Gary Seven Delays Moon Landing?

[Herbert1]

The United States attempts to place a nuclear weapons platform in orbit in the Star Trek episode "Assignment: Earth" using a Saturn V rocket with a real or dummy Apollo spacraft from McKinley Rocket Base. Spock mentions that on this day: "There will be an important assassination today, an equally dangerous government coup in Asia, and, this could be highly critical, the launching of an orbital nuclear warhead platform by the United States, countering a similar launch by other powers."

By tragic coincidence, six days after this episode aired, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated and the unmanned Apollo 6 was launched. The date was April 4, 1968.

Because the episode uses stock footage of Kennedy Space Center and the launch of Apollo 4, I am inclined to believe that the nuclear weapons platform is being launched from Apollo 6.

Because of the malfunction and subsequent explosion of a Saturn V rocket, does Gary Seven and the crew of Enterprise delay subsequent launches of Apollo by a period of several months or a couple of years while NASA investigates this failure? Would this delay the launch of Apollo 7 and perhaps the Apollo 11 moon landing in the Star Trek timeline?

Does the dangerous coup in Asia refer to the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam)? Did Gene Roddenberry and Art Wallace believe that President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu would be toppled in a military coup? Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia? Laos? Thailand? Malaysia?

Thoughts?

 

[Timo]

Well, from "Tomorrow is Yesterday", we know that the first Moon shot launches on schedule on a Wednesday.

Interesting thing that, about Apollo 6 and Dr King's demise...

If Gary Seven delayed the Star Trek US space program, he probably at best managed to bring it down to the speed of the real US space program; overall, NASA, USAF and/or other players in Trek achieved more than their real-world counterparts, giving us manned interplanetary flight (with interstellar capacity as an optional extra) in the early 1990s, and interstellar probes in the early 2000s.

For all we know, Gary Seven speeded up things by forcing a move away from Saturn, resulting in the first guy or gal in the Moon flying there in a Gemini derivative or somesuch...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[erastus25]

hhhmmm...interesting theory. Perhaps the US was delayed getting to the moon and the results changed some of the cold war, ultimately leading to consequences that caused the Eugenics Wars? Great job Gary 7. You really screwed up! haha

 

[Dayton3]

The "coup" mentioned by Spock is in Asia Minor.

Meaning Turkey.

 

[Dayton3]

Note, it is possible that the explosion of the American orbital weapons platform was covered up by blaming the French.

The French conducted their first hydrogen bomb test (fusion bomb) on August 24, 1968. IIRC, the French tested their nuclear weapons in the Pacific.

And there was at least one coup in 1968. Panama. The one which ultimately brought Omar Torrijos to power there.

 

[GSchnitzer]

Well, from "Tomorrow is Yesterday", we know that the first Moon shot launches on schedule on a Wednesday.

Interesting thing that, about Apollo 6 and Dr King's demise...

If Gary Seven delayed the Star Trek US space program, he probably at best managed to bring it down to the speed of the real US space program; overall, NASA, USAF and/or other players in Trek achieved more than their real-world counterparts, giving us manned interplanetary flight (with interstellar capacity as an optional extra) in the early 1990s, and interstellar probes in the early 2000s.

For all we know, Gary Seven speeded up things by forcing a move away from Saturn, resulting in the first guy or gal in the Moon flying there in a Gemini derivative or somesuch...

Timo Saloniemi

"The first manned Moon shot is scheduled for Wednesday, six am Eastern Standard Time. All three astronauts who are to make this historic...."

It's interesting: while people often notice how Star Trek correctly predicted that the "first manned Moon shot" (preumably Apollo 11) was indeed launched on a Wednesday (which is a one-in-seven lucky prediction), folks generally don't notice that Star Trek predicted the mission was launched at six a.m. Eastern Standard Time, not six a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. So, the first manned Moon shot must have occurred sometime in October to April when we are on Standard Time, not in "summer" (April to October) when we are on Daylight Savings Time. (Darn! Apollo 11 lauched in July.)

Speaking of which: don't forget to move your clocks ahead for Daylight Savings Time *this* weekend.

 

[serdogthehound]

There was a coup in OTL in 1968 in Asia. That was Iraq in July 7 with Saddam Hussein playing a major roll as one become Leader of Iraq because of it somehow I think if Star Trek follow our timeline that would be the one that they would think of.

 

[Zachary Smith]

Who goes to Saturn anyhow? I mean, REALLY?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Who goes to Saturn anyhow? I mean, REALLY?

Interesting, that. Colonel Shaun Christopher, who had yet to be born in 1968, was said to lead the first mission to Saturn. Yet in 2032 ("One Small Step", Voyager), we are only just then going to Mars - we can only assume, then, that manned missions had yet to reach Saturn by that point, since obviously we'd go to Mars first and *then* Saturn (if astronauts had already reached Saturn by 2032, then what's the big deal about Mars?).

So either Col. Christopher's mission came rather late in his life (later than 2032), or the mission to Saturn was unmanned and Christopher directed it from ground control. (Remember, Spock said that the colonel "headed" the mission. He didn't say the man was actually *on board*...)

 

[Neopeius]

The TOS universe had already diverged from our actual universe. Because of the '67 Outer Space Treaty in our universe, no one was sending up orbital nuclear platforms.

 

[Timo]

Yet in 2032 ("One Small Step", Voyager), we are only just then going to Mars

To be sure, there's nothing in "One Small Step" to suggest that the mission we see is the first one to that planet. Perhaps people went to Mars in 1979 already, saw that there was nothing of interest there, and only did the occasional revisit the way we have revisited Antarctica after Amundsen already scored all there was to be scored there. A colony on Mars would only be established in 2103 when it was trivially easy to do so, and the fact that the colony served little purpose was not a showstopper.

OTOH, "One Small Step" speaks of a rescue mission that's going to reach Mars in a week. So either people were flying to Mars in dozens upon dozens of realistic rockets that would arrive at one-week intervals after journeys of several months, or then people had rockets that made travel to Saturn just as much a triviality as travel to Mars obviously was. No conflict with the implications of "Tomorrow is Yesterday" and "Space Seed", then...

Because of the '67 Outer Space Treaty in our universe, no one was sending up orbital nuclear platforms.

We couldn't really tell whether that treaty was being respected or not. However, we could tell whether Saturn V boosters were being launched or not. Although as Herbert already insinuated, the rocket we saw was rather carefully camouflaged to look like a test of Apollo hardware - so perhaps few people outside NASA and USAF knew that the payload of Apollo 6 was in reality (theirs, and perhaps ours) a weapons platform?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ssosmcin]

It's interesting: while people often notice how Star Trek correctly predicted that the "first manned Moon shot" (preumably Apollo 11) was indeed launched on a Wednesday (which is a one-in-seven lucky prediction),

But the odds of them getting it right were still 7 to 1 against. It's a really cool coincidence and very few other SF shows had that kind of luck. Hell, Irwin Allen had the moon landing in 1970.

folks generally don't notice that Star Trek predicted the mission was launched at six a.m. Eastern Standard Time, not six a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. So, the first manned Moon shot must have occurred sometime in October to April when we are on Standard Time, not in "summer" (April to October) when we are on Daylight Savings Time. (Darn! Apollo 11 lauched in July.)

I'll be happy to assume the new guy flubbed and said Standard when he meant Daylight.

I still give Trek props for getting the moon landing and the important assassination thing right. Kinda helps to make up for the Eugenics Wars (not that I'm sorry that DIDN'T happen).

 

[GSchnitzer]

It's interesting: while people often notice how Star Trek correctly predicted that the "first manned Moon shot" (preumably Apollo 11) was indeed launched on a Wednesday (which is a one-in-seven lucky prediction),

But the odds of them getting it right were still 7 to 1 against. It's a really cool coincidence and very few other SF shows had that kind of luck. Hell, Irwin Allen had the moon landing in 1970.

I remember this quote from Richard Feynman:

"I had the most remarkable experience this evening. While coming in here [to deliver this lecture] I saw license plate ANZ 912. Calculate for me, please, the odds that of all the license plates in the state of Washington I should happen to see ANZ 912."

 

[Ssosmcin]

It's Friday. I don't do any thinkin' on Fridays.

 

[Cakes488]

It's Friday. I don't do any thinkin' on Fridays.

I know! This is much too cerebral for me...can't we go back to talking about bathroom humor and the Captains "Log" ???

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

To be sure, there's nothing in "One Small Step" to suggest that the mission we see is the first one to that planet. Perhaps people went to Mars in 1979 already, saw that there was nothing of interest there, and only did the occasional revisit the way we have revisited Antarctica after Amundsen already scored all there was to be scored there. A colony on Mars would only be established in 2103 when it was trivially easy to do so, and the fact that the colony served little purpose was not a showstopper.

OTOH, "One Small Step" speaks of a rescue mission that's going to reach Mars in a week. So either people were flying to Mars in dozens upon dozens of realistic rockets that would arrive at one-week intervals after journeys of several months, or then people had rockets that made travel to Saturn just as much a triviality as travel to Mars obviously was. No conflict with the implications of "Tomorrow is Yesterday" and "Space Seed", then...

I heard it suggested once that the Saturn mission was very long duration. Meaning, Christopher and his crew departed on a mission that for them, took maybe a few months to a year, but the state of technology at that time was so primitive that relativistic time dilation took effect, and they arrived back home *decades* later (perhaps after the Mars missions). Obviously by the time we were actually going to Mars, tech had advanced to the point where time dilation was not a problem...

 

[GSchnitzer]

I heard it suggested once that the Saturn mission was very long duration. Meaning, Christopher and his crew departed on a mission that for them, took maybe a few months to a year, but the state of technology at that time was so primitive that relativistic time dilation took effect, and they arrived back home *decades* later (perhaps after the Mars missions). Obviously by the time we were actually going to Mars, tech had advanced to the point where time dilation was not a problem...

Wait. So the velocity of the Earth-Saturn probe approached the speed of light to the degree that there was time dilation on the order of decades *and* even at these near-relativistic speeds it still took *months* to get to Saturn? I don't think both can be true. I think at near relativistic speeds, Saturn would only be a couple of light hours away. It couldn't *both* have been traveling extraordinarily fast *and* have taken a long time.

 

[Myasishchev]

Who goes to Saturn anyhow? I mean, REALLY?

Ethan Hawke thought it would be nice. Also Duncan Makenzie.

 

[N-121973]

I wouldn't have minded for the TOSR version of Tomorrow is Yesterday if they had re-recorded that News Broadcast to reflect the actual moonshot calling it Apollo 11 and starting to name the crew before Kirk silences the programme for instance. Similarly on Assignment Earth use stock footage of the launch of Skylab in 1973 (if suitable matching film could be found of course) to signify the launch of the weapons platform.

 

[pookha]

The TOS universe had already diverged from our actual universe. Because of the '67 Outer Space Treaty in our universe, no one was sending up orbital nuclear platforms.

that is how i look at it.
assignment earth really shows for the first time our time line isnt treks.