pTrevTrevs

"I kek'd"

FWIW, I'm pretty sure the first image in the thread is KSP. Isn't that the BDB Juno I?

STS-8: SPASing Out: March, 1982: After a period in the OPF for refurbishment following its rescue of the Lunar Module Spider, Space Shuttle Challenger prepares to embark on STS-8. This flight was to have been the first nighttime launch of the Shuttle, however an unexpected delay in the launch of STS-7 resulted in that honor going to the previous mission. Never mind, STS-8's crew has plenty to brag over, from the deployment of two more communications satellites to the operation of a European-designed payload which will return stunning images of the orbiter in flight (see cover image).

1981: The Long Haul: January 1981: TRS-1, delivered to Skylab last October, is undocked to make room for the newly-launched AARDV 6, delivering supplies to the Skylab 10 expedition, currently a month into their half-year long stay aboard the station. It will remain in a parking orbit at a virtually identical altitude to Skylab while its docking port is occupied, and will return to the station when the space is available. May, 1981: America's new Space Shuttle, the Challenger, launches on its maiden voyage. STS-6, the designation for this mission, carries a new Tracking and Data Relay Satellite aboard the first Inertial Upper Stage, designed to deliver constant communication with manned spacecraft from geostationary orbit. IUS itself is a new system, featuring many advancements from the typical spin-stabilized solid-fueled upper stages such as Star-37 or the PAM-D, such as three-axis stabilization, a second stage enabling it to perform a geostationary insertion burn, and the ability to launch large satellites and space probes from the Shuttle payload bay. Late May, 1981: Skylab 11 launches from LC-34, marking the beginning of a new era for NASA's Apollo division. Skylab 10 is still aboard the station at this time, nearly finished with the six-month expedition for which they were trained. Skylab 11 is itself scheduled to stay aboard the station for six months, meaning that if all goes well both crews will achieve the first year-long habitation of Skylab. This feat would provide amazing data for scientists researching the effects of spaceflight on both hardware and crew. Interestingly, Skylab 10 was originally launched for a seven-month mission, intending to set a new single-flight endurance record as well as contributing to the yearlong objective, but around four months into the crew's stay, two of the astronauts began exhibiting symptoms of mental stress. Belligerent behavior, forgetfulness, restlessness, all were signs that the crew was at their wit's end in space. The reasons were unknown to mission control; previous flights has achieved a six-month duration aboard Skylab, and this crew contained seasoned veterans, yet they nevertheless began to break down. Ultimately, it was decided to move Skylab 11 forward by a month and bring Skylab 10 home a month early. This schedule would still allow NASA to achieve the coveted year in space, but no new personal endurance record would be set by either of these flights. Regardless, Skylab 11 provided enough novelty to make up for its predecessor's shortcomings... July, 1981: AARDV-7 launches to resupply the Skylab 11 crew for their own six-month stint in space. Not much to say here, other than that the mission went normally: August, 1981: STS-7 launches from LC-39 on the most ambitious Shuttle mission yet. Attempting to demonstrate the Shuttle's ability to retrieve satellites from orbit, Challenger captures the derelict Apollo 9 lunar module Spider and returns it to Earth. Read more in Shuttle Adventures: September, 1981: Intelsat 5-1 launches on an Atlas-Centaur. 5-1 is the first of the Intelsat series to be equipped with three-axis stabilization. There will be others. Mid-September, 1981: An ordinary Delta 3914 launches GOES F to geostationary orbit. GOESF is a weather satellite designed to observe cloud patterns above a single region of the globe for long periods of time, and is built from a typical Hughes spin-stabilized bus: Late September, 1981: Voyager 2 arrives at Saturn. Bound for Uranus and Neptune in the years to come, Voyager 2 must follow a very particular and dangerous route through Saturn's rings which precludes the possibility of an encounter with any of Saturn's moons. As this spacecraft is not strictly BDB, I have little to say about it: October, 1981: Anik-C2 launches aboard another Delta 3914. Originally slated to launch on STS-7, the Spider rescue mission forced Telesat Canda to reschedule it for a late date aboard Delta 3000. A typical HS-376, this launch is honestly only barely notable: Late October 1981: After five months aboard the station, the crew of Skylab 11 performs an EVA to inspect the spacecraft which will return them home. No Apollo spacecraft has spent a year in space before, and NASA is concerned about Skylab 10's Apollo suffering the effects of long-duration spaceflight: Early November, 1981: The new Titan 34D performs its maiden flight, carrying the final DSCS-2 satellite and the first DSCS-3 satellite. Propelling these two spacecraft to GEO is the second Inertial Upper Stage, flying once again in a plan to collect additional data before its next flight aboard STS: Late November, 1981: After six months in space, Skylab 11 returns home, flying the final baseline Apollo Block III to a safe splashdown in the Pacific. Oh yeah, based Titan I enthusiast

Yo bottom right, they made MOLMir into a real thing

Keep your forked tongue behind your teeth, lest the righteous flame of Atlantis's forward RCS cluster burn it out.

Well, I sure hope so. I'm pretty sure I'm the first person to propose a mission like this, and I'm especially proud of that.

Been challenged to do the same thing with LM-4 (Snoopy) in a solar orbit. We'll see if that happens one day... It totally might...

Fun Fact: Apollo 9's Lunar Module Spider did not reenter Earth's atmosphere until October of 1981, around five months after the Space Shuttle flew for the first time...

I missed her a lot today, boys. I missed her a lot.

Man-rate the Delta IV right this instant!

STS-7: Saving Private Spider: Please enjoy this hastily-made mission insignia I bashed together in GIMP. August, 1981: Two orbiters now make up NASA's space shuttle flight, with virtually all of their operational requirements tested in spaceflight save one. The ability to recover payloads from orbit and return them to earth for refurbishment and re-launch has yet to be demonstrated, but it will be necessary if the Shuttle is to perform some of its missions scheduled for 1983 and 1984. To this end, NASA has spent much of the last few years searching for a suitable payload to test the Shuttle's down-mass limits. The payload must be of significant mass, be in an orbit attainable by the Shuttle itself, and be capable of being grappled by the SRMS. Surprisingly, the list of eligible targets was rather slim, however one object stood out from the rest. Apollo 9's lunar module Spider, launched in 1969, was believed to still be in orbit after its ascent engine fired to depletion after being jettisoned from the command module, and was not expected to reenter until October of 1981. Originally shot into in a highly elliptical orbit, a decade's worth of orbital decay had reduced the spacecraft's apogee enough that a space shuttle could potentially reach and recover it. Retrieving Spider had little practical value; it was a dead, obsolete spacecraft forgotten by NASA for twelve years, however bringing it home would provide an incredible boon to public relations. The idea of having an actual flown lunar module available for public display would have been simply unthinkable during the Apollo days, but the Space Shuttle was by now no stranger to making dreams into realities. Furthermore, the opportunity for scientists and engineers to examine something which had been adrift in space for such a long time was hard to resist. In 1978, therefore, NASA's mission planning board formally approved the plan for a space shuttle to rescue LM-3 from orbit. Originally planned for STS-2, the mission, facetiously called the "Houston Pest Control Company" around the astronaut office, was quickly pushed back once it became apparent how complex such a flight would be. Spider had not been tracked on radar since 1969, and it took NASA physicists some time to locate the vehicle in orbit and plan a rendezvous. Furthermore, the LM had never been designed with retrieval in mind and had no grappling point for the SRMS to latch onto. It would be a simple matter to construct an adapter for the Canadarm to use the spacecraft's overhead docking drogue, but part of the standard procedure for jettisoning the Apollo LM had been to leave the CSM's probe installed and sever its own connection from the Command Module. In order to free the drogue for capture the crew of the flight would need to perform a spacewalk, something NASA was unwilling to approve on only the second shuttle flight. With added complexity came increased workload, and soon enough JSC realized that this mission was not one that could be flown by the two-person Shuttle test flights. According to conservative launch schedules, STS-7 would be the last mission to launch before Spider reentered the atmosphere, and so its original payload of two communications satellites and a West German research pallet was bumped back to STS-8, while the mission itself was moved up a month to August, 1981. Carrying a crew of five, the largest one yet, Space Shuttle Challenger roared skyward for the second time to retrieve one of her predecessors in what would prove to be the most ambitious STS flight to date...

Whoa, that’s actually really creative! I would have guessed that they’re some kind of 3D part, but I can definitely see that they’re flags now. Would you consider releasing the custom decals you’re using here to the public?

What do you use to get all the extra wires and stuff on the PMAs? Are they some kind of conformal decal or are they a special part I’m just not aware of?

Delta blue SLS do kinda go hard though

STS-6: The Upgrade: May, 1981: NASA's newest space shuttle orbiter, the Challenger rolls out to LC-39A for her maiden voyage. Incorporating the test data collected from the first four shuttle flights, Challenger features numerous improvements over her predecessor Columbia. Changes to her internal structure, as well as the omission of some six hundred noncritical TPS tiles and the lack of Columbia's ejection seats and testing instruments, make Challenger significantly lighter. At the same time, she is the first orbiter of the fleet to carry a heads-up display for entry and landing, a Ku-band antenna for communication with the planned TDRS satellite constellation, and uprated SSMEs capable of slightly higher thrust than the previous rating. All of these enhancements make for a considerably more capable spacecraft, a fact which will be thoroughly proven in the missions to come. Challenger's first mission is a relatively simple one: deploy the first Tracking and Data Relay Satellite into geostationary orbit, test the orbiter's airlock and the new EMU spacesuit in the payload bay, and return home. While to the general public this mission seems routine for the Shuttle, the procedures and hardware to be tested on STS-6 are crucial for the Shuttle's future. The Inertial Upper Stage is necessary to deploy large satellites such as TDRS and classified DOD payloads as well as deep space probes, and will also provide valuable practice for missions involving the upcoming Centaur-G cryogenic kick stage. The importance of EVA needs no explanation, but the certification of the EMU spacesuit and the orbiter's internal airlock must be completed before the systems can be used for any practical applications. Finally, one more advancement is to debut on this flight; a new lightweight external tank, the success of which would enable even heavier payloads to be launched aboard the space shuttle. Join me next time for STS-7; I... hope nobody has a fear of Spiders...

Direct Ascent is for people who are afraid of rendezvous and docking (sinners).

STS-6 will be mostly historical as well, but wait until you see what I've got planned for STS-7.

STS-5: We Deliver! February, 1981: America's Space Shuttle is now fully operational and cleared to fly with large crews and commercial payloads. Columbia's ejection seats have been permanently safed and some of her testing instrumentation removed, freeing up precious space in the orbiter's mid-deck and lightening the spacecraft ever so slightly. Her fifth flight into space will carry the heaviest payload yet, a set of identical commercial satellites which will be deployed into geosynchronous orbits through the use of the new PAM-D solid-fueled upper stage. Also making its final flight on STS-5 is the Development Flight Instrumentation package, set to collect a final arrangement of data for improving future Shuttle flights. While considered the first "operational" mission of the space shuttle, STS-5 is in many ways yet another test flight, being used to prove many techniques and technologies necessary for the Shuttle's success as a spacecraft.

Gotcha! You're still missing Nauka!

I believe the proper response is, "Ugly Rocket, Not Aesthetic, Sorry Chief"

Screenshot Tax 1980: Reaching Maximums: February: The Delta 3914 has surpassed its 2000-series predecessors as the most commonly flown Delta booster on either coast. Its improved Castor 4 boosters give it the ability to launch heavier satellites than ever before, such as the Solar Maximum Mission. Abbreviated to SMM or SolarMax, this is an observatory meant to study the sun during the upcoming 1980 solar maximum. This epoch, occurring approximately once every eleven years, is a period of intense solar activity during which sunspots and flares appear much more commonly than usual. SolarMax will supplement Skylab's aging Apollo Telescope Mount with more modern instrumentation and will return findings autonomously, without the need to be periodically serviced. In spite of this, however, SolarMax uses a new bus design equipped with a Shuttle-compatible grapple fixture, allowing STS to retrieve and repair the satellite should the need ever arise. In fact, later this same year, multiple components inside the spacecraft will break down, spurring plans for a Shuttle mission to repair SolarMax in 1983 or 1984. April: On the west coast, the venerable Titan IIID launches a [REDACTED] into polar orbit. This new series of satellites has been operating since [REDACTED], and although its capabilities are still highly classified, it is known to possess a marked improvement over previous military payloads of similar types. Spectators are naturally permitted to witness the launch, although knowledge of what exactly is being orbited is scarce. August-September: After a 21-month journey out from Jupiter, Voyager 1 begins its Saturn observation phase. The critical objective of Voyager's encounter at Saturn is a close flyby of the sixth planet's largest moon, Titan. Observation of the mysterious, rust-colored moon is so important, in fact, that Voyager 1's trajectory has been specifically optimized for this purpose at the expense of a Grand Tour trajectory. Should Voyager 1 fail to image or take measurements of Titan, its sister probe Voyager 2 will be compelled to sacrifice its own chances for a Uranus flyby to fulfill these objectives itself. October: Space Shuttle Columbia launches on its fourth and final test flight. This mission has been covered in detail elsewhere, but one aspect of the flight bears relevance to this thread. In order to demonstrate STS's capability to service large payloads already in orbit, STS-4 will deliver the first Teleoperator Retrieval System to boost the orbit of Skylab. This flight will serve as a proof-of-concept for future flights which may deliver expansions to Skylab such as new solar panels, additional laboratories, or modernized docking systems, bringing the station's capabilities up to contemporary standards. Such an upgrade is sorely needed, as the aging station is already beginning to resemble an orbital rustbucket, with some astronauts privately lamenting assignment to an expedition aboard the station instead of an exciting (and brief) flight aboard the new, sleek Shuttle. Nevertheless, STS-4 will merge both programs in a demonstration of interbranch cooperation within NASA. November: One of the final launches of this year is of a Delta 3910 PAM-D, carrying SBS-1 to GEO. SBS-1 is an example of the new HS-376 satellite bus which will be deployed extensively in the coming years, while the Delta makes use of the new Star 48 upper stage to perform the boost to GTO instead of the Delta P second stage, enabling a heavier and larger payload than would be possible otherwise. Uh, join me next time where I... find even more ways to sneak non-BDB craft into my screenshot tax reports...

Most of my screenshots for this mission were inexplicably corrupted. Nevertheless... STS-4 :The Final Exam: October, 1980: STS-4 is minutes away from launch, ready to perform the final research and development of the Space Shuttle program. This final test flight will be more demanding and complex than any mission flown thus far, involving both a rendezvous and a free-flight payload. If all goes well, this will be the final flight of Columbia to carry only two astronauts, and will mark the end of the Shuttle's testing phase. Additionally, this flight will prove one of the most anticipated capabilities of STS; the ability to provide a backup supply ability to the Skylab space station. While Skylab's servicing needs primarily rely on the Apollo Block III infrastructure based out of CCAFS LC-34 and LC-37, the launch failure of AAP-4 has alerted NASA to the possibility that Saturn IC and Apollo may not always be available for this task. For the sake of redundancy, the STS division in Houston has developed the Teleoperator Retrieval System, a backup vehicle which can be launched by the Shuttle and provide attitude control and reboost capability for the station should it ever undergo another extended period of no crewed activity. The TRS has been designed for launch aboard both STS and the new Titan 34D launch vehicle, and its first test on STS-4 will provide the Shuttle with a welcome toehold in the Skylab program. If the Shuttle can demonstrate use of the Canadarm to deploy practical payloads such as the TRS, it can also feasibly deliver large expansions to the station as part of the planned modernization effort. In addition to the Skylab rendezvous, STS-4 also carries the first payloads for the US Department of Defense, as well as another diagnostics package intended to be operated by the SRMS, and the last set of OSTA Spacelab experiments.

STS-3: Orang Tank Bad: So, maybe today's title is a dig at how many people I've seen doing shuttle missions with the white external tank, maybe I just couldn't think of anything better... May, 1980: America's Space Shuttle prepares for her third journey into space, this time with the intention to stay there much longer. The seven-day mission of STS-3 will continue the operational capability assessments begun on STS-2, with a flight plan filled with advanced SRMS testing, thermal evaluations, and crew-operated experiments to be performed on orbit. For all its novelties, however, STS-3 will become known for one major addition in the form of an unpainted External Tank. The white tanks Columbia used on her first two spaceflights were significantly heavier and more expensive than the new lightweight model being tested today, and if it meets expectations the rust-colored ET will allow a considerable increase in payload margins. Finally, STS-3 is the first shuttle mission to launch on its originally-planned launch date, demonstrating the ever-increasing efficiency of the STS infrastructure and the reliability of its design.

Do you have any intention of making the sunshade used on missions like STS-5 to carry satellites?