Among the many missions that came out of the Apollo Applications Program, one of the most amazing was the Venus Flyby mission. Imagine, using the same Apollo technology that brought us to the moon, for a long duration mission to fly by our nearest planetary neighbor, the planet Venus.
Humans, traveling to another planet in our solar system, using Apollo technology in the early 1970s. It was an ambitious plan.
Unfortunately, in real life, funding for this mission never materialized. Administration interest in space was dwindling, and so was public interest. The funding needed couldn’t be sustained.
Which is ashame, because if funding had sustained long enough for a flyby mission to have occurred, it’s entirely possible it could have rejuvenated interest in the space program, and the manned space program could have endured in a more positive, structured, and sustainable way.
That was in the real world. But this is not the real world… In the world of Belitopia, the Venus Flyby did occur, and it did have a huge impact on the interest in space by the general population — and the administration.
In our vision, the flyby mission did occur, but not without incident. In Belitopia, the flyby almost ended in disaster, and it would have ended in disaster if not for the Christmas Miracle.
Beginning this week is a two episode series on The Venus Flyby, in the world of Belitopia.
Enjoy…
The Venus Flyby, Part 1
The Venus Flyby, Part 2
Coming soon…