SARSA's William Baxter first to space-walk

On Christmas Eve, William Baxter of SARSA became the first human to float (almost) freely in outer space as he space-walked on a brief excursion to the outside of his three person craft. The South African vessel also carried two other new South African astronauts. SARSA also becomes the third agency to achieve manned space flight and to orbit the earth; achieving this feat in a three person craft. The resulting publicity has driven SARSA's budget to new heights (although some in the South African government have campaigned to reduce the high levels of expenditure and have succeeded in a definite drop in the proposed future spending on the agency¹).

Did he fall? Or was he pushed?

The official report into the death of Steve Zodiac has left many unsatisfied. The reports says that Steve's body was found at the bottom of a flight of stairs that led from the ground floor entrance to his second floor apartment. Several empty cans of the Amber Nectar were discovered in the apartment and while the official report has no theories, apparently the Police are convinced that Steve must have, under influence of the Amber Nectar, assumed that he was still in space and could simply float down to the front door. As a result of the report the police investigation has been wound down and the Australian astronaut corps have all been cleared to fly. Fortunately for the Australian planners their only mission this year was an attempt at a Lunar Probe Landing.

One side effect of the inquiry has been the hiring of Zak Zodiac to the Australian Astronaut Corps. Zak was welcomed onto the team by some of the other members of the corps while rumours in Harold's bar suggest that the hiring is just to keep Zak quiet.

SHADO continues Inner Planet exploration

In the middle of November SHADO launched another probe to examine the inner planets. This one has flown past the moon and is continuing on its way to Venus. The two missions launched last year flying past Mars have met with mixed success. The first mission, which had flown past the moon on its way to Mars successfully, failed to enter orbit around Mars when contact was lost early this year. The probe is presumed to overshot Mars and could be heading for the asteroid belt. The second mission has successfully flown past Mars, returned valuable scientific data and is now on its way to Venus. SHADO should be able to gather considerable data from that planet too, assuming that both its probes are successful in their mission.

The Moon is a risky target

Three agencies attempted to land probes on the Lunar surface during 1966. The probes belonging to SHADO and ASA both failed to reach lunar orbit (with the Australian probe managing to outdistance SHADO's probe by leaving Earth Orbit (SHADO's probe failed to respond when ground control attempted to instruct the probe to leave Earth Orbit despite the probe successfully making the initial orbits. ASA's probe did not respond when commanded to fire its manoeuvring jets to enter Lunar Orbit). The third probe, belonging to Smaug Inc. has successfully landed on the Lunar Surface and returned excellent pictures to Smaug Inc.'s base during its descent.

General Motors' new mission

In a major advertising push, the American Car Manufacturer, General Motors, has donated $2,000,000 to both SARSA and GOSsiP to acquire the rights to use their astronauts in advertising campaign in South Africa and Scandinavia. The deal includes a small fleet of Cadillac Eldorado convertibles, though the Scandinavian model has been criticised for only being practical for a few days in the year!

Dr. Von Graun moves again

The peripatetic veteran space researcher, Dr. Von Graun, is apparently moving on yet again. It appears that the good doctor had moved last year from SHADO to Smaug Inc without affecting the research of either organisation at that time. However it appears that, having tried just about every possible location, Dr. Von Graun, is now returning to South Africa. The worry for Smaug Inc. is what effect this will have on its research efforts in 1967³.

New Australian Premier pledges to maintain manned space flight

In the recent Australian General Election the premier Harold Holt pledged that the Australian Space Agency will maintain a manned presence in space. Following his re-election he has ordered the Australian Space Agency to ensure that their next planned mission will be a successful manned mission. To support this he has increased ASA budget by a further $20,000,000⁴. The increased budget comes despite a recent audit revealing that many aerospace companies have been trying to take advantage of the hectic pace at ASA, with several lines of expenditure being denied⁵.

Peace activists condemn money hoarding at SHADO

As a result of a massive letter writing and boycott campaign, the parent company of SHADO has been forced to reduce SHADO's budget by $19,000,000. Apparently the protestors, while worried about the potential for large explosions, were concerned that SHADO seemed to be hoarding its cash and not spending it like confetti. One writer says: We want to see the pretty fireworks; not look at a big pile of cash. SHADO has offered citizenship to anyone with relevant space experience who wishes to join its team.

Outbreak of philanthropy

It appears that several of the space agencies are anticipating a major disaster in space, with several of the agencies being ready to mount rescue missions should that be required. Sadly for the agencies, most of the missions this year were of robot satellites.

GOSsiP pays up; scrubs mission

As a footnote to last year's problems in GOSsiP's two stage rocket program. GOSsiP's head of research has praised the prompt delivery of information from SARSA that has allowed GOSsiP to recover its two stage rocket safety factors. As a result of the information the two stage rocket program has reached a safety factor of 92%, while SARSA's cash in hand has improved by $10,000,000. The transfer of cash has apparently led to the partial scrubbing of the planned mission by GOSsiP in order to save the money that would have been spent on the equipment for the mission. The launch of a two stage rocket (with liquid fuel strap-ons) proceeded successfully, but it was obvious to ground based observers that no payload was carried by the launch⁶.

SHADO starts three stage rocket program

SHADO has started to spend some of its long saved cash pile by starting a three stage rocket program. The program starts with an initial safety factor of 35% and promises to continue a long line of rocket launch spectaculars... As a result of the new program SHADO has no plans for new launches in 1967.

Launch Calendar

The provisional calendar for launches planned in 1967 (assuming none of the missions are rushed or scrubbed) is as follows:

5^th Dec

GOSsiP

10^th Dec

Smaug Inc.

11^th Dec

Smaug Inc.

12^th Dec

Smaug Inc.

15^th Dec

SARSA

17^th Dec

SARSA

21^th Dec

ASA

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Last updated: December 21, 2021 at 19:38 pm

26 September 2017

Corrected typo

28 September 2017

Tweak CSS style (presentation change only)

31 October 2017

Launch Schedule is for 1967

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Colonel Steve Zodiac, Captain Ken Ross and Jock Campbell first men to fly by the moon

At the very end of 1965, two of Australia's experienced were able to share their experience with one of the more recent recruit and were able to celebrate a successful Manned Lunar Pass mission. There were no problems with the flight and all went very smoothly. The only embarrassment came when Colonel Zodiac, in an unguarded moment, remarked that the radio silence (caused when the craft passed behind the moon as seen from Earth) was, for him, the most enjoyable part of the flight so far - when pressed to explain ground control became concerned about another period of silence before Captain Ken Ross tactfully changed the subject.

Late News: Steve Zodiac's body found in his apartment

In a bizarre follow up to the successful Manned Lunar Pass, the body of Colonel Steve Zodiac was found in his apartment on the 27th of January 1966. Amid intense speculation and debate, ASA was forced to call in the Australian Police to investigate the affair. ASA has pledged that the police investigation will be fully supported by all concerned. The needs of the investigation, together with the large number of swirling rumours ASA has pledged that all members of the astronaut corps will be available to help the police with their inquiries. As a result ASA will be unable to launch any manned missions during 1966¹.

Monkeys upstaged by the Australian mission

The successful South African Lunar Pass mission, launched just four days before the Australian Manned Lunar Pass, was only crewed by a (carefully selected) team of Vervet Monkeys. Reports from SARSA claim that the monkeys out performed the Australian crew during the mission, completing their experiments planned for the long journey to the moon in record time and without complaints.

Lots of Probes

Apart from the two Lunar Pass missions, the remaining launches in 1965 were almost all of interplanetary satellites. The one exception, launched by GOSsIP was a lunar probe lander, which was last tracked heading into deep space after it failed to make a course correction that would have placed the probe into its initial orbit around the moon. The interplanetary satellites are all operational, with two from SHADO on their way to Mars (one of these first flew by the moon on its way, while the second will travel onto Venus once it passes Mars. Both of these mission launched in August to take advantage of the orbital positions of their targets). ASA preceded their manned mission with a successful lunar fly-by on the 18^th of December. The two probes from last year that were enroute (one from SHADO to Venus, one from SARSA to Mars) were both successful in reaching their destinations and returning data from their respective targets.

Sabotage or friendly help?

The recent discovery of flaws in GOSsiP's two stage rocket program and the unusual offer of help from SARSA has left observers wondering exactly what is going on. The injectors for the fuel/oxygen mix on two stage rocket has been found to have a serious design flaw that means that the safety factor for this rocket has been revised downwards by 20%. SARSA has offered to help GOSsiP however saying that We've seen similar problems in our three stage rocket. We can help with the repairs if GOSsiP can cover our expenses of $10,000,000)².

Worldwide fuel shortage hits Smaug Inc.

It appears that Smaug Inc. has not anticipated the recent surge in demand for rocket fuel. As a result it has only secured sufficient fuel supplies to allow it to launch mission during 1966. The head of Smaug Inc. construction division is reported to be particularly annoyed at the failure of the procurement division Yet again we're met our targets by completing our third launch facility, but it seems that some in the company are determined to see us fail. Could there be more South African spies and saboteurs at work³?

SARSA holds mission control disaster drills

Perhaps worried about the activities of the other South African agencies recently, SARSA has been conducting drills in mission control for various different problems that their moon mission may encounter. With the clock ticking on the 31^st December 1968 deadline to successfully land a person on the Moon and return them safely to Earth this recent activity may allow them to complete the mission with little risk⁴.

SHADO benefits from Astronauts: Do you have what it takes?

The unexpected hit TV Show, Astronauts: Do you have what it takes?, from a sister division, has meant that SHADO now has a long waiting list for its astronaut program. While there aren't any spaces currently in its program, it is expected that SHADO will be able to recruit and train astronauts quite cheaply⁵.

Some good luck for GOSsiP

In a rare piece of good news for the troubled agency, GOSsiP has made rapid progress on improving the safety of its liquid fuel strap on rockets. The safety of this rocket improved by 41% during the past year⁶.

ASA looking good

While there is still some distance to go (for example no agency has yet to achieve a Manned Lunar Orbit) it is looking like the Australians have the lead on getting to the Moon first. That said their astronauts are not all that experienced and it would only take one catastrophic failure for the tables to be turned. SARSA is also looking strong, but has a significant time pressure from their government order. The other agencies may wish to look at trying some joint missions to get the international mission bonuses, or perhaps to anticipate the inevitable disasters and the potential for rescues.

Launch Calendar

The provisional calendar for launches planned in 1966 (assuming none of the missions are rushed or scrubbed) is as follows:

5^th Dec

GOSsiP

10^th Dec

Smaug Inc.

11^th Dec

Smaug Inc.

12^th Dec

Smaug Inc.

15^th Dec

SHADO

17^th Dec

SHADO

23^rd Dec

SARSA

28^th Dec

ASA

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Last updated: December 21, 2021 at 19:38 pm

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