1974
January 3: A number of highly-influential senators and representatives are briefed on PROJECT MELANGE (see also November 5, 1973).
January 8: Gemini Program reinstated by Congress, due to the greater costs involved in the construction of more Apollo capsules, and the need for time to finish designing and building the Space Shuttle. The new Gemini C capsule will have retractable waldos externally mounted on either side of the nose section, ahead of the reaction control thrusters, as well as a small external cargo module visible from the cockpit windows, and reachable by the waldos; the capsule interior will have slightly more space, due to advances in technology since 1964, as well as the rear hatch from the
Gemini B configuration, and two or more
equipment module variants. Research and development on
Big Gemini is included in the budget, but production of the larger capsule is not confirmed at this time. In addition, the US Air Force requests that McDonnell Douglas re-examine the
Manned Orbiting Laboratory, either as an expansion of Skylab, or an immediate replacement for it if Skylab becomes unusable before Big Gemini or the Space Shuttle is ready.
January 21: Official call goes out for female astronauts; the
Mercury 13 are among those invited to participate in tests. Unbeknownst to the public, or indeed any but a few in government, this decision was influenced by the advice of CIA precognitives.
February 8: Skylab 3/4 expedition leaves the space station, and returns home.
February 19: Paramount Pictures orders a new live action season of Star Trek. William Shatner, having just closed a movie deal (he will be playing a skeptical reporter investigating the disappearance of a colleague at an allegedly haunted house), will not be available when most of the episodes need to be filmed, and so Captain Kirk is to be promoted to Fleet Captain and given command of the new Dreadnought prototype USS
Federation (he will have cameos in seven episodes, mostly appearing on the viewscreen and not interacting with the rest of the cast directly, and longer rolls in three, out of a 25-episode season), with Spock serving as Captain of the
Enterprise.
April 1: Several female astronaut candidates are given doses of the Spice (after having been vetted by CIA psychics). Among others,
Mary Wallace 'Wally' Funk is discovered to be highly talented at Extra-Sensory Perception. <ESP Talent 3>
April 12: Gemini XIII launched unmanned to test the revised capsule design. Second stage malfunctions, putting the capsule into an unstable orbit, which the ground crew are unable to recover from. Capsule burns up on re-entry. Unknown to the public, Wally Funk had warned NASA of the problem after seeing the rocket at Cape Kennedy, but the decision had been made to go ahead anyway. She appears to have an unconscious and reflexive ability to predict disasters relating to vehicles; the physically, temporally, and emotionally closer she is to the event, the more likely she is to see it before it happens. <Visions (Aspected: Vehicular Dangers)>
April 16: Gemini XIV launched unmanned (using TV cameras and other equipment in place of astronauts) to test the revised capsule design. Vehicle operates normally (including remote control tests of the waldos).
April 17: Gemini XIV re-enters the atmosphere after 25 hours 34 minutes in orbit, and is retrieved by USS
Enterprise.
May 6: Gemini XV launched, first manned mission for Gemini C model (commanded by Eugene Cernan, with Harrison Schmitt as pilot). After several tests, Gemini XV soft-docks with Skylab - hard-docking is not possible, as the Gemini capsule would have to have been much more heavily modified to allow the inclusion of an Apollo docking system in the nose, and an equipment module with said system is not yet available. Instead, the astronauts spacewalk from the capsule to the station's airlock. Skylab is powered up without problems, though shutting down the Gemini capsule to conserve power proves difficult, needing to be done manually during another spacewalk.
May 29: Gemini XVI launched. This is the first launch of the 'man-and-cargo' variant of the Gemini C capsule: the control panel is slightly modified to allow for a single pilot to comfortably control the craft (in the case of Gemini XVI, this would be Alan Shepard), while the other ejection seat is removed, and the mass allowance for both seat and astronaut occupied by cargo. Gemini XVI soft-docks with Skylab's lower docking unit, and Shepard delivers his cargo to Skylab via the airlock.
June 17: Dale Clifft is contacted by Harley-Davidson on the matter of a
three-wheeled car he'd built, which was basically a motorcycle with the front wheel and handlebars replaced by a frame, shell, two front wheels, and other bits, to give it several of the advantages of a car, while being licensed as a motorcycle. A con artist calling herself Liz Carmichael would later approach Clifft on the matter, but by then, he would already be signed with HD, and have no interest in Carmichael's start-up.
June 25: Wally Funk no-longer needs the Spice to precog serious vehicle-related problems.
July 16: Big Gemini officially designated 'Project Argo,' and greenlit by Congress. Argo's Service/Habitat Module design and production is assigned to Grumman, mostly for political reasons; Grumman engineers work closely with McDonnell Douglas to avoid problems interfacing between the two vehicular sections, and to ensure component compatability in the event of an emergency (in particular, the two sections will use identical fuel cells and CO2 scrubbers). Argo's re-entry capsule is smaller than the original plans for Big Gemini, having a normal occupancy of four or five and a maximum occupancy of seven, rather than the nine or twelve of the initial proposal. The planned launch vehicle is the new
Titan IIIE.
The character limit annoys me.