A Rocky Beginning: An Alternate History Mission Report Series

[Sanchez_1]

Backstory: The series starts on the flight STS-107 now let me be clear THIS IS ALTERNATE HISTORY meaning no Kerbal will perish in this series. Redundancy and safety of life is a good focus of the report. This will not be a recreation of STS-107 the only thing being "recreated" is the launch, after that it is all alternate history (Mods lmk if this is not an ok backstory and I will change it). Several launch vehicles will be used in this series including but not limited to:

• Space Shuttles: Atlantis, Discovery, Endeavor, Columbia
• Falcon 9 V1 (Don't expect it exactly)
• Ariane 5 (Yes I know its not American and still TBD)
• SLS Blocks 1 and 1B (Good chance for no use on this)

Inspirations for me to do one of these:

• @AstroMods : With their upcoming series Odyssey, a rewritten history of Mankind's cosmic existence.
• @Kuiper_Belt: With their series' of Shuttle Adventures and ISS Adventures.
• @raptor-m With their series of Rewriting History- Alternative history RSS space program.

And many more that I have gained inspiration and enjoyment from.

Mods:

Coming Soon!

 

The first launch will be released soon just working on some of writings and pictures. If you have any suggestions or comments feel free to drop them below!

Edited September 23, 2023 by Sanchez_1
Small changes

[Sanchez_1]

The first mission should be up tomorrow! 

[Sanchez_1]

STS-107

STS-107 Crew has boarded and beanie cap retract

STS-107's crew of Banjo Joel, Nic Baldwin, Chris Magellan, Eliot Asher, Janette Alexander, Merv Arseni and Jay Michaels.

 

Main engine ignition

 

 

"Lift off of Columbia the first SpaceHab Mission"

 

Pitch over and Roll program

 

"Booster Sep confirmed"

 

(After re-entry and nose cone deploy) Booster Recovery

 

Booster splashdown

 

On-Orbit Operations

During operations ground controllers, noticed off nominal readings in the left tire that led to the on orbit imaging from picturing from NASA Skysat 2. The imaging found that there was a issue in the thermal protection system, immediately teams went into emergency mode and started working a plan to fix. The teams told Columbia to continue their on orbit operations while they worked to find a fix. After a few days on flight day 9 controllers contacted Columbia and told them there was a solution read and in action. The plan in which STS-500 was born the plan, was to send Endeavour which was currently reading to launch with a satellite on board, the teams had halted work on installing the payload and gotten it read to fly in the next few days. Endeavours SRB's and ET were already stacked on MLP-2, teams by flight day 11 had Endeavor ready to launch and needed to roll it to the pad. On flight day 13 Endeavour was on the pad, and work was being finished on closeouts. Teams knew this was a crazy idea and knew it was the only way to save the orbiters crew.  On Columbia's flight day 14 Endeavour launched a knowledgeable crew of , with a crew of four to rendezvous with Columbia in its 277 x 270 km orbit.

STS-500

Credit to @raptor-m for this rescue patch!

STS-500's Booster Separation.

Endeavors crew consisted of Nick Zinoviev, Letha Watson, Hanako Gillian, and John Willis.

 

Endeavour rendezvoused with Columbia in Orbit

Teams planned, that Nick would preform station keeping, while the crews transferred from the orbiter.

 

Teams instructed the crew to EVA then climb across to the top of the SpaceHab module using hand rails then jump up towards Endeavour. (The orbiters were closer like the first photo.) While the first went and transferred to Endeavour the others set up and connected the UFCS (Unmanned Flight Control System).  Then all the rest made it from Columbia to Endeavour with their modified tethers as the others. After the crew was brought over to Endeavour,  Endeavor's crew preformed a patch job and attempted fix on Columbia's TPS, before it left.

 

Nic Baldwin photo'd jumping from the SpaceHab module.

 

Departure of Endeavour

Endeavour went and de-orbited to re-enter and went on track to land on the SLF at Cape Canaveral.

Endeavour's re-entry.

 STS-500 successfully touched down on the SLF later that day.

"Wheel Stop of STS-500 and successful rescue of the STS-107 mission! Welcome home Endeavour and your rescued crew of Columbia."

Quickly crews removed Endeavour from the SLF in preparation for Columbia's return

Columbia's return.

Columbia de-orbited and entered into Earths atmosphere, the orbiter was patched and on its way home for the first time crewless.

Columbia's Landing

The crowd grew in the mission control viewing room through re-entry, and decent. The orbiter descended and landed at the Shuttle Landing Facility. The excitement and clapping arose from the viewing room, as wheel stop and touchdown was achieved. The patched, fix had worked and it was a great.

On flight and landing day 16, both orbiters and all 11 crew members were home and successfully brought back home!! Endeavour was sent to the OPF for refurbishment and readying for its next flight.

Columbia was sent to the OPF for inspections and repairs / upgrades to make it flight worthy again. A formal review was completed and found that a part of foam from the ET had struck the leading edge of the left wing, a fix was made to stop further ETs from having the possibility of this issue. 

 

(This is my first mission report, I will try and make improvements but this is pretty good I think.)

Edited August 30, 2022 by Sanchez_1
Added patches.

[Sanchez_1]

I am working on the next mission!

[Maria Sirona]

OK this seems interesting, followed

[Sanchez_1]

Working on fixing my game and getting the next launch up!