No moon, no Glory???

[RobertScorpio]

We often hear from TOS actors, producers, that TOS was heading for the ashpit of history until man landed on the moon. It made anything about 'space' popular, and Star Trek had just ended. People flocked to it, especially in the years between the first and last moon mission. Then the cartoon came, and shuttle got renamed..all that happened...

But had we not landed on the moon and let say, for the sake of argument, the first mission ended with tragedy and we never tried again, would TOS have made it's historic come back???

Would there have been no Glory for Star Trek with out....the moon!!!

Rob
Scorpio

 

[Noname Given]

We often hear from TOS actors, producers, that TOS was heading for the ashpit of history until man landed on the moon. It made anything about 'space' popular, and Star Trek had just ended. People flocked to it, especially in the years between the first and last moon mission. Then the cartoon came, and shuttle got renamed..all that happened...

But had we not landed on the moon and let say, for the sake of argument, the first mission ended with tragedy and we never tried again, would TOS have made it's historic come back???

Would there have been no Glory for Star Trek with out....the moon!!!

Rob
Scorpio

You never know; but had it been unsuccessful in general, or cost a lot of crew lives; I have a feeling the purchasers of syndicated programming may have passed on a 'space show'.

 

[RobertScorpio]

We often hear from TOS actors, producers, that TOS was heading for the ashpit of history until man landed on the moon. It made anything about 'space' popular, and Star Trek had just ended. People flocked to it, especially in the years between the first and last moon mission. Then the cartoon came, and shuttle got renamed..all that happened...

But had we not landed on the moon and let say, for the sake of argument, the first mission ended with tragedy and we never tried again, would TOS have made it's historic come back???

Would there have been no Glory for Star Trek with out....the moon!!!

Rob
Scorpio

You never know; but had it been unsuccessful in general, or cost a lot of crew lives; I have a feeling the purchasers of syndicated programming may have passed on a 'space show'.

I see it the same way as you do.

Rob

 

[Nebusj]

But had we not landed on the moon and let say, for the sake of argument, the first mission ended with tragedy and we never tried again, would TOS have made it's historic come back???

It would have required quite some tragedy for a failed Apollo 11 to lead to the cancellation of the entire Apollo program. Remember, in early 1967 the Apollo 1 Fire -- three astronauts killed by a disaster while on the launch pad, as the 'White Room' crew was just feet away -- didn't stop the program. (It may not even have delayed it, ultimately: the Lunar Module was just not going to be ready much sooner than it was whatever happened.) There'd be a standing down, certainly, and probably not another attempt until the middle of 1970, but just a loss of the crew and failure of the mission of Apollo 11 wouldn't cancel Apollo 12.

Just saying.

 

[Dayton3]

This has long been a cute story,

but it isn't true.

The space progam was already plunging in popularity. The first moon landing only briefly revived interest, but by Apollo 13, interest in the manned space program was fading dramatically. Swallowed up by the news in Vietnam, urban unrest, and four years later, Watergate.

 

[Wingsley]

Dayton3 is correct.

Apollo 1, 8, 11 and 13 are most commonly remembered among the public. But the late 1960's and early 1970's were an historic time for America, both at home and abroad. The infamous "stagflation" economic misery was just starting back then, the war was extremely controversial, racial tensions were explosive, and America's cities were undergoing a fiscal meltdown.

There were plenty of other things already occupying people's minds.

I don't see how the Apollo moon missions could have been any worse after the Apollo 1 fire. The only way I could see anything preventing Apollos 11 through 17 from succeeding would be if the moon had literally been made of cheese and the LEM had not been able to land/relaunch safely. If a couple of the LEMs had indeed sunk in the lunar cheese, Apollo would've been a disaster.

Then again, if the moon were made of solid cheese, the dairy industry would probably be launching commercial rockets to retrieve large chunks of it for human consumption. So maybe the opposite would've happened: maybe Captain Kirk would be a fat, Jabba-the-Hut type character in the fast food business or something, and maybe TREK would've been sponsored by McDonald's.

 

[Dayton3]

Then the cartoon came, and shuttle got renamed.

This is yet another common myth.

"The first U.S. shuttle was going to be named 'Constitution' until Star Trek fans wrote in and asked that it be named 'Enterprise'".

Only partially true.

One of the people involved in the shuttle program, worried about serious cost overruns and technical problems suggested that NASA hype the supposed economic advantages of the shuttle program and call it "Free Enterprise".

This admittedly sounded idiotic.

So another man involved in the shuttle program (who was a Trek fan as well) suggested dropping "Free" from the name and just call it "Enterprise".

One must remember that "Enterprise" is a popular U.S. Navy ship name. Having been used on 8 different ships to this day.

 

[Gorn66]

Myth or not, NASA had the cast (and Gene?) there for the official rollout.

 

[Dayton3]

Myth or not, NASA had the cast (and Gene?) there for the official rollout.

So?

 

[Gorn66]

Myth or not, NASA had the cast (and Gene?) there for the official rollout.

So?

So? Clearly NASA wanted an association with Trek for publicity purposes. Nichelle Nichols was also working for them around that time?

 

[Dayton3]

Myth or not, NASA had the cast (and Gene?) there for the official rollout.

So?

So? Clearly NASA wanted an association with Trek for publicity purposes. Nichelle Nichols was also working for them around that time?

I never denied that.

In fact, Nichelle Nichols, and the role in Star Trek that gave her the chance to play such a major role for NASA recruiting women and minorities into the astronaut program was one of the primary ways in which Trek has improved the world