Mercury II was once again with the veteran Slayton, who not only was the first man to go to orbit but he also made the first spacewalk. The third mission in the program would also be well remembered, specially among Second Wave Feminists.
:incloosive:
Cobb became the first woman in orbit, for over 2 days. This wasn't the end of her participation in the Space Program.
A fourth Mercury mission had problems with its attitude control before it could achieve orbit, but the astronaut reacted quickly, managed to reenter atmosphere safely and landed in one piece. After this, the Mercury program ended so that more reliable, long duration technologies for manned space exploration could replace it.
New Titan Rockets were developed, as well as new probes designed to reach through many of the bodies of the solar system and the Moon, to chart and study them in flybys. The first of these Ranger probes reached Mercury. Until R&D of the XMS-2 project was completed, only unmanned missions would happen.
To Venus.
And most importantly, the Moon, to chart as much of its surface as possible in assistance to the dream of reaching it.
And to a distant red and barren planet.
Unfortunately the rocket sending a probe to Jupiter exploded, and after this, the unmanned missions would slowly fade away so that the XMS-2 Program may begin.
Another success with a crew composed mostly of veterans of the Mercury Program, who sadly were getting too old and would have to let newer astronauts handle a future Moon landing because the Saturn V project wasn't even started. For this mission it used a Titan Rocket with two radial boosters. In its maiden flight XMS-2 did the first successful manned orbital docking and the first successful spaceflight of a reusable space shuttle. This same shuttle was reused all the way to the lunar landing, with varying degrees of success.
A following unmanned mission, intent on improving the reliability of the docking mechanism, failed before even getting to orbit, but the XMS-2 shuttle was successfully ejected away from the disintegrating rocket and landed in one piece.
Another flyby to further improve the knowledge available about the lunar surface. After being the first, subsequent missions of the same nature don't provide much prestige.
Another docking test, this time also including a spacewalk.
Due to fears of reliability problems, the 4th XMS-2 mission was cancelled. XMS-2 V had some crew changes. Most of the old guard retired except for Cobb, and in their place two new astronauts assumed the roles of EVA specialist and Lunar Module pilot and of Docking specialist, including a man named Neil Armstrong who really got the hang of docking maneuvers.
Another docking test ended in a result only not more tragic because the crew survived. During the landing of the space shuttle, the brakes from the landing gear failed and they crashed heavily, suffering multiple bone fractures that doomed them to never be able to go to space again. Their mission shall not be in vain.
It was pure luck that the biggest problems happened mostly during unmanned tests so far. With every mission the reliability of future ones improved. Even failed ones were lessons to be learned.
Only in 1968 the Saturn V rocket was deemed reliable enough for the first manned lunar flyby to happen. Cooper retired a few months before the launch, despite some requests for him to stay in the program for just one more mission. He was replaced by a younger and promising Lovell, and these three were their best.
Before the main crew of the XMS-2 Program would do their job, a before last mission was launched, to orbit the Moon, test the Eagle Lunar Module and include the first woman to do a spacewalk as well. With its success by a crew that wasn't as skilled as the main one, all was cleared for the decisive moment.
But some politicians wanted a spy satellite on orbit, so XMS-2 X had to be delayed for some months.
While one of the thrusters failed, despite the risks, the mission continued, and taking the risk of carrying on with one of the thrusters broken proved worthy it.
:patriot:
THE END.