Tomorrow is Yesterday: Captain Christopher's Son

[Ubiquitousclate]

During this episode, it is stated that Captain Christopher's yet-unborn son, Colonel Shaun Geoffrey Christopher, will head the first successful Earth-Saturn probe.

Presuming that this episode is set in the late 1960's, and that Shaun Christopher would probably be born in the early to mid-1970's, wouldn't that put said Earth-Saturn probe's occurrence to the 2010-2030 period, and wouldn't that coincide with World War III and/or all of the various conflicts before and during that event?

Thus, would there be manned launches during that time in history?

Thanks!

 

[feek61]

A probe does not have to be manned. Maybe he was just the project manager.

 

[Zycho32]

During this episode, it is stated that Captain Christopher's yet-unborn son, Colonel Shaun Geoffrey Christopher, will head the first successful Earth-Saturn probe.

Presuming that this episode is set in the late 1960's, and that Shaun Christopher would probably be born in the early to mid-1970's, wouldn't that put said Earth-Saturn probe's occurrence to the 2010-2030 period, and wouldn't that coincide with World War III and/or all of the various conflicts before and during that event?

Thus, would there be manned launches during that time in history?

Thanks!

Spaceflight Chronology(probably non-canon at this point) lists the date of this probe as 2020. Star Trek Chronology(much more canon I should think) lists it as 2009.

WWIII at the time of TOS was somewhat ambiguous. It would've been the Eugenics Wars of the mid-90's, it might've been separate and taken place afterwards. Taking the added chronology of later series into consideration, said dates listed above would've been before the now-established dateline of WWIII(specifically, not just its ending in 2053 or so, but it's apparent start date of 2026).

Even with all that, the Star Trek universe has always been one where our desire to explore constantly overcame the perils of realpolitik, thus leading to a more aggressive space exploration than in the real world(though, from Voyager on it would seem they've been ironing that all out since the forays into the 20th and 21st centuries have depicted either more 'realistic' settings or outright stagnence). So one can imagine actual successful efforts to create Colonies on the moon and even in the Lagrange sweet spots, manned missions to Mars by the late 80's and through the 90's... and yes, eventual expeditions to Jupiter and Saturn in the decades afterwards.

 

[Nerys Myk]

During this episode, it is stated that Captain Christopher's yet-unborn son, Colonel Shaun Geoffrey Christopher, will head the first successful Earth-Saturn probe.

Presuming that this episode is set in the late 1960's, and that Shaun Christopher would probably be born in the early to mid-1970's, wouldn't that put said Earth-Saturn probe's occurrence to the 2010-2030 period, and wouldn't that coincide with World War III and/or all of the various conflicts before and during that event?

Thus, would there be manned launches during that time in history?

Thanks!

The war doesn't start until the late 2020s. So there is still time.
There must have been some spaceflight and exploration to be happening since we get the DY class in the 1990s, the Charybdis in the 2030s and the Phoenix by the 2060s.