The election of 1992 comes after several years of economic decline, Soviet expansion and a growing sense of malaise. The Dukakis administration has made a number of policy blunders that have made things worse; the worst being to slash the budget of military space programs. This has a carryover effect into the civilian sector, and greatly angers the public.
The Democrat party, after seeing early campaigning by Republican hopefuls for their parties nomination, realizes that Dukakis simply has no chance of defeating any likely Republican candidate. So in a historically unusual move, Dukakis faces serious challenges within his own party… challenges supported by the party itself. In July, 1992, Dukakis is officially replaced in the coming election by the current California Governor, who has been a vocal proponent of the Solar Power Satellite program. While being substantially more expensive than nuclear power, the SPS remains more popular in his home state. Even though the anti-nuclear sentiment so common IRL has been substantially tamped-down in the alternate timeline, it hasn’t been completely eliminated, and the Soviets are still making clandestine efforts to push an anti-nuclear meme in the American media. The Governor is also a vocal supporter of the American space program as a whole; not the military side so much as the civilian, but the recent space downturn has hit California hard. Turning the space program around will provide a massive boost to the Californian – and US – economy.
The Republicans are also seeking a new candidate. The Dole administration showed the downside to dull, and it’s clear to the party that what’s needed is someone enthusiastic and, if at all possible, relatively young… and space-positive. Most of the Republicans putting themselves forward for the party nomination are reliably pro-space, but they are, as a group, deadly dull and relatively old. However, a young Representative from Georgia has made a name for himself by being pro-space, going so far as wrangling official junkets to Space Station III and the Space Station IV construction site (his efforts to get an official tour of the Sea of Serenity Base have so far been unsuccessful). He is an obvious choice for the Presidential nod.
Realizing that space is a winning position in the coming election, efforts behind the Republican Party scenes promote an unconventional Vice President. A non-politician, never having held an elected office, the science fiction writer who gets the VP position has nevertheless had an active influence on American politics. Prior to his election to the Presidency in 1976, Reagan had had little to say about space; but shortly after taking office he had started talking about the benefits of weaponizing the heavens. These talking points and speeches had come after meeting the now-VP candidate; rumors have floated for years that it was this guy who had written Reagans speeches on the topic.
The election of ’92 is a close-run thing, with the Republican candidate winning. The Democrats retain control of the House; the Republicans gain a substantial majority in the Senate. It does not take the new President long to ram new spending policies through Congress, and the space program roars back to life. The Uranus booster, recently mothballed, is completed; the first launch takes place in the summer of 1993. The production line is put into action, and two-million-pound payloads become a reality.
All is not perfect, of course. Since nuclear power now fulfills the bulk of Americas energy needs, petroleum is less of an influence on American international policy, and is less economically important around the world. So when, in 1991, Iraq invades Kuwait, nobody pays much attention. Second-hand Soviet conventional weapons are used by the Iraqis to defeat impoverished Kuwaitis armed with third-hand Western weapons. Iraq, flush with success, but with little enough to show for it, presses the attack on and defeats the greatly weakened Saudi forces. Still the world largely just shrugs. But then Iraq looks to Jordan, with the aim of taking that state, Israel and, eventually, Egypt. Those nations had had little enough oil to begin with, and had built their economies on other industries; as oil had faded in economic power, there had been a brain-drain from the formerly oil-rich nations to the non-oil nations of the middle east. The brightest were actively sought by Israel; Israeli nuclear reactors are some of the best in the world They are the unquestioned leaders in the manufacture of sub-scale, completely encapsulated and rock-hard reliable reactors for factories and small towns. Israeli prototype reactors for home use are being successfully tested. That fabulous wealth this close to the starving millions of the former oil nations is too tempting of a target. In 1993, the now-combined forces of Iraq, Arabia, Kuwait and the former UAE launch a massive, if somewhat impoverished, assault on Jordan, Israel and Egpyt.
The western trio form an unlikely alliance against the eastern force, and easily outmatch it in terms of weapons technology and funding. But the sheer numbers threaten to overwhelm them.
The US tries to get the UN to act, but they are countered in the Security Council by the Soviets and Red Chinese. The Soviets have little enough to gain from the war; the only people in the region who want to buy their weapons are poverty stricken. But the more who get themselves killed in Jordan, the fewer will continue to try to move north into the USSR through Azerbaijan. And the Chinese have even less to gain directly… but they are still looking to retake Taiwan, and the less precedent in the UN to stand up to invasion, the better.
Since the Soviets launched the very first Polyus space battle station, there has not been a single (official) use of space weaponry in an offensive capacity (several defensive uses, against space junk and dead satellites on impact trajectories with “live” hardware). This changes in 1993: while the US does not send troops into the war, several night-time battles are lit up by new weapons: kinetic energy weapons drop from the sky and take out massed artillery and tank columns; space based lasers set fire to troops and trucks out in the open, and blast aircraft and missiles from the sky. Particle weapons are employed that do virtually no physical damage at ground level due to atmospheric scattering, but the electromagnetic interference wipes out communications, lights up the sky and creates lightning-like atmospheric displays that panic the invaders. In the end the Iraq War results in a complete rout. The Soviets express outrage over this use of space weaponry against ground targets, but the western world is in fact overjoyed: a war is won, in their view, with no loss of American or European life (little is said about the multitudes of Iraqi, Arabian, Jordanian, Egyptian and Israeli dead on the ground).
This only bolsters American public opinion on space. Spending for the USAA skyrockets, and for several years in the mid-90’s breaks the 4% mark of the Federal budget, during the construction of the Aristarchus and Clavius Bases. Space Station IV is completed, and work begins on Space Station V, along with expansions of Martian infrastructure. Construction begins on at Space Station IV on the XD-1, the first manned spacecraft to the outer planets.
By this time the Shuttle II is showing its age. Rather than have another design competition for a replacement, the NCA and the President suggest a new approach: a prize. The basic requirements are set forth and a lump sum is made available to the first company that can provide the capability. High-priority cargo launch and passenger transport specification are published in early 1994. And in record time, several firms produce their vehicles… time aided by the fact that successors to the Shuttle II had been in works for some years. The Lockheed/North American Rockwell Orion I booster and Orion II cargo spaceplane first fly to orbit in late 1995, with the Orion III passenger spaceplane orbiting a few months later, winning them the prize and numerous contracts. Unlike the Shuttles, the Orions are sold to commercial operators, including airlines, for passenger and cargo transport to space. The vast number of workers going up and down to support the various projects simply buy tickets. They travel alongside tourists, businessmen, politicians and others who previously would not have ventured into space.
By 1996, the US economy is again booming, and space is again a roaring business. The Presidential elections that year are a cakewalk for the incumbents. Things are almost where they need to be…
To be concluded