Initially their Chief Designer, Valentin Glushko, had been advocating for the design of the massive 'RLA' family, which would use multiple identical rocket modules to launch payloads anywhere from 40 to 250 tons. While the American had forward with the development of the Space Shuttle, their Soviet adversaries were moving forward with their own new development programs. A new generation of satellites, probes, telescopes, and other payloads were evolving which depended on the new STS and its ability to carry payload to orbit and then, if necessary, return it. Spacelab was only the beginning: though some systems surrounding Shuttle (such as the proposed Orbital Transfer Vehicle) had been cut due to budget limits, other systems like the “Centaur-G” were proceeding. One flights lasting as long as two weeks, the Shuttle’s crew of seven or more would be able to work in the lab, before returning to Earth with their results and equipment for evaluation or future flights. Chief among these was the development of “Spacelab,” a new module being co-developed with ESA which would place a habitable laboratory-essentially a miniature space station-inside the Shuttle’s payload bay. However, undaunted, plans for Shuttle applications were underway. The early projection had been for flights of Shuttle to occur starting in 1979, but by the mid-70s it was becoming apparent that a more realistic schedule would be the early 80s. Intended as a major revolution to bring down the cost of access to space, the program was already falling behind schedule, with the vehicle having been cut from a fully-reusable system to a less revolutionary orbiter, which would fly to space on propellant contained in a large external tank, and be lifted off the pad by twin large, semi-reusable solid rocket boosters. The leading example of this, of course, was the American's development of their Space Shuttle. The Chinese weren't the only nation with a major change in their space program percolating-the late 70s saw most of the world's major space programs in the process of revitalizing their programs. The 'second phase' of China's space program was proceeding in secrecy, with development underway on the Tianjia-A 'ministation' module and the Shuguang-B advanced capsule. Thus, here it is:īy the middle of the 1970s, the paths of the majority of the world's space programs was largely set, and it would take until the end of the decade for most of the results to come to play. At the very least, the next post is unaffected, by virtue of not pertaining to China at all. Part 2 has been revised, and I'm looking at the other posts I have in the can. Hat tip to Shevek for the catch, and thanks for doing so inside the 30-day edit window.

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