1970s: Birthdays, studies and finding someone to love
While tensions are high at Thomas and Betty's, Arthur and his family are preparing for a birthday party. 1970 and 71 has been intense. The failure of Apollo 13 meant all current projects had to be reviewed and reexamined with upgraded emergency response protocols and extensive failure-mode simulations, while the fact that the Soviet launched the first space station, and then successfully docked with it a few months later, meant a double down on the attempts to create something similar. Over all of Edwards, focus shifted, from getting to the moon (now that they had) to being able to stay up in space for longer, and then land - rather than splash down - on reentry making them reusable. Projects such as M2-F3 and X-24A, focusing on what was called "lifting body technology" (being able to glide and land) meant Arthur spent his days pouring over wind tunnel data, telemetry, and prepping for post-flight debriefs with pilots. At home, however, the girls were getting bigger, wild...