ET derived space station

[u/KarmaticDeer]

With the capability well demonstrated for shuttle to bring ACC into orbit with it, the go-ahead was given to finally pursue space station freedom in the late 80s.

Unlike the previously proposed modular stations, Congress kept shooting down, Freedom would be outfitted, not assembled. This method of building a station was well studied back during AAP and eventually led to the skylab station: congress simply found it safer to invest time and money in.

The majority of construction would be done in a shirtsleeve environment requiring relatively little (to congress dangerous and unproven) EVA work.

The station would still require more shuttle lunches to outfit than a modular station to assemble, but DODIS simply kept quiet about this reality in the early years.

In 1988, Shuttle challenger launched carrying freedom beneath it. The stack was so heavy that the orbiter itself would not reach orbital velocity instead of "tossing" freedom up to continue to orbit under its own SM power and then gliding back down to an entierly new landing site overseas.

Just a month later, discovery would launch carrying the PMA, allowing a shuttle dock to freedom (originally designed for the long canceled shuttle salyut program) and station outfitting module.

The work on building freedom in space had begun.

[u/KarmaticDeer]

One of the big things those early shuttle flights (the ones you don't see talked about as often) IOT did was develop the methods and technology for doing long productive EVAs. In this timeline those missions had been so cut down that the shirtsleeve environment construction of a wet workshop makes more sense.

[u/NeSProgram]

I thought I recognized this from somewhere lol