posted 11-07-2015 09:33 AM               

In this case Skylab would have been launched in September/October 1973?

posted 11-07-2015 05:48 PM            

One advantage of this would have been to give the scientists longer to analyse the results from the earlier Apollo missions, thus making it easier to plan the surface experiments on the final missions.

One disadvantage: the "gap" would have taken the focus off Apollo and might have made it easier for the critics to gather their strength and force the cancellation of the last two Apollos. Of course, Apollo 18 didn't happen anyway, but NOT delaying Apollo 17 until after Skylab may have saved Apollo 17 from cancellation.

posted 11-07-2015 09:19 PM            

Apollo Alternate Flight Plans

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Office of Manned Space Flight is developing two alternative plans for the future of the Apollo lunar exploration program and has asked two scientific advisory boards for their views on these alternatives.

NASA Administrator Thomas 0. Paine has asked NASA's Lunar and Planetary Missions Board and the Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences to consider the alternatives. Representatives of the boards will present their views at a meeting with NASA management during the week of Aug. 24. The NASA management group will make a decision on the future course of Apollo following that meeting.

Alternative number 1 is to fly the remaining six Apollo missions as presently planned. Alternative number two would delete two of these missions.

The Apollo schedule now calls for Apollo 14 to be launched Jan. 31, 1971, with Apollo 15, 16 and 17 following at approximate six-month intervals. The Skylab workshop and three astronaut revisits would be flown late in 1972 and 1973 and then Apollo 18 and 19 would be launched in 1974.

The second and more economical alternative would delete two Apollo flights. The four remaining Apollo missions would be scheduled at approximate six month intervals before Skylab. Apollo 14 will explore the Fra Mauro region of the Moon. The new Apollo 15 along with 16 and 17 would use the extended capability lunar modules to permit longer stay times on the Moon and carry lunar roving vehicles to explore the three landing sites of highest scientific interest.

Deletion of the two Apollo missions would make available two Saturn V launch vehicles and spacecraft available for possible future uses such as space station missions.

posted 11-08-2015 01:56 PM               

If that were the case the likely landing site candidates for 18 would have been near the central peak of Gassendi or Copernicus craters as lunar scientists still wanted rebound material from deep within the lunar interior.