 1960s by NASA. It would lift off from Cape Canaveral on 8/3/04 on a planned six and a half year long trip to Mercury, flying by Earth on 8/2/05 and then Venus on 10/24/06, a long way away from Mercury still. Deep Impact (Mission #8) would launch on 12/30/04, but would suffer a failure of the third stage releasing from the second stage, thus deeming a mission failure; it was unknown as to the cause of the release failure, although it was suggested that the Star 48 could have fired, but burned out Deep Impact like Comet Nuclear Tour. The planned Mission #11 by mid November of 2006 had ascertained three mission proposals for the next flight, which were: V-STAR (Venus Sample Targeting, Attainment and Return), intended as a Venus atmospheric sample return mission by dropping the 'Venus Ascent Vehicle' into the atmosphere to collect the necessary samples before returning back to the atmosphere and 'docking' with the orbiter to transfer the sample; Vesper which was intended to fully study the Venus atmosphere regarding the numerous mysteries which were as of yet unknown, such as the lack of breakdown of carbon dioxide into carbon methane, and the super-rotation at the top of the atmosphere; and GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) which were intended as a pair of satellites to map a high quality gravitational map of the moon to understand the structure of the moon.

The cancellation of the Pluto Kuiper Express in 2000 would bring outrage to the scientific community, which had long expressed their wishes for a mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. The downsizing of the mission in the late 1990s had aided to the cancellation, but it had been once more another planned probe to Pluto tossed in the garbage. Groups such as the Planetary Society lobbied for a reboot of the Pluto Kuiper Express, or an entire new mission restart dedicated towards heading to Pluto and this would be aided by internal divisions within NASA; this would also help lobby for a new Pluto mission to be handled. Eventually Edward Weiler (the Associate Administrator of Science, and the man who had canceled the Pluto Kuiper Express) would announce a new series of missions intended to be 'between' the Discovery Program and the Flagship Program to be known as the New Frontiers Program. The New Frontiers Program would after receiving the proposals announce the two selected missions for the competition (both of which were aimed at Pluto), the Pluto and Outer Solar Systems Explorer (POSSE) which was led by the University of Colorado, Boulder and included JPL, Lockheed Martin, and the University of California and New Horizons which was led by the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder and included the Applied Physics Laboratory, Goddard Space Flight Center, and Stanford University. New Horizons would be selected due to the APL's recent work on NEAR Shoemaker and having a background already in place from the Pluto Kuiper Express. The choice of the new Administrator, Sean O'Keefe, would bring worries due to his opposition to New Horizons, but it would power through as funding came through from Congress and work began in earnest for the 2006 launch window. On September 24th, 2005, New Horizons landed at Kennedy Space Center via a C-5 Galaxy and be outfitted before being moved to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to be mated to the rocket. On January 22nd, 2006, New Horizons blasted off on an Atlas V 551 bound for a Jupiter flyby before heading to Pluto. The launch of New Horizons would be the fastest launch to date from Earth, traveling at more than 17km/s as it left Earth's gravitational field. It would first photograph Jupiter (for its first flyby) in September of 2006 and begin more extensive surveying of the Jovian System in January of 2007

The New Frontiers Program would also begin work on their second mission with an announcement in 2003 for Mission Opportunities. All seven mission proposals would be received in February of 2004, and in July of 2004, two mission proposals would be announced for selection with detailed mission concept studies to be finished and sent by March of 2005 and the announcement of the second mission by May of 2005. The two mission proposals were: Moonrise, which called for a sample return mission to land two identical landers on the surface of the Moon near the South Pole for return of nearly two kilograms of regolith in an area believed to harbor materials from the mantle; and Juno, which was intended to orbit Jupiter to study the atmosphere, magnetic field, and investigate the core of Jupiter. After the arrival of both proposals by March, NASA would announce the selection of Juno for the second mission of the New Frontiers Program, with a designated launch date no later than June 30th, 2010. Juno was however being faced with a significant issue as initial development started, being the lack of available Pu-238 for a mission to Jupiter (with the available Pu-238 being kept for 'higher' priority missions), and would be forced to reconsider primary power being provided from solar power.

The Mars Exploration Rovers would launch on June 10th, 2003 (for Spirit) and July 7th, 2003 (for Opportunity) after a long period of design and development (stretching back to 1997) heading towards the Red Planet on one of NASA's biggest 'prestige' unmanned missions. Spirit would arrive at Gusev Crater on January 4th, 2004 followed by Opportunity landing at Eagle Crater on January 25th, 2004 and for both they had landed nearly perfectly (in the case of Opportunity, it would land near an impact crater). On January 21st (prior to the landing of Opportunity), Spirit would not send any communications to Earth prompting concern over what had happened; the next day a transmission would be sent indicating the rover had received the communications but had believed it was stuck in a fault mode. A transmission was sent to send over engineering data, and it would be done on the 23rd with large amounts of data being sent in short packages (and finally a large one via Mars Odyssey); the lack of Spirit shutting down at night brought significant concern and attempts to shut it down were failing. This had ironed out the main theory for what was troubling the rover, a 'reboot loop'. Both rovers had been programmed if a fault had been detected, they would reboot, but if the fault occurred during reboot they would constantly reboot. Once that had been determined, there were three likely areas where it had failed, the flash memory, EEPROM, or a hardware fault. The rovers had been designed with the capacity to boot without the flash memory and the command would be sent to Spirit on the 24th. It would succeed and in part from this see much of the flash memory deleted of unneeded in-flight data and then reformatted to bring it back to a healthy state. It would return for normal operation on February 6th. The next three years for both rovers would see a significant tracklog made as they moved across the Red Planet. Spirit would travel to the nearby Columbia Hills (named after STS-107, with each of the seven hills named after an astronaut) and start to encounter teething issues in the two years traveling there. As she left towards Low Ridge Haven due to decreasing power levels, the front left wheel would slowly act up as she moved there; as she stayed there for the approaching Martian winter and as her power levels dwindled, hope was drooping for the survival of Spirit. Opportunity on the other hand would continue, traveling to Endurance Crater and then starting to proceed towards Victoria Crater. On the way to Victoria Crater, Opportunity would become immobilized in the sand and would be thought to be permanent on the way there; after nearly six months of being trapped, a dust storm would help to push the sand away and allow the rover to continue on its way to Victoria Crater and by the end of 2006 arrive at Victoria Crater.

The main NASA flagship mission undergoing was the Cassini-Huygens mission, having been originally launched on October 15th, 1997 on a Titan IVB/Centaur. Cassini-Huygens had originally emerged in concept in the early 1980s with the European Science Foundation and the National Academy of Sciences (United States) had formed a working group for possible missions to suggest to both the ESA and NASA. One of the suggestions which emerged was a paired Saturn orbiter-Titan lander mission, and in 1983, NASA's Solar System Exploration Committee recommended the same pair as a major NASA project. The ESA and NASA would continue investigating it, with the 'Ride Report' by Sally Ride fully supporting the proposed orbiter-lander pair as a NASA project. The joint operation and creation of the proposed orbiter-lander pair helped to heal an emerging divide between NASA and the ESA, along with it surviving attempted budget cuts by the US Congress. The orbiter, Cassini, had found itself fully funded by NASA intended as the second Mariner Mark II design (this was eventually canceled and found its way into becoming the Flagship Program); the lander, Huygens, was funded by both the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency and intended to be powered by chemical batteries for up to one hundred and fifty-three minutes of power while on Titan. Cassini-Huygens after launch would perform a total of four gravitational-assisted flybys on its way to Saturn, two by Venus on April 28th, 1998 and June 24th, 1999, followed by Earth on August 18th, 1999 (performing calibration of its main camera in the process), and then one by Jupiter on December 30th, 2000. The Jupiter flyby would show atmospheric circulation in progress from the more than 250,000 photos taken by Cassini-Huygens throughout its encounter. A final fifth flyby would be performed on June 11th, 2004, passing by the moon Phoebe prior to orbital insertion of Saturn, and several photos would be taken by Cassini-Huygens before setting sail from its sole encounter with the moon. On July 1st, 2004, Cassini-Huygens had entered Saturn orbit.

Huygens's deployment plans had however changed in 2000 following the discovery of a significant flaw in the actual receiving of data by Cassini. The Doppler shift of the signal would have varied and the firmware of Cassini would have had significant issues in receiving the data at hand. As a result, the deployment was intended a month later (in December) and at an angle so the signals would have reached Cassini at a perpendicular angle to greatly reduce the effects of the Doppler shift effecting the data sent from Huygens. Come December 25th, 2004, Huygens would be released from Cassini, timed to start her batteries and engage her systems fifteen minutes prior to atmospheric entry. Huygens would following the heat shield separation and main chute deployment begin to study the atmosphere of Titan prior to landing upon the planet. Huygens would settle down on the planet after landing, and would continue to transmit data until Cassini had turned away, and Huygens's batteries had died. Unfortunately, a significant software error had led to the loss of the Channel A data, which had netted a loss of nearly three hundred and fifty pictures combined with the loss of the Doppler shift data between Cassini and Huygens. The impact of the data was consequential, but it was still a success and the first photos from another world beyond Venus and Mars had been accomplished.

[Usili]

VI

“The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn't have a space program. And if we become extinct because we don't have a space program, it'll serve us right!”-Larry Niven as quoted by Arthur C. Clarke, 2/27/01

The collapse of the Soviet Union and its transformation into the Russian Federation would leave Roscosmos as 2003 began with a series of priorities at hand with their existing fleet of rockets. Roscosmos flew both the R-7 and the UR-500 Proton as their primary launchers (built in Russia), and also flying the Zenits, Tskylons, and the Dneprs flown as smaller and secondary launchers (as Russian-Ukrainian joint launchers). The matter of the 'age' of the R-7s and the UR-500 had brought concern, with the use of hypergolics on the UR-500 having caused growing issues between the Russian and Kazakhstani governments. The Soyuz had also been incrementally improved since they had been initially put into service in the late 1960s for a goal to head to the moon (to counter the Americans in landing), but since then had emerged as the mainstay of Russian crewed transportation. Politics in the Russian Federation would be expected as having moved more and more towards the eventual replacement of it with a new crewed spacecraft however due to the 'age' of it. At the forefront of the Roscosmos' development was the planned Angara rocket family. The Angara rocket family had emerged following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the separation of the Soviet rocket industry among the numerous ex-Soviet republics. The loss of the Zenit (which had been intended as a replacement to the R-7 and UR-500) due to collapse of the Soviet Union (as the production of it had been located in Eastern Ukraine), would force action to be made by the Russian government for a major redesign effort in replacement of the R-7, UR-500, and Zenit. The action by the Russian government would give a decree (at the behest of the military) to conceptualize the best architecture for a heavy space launcher for replacement of all three operating rockets and the primary future of the Russian rocket industry. The rocket was expected to carry up to 24 tons to LEO and 3.5 tons to GTO and would replace the Proton fully. Three companies, KGNPT Khrunichev, RKK Energia, and GRTsKB Makeev would all submit bids for the rocket design, with initial technical proposals taking place from January to April of 1993 and the first phase of preliminary designs from June to December.

RKK Energia would come up with the proposal for a two-stage launcher designed to fit within the Zenit launchpad. The main power for the Energia-3 design came from the 'RD-180', which was a 'split' version of the RD-170 using only two chambers rather than the four on the RD-170. The first stage would be composed of three boosters each of them using an RD-180. The upper stage would be powered by the RD-146 and intended for multiple firings to be able to place the payloads in the respective orbits. In January of 1994, GRTsKB Makeev would join Energia's bid for the Angara since both of their proposals had been highly similar in design. GKNPT Khrunichev's proposal was designed with a single 'booster' powered by a modified RD-170, but the most 'exotic' part of the proposal of the design came from the pair of the external tanks on the side of the main rocket (as part of the requirements to fit on the Zenit launch pad). The second stage would be powered by the RD-0120 engine borrowed from the Energia rocket, and the third stage powered by an unknown hydrogen fuel engine. The design would've seen the use of cryogenics on the second and third stages (in part due to the Western designs having used this and a 'cheaper' cost for designing a cryogenic system). Khrunichev had promised that the first stage would eventually be able to return to the launch pad under powered flight.

In April of 1994, both designs would be submitted for overview by the 50th TsNIIKS (the main military space research institute). Three months would be spent analyzing both designs and the recommendations for which launcher to choose; the Energia-3 design was criticized for the need to develop the RD-180 engine (the RD-180 would eventually be developed for the Atlas V EELV under Lockheed Martin) and the new steering motors on the upper stage while the Khrunichev design was criticized for the need to develop expensive infrastructure to handle cryogenic fuels. It [50th TsNIIKS] would recommend the Khrunichev design to be selected per a 'cheaper' cost to the government. The Ministry of Defense would support this by declaring Khrunichev as the chosen builder of the Angara rocket. The ongoing Russian economic crisis would heavily delay the start of the development of the Angara until late in 1996 and by the first quarter of 1997, it had encountered significant technical issues such as the upper stage having a much heavier dry weight than planned and the RD-0120 would need to fire for a full seven seconds before it reached full thrust. Despite attempts by RKK Energia to push their design to be developed instead (with the engine costs of the RD-180 having been accomplished by Lockheed Martin), Khrunichev would keep their design and manage to shift an entire U-turn of their rocket to fit the redesigns. The Angara was eventually redesigned as a modular configuration, with cryogenics abandoned for the rocket and a single-chamber RD-170 (known as the RD-191) to power the entire rocket. The configuration of the Angara called for it to be capable of putting anywhere from two to twenty-three tons into LEO. The Angara would encounter significant issues despite the changes, much of it having to do with the funding available for development. Funding would be highly minimal from the government for development (as like many projects for Roscosmos), and it wouldn't be until 2004 that funding would start to see increased levels for further development of it. The Russian government had finally opted to fully finish development of it, but would also begin to look at design studies for a 'heavy-lift' core of the Angara using the RD-180 engine to be designed by RKK Energia. The increase of funding available to Angara was expected to enable the first 'Angara 1' flights by the end of 2008 or the start of 2009. The matter of Baikonour was of some concern, but once the rocket was designed and readied, a new launchpad could then be built if needed of course.

Beyond the work of the Angara rocket, the largest portion of funding being used by Roscosmos was dedicated towards the International Space Station. While the United States was launching the modules to the International Space Station via Space Shuttle, Russia had been responsible for a majority of the crew and resupply flights to the International Space Station. In addition, they had delivered the first of the two (of the three) main modules for the International Space Station (Zarya, Zvezda). The development of the remaining Russian modules for the International Space Station were still in progress, but for Roscosmos the biggest limiter had been funding and a decreasing timeline available for development and design of the modules. A total of seven modules had been initially planned for development as part of the Russian Orbital Segment, but following a decision change in 2001, it had been brought down for a total of four modules needed for continueddevelopment: the Science Power Platform, the Docking Cargo Module, the Russian Research Module, and Docking Compartment-2. The Columbia accident had further derailed the mounting launch plans by the United States and caused a significant 'bounce-back' of modules down the line intended for launch, which was bound to impact the entire Russian segment and launch schedules. All four modules for the Russian government still remained in development with plans for launch sometime by the end of the decade, with the Science Power Platform destined for launch on the Space Shuttle; the impacts of funding for Roscosmos had continued derailing the development of the Science Power Platform and in turn had started to impact NASA's own plans for modules due to the available power capacity for the International Space Station. Eventually, after significant negotiation between Roscosmos and NASA (along with both national governments) an amendment had been added to the NASA Authorization Act of 2005 authorizing the purchase of the Science Power Platform and outfit by NASA for launch (on the Russian reserved flight). With the handover of the Science Power Platform complete, the Docking Cargo Module, the Russian Research Module, and the Docking Compartment-2 still had to be finished; the plan of assembly had the Docking Cargo Module docked to the nadir port of Zvezda (replacing the Pirs module), with two ports open on the DCM for the RRM and a docking port, while DC-2 would be installed on the nadir port of Zarya, rendering the aft CBM of Node 3 (to be docked on the nadir port of Unity) unusable.

The European Space Agency at the start of 2003 consisted of the nation-states of Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Italy, United Kingdom, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, France, Ireland, Austria, Norway, Finland and Portugal stretching over much of Western and Central Europe along with Scandinavia. Much of the European Space Agency funding had found itself focused on unmanned space exploration and would focus on first with the Mars Express/Beagle 2 combo being prepared. The Mars Express/Beagle 2 combo would launch on June 2nd, 2003 on a Soyuz-FG/Fregat rocket, bound for Mars; on December 19th, Beagle 2 would be released from Mars Express and 'hit' Mars on December 25th for re-entry, with Mars Express entering orbit on December 25th. Following re-entry, no message would be sent from Beagle 2, and eventually by February 6th it would be declared dead as Mars Express continued in its mission above the planet. As a result of the failure of Beagle 2, any future plans involving a 'Beagle 3' would find themselves canceled and scrapped. Rosetta would find itself launched next on March 2nd, 2004 on an Ariane V bound for the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko to perform extensive studies of it. The third main unmanned mission launched by the European Space Agency would be the Venus Express on a Soyuz-FG/Fregat on November 9th, 2005 and would arrive at Venus on May 7th, 2006. Upon the regular unmanned exploration missions, the European Space Agency would begin looking at developing a global navigation satellite system for usage as a civilian focused aspect first. Funding would be initially authorized in 2002, but after a review in 2003 would show significant underlying problems in its development and forcing an entire revamping to be necessary in funding organization or to fully nationalize the system. The numerous issues with the project in terms of the sheer scale of costs and issues would force a cancellation of the Galileo system due to the large costs, leaving a budgetary opening for other programs to replace what had been the proposed Galileo system.

The International Space Station was another concern for the European Space Agency, with the lack of cooperation with NASA on the CEV and the possible loss of manned spaceflight capacity to the ISS via the Space Shuttle. Due to the conditions suffered by the ESA, they would approach Roscosmos for the joint development of a manned spacecraft so as to allow the ESA to develop their own 'manned spaceflight capacity' and allow Roscosmos to replace the aging Soyuz. The initial design that had been proposed by Roscosmos would be the Kliper (Clipper) spacecraft designed as a 'miniature' Space Shuttle intended for a multiple reuse capable of seating a total of six cosmonauts. Thewould be proposed to the members of the European Space Agency, but find itself be harshly opposed due to it being seen that Europe would be a 'second' hand partner in comparison to Russia and only participating in minor industrial components for the entire project. Discussions would morph into a joint design for a crewed space vehicle using industrial components from both the European Space Agency and Roscosmos and so named as the Crew Space Transportation System (CSTS). The design of the CSTS involved the use of a 'three' module approach using a crew module, reentry module, and service module with plans to use existing hardware and limited developments so as to maximize the available cost-efficiency. Discussions would however still find themselves torpedoes due to concerns over Russia, and competition within the European Space Agency itself over the future to take with the German Space Agency and EADS Astrium leading the charge for an evolution of the Automated Transfer Vehicle as a manned spacecraft. The torpedoing of the CSTS arrangement would see funding authorized for the crewed evolution of the Automated Transfer Vehicle, along with other proposed evolution types for the Automated Transfer Vehicle.

Japan throughout the 1990s and the start of 2000s, had operated three separate components for spaceflight in their nation, the Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science (ISAS), the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan (NAL), and the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). The issues of funding the three separate agencies combined with the lack of intercommunication had forced serious issues between the three, and it was eventually time to bring them together as a single agency. On October 1st, 2003, the Japanese Aerospace eXploration Agency (JAXA) would be created from all three separate agencies and begin the main organization as a single entity. JAXA had arranged for their own contributions to the International Space Station, with the Japanese Experiment Module providing their own research capabilities on the Space Station. In part from the design of the JEM for the ISS, they had begun on developments of their supply and logistics vehicle for the ISS known as the 'H-II Transfer Vehicle' (HTV). The HTV was intended primarily for resupply of Kibo (the JEM) but also for general ISS resupply operations as well, but had required the development of a new launcher capable of flying the full payload of it. The H-IIB would emerge for the capacity of flying the HTV, based off the H-IIA (based of the H-II itself) intended to use existing industrial components and architecture in lessening the cost of development, while flying a 25% increased payload to LEO or to GTO.

The Chinese National Space Agency throughout the 1990s and the early 2000s had been building up their existing launch capability and a series of future planning for travel and exploration in space. Their main rocket 'family' had been called the Changzheng (Long March), with each iteration of the family progressively being based around a certain role in flight and capacity. The 'smallest' family of launchers available were the Changzheng-2 family, centered around the CZ-2C and CZ-2D for cargo flights and the CZ-2F for crewed flights (having been based off the CZ-2E in man-rating it). The Changzheng-3 family was the 'heaviest' of the launcher payloads, flying the CZ-3A. The Changzheng-4 family was a 'middle-ground' between the Changzheng-2 and Changzheng-3, flying the CZ-4B. The Changzheng-2, 3, and 4 families had all been based off the Dong Feng-5 ICBM, which had made all of the launchers operate using hypergolic fuels. Their next generation of launch vehicle development would start in 2001, as an entire new family of launch vehicles not dependent or based off military designs. The basic concept of the 'Changzheng-5' called for a total of six separate variants, able to carry anywhere from 1.5 to 25 tonnes into LEO and 1.5 to 14 tonnes into a GTO. The intent of the Changzheng-5 was in essence to allow a modular configuration for their next launchers, similar in appearance to the Angara rocket family being developed by Roscosmos. It was planned for a total of four separate 'cores' to be designed capable of being used as either cores or boosters for the entire family of rockets. Initial development would begin in 2002 of the two main engines in the rocket family, the YF-77 intended as a sustainer engine for launches as a core using a cryogenic propellant (LH2/LOX), and the YF-100 intended as a main engine for launches as either a core or booster using a petroleum propellant (RP-1/LOX).

The quest for manned spaceflight for China would be accomplished as part of Project 921. Project 921 was divided into three primary programs, with Project 921-1 involving the launch of a crewed spacecraft and testing of it, followed by Project 921-2 involving the launch and usage of space laboratories put up, and culminating in Project 921-3 which would eventually have a multi-module space station built and constructed by the People's Republic of China. Project 921-1 (better known as the Shenzhou Program) had originally planned to be able to put a man into orbit prior to the next millennium, but delays had forced significant issues until the 2000s until China could put a man into space. The first four Shenzhou launches would be primary unmanned, set with testing the Shenzhou and making sure all would be fine for it. On October 17th, 2003, Shenzhou 5 would blast off Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center bound for the stars. China's first astronaut, Yang Liwei, would sail around Earth for nearly fourteen orbits before landing in the province of Inner Mongolia. China would be congratulated upon the flight that had made them the third nation in the world to establish independent human spaceflight. Their next manned flight would follow as Shenzhou 6 on October 13th, 2003 from the same launch satellite. Both astronauts, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng, had been the Backup Team 1 and selected after the Commander had gotten sick with pneumonia forcing Backup Team 1 to take over. Shenzhou 6 would orbit the Earth for four days totaling seventy-seven orbits before 'landing' near Handan, China. The flight had accomplished numerous steps for the Chinese space program such as the full use of the Shenzhou in a long duration orbital flight and had accomplished Project 921-1. The orbital module remained in orbit for further evaluation of the experiments being done for a 'long' term spaceflight mission.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) had maintained a slow development in their own general space program, starting first with their own initial developments in building the satellites to allow their own domestic satellite program followed by a launcher program. Starting in the 1990s, their first main domestic launcher capable of putting payloads into a sun-synchrous orbit (or the capacity for a geostationary transfer orbit) would enter service, known as the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The 1990s would have issues of their own in initial testing and planning of the PSLV, but by the start of the 2000s, the PSLV would begin to show off its own performance in launching satellites into orbit (along with multiple satellites into orbit). The PSLV would be followed by the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) which was intended like the PSLV of being a domestic launcher capable of putting payloads into a geosynchronous orbit around the Earth. The first GSLV flight in 2001 would be a failure, having failed to put the payload into the correct orbit. The second, third, and fourth flights would all be successes enabling three Indian communications satellites to be fully put into orbit for domestic use. The PSLV and the GSLV did have their own issues of being based around hypergolics, but that was all that was available. Two new rocket types would begin study starting in the early 2000s, with the first as an improved GSLV design which was intended to put up 50% more payload compared to the regular GSLV, and the second being an inspired design study over a 'kerolox' type design which would be intended as a 'future' heavy lifter for the ISRO. No primary design ideas had yet been centered around the kerolox heavy lifter, but one of the more apparent design concepts involved the use of a Russian RD-180 as the main power for such a heavy lifter.

[Usili]

VII

“Per Aspera, Ad Astra.”-Motto of NASA

The Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) had emerged from the modernization of the United States Air Force launchers in the 1990s to replace the existing heritage launchers operating (Atlas II, Delta II, Titan IV) with newer, more reliable and cheaper launches. The 'blueprint' for the EELV (which had come after numerous government studies including one with NASA) would be released in 1994 with an architecture to have standardized fairings, a liquid fueled core, upper stages, and solid rocket boosters for a modularity of payload. Bids would come from Alliant Techsystems, Boeing, McDonnell Douglas (which would merge with Boeing in 1997), and Lockheed Martin, with McDonnell Douglas (then becoming Boeing) and Lockheed Martin proceeding to the final phases to begin mockups for their designs. Both Boeing and Lockheed Martin would work to use existing hardware and designs for their rockets as they rapidly worked on designing them. Boeing would design the Delta IV's first stage around the 'Common Booster Core' based around the RS-68, which was cryogenics-based. The RS-68 had been designed as a simpler and cheaper engine when compared to the RS-25 SSME (the existing architecture would help to lower the costs of development), and had become more powerful than the SSME for the use on the Delta IV. The upper stage of the Delta IV, the Delta Cryogenic Second Stage (DCSS), was intended to use the RL-10B-2 for the on-board propulsion, having the highest ISP of any upper-stage engine being used due to the extendable nozzle. The Atlas V would be designed in a similar way, with its first stage being known as the 'Common Core Booster' based around the Russian RD-180 engine using RP-1 and LOX. The upper stage of the Atlas V was the Centaur-3 capable of using either a single or a pair of RL-10A-4-2s for payload deployment (depending upon the type of payload). Both rockets featured the capability for either a 4m or 5m payload along with 'strap-on' solid rocket boosters (in the case of the Delta IV with the GEM 60+, and Atlas V with the AJ-60+). Boeing had however managed to secure the 'heavy' side of the military launches with the Delta IV Heavy, while Lockheed Martin only had paper versions of any 'heavy' launchers in the form of the Atlas V Heavy.

In March of 2002, Lockheed Martin notified the United States Air Force that Boeing had received documents and alleging that they had interfered with the EELV contract. Over the next sixteen months, the United States Air Force would begin investigation into Boeing on the EELV competition and would complete the procurement investigation by the end of July, 2003. The procurement investigation would see a transfer of seven Delta IV launches to the Atlas V, give Lockheed Martin approval to build a West Coast launch site (Boeing originally had sole West Coast access), and suspend Boeing from competing in government contracts for the EELV at the moment. Despite the investigation by the Air Force, Lockheed Martin would begin their own lawsuit against Boeing in the courts (focused in United States District Court, Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division) opening in May of 2003. The resignation of Phil Condit as CEO due to an emerging tanker scandal with the United States Air Force would see a member of the board of directors, Lewis E. Platt, elevated to the new CEO after the main nominee, Harry Stonecipher, had refused such a request due to poor health. The transfer of CEOs would in late February of 2005 allow Boeing to enter in Department of Defense launcher contracts again, ahead of the 'Buy III' contracts. The Buy III contracts as the next round of the Department of Defense contracts were expected for a total of twenty-four launches, and expected for a split between Boeing and Lockheed Martin for the contracts. Ahead of the Buy III contracts however was the impending lawsuit, and the significant impact that would occur on Boeing if it proceeded for the worst case scenario. The sheer impact faced by Boeing in the lawsuit along with growing agreements among the board to leave the EELV business would eventually force them to offer a proposed meeting with Lockheed Martin to discuss the entire situation and the best efforts.

The meetings between Boeing and Lockheed Martin had centered heavily around the original purpose of the EELV and the required 'Assured Access to Space'. The discussions included the impending lawsuit, increasing costs for the EELV, and issues of commercial operations for both the Delta IV and Atlas V. The negotiations had eventually centered upon the idea of a joint company to manage both of their EELVs in a similar structure to the United Space Alliance (which managed the Space Shuttle and International Space Station), with the agreement that Lockheed Martin would drop its lawsuit against Boeing. The proposed organization, known as the 'United Launch Alliance', was intended to operate both EELVs in flight and production capacities along with 'marketing' them for commercial operations (with permission from Boeing and Lockheed Martin). The announcement made in September of 2005, caught many off guard, but still had to require DoD and FTC permission before the 'merger' could be done. In evaluation by the DoD, the creation of the United Launch Alliance represented a 'monopoly' on existing launches for government payloads but did continue the 'Assured Access to Space' and kept two launchers operating, rather than the one as would most likely be the case after the lawsuit. The DoD would eventually approve the creation of the United Launch Alliance in December, and help to 'convince' the FTC to approve the creation of the ULA by March (this was despite protests by SpaceX on the ULA forming a monopoly and attempts at getting a court injunction to stop the creation of the ULA).

The portfolio of the United Launch Alliance upon creation had been brought together from both Boeing and Lockheed Martin's rocket divisions, a disorderly mess that had to be handled and brought together. This had meant centralization, which had been part of the organized creation of the ULA; the main rocket-building was to be centered at the Boeing plant in Decatur (with the Lockheed Martin plant in Denver closing), while the engineering and corporate headquarters were to be centered at the Lockheed Martin site in Denver (closing the Boeing engineering division in Southern California). One of the biggest issues that despite the 'integration' of the businesses, both the Atlas V and Delta IV were entirely different, and any kind of integration would be much harder to accomplish with two entirely different systems being flown. The upper stage appeared where the main start could begin, but that too would require the need of integrating the avionics; but the engines were a different matter in their entirety. The Atlas V and Delta IV both operated variants of the RL-10, both of which had different designs for the general operation; the Atlas V operated the A design, which had followed along the 'heritage' of the RL-10, while the Delta IV operated the B design, which was a much more heavily modified variant including an extendable nozzle for improved ISP. The United Launch Alliance would begin looking at 'commonizing' the A and B type RL-10s to begin the process of 'uniting' both of their launchers (in part due to the large stockpile of the RL-10Bs from Boeing).

[Usili]

VIII

"Space if for everybody. It's not just for a few people in science or math, or for a select group of astronauts. That's our new frontier out there, and its everybody's business to know about space."-Christa McAuliffe, 12/6/85

There were four years left until the deadline was over in 2010 with a total of nineteen flights left for the Shuttle Program, eighteen assembly flights for the International Space Station and a single servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope. The impact of the weather delays had caused some issues, but so far the plan remained the same with a hopeful capacity to launch five flights continuing for the next four years to complete the rest of the Space Shuttle program. If weather or mechanical issues did not rear their ugly head, it could be done, but bets on it were not likely for it [the International Space Station] to be fully finished by the time 2010 came around and ended. Some of the modules were still finishing up in construction and processing and were scheduled last on the list, with one of the biggest offenders being the Russian Science Power Platform (requiring two launches to be fully assembled in orbit). In January of 2006, with the funding for the Centrifuge Accommodations Module and the Science Power Platform, a further revision in the launch schedule and delivery of modules had to be planned. STS-118 and STS-120 would proceed on schedule, but STS-122 would instead deliver the S6 solar array truss ahead of Columbus to complete the Integrated Truss Structure. From there, the modules would be sequentially delayed with Service Mission 4 still scheduled for STS-125 on Atlantis. The entire launch schedule presumed the constant rotation of the three Shuttles, and did estimate that the CAM would be delivered on STS-130 following STS-129's resupply flight. The resupply flights were being extended more towards the end of the flight schedule to ensure all the critical modules could be delivered into orbit and prevent any from not being able to be launched by the end of 2010 per the mandated requirement for stopping the flights by 10/01/2010.

The next Shuttle Flight however was on track for the January launch as Endeavour was rolled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building in late November towards LC-39B. Arriving at LC-39A, STS-118 would begin the process of loading her cargo bay for the flight to the International Space Station. In terms of the payload carried for STS-118, it consisted of the S5 truss segment, External Stowage Platform 3 (ESP-3), and the Spacehab Logistics Module (flying for its final flight). STS-118 would proceed through the rest of December in flight checks and preparations for the scheduled launch in January, lifting off on January 21st (Day 3 of the Launch Window) towards the International Space Station. Endeavour would be fitted with the Station-Shuttle Power Transfer System (SSPTS) intended to increase the time docked at the International Space System by three to four days. The Space Station Power Transfer System was intended to reduce the amount of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen used for the fuel cells installed on the Space Shuttle by directly taking power from the International Space Station. The launch would proceed with issues of its own, as two pieces of debris from the ET were shown to be shed hitting the orbiter during ascent. The checkout by the OBSS would show both strikes to have been minor, with 'streak' marks from where they had struck but no apparent damage to the TPS. The rollover would show no main issues, and Endeavour would dock with the International Space Station as preparations for the first of three EVAs was conducted. The first EVA had been intended for the installation of the S5 truss, with the second to install ESP-3, with the third and fourth EVAs conducted to be general maintenance along the Integrated Truss Structure in preparation for STS-120. The second EVA would be cut short following a computer failure on the ISS, shutting off all systems on-board. The computer failure was believed to have been a result of condensation inside an electrical conductor causing the failure. The third EVA would be replanned as a result towards the completion of installation and the initial maintenance, with Endeavour to have her stay cut down to a total of twelve days (rather than the planned fourteen days) due to the computer failure and increased rate of fuel cell consumption as a result. Both the third and fourth EVAs would be conducted and completed without issue, and Endeavour would undock on February 1st, and touch down at Kennedy Space Center on February 2nd bringing STS-118 to a close.

STS-120 would follow as she was rolled out to LC-39B on February 11th, with Discovery planned to carry up Node 2, known as 'Harmony' after an essay writing contest, a Power/Data Grapple Fixture for Harmony, and miscellaneous storage racks holding equipment necessary for the movement of the P6 solar array. Proceeding throughout March, high winds would occur at the launch site with it noticed a pair of TPS tiles from the leading edge having been 'blown' off. Due to concerns about the time it would take to unload Discovery, bring her back to the Vehicle Assembly Building, unstack her and replace the tiles, followed by doing the exact same thing in the opposite manner, an 'in-field' repair would be done to replace both of the missing TPS tiles and check over the rest of the tiles to make sure they were all intact. The launch date of STS-120 would be tentatively set at April 11th, the second day of the launch window as the crew of STS-120 readied for their flight towards the International Space Station. Launching on April 13th (weather had delayed the launch by two days), Discovery set forth to the International Space Station for her module delivery. A piece of debris from the External Tank, having struck near the left rear gearwheel, and gouging a 9mm hole as the TPS survey showed after launch. Following docking with the ISS, and more conclusive photos (showing the hole stretch at nearly 4cm by 2cm at an intersection of three tiles) plans would be made for a fourth EVA to 'fix' the hole which was believed to have been a 'scrape' and not a direct impact that had occurred based off the damage analysis. The first EVA would conduct the preparations for removal of Harmony to be extracted and docked to the port side of Unity which would be conducted via the station's Canadarm. The second and third EVAs would follow with the movement and installation of the P6 solar assembly from the Z1 truss to the P5 truss. A jam during deployment of the P6 array would force a fourth EVA to be done two days after on 'unjamming' the array and slowly moving the array out into the fully open position. The completion of the installation of Harmonyand S6 solar array (along with its deployment) had completed Discovery's mission as she undocked for her way to home. On April 27th, Discovery touched down at Kennedy Space Center bringing STS-120 to a close.

The third flight of the year would be STS-122, rolling out from the VAB on May 12th heading towards LC-39A. The Shuttle Atlantis, was due to carry up the last component of the Integrated Truss Structure, the S6 Solar Array which once deployed would fully power the entire US segment of the International Space Station. Unlike Atlantis's last flight, no weather issues would come to trouble the launch as everything appeared normal and the first day of the launch rolled on schedule, with STS-122 roaring towards the International Space Station on July 6th. SSME Number 1 would exhibit a near failure nearly two minutes and twenty seconds into the flight, but continue operating at 98% thrust. Concerns over a TAL, AOA, and ATO would all be shown due to the loss in thrust, but Atlantis would continue for orbit with a MECO cutoff at eight minutes and forty-two seconds. The slightly lower orbit would require additional use of the OMS to dock with the International Space Station, but still have enough fuel to perform re-entry and landing. Following docking, work would begin on extracting the S6 Solar Array from the payload bay. The first and second EVAs would be focused on 'extending' the S6 solar arrays with persistent troubles in the full deployment of it. The third EVA would spend its first half dedicated towards finishing the deployment of the S6 solar array and working on general maintenance around the International Space Station. On July 21st, Atlantis would touch down at Kennedy Space Center, culminating in a close for STS-122. It would be discovered at Orbiter Processing Facility 2 that SSME Number 1 had had a slightly deformed LOX line into the turbopump due to stresses imposed on it. The damage suffered to the SSME would require all of the engines to be checked through, with Endeavour having already been cleared for her engine check when she was at the Orbital Processing Facility.

Following on for the fourth flight of the year would be the Space Shuttle Endeavour for her second flight of the year. STS-123 was planned to carry up the European Space Agency laboratory, Columbus, up to the International Space Station with the completion of the ITS. The laboratory, Columbus, had been the European Space Agency's largest contribution to the International Space Station of the three modules they had paid for (Harmony, Columbus, and the unnamed Node 3). Being rolled out from the VAB on July 17th, the planned launch-window ran from September 8th to September 18th, and it appeared that the Shuttle would be ready by then. Running through July and August in preparing Endeavour for launch, issues would pop up in the flow valves on the External Tank as the launch window rolled through. Finally on September 17th, on the second to last day of the launch window, STS-123 would launch into the heavens bound towards the International Space Station. Foam from the ET would strike Endeavour in two large segments and four smaller segments shed below the bipod attachment rack. A fourth EVA would be added following the OBSS scan, with the second EVA to look over the entire TPS to figure out the full scope of the damage if any. In the meantime, STS-324 was being readied in the event of the damage to Endeavour having breached the TPS. The 'flyback' maneuver would bring further concern that Endeavour had suffered a breach in the TPS, but the second EVA was still confirmed for an entire overview of the TPS. The first EVA would handle the immediate preparation for extracting the Columbus module from the cargo bay, and the second EVA would be readied for the overview of the Thermal Protection System. Three points of concern would all be looked at by the EVA, and as the EVA went through, a sigh of relief had made its way through. There had been no penetration of the TPS and there was no need for a rescue mission. The installation of Columbus and its preparation would occur alongside the third EVA, which had removed the launch locks on the remaining nodes of the Harmony module, and the fourth EVA, for the installation of the scientific equipment on the outside of the Columbus scientific laboratory. On October 2nd, Endeavour touched down at Edwards Air Force Base with bad weather at Kennedy Space Center.

The last expected Shuttle mission to the ISS before the mission to the Hubble, would be Discovery flying on STS-124. Issues with checking over the Space Shuttle Main Engines had delayed the movement into the VAB until September 23rd, due to the significant concerns about Endeavour and the need for the first rescue flight after a breach in the TPS. Eventually, Discovery would be rolled out to LC-39A in the middle of October, with bad weather having delayed the rollout. The delays had tentatively pushed the launch for Discovery back to January, and the possibility of knocking off STS-128 from being launched in 2008 and now moving to the start of 2009. Discovery, flying for STS-124, was planned as the first of three missions to launch up the components of the JAXA laboratory module, Kibo. Two further ISS flights, STS-126 and STS-127 were expected to be required to fully finish the installation and the completion of the laboratory module. Discovery would be loaded with the pressurized segment of the Experiment Logistics Module and the Special Purpose Dexterous Module (SPDM) Dextre for her 'delivery' to the International Space Station. Progress on preparing Discovery would progress much more rapidly than normal, being readied for her launch window in December. On December 13th, Discovery lifted off towards the International Space Station for her module delivery. For the EVAs planned as part of STS-124, all three had involved operations with the assembly of the SPDM Dextre, and the first included the extraction of the Pressurized Section of Kibo along with that of Dextre. The installation of the PM Kibo, combined with the assembly of the SPDM proceeded without issue, although problems in the starboard SARJ began to make themselves known; an EVA to investigate the starboard SARJ would identify a torn power cable which would be replaced while on orbit. On December 30th, Discovery touched down at Kennedy Space Center ending STS-124.

The next flight for the Space Shuttle, was the last it would fly beyond a mission to the International Space Station; STS-125 was bound for the Hubble Space Telescope, on Servicing Mission Four. The lack of being able to head to the International Space Station as per normal rescue procedure, had a rescue flight on the pad waiting and ready to go. This was expected to be the 'last time' two separate Shuttles were ever on the launchpad together, with Atlantis and Endeavour to both stand 'shoulder' to 'shoulder' for the coming period of launch. Problematic delays in weather, External Tank deliveries, and issues with the checkout of Endeavour pushed back the expected launch from February to May; it also pushed STS-128 to a launch in 2009, with STS-127 also being hazarded as being flown in 2009 if further delays mounted. Atlantis would be rolled out towards LC-39B in the middle of April, and encountering problematic issues with valves on the External Tank throughout checkout. By the start of June, Atlantis was ready to head up to the Hubble Space Telescope as part of STS-125; STS-125 was intending to carry up the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (intended for ultraviolet spectroscopy with a much higher sensitivity), the Wide Field Camera 3 (to replace the Wide Field Camera 2 installed on the first servicing mission), a soft capture system to allow deorbiting it or further service missions via the CEV, and a series of other components for installation on the Hubble Space Telescope. On June 19th, Atlantis lifted off towards the Hubble Space Telescope's last servicing mission by the Space Shuttle. A total of five spacewalks would dominate the mission in replacing the components on Hubble, with issues encountered throughout all the spacewalks, but not impacting the replacement of components or installation of new instruments. The first EVA saw the replacement of the Wide Field Camera (and a fix for the Data Instrument Unit which had been exhibiting issues nearly two weeks prior to launch) and installation of the soft-capture mechanism, the second replacing the failed gyroscopes and installation of new batteries, the third to remove the COSTAR (Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement) and replace it with the COS (Cosmic Origins Spectrograph) along with repairing the failed ACS (Advanced Camera for Surveys) following an electrical failure in 2006, the fourth to repair the STIS (Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph) which had failed in 2004, and the fifth EVA to replace a Fine Guidance Sensor before concluding with the last EVA for Hubble by the Space Shuttle. Following the release of Hubble, weather would continue to cause issues for the planned landing on July 2nd with both Edwards Air Force Base and Kennedy Space Center having remarkably bad conditions; concerns over the available power supply with the weather would force a third alternate landing site used in the history of the Shuttle to be used by Atlantis, landing at White Sands Space Harbor on July 3rd. STS-125 had been brought to a close, and so did the last Hubble Servicing Mission for the Space Shuttle.

Following on from the Hubble Servicing Flight, Endeavour would begin to have her cargo bay loaded in preparation for STS-126, the delivery of the Kibo Pressurized Module and the RMS for the Exposed Facility. Stretching through the next month and a half, the Shuttle was readied for flight at the pad and last checks progressed. Eventually on August 23rd, Endeavour lifted off towards the International Space Station for the delivery of the next module to the International Space Station. To a major extent, STS-126 was planned to be on the books with the delivery of Kibo and beginning preparations for the delivery of the main segment of the Science Power Platform in STS-127. Arriving at the International Space Station, a series of issues would mar the flight up there, starting with a computer failure following docking and forcing a delay of the EVA until the computers were brought back online. The first EVA saw the preparation for extracting Kibo, along with a further check of the TPS with Endeavour docked. One of the more complicated manners for STS-126 was the 'movement' of the Experiment Logistics Module to Kibo once it was docked on the starboard side of Harmony. Kibo would be extracted and placed on the starboard port of Harmony, as the Experiment Logistics Module was readied for movement alongside the preparations inside Kibo for usage. The second spacewalk would be dominated for work on Kibo, followed by further checkouts of both SARJs following STS-124. The movement of the Experiment Logistics Module to Kibo preceded the third spacewalk, which saw an initial preparation along the zenith port of Zvezda for the arrival of the Science Power Platform in two missions along with general maintenance throughout the Integrated Truss Structure. With the conclusion of the third EVA, Endeavour began to head home. Landing at Kennedy Space Center on September 3rd, another mission was in the bag for the Space Shuttle Program.

Following on, work on preparing Discovery for STS-119 was underway. While STS-119 was a resupply mission for the International Space Station, it was also intending to be the start of a significant extension in crew support with the delivery of two of three new crew racks, an additional gallery, an additional lavatory, along with the host of additional equipment to support scientific operations on the International Space Station. Rolling out from the VAB on September 23rd, STS-119 was expected to be last Shuttle flight flying from LC-39B along with one of the last flights to be checked out from High Bay 3 with emerging preparation for the first planned test flights of the Jupiter. Rolling through the preparation at the pad, STS-119 would lift-off on November 15th bound for the International Space Station. In addition, STS-119 was to work on finishing the major preparations for preparing the delivery of the major segment of the Science Power Platform on the next flight towards the International Space Station. The first and second EVAs were primarily dominated with preparations along Zvezda and the Integrated Truss Structure for the 'movement' of the node across the entire span of the Space Station. The third and fourth EVAs instead performed maintenance throughout the Integrated Truss Structure, with the accomplishment of all that had been needed to be done in general preparations for the eventual flight of STS-127. With their installation of the new hardware on the International Space Station, and full preparations for the arrival of the SPP, Discovery readied to head home back to Earth. Discovery touched down at Kennedy Space Center on December 2nd, bringing an end to STS-119, and the last Shuttle flight that year. STS-127 was still being prepared with her launch date expected in the second month of the next year.

[Usili]

IX

“If our intention had been merely to bring back a handful of soil and rocks from the lunar gravel pit and then forget the whole thing, we'd be the biggest fools.”-Wehrner von Braun, 7/15/69

The human spaceflight portion of the Vision for Space Exploration would see the initial development focused among numerous projects, with no primary organization among all of them to 'unify' them into a single coherent project. While the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate was on paper to handle them all, it was becoming strenuous for them and no official project name had yet been introduced to describe the entire human spaceflight portion. Eventually, the project name would start to make its round from an email of a project manager at Marshall Space Flight Center describing possible names. Three names had been sent as part of the e-mail, Aquarius, Minerva, and Osiris, all unique names to describe the emerging human spaceflight portion. As the names found themselves spreading throughout NASA, by far the most popular one would be Osiris, and while not fitting in with the common Greco-Roman terms to describe the naming of projects, Osiris was known as the god of transition, rebirth, and resurrection. By November of 2006, the name had stuck with the organization of 'Project Osiris', which was to put together all of the human spaceflight components of the Vision of Space Exploration under it. Project Osiris had three main 'components' held under it, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, the Jupiter Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicle, and the Lunar Surface Access Module (LSAM). Each component made up a significant portion of Osiris, a piece of architecture for the eventual landing upon the moon. In terms of the general funding amount for Osiris, much of the funding was being directed towards the Crew Exploration Vehicle as the main component needing to be designed, while lesser amounts were heading to the Jupiter, and then for the LSAM studies.

The Crew Exploration Vehicle had been planned for three primary roles, each role being 'fulfilled' by the Block configuration it was designed for. The CEV was thought of carrying crew and cargo to the International Space Station, crew to the moon, and eventually crew to a Mars Transfer Vehicle. NASA had created the Crew Exploration Vehicle per the requirements of the Vision for Space Exploration, replacing the in progress Orbital Space Plane program underway. The Crew Exploration Vehicle competition though when it had been announced was seen as NASA's next major vehicle equivalent, and seen as a major goal for all the competitors to be able to secure the contract. As the main round of the competition began, both Northrop Grumman-Boeing and Lockheed Martin would put all in based off their own respective designs. The Northrop Grumman-Boeing team had intended for their design to replicate the 'Apollo' approach, but only increased in size per the general requirements for heading to the International Space Station. The approach for a replication of the Apollo design had been for two reasons, the first being that for the Orbital Space Plane both Boeing and Northrop Grumman had designed capsule-type derivatives to fulfill that role, and the second being that the existing technical and 'flight' data from the Apollo CM could be used and prevent additional flight data when following the same shape. The size would be different, with the CEV increased to a diameter of five meters versus the diameter of three point nine meters from the Apollo CSM. Initially, the plan had been to design it along a four meter diameter and to include a 'mission' module, but the plan had been scrapped and modified for the five meter approach. The Service Module was planned to use a single AJ-10 engine and to have available propellant for significant course changes in Low Lunar Orbit and a return to Earth from the moon.

Lockheed Martin would use their experience from the X-33 and the Orbital Space Plane program to design their vehicle for the Crew Exploration Vehicle. Their vehicle design would be based around a 'three-module' setup, incorporating a Crew Module (CM), Mission Module (MM), and Trans-Earth Injection Module (TEIM). The Crew Module was designed as a lifting body intended to seat between four to six astronauts, with a 'Rescue Module' on the nose intended to lift away from the rest of the Crew Module in the event of a launch abort. The Mission Module was to be attached 'behind' the CM and designed to hold additional consumables, increased living space, and power and communications capability for any voyage beyond Earth; the Trans-Earth Injection Module was to be attached to the bottom of the MM and fitted with two RL10 engines for the return to Earth from the moon. Even after the modifications sent out by NASA, few design changes occurred with the plan for the Command Module to be able to be sent up by itself to the ISS, and the MM and TEIM stack to be with the CM in a single rocket to the voyage to the moon. Lockheed Martin was confident that their design could work with a Lunar Orbit Rendezvous approach, however learning that NASA was opting for an Earth Orbit Rendezvous instead forced a drastic redesign effort on the planned design. The Lockheed Martin would rapidly redesign it towards a capsule inspired design, highly similar to the design by Northrop Grumman-Boeing. The design emphasized a 'taller' capsule, and a single man-rated RL-10A engine for primary propulsion. The sheer amount of design work required for when it was learned however was massive, and questions were raised if the capsule design would be ready to submit by the time the due date came for the proposals and if it might not be better to submit their 'lifting wing' design.

By July 1st, 2006, both CEV proposals had been submitted and it would come time for the general selection by NASA for the CEV. Both designs were radically different from each other, with Northrop Grumman-Boeing having submitted their design as a capsule based solution, while Lockheed Martin had submitted their design of a lifting body based concept. Lockheed Martin had been faced with significant issues for their capsule design and had been forced to opt for their lifting body design and hoped it would win. The decision process would go over both of the CEV proposals and evaluate them with the existing planned NASA architecture, and modified NASA architectures to be able to choose the planned design-type. The existing planned architecture for NASA had been centered around Earth Orbit Rendezvous, however they went over the proposals with a Lunar Orbit Rendezvous and a proposed 'L1 Rendezvous' type architecture for NASA. The decision would be made on October 1st, 2006, and to the expectations of many, would be awarded towards the Northrop Grumman-Boeing team on their CEV design. The Northrop Grumman-Boeing design however did have a series of modifications by NASA including the removal of retrorockets and exchange with airbags, modification of solar panels, and a mandate to decrease the amount of weight on the Block I design. With acceptance of the CEV, work would begin by Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and their subcontractors on the initial prototype Command Module for evaluation by NASA. The CEV would find itself named in 2008, as 'Orion', an official name for the project after a decision by the Administrator.

The Space Shuttle had even before it was first launched, had been planned for a series of modifications for a new 'launcher' based off the external tank-solid rocket booster structure present. Numerous designs could emerge for the ET-SRB system of the Shuttle, and the first 'proposed' launcher would be one from Morton and Thiokol incorporating a payload on top of the External Tank as an 'inline' system in the late 1970s, but would be ignored. The first serious design that would emerge would be a 'side-mount' system similar to the Space Shuttle, known as Shuttle-C. The Shuttle-C design had emerged as a way to allow the stack to be dedicated as a full 'cargo' launch, by designing a disposable 'cargo' container with three SSMEs mated to the External Tank for being able to launch up to 68 tonnes into orbit, but would be canceled in 1990 with surmounting budget pressures from Space Station Freedom. The next design inspired from the Space Shuttle would be the 'National Launch System', as a study authorized for alternative ways to get into orbit without the Space Shuttle. The National Launch System was envisioned of using a simplified variant of the SSME, known as the Space Transportation Main Engine (STME), but like Shuttle-C had been canceled due to surmounting budget pressures from the Space Shuttle and Space Station Freedom. The concepts of the National Launch System of the utilization of 'multiple' cores would live on in the development of the Delta IV, and the RS-68 (having been heavily based off of the STME design). Eventually, with the announcement of the retirement of the Space Shuttle, the full proposals for a 'true' Shuttle Derived Launch Vehicle would emerge per the 'requirements' of Congress.

The selection of 'Jupiter' by NASA, was a decision influenced heavily by politics and in part economics. The Jupiter had been planned to use the existing infrastructure so as to retain as much of the workforce as required by the needs of Congress, and combined with the minimal required changes in the existing infrastructure offered a large benefit economically as well. The Jupiter Launch System while accounting for the infrastructure changes had also been planned and designed for 'modularity' by the usage of a common core for launches and the capacity for a 'switchout' of the type of fairing or upper stage required for the mission. The biggest issue by far for the Jupiter Launch System was the debate between the RS-25 'SSME' and the RS-68 engines; each engine offered their own potentials for use and the debate waged extensively for them. The debate for the engines began to weigh more towards the favor of the RS-68 for use, until an analysis of the proposed heating environments underneath the Jupiter were evaluated. The results were... unsatisfactory to say the least for the RS-68. The heating environment underneath the Jupiter represented the combined effects of both the regular engines and the Solid Rocket Boosters, and the simulations showed a failure of the RS-68s prior to the core fully depleting all of the propellants. The heating environment would eventually rule in favor of the RS-25, with a 'simplified' and 'expendable' version to be adopted known as the RS-25E. This would center the initial Jupiter version, the Jupiter-130, but the beyond Earth version was yet to be determined due to the setup for the Earth Departure Stage.

The Earth Departure Stage represented the center-piece of development for the two-stage design of the Jupiter, required for all missions beyond Low Earth Orbit carrying any substantial payload. The major development program required for the Earth Departure Stage was the engine, with a need to meet both the required thrust to complete orbit, and the ISP for burns beyond Earth. The proposals for engines varied, with calls for using existing engines (such as the RL-10A or the RL-10B) or programs for entire new engines (such as the MB-60, RL-60, or the J-2S). Issues for all engines persisted, with the MB-60 and RL-60 allowing a higher amount of payload injected to the moon but not being 'all-American' (which itself was a political issue to secure the funding for research and development). Eventually, the design proposal finally reached a stance with a development of an 'advanced' RL-10 engine to be used on both the Earth Departure Stage and the Lunar Surface Access Module. The RL-10D (as it was known), was practically an entire new engine separate from the previous RL-10 designs. The design was intended to use experience gained in developing the MB-60 and RL-60 engines, while retaining the set requirements by NASA. NASA had idealized the RL-10D as being capable of a thrust level of 150kN, an ISP of 470 seconds, and the capacity for a deep-throttling of up to 5% of thrust. The choice of the RL-10D had set the Earth Departure Stage with a total of six engines configured, thus setting the Jupiter-246 ready.

The development of the Lunar Surface Access Module (LSAM) had started out initially under the parameters required for the landing mission and the intended profile to head there; was the EDS intended to be used for TLI and LOI, or just TLI? If the EDS was not being used for LOI, was the CEV or LSAM handling LOI? From the development of the Jupiter and the CEV, it had been identified that the LSAM would have to perform the lunar orbit insertion for the entire stack thus establishing the initial parameters. The establishment of the Lunar Surface Access Office however was poised now to fulfill the entire planned configuration of required components, per meeting with Apollo astronauts, industry representatives, and NASA employees to understand the planned design employed by NASA. Many of the recommendations from the Apollo astronauts would be adopted for the entire period of being on the surface, such as an airlock, toilet, 'camping stove', 'hammocks', and increased cargo storage for samples. Boeing and Lockheed Martin would both begin designing their proposals to submit to NASA on part of the inevitable contract for the Lunar Surface Access Module. Each company had separate envisioned entirely separate configuration for the LSAM, and it showed in their design documents. Boeing had designed it following the 'traditional' approach that had been done before with the Lunar Module for the Apollo Program, with a two-stage system; in comparison, Lockheed Martin design also incorporated a similar two-stage design, albeit with the descent stage accomplishing the LOI and most of the descent, while the ascent stage accomplished the rest of the descent and everything else on it. The LSAM designs were both weighed for the respective missions they had to accomplish, and Boeing's design had been chosen in part because of the capability function for flying crew and cargo landings on the moon. The more detailed design efforts could begin, but at a slower pace compared to Orion and Jupiter with the deadline for the Shuttle rapidly approaching.

[Usili]

X

“The dreams of today are the hopes of today and the reality of tomorrow.”-Robert H. Goddard

The conclusion of the Presidential election in 2008, had left the Democrats ticket of Obama/Warner winning against the Republican ticket of Romney/Pawlenty by a significant margin and showcasing the next party to control the White House (and Congress). For NASA, it was once more a change of power and it was unknown as to the kind of support that NASA would have from the President in terms of funding. Administrator Kadich had submitted his resignation with the inauguration of President Obama, and now it had come time for the choice of the next Administrator for NASA. President Obama had been heavily ambivalent on NASA, but with the eventual plan to return to the moon instigated by President Bush, it was a politically useful tool with the promise of the 'return to the moon'. The larger components of the Vision for Space Exploration had represented issues, but it was the current shaped policy for NASA and human spaceflight in particular. In discussions with Senator Nelson over NASA (both as President-elect and in the first weeks as President), it would be clear that the eventual goal of NASA would follow the Vision for Space Exploration and the eventual creation of an international lunar outpost extending from the lunar landings being done by NASA. In February, President Obama would announce the selection of Major General Jonathan Scott Gration (ret.) as the choice for the next Administrator by NASA, and be confirmed by the Senate in March for the next Administrator of NASA.

Arriving into office, the new Administrator was struck with the changes and morphing of NASA as the transition from the Space Shuttle to Project Osiris. The Space Shuttle had been flying since 1981, and the transition was expected to be problematic for the space program. One of the biggest issues did remain in the flight-rate due to the deadline set and the need to get modules up into orbit in order to complete the Space Station by the end of 2010. NASA had a total of eleven missions left for the next two years (STS-127 had already launched at the end of January), and the kind of flight rate posed significant hazards and the possible loss of a Space Shuttle in flight. In discussions with the President, the Space Shuttle would be extended by one more year for flight allowing an 'increased' safety margin in flight operations and cutting down the estimated manned spaceflight shortfall from eighteen months to six months (along with preventing any shortfall from the change-over from the Shuttle to Jupiter). The associated facilities for processing the Space Shuttle was another matter, with a large amount of debate being done for how to 'convert' the three Orbiter Processing Facilities for use post-Shuttle. One had been planned for the use of the Crew Exploration Vehicle, but that still left the other two Orbiter Processing Facilities free and vacant; it was the hope of Administrator Gration that they would be adopted for the emergence of commercial spaceflight with the projects by NASA to help improve commercial spaceflights.

Project Osiris was another matter, with the large cost and no deadlines having been drafted except an intent to land a man on the moon before 2020 was out. This had left a significant amount of 'free' operations in the schedule for flight capabilities but no set dates in its entirety. Administrator Gration would create a series of 'set' deadlines for Project Osiris for the target of the moon, with a deadline by the end of 2013 to complete a lunar flyby, followed by a lunar landing no later than the end of 2018, and the establishment of an outpost no later than the end of 2023; in essence a series of 'five-year plans' to get the required hardware developed tested and ready to go. The development of the lunar outpost was hoped to be an international effort, but both the requirements and funding for that were being expected to be available once the EDS and LSAM had finished a majority (if not all) of their development. The requirements of the lunar flyby by 2013 however had required the need of a 'powerful' upper stage, but not of the size of the Earth Departure Stage for use. The eventual stage that would be identified for use on the 'initial' series of flybys, would be the Delta Cryogenic Second Stage. The plans for the lunar flybys would utilize the DCSS for lunar missions and beyond Earth missions (such as to the Lagrange Points) until the Earth Departure Stage was ready for use and that would allow the 'two-stage' Jupiter for further missions that could be flown. The DCSS would still require the development for a man-rating capacity, with much of it having to do with the secondary confirmation that the RL-10B nozzle was extended and deployed for use.

One of the components under debate for development was the concept of a 'Space Shuttle Delivery Module'. The Space Shuttle Delivery Module (SSDM), was designed to facilitate the capabilities and replication of the Space Shuttle payload bay in securing and holding payloads. Replication of the capabilities had been represented for certain payloads for delivery to the International Space Station which couldn't be delivered via commercial flight or regular flights via Progress/ATV/HTV. The intent of the SSDM was to provide a structural brace along the sides and 'bottom' of the payload for whatever flight capability had been presented. The suggestion for the SSDM had come with a proposal for an 'expendable' MPLM design from Marshall Space Flight Center, and expected the cost to operate as a 'small' portion for developing the structural brace and a more moderate cost for maintaining the production of the expendable MPLM. The SSDM design would see funding for a main study, just in the event of any Shuttle issues for payload yet to be launched towards the International Space Station. Beyond that, it was expected CRS flights could handle any major orbital replacement unit flights to the ISS.

The last major component of the upcoming return to the moon was the Astronaut Corps. The Astronaut Corps had been based around the development of the International Space Station and flights on the Space Shuttle, but it was going to shift once more and back towards the moon and exploration beyond Earth. A return to the moon required the need of numerous new astronauts with the aging of the existing astronauts, but beyond the new Astronaut Groups, was the need for geologists. It had been expected that a total of sixty to eighty astronauts would be in the Corps by the time that man had returned to the moon, but it would be expected that at least one (if not two) trained geologists would be on every landing for the exploration phase in order to fully explore the moon to the best of NASA's capability. Astronaut Group 20, in training, was expected to be the last group to have any astronauts on the Space Shuttle (if at all), while Astronaut Group 21 was intended to be the first pure-Orion group, and to include the first of the entire set of geologists for the lunar program.

[Usili]

XI

“Science-fiction yesterday, fact today- obsolete tomorrow.”-Otto O. Binder, Editor In Chief, Space World Magazine

The next module in line for launch to the International Space Station would be the main component of the Science Power Platform stretching at the near limits of the Space Shuttle payload bay. The segment of solar panels was planned for the next flight up to the International Space Station with Kibo's Exposure Facility in a significant long mission. Assembling in January of 2009, Atlantis would be rolled out to the pad near the end of 2008 and begin the major preparations for flight. Preparations would stretch throughout February extending into March as operations were readied for the flight to the Space Station as the launch window rapidly closed. On March 12th, the second day of the window, would see STS-127 roar through the clouds carrying the next component of the International Space Station. The movement of the Science Power Platform across the length of the ISS was seen as a particular annoyance for the mission, with an expectation of having it across and ready by the start of Flight Day Five. Docking at the International Space Station, the first EVA would proceed without a hitch in readying the removal of the Science Power Platform and a checkout of the zenith port of Zvezda for any obstructions ahead of the movement. Making sure it was all clear, the next day would see the slow movement of the module across the Station towards the zenith port and the preparations for the next EVAs. The next two EVAs would see the attachment of the Science Power Platform to the zenith port along with checking through the systems of the SPP to make sure they were intact; the European Robotic Arm would be tested in the end of the third EVA due to issues with wiring at the top of the SPP for where the solar panels would be mounted. A fourth EVA would be scheduled at the near limits of the stay on orbit for Atlantis, with a determination to finish the check of the European Robotic Arm with no further tasks to ready for the return of Atlantis back to Earth. With the completion of her mission, Atlantis would touch down at Kennedy Space Center on March 25th, bringing an end to STS-127.

STS-128 would follow, carrying two major components to finish the completion of two modules on the International Space Station, the Science Power Platform, and the Japanese Experiment Module. Rolling out in April, Endeavour would be checked throughout in preparation for flight, but encounter teething issues in regards to the External Tank causing delays of over a month in ironing out the issues being brought. Continuing flight preparations, her launch would be set for July 19th for the first day of the launch window, and would launch on a clear day bound for the International Space Station carrying the Kibo's Exposed Facility and Exposed Section along with the Science Power Platform's solar arrays. The crew of STS-128 was scheduled for a long period of installation throughout the sixteen day mission, with a planned total of five spacewalks throughout the mission. The first spacewalk would be set for the removal and installation of the Exposed Facility to the Japanese Experiment Module along with setting up the removal of the Science Power Platform for movement across the International Space Station. The second spacewalk would follow with the directed installation of the solar array to the rest of the Science Power Platform, and with extra time available begin conducting the first tasks of the third spacewalk seeing the full connection of power between the American and Russian Orbital Segments and the last connection of the solar array to the rest of the platform. The third spacewalk would be instead redirected for the replacement of the fourth spacewalk to begin preparation work on the Exposed Facility by setting up initial experiments and cameras; the third spacewalk like the second would finish up the full assemblage of work and complete the additional JEM work as planned by the fifth spacewalk. The plans had brought down a total period of spacewalks to four, with the fourth spacewalk to finish maintenance on the Integrated Truss Structure with the inspection and replacement of batteries along the P4 and P6 solar arrays. The replacement of the batteries would not see a full completion on the P6 array due to time running out, with the remaining batteries to be completed by an EVA on the ISS at a later date. Undocking, Endeavour would return and land at Kennedy Space Center on August 3rd, bringing STS-128 to a close and leaving the ISS one more step closer to completion.

The third flight that year was a 'simple' resupply flight in preparation for the upcoming expansion of six crew for the International Space Station, to be flown by Discovery as STS-129. Discovery unlike both of the other previous Shuttle flights with issues encountered in rollout and preparations rolled straight on through and moved to the launchpad in August with a planned launch in late September or early October depending on delays from weather or other flights proceeding. Setting herself up, Discovery would liftoff on October 2nd, the last day of the launch window and found herself racing towards the International Space Station. Arriving at the International Space Station, a couple of gap fillers had been noticed during the rollover, but ignored as the Shuttle docked and the MPLM transferred to the station. The payload carried in the MPLM consisted of a sixth crew rack (to be mounted in Kibo), a treadmill to eventually be mounted in Node 3 (but mounted in Harmony for the time being), an Air Revitalization System to be mounted in Kibo and eventually transferred to Node 3, along with an arrangement of racks for outfit on the International Space Station. The transfer of equipment to and from the MPLM would persist throughout the planned three EVAs of the flight. The first EVA would see the removal of existing experiments mounted on Columbus (to be stowed in the payload bay) and removal of an empty ammonia tank, with no issues encountered in the EVA, with the second EVA seeing a replacement of the existing ammonia tank. The third EVA would setup the zenith port of Harmony for the Centrifuge Accommodations Module on the next flight, along with an initial check of Unity for any issues with the mounting of Node 3 at its nadir port. Undocking, Discovery would return to Earth on October 16th at Edwards Air Force Base bringing STS-129 to a conclusion. The conclusion of STS-129 had also brought another factor for the Space Shuttle, with the 'Launch on Need' Space Shuttle no longer being required due to the ISS being able to sustain the crew on the existing station.

The fourth flight that year would see preparation work throughout the remaining months with issue after issue encountered. Initially scheduled for a launch date in November, it would be pushed back to December with Atlantis being readied for her launch to the Space Station. STS-130 was set to carry the Centrifuge Accommodations Module into orbit, one of the heaviest non-truss modules into orbit along with one of the most important modules for the entire Space Station. Eventually on December 17th, Atlantis lifted off as the last Shuttle to be assembled at High Bay 3 with its upcoming conversion to be able to handle the Jupiter. Two foam strikes would mar the flight, and bring concern for significant damage to the orbiter, but the OBSS survey would show neither strike had pierced through the Thermal Protection System of the Shuttle. Arriving at the International Space Station, both crews would prepare for the task of moving and mounting the CAM along with an additional period of general maintenance for the Space Station itself. A pair of EVAs would be centered around the Centrifuge Accommodations Module, with the first seeing the unloading of the CAM and movement of components to the ITS and the second seeing the full installation of the CAM (with heavy delays and issues throughout) in making sure everything was secure for it. The third EVA would continue with work on the Integrated Truss Structure along with replacement of necessary wiring and cooling systems necessary for the mounting of Node 3. Atlantis would return back to Earth on December 30th, bringing STS-130 to a close as the last Shuttle flight of 2009.

Following the launch of STS-129, the beginning of the transition work at Kennedy Space Center was starting to take place in the inevitable change from Shuttle to Jupiter. Since STS-119, LC-39B had remained still and untouched as teams went over the launch pad for the conversion to the next NASA launcher. With the launch of STS-129 carrying the sixth crew rack and remaining life support equipment for the International Space Station, the construction work began at LC-39B for the conversion for the first Jupiter test flight. The first Jupiter test flight had been scheduled for March of 2011, giving them nearly a full fifteen months to overhaul the entirety of LC-39B, High Bay 3, and a Mobile Launcher Platform until the first flight. Once the Shuttle had been retired, LC-39A, High Bay 1, and both of the remaining Mobile Launcher Platforms could be overhauled for the first Jupiter flights of NASA. It was expected that High Bay 3 would be 'overhauled' last, with a need be option to just configure it for flying the J-130, before converting it to be able to handle the J-246 after High Bay 1 went online.

Following on for the Shuttle, the delays mounting by Roscosmos for Docking Compartment-2's delivery to the International Space Station had forced a final change to the Space Shuttle schedule, with STS-133 and STS-134 being rotated with STS-131 and STS-132, so as to allow the delivery of DC-2 prior to the installation of Node 3. This had seen an impact on the Shuttle rotation with Discovery now set to fly the final flight of the program, rather than Atlantis. Preparations would continue with Discovery being rolled out in January for her launch scheduled in March as STS-133; STS-133 was slated to carried up the ExPRESS Logistics Carrier (ELC) 1 and 2 to the International Space Station for installation along the ITS. Discovery would launch on March 19th to the International Space Station slated for her fifteen day mission. A total of three EVAs, had been planned out, with the first unsecuring ELC 1 and ELC 2 from the cargo bay while performing maintenance on the station, the second installing ELC 1 and ELC 2, and the third for final maintenance on the station. The entire flight would be flown without troubling, and as Discovery set down at Kennedy Space Center on April 1st, only two flights remained for her.

Next on the list was STS-134, to be flown by the Shuttle Atlantis. STS-134 was a resupply mission carrying the MPLM Leonardo, bound for both resupplying the ISS and fully installing DC-2 into place at the nadir port of Zarya. STS-134 was scheduled for a flight in June, with the window stretching into July for launch. The MPLM payload consisted primary of additional hardware bound for installation in Destiny along with additional consumables for the crew on the ISS. STS-134 in initial planning had been more of a 'filler' mission with as-need equipment or consumables being attached to be carried to the Space Station as necessary. With no additional equipment being loaded, it was more of a 'light' trip with delivered equipment, but much more of an extensive down-mass return instead. Readying for flight, STS-134 would leave Kennedy Space Center on June 29th bound for the International Space Station for her thirteen day mission. Much of the mission would be focused on general resupply and maintenance, with the second EVA of the flight handling the docking connections for DC-2 and readying the connections for the placement of Node 3 on the flight immediately after. An ammonia cooling leak would spring a leak near the end of the mission forcing a day extension to handle the leak, and figure out if anything could be done to fix it. The failure had been determined as having been caused from an ammonia pump failure; the determination from an on-orbit inspection showed it couldn't be fixed, and that it wouldn't be wise to return it with the flight preparations underway. Due to the impact with the loss of a pump, STS-132 was being considered for the addition of bringing a replacement ammonia pump into orbit and bringing back the failed one. Mission complete, Atlantis touched down at Edwards Air Force Base on July 12th, bringing STS-134 to a close.

Next on the flight list was the delivery of the next actual module to the International Space Station, Node 3 and the Cupola. Node 3 had long had its name debated over for naming, but with the anniversary of the first lunar landing rapidly emerging in the choice of naming, Node 3 would find itself named as Tranquility. The general plan of 'expansion' had centered around the placement of Tranquility on the nadir port of Unity, with the Cupola on Harmony's nadir port (the debate had been have between the nadir and starboard port, but eventually found itself centered on the nadir port). Three EVAs had been planned, with the first involving the removal of Harmony and the preparation of the required connections to the ITS, the second would involve the preparations for extraction of the Cupola and be followed by installation of the required connections to Tranquility, with the third and final EVA doing last checks for the Cupola and Tranquility, and any final checks required throughout the mission. Weather pushed back the launch from the start of September into early October for the launch, and the crew of STS-131 readied for their flight to the space station. Finally on October 3rd, Endeavour soared into the heavens on the first day of STS-131; arriving at the International Space Station on October 5th, it would be decided a fourth EVA would be added prior to the first EVA for a full check of the TPS of Endeavour based off footage during launch and the 'rollover' prior to docking. The TPS survey would show no direct issue, and the rest of the flight would proceed without issue. The installation of hardware stored outside Tranquility throughout the International Space Station would take precedence once Tranquility had been fulled installed on the ISS. The check of the TPS had shown only a few gap-fillers but those had rapidly proceeded through in removing and correcting. Beyond that, much of the flight proceeded on schedule with Tranquility installed and operational and the movement of hardware into the module. Undocking, Endeavour would touch down at Kennedy Space Center on October 19th bringing an end to STS-131.

The final flight of the year found itself being prepared with the end of STS-131, being that of STS-132. STS-132 was planned to be flown by Discovery on her second to last mission, for a resupply mission. STS-132 was primary responsible for the delivery of additional hardware related to Tranquility, such as a seventh crew rack along with other components in need of replacement such as a new ammonia pump (for the one that had failed on STS-134). One of the more important EVAs tacked on to the flight had been a more recent addition of an ammonia pump replacement. Like STS-131 was to Endeavour, and STS-134 was to Atlantis, STS-132 was Disovery's second to last flight as the end of the Shuttle Program appeared closer and closer. Launching from Kennedy Space Center on December 9th, it echoed as the last flight of the program; STS-132 had been heavily pushed for a flight before the end of the three year as to allow STS-135, STS-136, and STS-137 to finish their flights throughout 2011. The entire flight for STS-132 was nominal and returned back at Kennedy on December 23rd, bringing an end to the last Shuttle flight of the year. Each and every flight after this one, was now the end for each Shuttle.

[Usili]

Congratulations to SpaceX for their achievement! With this, I've determined that this 'part' will be concluded by XV, so three more chapters after this.

XII

The Commercial Orbital Transportation Services had been developed for the provision of eventual commercial resupply to the International Space Station with the eventual phase-out of the Space Shuttle. Both SpaceX and Rocketplane Kristler had been awarded the initial contracts for the development of their vehicles, but both had represented different risks and awards by the choice of NASA. As development ignited, concerns would find themselves approach the Rocketplane Kristler design due to the large scale of subcontracting being involved and issues with raising the required amounts of capitol for development. Rocketplane Kristler would struggle to continue with the development of their own design, having refused to work with Orbital Sciences on development of an expendable first stage (while leaving the second stage reusable) and suffering loss of income and laying off workers. With Rocketplane Kristler facing troubles, Administrator Kadich would with discretionary funding for the 'commercial' side open up a 'Phase II' COTS intended for a 'second' series of design work; the Phase II was due to the major worry that Rocketplane Kristler or SpaceX could fold and causing issues for the eventual contracts for a commercial resupply to the International Space Station. Opening up COTS II in August of 2007, they would cease acceptance by the end of October and begin a series of evaluations over the choice of launcher and design. Unlike COTS I (as it had been started to be called), they had opened up the possibility of using an existing expendable launcher design or basis of a vehicle for evaluation. A total of four candidates would be narrowed down for COTS II, Orbital Sciences, Planetspace, SpaceHab, and SpaceDev; it would be believed that one or two candidates would be chosen for acceptance, with the options trending more towards one than two. The decision would eventually be made towards Orbital Sciences for their development of a launcher and cargo vehicle. The launcher, was to be known as the Taurus II, and intended to be able to carry up their cargo vehicle, known as the Cygnus along with regular commercial payloads; the Cygnus was chosen based off the large amount of pressurized upmass cargo it could carry to the International Space Station in comparison to the other choices.

This had laid out a total of three companies NASA was aiding in commercial development in some fashion for an eventual resupply of the International Space Station; it was becoming more and more apparent that it would be narrowed down to two commercial operators for delivery of cargo. Rocketplane Kristler however would suffer a major blow, with the loss of the COTS contract by NASA due to not getting the minimum amounts of private funding, but continue with primary development of the first stage for an eventual flight sometime in 2010. As the debacle going on with Rocketplane Kristler was occurring, NASA was pushing ahead with the planning for their first Commercial Resupply Services contract. Much of the planning for CRS-1 had been laid out under Administrator Kadich, but would be culminated under Administrator Gration. The choice for CRS-1 would be determined for a total of three companies, with two to receive a majority of the flights and the third to function as a primary backup for cargo deliveries in the event of one of the two companies suffering flight issues. In April of 2009, NASA would announce the CRS-1 contract for a total of twenty-six separate resupply flights to the International Space Station; twelve would be awarded to SpaceX, ten awarded to Orbital Sciences, and four to SpaceHab. The awards to SpaceHab were very much a surprise, but had represented a point of cost and capability in providing cargo deliveries and return in the event of issues with either the Dragon or Cygnus. The biggest factor for the choice of SpaceHab was the capability in delivering large orbital replacement units that could only have been able to be delivered by the Space Shuttle and not by SpaceX or Orbital Sciences.

Orbital Sciences had been slated for the development of both a cargo spacecraft and a required launcher, with the cargo spacecraft entirely dependent upon the development of the launcher, so named the Taurus II. The development of the Taurus II launcher by Orbital Sciences had encompassed a significant step forward for the company with the usage of a liquid stage rather than a pure solid format. So far, Orbital Sciences was not planning on producing anything barring the fairing, interstages, and Cygnus, but the integration of it all posed the challenge. Orbital Sciences had identified the RD-180 as the preferred power-plant of the Taurus II, but in negotiations with RD Energomash, a sole source contract to the United Launch Alliance (originally from Lockheed Martin) was in place which prevented them [RD Energomash] from selling the RD-180 to Orbital Sciences. Approaching the ULA on the matter, the discussions would reign over it and the 'possibilities' therein to allow Energomash to sell Orbital Sciences RD-180 engines. In the event of a failure to get the RD-180, Orbital Sciences was preparing to use spare NK-33 engines from the failed Kistler venture in the late 1990s, but that would prove to not be the case as a deal was signed in October of 2008 between Orbital Sciences and the ULA. The deal would have Orbital Sciences assist the ULA in funding (of no more than 500 million over the next five years) the development of a domestic RD-180, and they would be able to import RD-180s from RD Energomash as necessary. Due to the lack of design engineering by Orbital Sciences, they would seek out to meet with foreign companies who had the expertise in building the first stage. Eventually, Yuzhnoye SDO would be contracted for the effort of producing the first stage for Orbital Sciences in its entirety. The development of a planned liquid second stage would be canceled due to the outbreak of the 2008-2009 recession.

Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), was also in progress on development of their own cargo spacecraft and launcher for Commercial Orbital Transportation Services I. The launcher, known as the Falcon 9, was initially intended to have come after both the Falcon 1 and Falcon 5 (the planned intermediate launcher); due to the arrangement of the COTS and issues with the Falcon 5, the Falcon 5 was canceled and all development placed on the Falcon 9 instead. The Falcon 9 was intended to be able to lift nearly 9,500kg into Low Earth Orbit, and to act as a 'cheap' launcher for launches into LEO and GTO (Geostationary Transfer Orbit). The lower and upper stages were both intended to be powered by the Merlin 1 engine, with the lower stage using the Merlin 1B, and the upper stage using the Kestrel 2. Due to changes following the first flight of the Falcon 1, the Merlin 1B development was put aside so the regenerative-cooled Merlin, the Merlin 1C would power both lower and upper stages of the Falcon 9. The upper stage was intended to use a 'vacuum' variant of the 1C, in order to lessen the total costs and not require an entirely new engine to be developed for the upper stage. The Dragon on the other hand, was intended to fly cargo (and eventually crew) with both pressurized and unpressurized cargo. Dragon was designed around the basic capsule, and planned to use a 'trunk' (acting as a service module) to hold unpressurized cargo and the primary power for the mission. As development progressed, the first flight of both the Falcon 9, and the 'initial' model of the Dragon were pushed back to some degree from initially late 2008 to late 2009, with it possibly going towards early 2010. Eventually on April 23rd, 2010, the first Falcon 9 lifted off from LC-40 carrying the Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit in order to fully test the rocket. Everything ran fully nominal, with the second flight for the Dragon scheduled in August intended for the first of the 'COTS' Demo flights. The second flight ignited off from LC-40 on November 8th, carrying the first Dragon module into orbit along with a series of nanosatellites; five minutes into the second stage engine firing, at T+7:19, a significant trajectory alteration was noticed with the second stage going into an uncontrolled spin. COTS-Demo-1 was terminated, with it projected to impact the Pacific Ocean. It represented an impact to SpaceX as they tried to figure out what had gone wrong in the flight. Eventually, it would be discovered that the upper stage engine had cracks along the nozzle which had led to the loss of flight. Flight preparations for the next Falcon 9 would find themselves delayed, in order to 'fix' the upper stage engine and to relaunch a similar COTS Demo flight.

[Usili]

Apologies if it seems slightly disjointed or confusing. Lost the chapter by mistake and had to rewrite it from scratch... Only two chapters left after this one.

XIII

"The Earth is the cradle of humankind, but one cannot live in the cradle forever."-Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky

Already more than half-way through the decade, the European Space Agency was faced with a new developmental decision, the conversion of the Automated Transfer Vehicle into a manned spacecraft. The proposed 'Crew Transfer Vehicle', was intended to utilize a modified Automated Transfer Vehicle service module and an entirely new capsule. The basis of the Crew Transfer Vehicle was intended to allow a total of four astronauts to be carried into Low Earth Orbit, with an intended configuration to allow those same four astronauts to be able to perform in deep space missions with the associated radiation shielding in the capsule. One of the more hotly debated topics for the development of the Crew Transfer Vehicle was the matter of whether or not a 'mission module' was to be included in the design or not. The inclusion of a mission module would allow the full purposes of Beyond Low Earth Orbit missions, but would drastically increase the amount of weight for such a flight requiring a new rocket to be developed for the use of it. Eventually, the mission module was 'decided' with it being an 'optional' development funded by the governments of Italy and Poland for intended deep space missions using a “dual-launch” concept. The last major component of the entire development of the entire project was the effort to fully man-rate the Ariane 5. While the Ariane 5 had been intended to be man-rated from the start, the cancellation of the Hermes had ended that, and like the EELVs before it had not been man-rated. Investigations would begin on the Ariane 5 in man-rating it for the Crew Transfer Vehicle, with the length of upgrades necessary along with the proposed versions to lift the Crew Transfer Vehicle into orbit.

Even as development and debate over the Crew Transfer Vehicle was occurring, other political machinations were at work in the European Space Agency in order to ensure the deep space use of the Crew Transfer Vehicle. Prior to the selection of the Crew Transfer Vehicle as the eventual vehicle for Europe's eventual manned capability, one of the major proposals highlighted the use of the Automated Transfer Vehicle with the Orion CEV. The planned proposal would use the Automated Transfer Vehicle as the basis of a 'laboratory' module to be used in conjunction with Orion flights, starting first in High Earth Orbit before proceeding to both Lagrange Points in a series of deep space missions incorporating the 'ATV-Lab' as proposed. While the proposed use of the Automated Transfer Vehicles was ended, the idea still remained in the minds of the European Space Agency and NASA. As discussions continued throughout the rest of the decade on the concept idea, a proposed plan for a series of deep space missions was drafted as to occur concurrent with the next round of manned lunar exploration missions. This in part fit with President Bush's, Vision for Space Exploration which had pushed for an eventual mission to Mars, but while the basis of hardware and practices for the surface were to be highlighted on the moon, the bigger issue of the human body being in deep space for nearly two hundred and sixty days (each way) posed an issue that had to be developed by NASA. Thus from the requirements for deep space, emerged the proposal for 'Skylab 2'.

Skylab 2, akin to the original Skylab, was to be converted from an Earth Departure Stage using the liquid hydrogen tank as the primary habitat module. From there, power and communications were expected to be handled by CEV-based components, with the rest of the components more likely to be entirely new hardware. The inauguration of President Obama, began to shift NASA's plans for Skylab 2, with the appearance of moving away from Mars but more so towards the moon. With the European Space Agency's commitment towards the development of Skylab 2 (in order to prove a destination for Beyond Earth Orbit of the Crew Transfer Vehicle), Skylab 2 was modified to become a 'Deep Space Habitat'. The proposed Deep Space Habitat design would enable significant BEO missions using the hardware basis, along with fulfilling the original purpose of flying deep space missions for long durations. Development on Skylab 2 (as a prototype to the Deep Space Habitat), started between the European Space Agency and NASA as the next decade started to bring, plotting a future for the European Space Agency when the ISS was eventually decommissioned.

Similar to the European Space Agency, Roscosmos was also facing its own issues in the development of a new 21st century manned spacecraft. Roscosmos had been intending for the eventual replacement of the Soyuz, with the Kliper. The Kliper was intended to be designed like a spaceplane, similar to the proposed ESA Hermes and Japanese Hope. As the costs started to multiply on the Kliper, and NASA began plans for the Orion, the ESA approached Roscosmos on becoming involved with a new spacecraft design. The Kliper was pushed aside in talks for the development of a joint spacecraft design, but as the topics began, the ESA pulled out to begin development of their own manned spacecraft, one converted from the Automated Transfer Vehicle. Once more, Roscosmos was left with the need to develop an entirely new 21st century manned spacecraft by themselves, and questions were raised over it. In 2007, they opened up design requests for the proposed spacecraft with it being answered by Khrunichev and Energia. Both designs were intended to sit a total of up to six astronauts, with capacity for deep space missions. Khrunichev had proposed a modernized version of their TKS spacecraft in a 'light' configuration for LEO missions, and a 'heavy' configuration for BEO missions. Energia had moved in support of a Kliper-style spacecraft, hoping to edge their bets on securing the contract with their design. After more than a year of determination, Khrunichev would find itself awarded the contract for the next Russian manned spacecraft to replace the Soyuz. Alongside the development of the new TKS spacecraft, was to come the development of a dedicated man-rated Angara 3 and Angara 5 (for light and heavy configuration respectively).

The Angara rocket family had finally started to near flight after slightly less than a decade and a half from the initial design efforts and being awarded to KGNPT Khruchinev. Three versions of the Angara had been planned to fly, the Angara 1, Angara 3, an Angara 5. The Angara 1, would utilize a single URM-1 module for the first stage and a URM-2 as the second stage; this had left the Angara 1 with the 'ungainly' appearance of the second stage being wider than the first. The Angara 3, was 'developed' from the Angara 1 with the attachment of two additional URM-1s to the first stage of the rocket. Then finally came the Angara 5, with a total of four URM-1s attached to the first stage, and a Briz-M upper stage attached as the 'fourth' stage of the rocket. The designs had been set, but as preparations and construction of the Angara pad at Baikonour progressed, concerns had rapidly emerged due to use of hypergolics in the Briz-M as an upper-stage for the Angara 5, and mission add-on for the Angara 3. The use of hypergolics in the Proton had pushed the development of the Angara rocket family, and Kazahkstani support of the new Angara pad at Baikonour. With the concerns rapidly emerging due to the use of the Briz-M a decision would be made to instead substitute the Briz-M with a Blok DM-03 upper stage for flights from Baikonour, while the Briz-M would be used from Plesetsk. Despite the development being set, new technologies and concepts were being looked at for development, including the direct development of a cryogenic-based upper stage (to replace the URM-2) or space tug. The development for either design would center around the RD-0146, the first new Russian cryogenic engine; the RD-0146 had emerged initially as a joint development between Pratt & Whitney and Khrunichev as a Russian RL-10 that could be used on the Proton. Unfortunately, due to issues the RL-10 could not be used and forced Khrunichev to begin developing the cryogenic engine by themselves. For now, Khrunichev was more focused on bringing the Angara fully online before moving towards the RD-0146 and designing a cryogenic space tug.

As the decade moved past, the launch date for the first Angara flight continued to progress further and further off-schedule until it had been determined for May of 2010. On May 21st, 2010, the first Angara flight lifted off from Baikonour as a full test flight with a mass simulator, performing successfully beyond all means. The success of the Angara 1 had 'cleared' it for flight operations, with the Angara 3 scheduled for its first flight by December of 2011 to occur from Plesetsk. The second flight of the Angara 1 (and the second flight of the family) was scheduled for April of 2011 to fly from Plesetsk carrying a government payload into LEO. All in all, it appeared that the Angara family was finally emerging after slightly more than a decade and a half of development and design.

[Usili]

And the next chapter is done. Only one more left after this. Launches might be a 'bit' fast-paced, but eh...

XIV

“Houston, Discovery. Wheels stop.”-STS-137 Mission Commander

2011 would be the last year of the Shuttle, and it would start first with the 'newest' of the Shuttles to be launched, Endeavour. STS-135 was due to bring up the ExPRESS Logistics Carrier 3, and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station. Following her roll-out in December, flight preparations continued for her planned launch in March to the ISS. Launching on March 19th, Endeavour roared upwards into the clouds heading towards the International Space Station. No primary flight issues arose on the way to the ISS, with no reported debris impacts to the heatshield of the Shuttle. A total of three EVAs were planned for the mission, the first involving a set of new experiments to be installed on ELC-2 and general maintenance for the ITS, the second involving replacement of ammonia tanks on the portside of the station and lubrication of the port SARJ, and the third involving installation of a grapple fixture on Zarya and additional cables between the Russian and American Orbital Segments. Arriving at the station, the first two days after docking were involved in moving both the ELC-3 and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the Integrated Truss Structure, and from that then came the period of EVAs. On April 3rd, Endeavour undocked bound for home, with an expected reentry date on April 4th. Weather cleared at Kennedy Space Center, Endeavour touched down and brought an end to her time in space. She would fly no more, but her trip to a museum.

At Kennedy Space Center, preparations for the next flight were taking place at LC-39B for the first flight of a new 'generation'. The first Jupiter-130 had been rolled out to the pad in February along side Endeavour for her final flight, with the launch to carry a 74 metric ton ballast into Low Earth Orbit, and featuring the 'deorbiting' system planned out for the Jupiter core. The deorbiting system was a 'retrofire' pack intended to fire ninety seconds following stage separation to allow the core to burn up in the Indian or Pacific Ocean and prevent the spread of foam throughout Low Earth Orbit. Progressing through flight preparations, many came to see the first flight of NASA's next launcher as the launch date in May rapidly closed. Despite weather being considered a hazard, the test flight of the J-130 ignited from the pad heading towards space. More than six minutes after ignition, the three SSMEs on the Jupiter shut down and the mass simulator separated from the vehicle. The launch had performed nominal throughout, and had proven that the Jupiter was ready for flight operations. With the successful test flight of the Jupiter, came the first test flight of the Orion, scheduled in a little more than three months away.

Following on from the first Jupiter-130 test flight, was the next launch of the Space Shuttle, STS-136. STS-136 was to be flown by the Space Shuttle Atlantis, carrying up the Permanent Multipurpose Module (which had been converted from the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, Leonardo), and ExPRESS Logistics Carrier 4. Scheduled for a launch in July, preparations continued throughout June and the start of July for the expected launch date of July 14th. As the launch date closed, akin to STS-135, a J-130 stood ready on LC-39B for a flight to follow on from STS-136. Finally, on July 16th, Atlantis lifted off from Kennedy Space Center bound towards the International Space Station. The MLP used for Atlantis would be moved to the 'side' for conversion in order to make it compatible with the Jupiter family. Two pieces of foam would strike the underside of the orbiter, but during the OBSS checkout, no true damage had been shown and no need of an EVA or rescue flight was required. As part of the flight, Atlantis's OBSS would be left at the International Space Station to 'extend' the grasp of the Canandarm 2. A total of three EVAs would be involved at the International Space Station, with the first two involving the port side of the Integrated Truss Structure in replacing ammonia tanks and lubricating the SARJ, with the third and final of the Shuttle Program stowing the OBSS on the starboard truss. Following docking at the International Space Station, the mission rapidly progressed through the period on orbit. Finally, on Flight Day 14, Atlantis undocked for her last time bound back towards Earth. With bad weather at the Cape, Atlantis touched down at Edwards Air Force Base on August 1st, bringing an end to Atlantis's journeys in space. Only one Shuttle flight remained.

Moving on from STS-136, the next flight of the Jupiter and the first of the 'Orion Program' was commenced to start. Designated as Orion 1, it was slated to carry CEV-101, named as Orion, in a twelve-orbit flight around the planet before landing at the Bonneville Salt Flats. In part due to the Block I CEVs being designed for LEO-only, the inclination for the flight was at 51 degrees, the same as the International Space Station. A series of test-firings using the main engine would proceed along with some maneuvers before returning to Earth at the Bonneville Salt Flats. With the launch scheduled on September 21st, crowds gathered to watch the launch of NASA's first new manned spacecraft (albeit on an unmanned mission). Igniting, Orion, was put into a 241km circular orbit, and proceeded with the initial set of experiments involving the capsule. Completing the series of experiments, Orion, touched down at Bonneville Salt Flats to the waiting recovery crews completing her mission. NASA was still on track for the first manned flight of Orion to occur in the next year.

Moving forward next, was STS-137, the last Shuttle flight. STS-137 was intended to be the final flight of the program, carrying a four man crew to the International Space Station along with the MPLM Raffaelo full of supplies. The launch was originally scheduled for October, but due to issues with the External Tank the launch would be delayed into November. With the launch window confirmed, large amounts of people came to witness the final flight of the Shuttle, one that had begun slightly more than thirty-years prior. The Shuttle Discovery was set for the final flight, as the countdown ticked down throughout on the launch-day of November 8th. Finally, the countdown ended and the roar of a rocket lifted off, sending Discovery into the skies above. The flight for Discovery, would be one of 'normality', for a period of twelve days docked at the International Space Station before returning back to home. STS-137 would find itself packed full of items and material to return back to Earth for analysis as the last large-scale flight to do so. Finally, on November 22nd, the hatch shut between Discovery and the International Space Station for the last time. No Shuttle would visit the International Space Station after this, as the crew of STS-137 found themselves as the last of the last. On November 23rd, the Space Shuttle Discovery touched down at Kennedy Space Center. The Shuttle had flown and landed. It would fly no more, and the skies above Kennedy would remain silent as the last mach-booms were heard indicating the Shuttle had returned.

While, STS-137 was the last manned flight of the year, one further unmanned flight was underway. Orion 2, was intended to fly with CEV-102, known as Constellation, for a Long Duration Test Flight of up to six months in Low Earth Orbit before being evaluated by a follow-on mission to evaluate it. If Constellation appeared in working order, it would be brought for a manned return and landing, but if it wasn't, it would be remotely done for a (hopeful) unmanned return and landing. The flight was scheduled for a nearly six month period, with the launch originally scheduled for November, but being pushed back to the middle of December. On December 17th, Orion 2 lifted off putting Constellation into an equatorial Low Earth Orbit for an evaluation by Orion 4 nearly six months from then. With the launch of Constellation, the year had ended for NASA and one that had seen the end of a program and the start of another.

[Usili]

Been an interesting timeline to work on so far. Might continue this after the election (since politics are so crazy, it's hard to determine WTF would happen next...), might not. In any case, hope y'all like the last chapter of this.

XV

“The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.”-Niccoli Machiavelli

Project Osiris, besides that of the military, was one of the largest scale programs yet being funded or even contemplated by Congress through much of the noughties, but that would change in the second decade of the 21st Century. The 112th Congress would start to shift that, as despite the House and Senate remaining in control of the Democrats, the Republicans had gained control of several seats and the need of compromises would be enforced, especially against 'discretionary' spending. The 2012 Fiscal Year Budget would show the first issues of it, with lower than requested funding for development of the LSAM while continuing near levels of funding for the Earth Departure Stage, and increasing requested funding for a five-segment RSRM. The impact of the development of LSAM wasn't that significant, albeit it was starting to be pushed that higher levels of funding would be needed since the R&D on Jupiter and Orion had both reached their peak points. This would not be the case again, as the 2013 Fiscal Year Budget again showed slashes on development for the LSAM, while keeping funding for the EDS, five-segment RSRM, and approving funding for a deep space habitat (to be developed at Marshall). While President Obama would keep the White House, the House would 'fall' to the Republicans and the immediate symptoms would show to NASA for the 2014 Fiscal Year Budget. LSAM development had been fully slashed, with it being only 30% of what had been requested, and only enough to maintain a slow development pace for it. Increasing rumors were speculating that the 2015 Fiscal Year Budget by the House Republicans would kill the LSAM while leaving much of everything else intact.

The growing fears of the budgetary crisis against NASA had started to cement itself that despite all that had gone on, that NASA would be forced again to not be able to return to the moon. The hardware was being developed and readied, the new astronauts being trained, yet once more the fiscal sense was not there. Despite the impact to the LSAM, the hardware in the case of the Earth Departure Stage and five-segment RSRM were still being funded, and developments in cyrogenic storage technology remained intact. The most surprising thing was the approval of funding for the prototype deep space habitat, which was in co-planning with the European Space Agency. For now, NASA was left with the struggles of hardware as they readied their next flights for the entire Orion Program.

The Shuttles had retired in 2011, and from where the Shuttle had ended, Orion would return. Orion 3 was to be the first manned flight of the program, carrying two astronauts for evaluation of the CEV in Low Earth Orbit before returning after two days in space. CEV-101, Orion, was to carry both astronauts for the inaugural flight. Crowds would gather to watch the first of the new manned spacecraft ignite from Kennedy Space Center, as the countdown counted down. On February 17th, 2012, at 3:45PM Eastern Daylight Time, Orion 3 ignited from LC-39B bound towards Low Earth Orbit. Orion would show no issues throughout her flight, as she rolled and tumbled in space testing out all of her systems and performing a variety of maneuvers. Eventually, on February 20th, Orion 3 would come to an end as the capsule touched down at Bonneville Salt Falts. The mission had been performed beyond expectations, and the hope for the rest of the program progressed well.

For the rest of the year, another three Orion missions were planned. Orion 4 would fly to dock with Constellation to evaluate it fully from a six month long duration test flight and making sure she was operating well. If she was operating well, and no major damage had been identified, two of the four crew would transfer to Constellation for reentry back at Bonneville, followed by Orion returning the day after. Both Orion 5 and Orion 6 would be crewed missions to the International Space Station, with crew transfer and limited cargo transfer (as available in the space for capsule). Orion 3 was projected to fly in May, Orion 4 following in August, and Orion 6 flying in November. 2012 would be a 'teething' year for the Orion, with dates projected to suffer some possible delays, but hoped to operate through and full.

The next year, would be different with the first missions as originally called for under Osiris. Orion 7 would fly the first unmanned lunar flyby to gauge the heatshield of the Block II capsule, starting off with CEV-201, Enterprise. Following on from Orion 7, would be Orion 8, Orion 9, and Orion 10 as crew transfer missions to the International Space Station as routine missions. The last mission of the year, would be Orion 11 the first manned lunar mission since Apollo 17. Orion 11, had a mandate to fly in December, in part to tie into the 45th Anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission and to show the United States truly meant a return to the moon. Orion 7 was projected to fly in January, Orion 8 in March, Orion 9 in June, Orion 11 in November, and Orion 11 finally in December.

Orion 11, would like Apollo 8, nearly forty-five years prior, perform a circumlunar flight to test the capsule's performance around the moon and as a morale boost for the United States. The entire stack for Orion 11, composed of CEV-201, Enterprise, a Delta Cyrogenic Second Stage, and the rest of the Jupiter-130. The four manned crew were composed of Commander Donald G. Hurley, Pilot William C. Ives (selected as part of Astronaut Group 20), Mission Specialist Serena M. Aunon, and Educator Mission Specialist Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger. The crew was a 'varied' one, and had been intended in part as the first mission to the moon, and to encourage humanity to once more look at the stars. On October 29th, 2013, J-013 was rolled out to LC-39A holding CEV-201 and the DCSS as its primary payload. Like Orion 7, nearly ten months prior, a massive crowd was expected for the launch date of December 21st in honor of the first manned flight back to the moon since Apollo 17. As the launch date closed, the attention to it began to be increased until the launch date rolled around. On December 21st, 2013, Orion 11 ignited from LC-39A heading into orbit. Nearly two and a half hours after ignition, the DCSS (with a confirmation of deployment) ignited sending Enterprise on its way towards the moon. On December 24th, Enterprise ignited her engine on the far-side of the moon to circularize her orbit. As she came around the moon, the interior video camera showed the glimpse of something long remember from Apollo 8, Earthrise. For the next day while in orbit, the crew performed a series of interviews with news agencies, released a pair of nanosatellites attached, and rested in preparation for the TEI burn. Near the end of December 25th, Enterprise performed her TEI burn heading back towards Earth once more. For safety, it was planned for a recovery at sea, and on December 28th, Enterprise splashed down in the Eastern Pacific for recovery. With the capacity for beyond Earth manned missions realized once again, a bright future seemed to appear for NASA, once they had hoped for since Nixon.