Byond Apollo
NASA gave up on the idea of a second Skylab, and instead concentrated its efforts
on creating a reusable space shuttle, which was approved in 1972. The Shuttle
was supposed to be launched like a rocket, but land like an airplane. However,
the shuttle would not be ready to fly until 1978, at the earliest.
In the meantime, NASA took part in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, a rendezvous
between the final Apollo command ship, piloted by Tom Stafford, and a Soyuz
taxi, commanded by Alexei Leonov. It was the first docking between an American
and a Russian spaceship, and was designed to pave the way for cooperation in
space between the U.S. and Russia. On July 17, 1975, as the two ships met, Leonov
called out in English, “We have capture…Okay, Soyuz and Apollo are
shaking hands now.” About two hours later, Stafford and Leonev themselves
shook hands high over France.
America and Russia were also using robotic explorers to study the solar system.
In 1973 and 1974, America’s Mariner 10 visited Mercury and Venus. Soviet
landers Venera 9 and Venera 10 visited Venus in 1975, sending back the first
images from the surface of another planet.
Both America and Russia sent more missions to Mars than any other planet. Russia
launched 16 Mars missions between 1960 and 1973, but none were successful. America’s
Mariner 9, which began an orbital survey in 1971, did achieve good results.
It revealed that Mars was a complex planet with winding channels resembling
dry river valleys coiling around great deserts, giant, apparently extinct, volcanoes,
the largest five times as high as Mount Everest, and a network of canyons as
long as the continental United States.
Explorers Viking 1 and Viking 2 left Earth in the summer of 1975 to find out
if life could have evolved on Mars. Each Viking lander was equipped with a miniature
laboratory for analysing Martian dust for chemical composition and any signs
of microbial activity. Viking 1 landed on Mars on July 20, 1976, exactly seven
years after Neil Armstrong’s moon walk. Viking 2 landed in September.
Both landers spent years on Mars. Neither craft turned up convincing evidence
of life on Mars, but they did send back a great deal of scientific information,
mapping the planet in unprecedented detail and providing data about the presence
of highly oxidizing compounds in the Martian dust.
Mariner 10 was able to use the technique of “gravity assist” to
visit some of the outer planets of the solar system. With gravity assist, a
spacecraft uses the gravity of one planet like a slingshot to push it off to
another world. Mariner 10 used gravity assist during a flyby of Venus, which
redirected it to Mercury. NASA planned for Mariner 10 to use the gravity of
Jupiter to move to Saturn, then Uranus, and finally Neptune, in what was called
the Grand Tour.
Pioneer 10 and 11, trailblazers for the Grand Tour, flew past Jupiter in 1973
and 1974. They sent back images of Jupiter and revealed new details about Jupiter’s
powerful magnetic field. Pioneer 11 rendezvoused with Saturn in 1979.
In 1977, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 left Earth in 1977, equipped with high-resolution
cameras and other sensors. Each craft visited Jupiter and its moons in 1979,
then used the power of Jupiter’s gravity to travel to Saturn.
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