It might most likely go with out saying, however only for the report, the space shuttle mission shown on ‘Quantum Leap” (opens in new tab) didn’t occur.
As first aired on Monday (Sept. 26) on NBC and now streaming on Peacock, the episode “Atlantis” had Ben Tune (Raymond Lee) join the crew of the space shuttle Atlantis (opens in new tab), leaping into the physique of an astronaut because the mission launched.
Warning: the next article incorporates spoilers for “Atlantis,” the second episode of the new “Quantum Leap” series (opens in new tab).
“It did not make sense in an episode like this to base it on an actual shuttle mission,” Martin Gero, government producer and showrunner for “Quantum Leap,” stated in an interview with collectSPACE.com. “It was merely sufficient to say we’re going to be on the space shuttle.”
“One of many methods we thought we might skirt round it not being a recognized mission was to have or not it’s a categorized flight, one thing about launching a navy satellite, in order that’s why it was off the books and nobody knew about it,” Gero stated. “However we have been going quite a bit out of our method to be grounded in the true Nineteen Nineties and realized that our viewers did not actually care that a lot somehow.”
Within the present, it’s established that Tune lifted off on Atlantis on March 7, 1998, on the mission delivering the primary piece of the International Space Station to orbit. From simply these few particulars, it will be clear to these accustomed to space shuttle historical past that this can be a fictional flight.
To start, there was no launch on that date. The closest mission was STS-90, the twenty fifth mission by orbiter Columbia, which started on April 17, 1998. (The launch footage proven within the episode is from STS-122, an Atlantis mission from a decade later in 2008.)
The primary shuttle mission to ship a part of the Worldwide House Station did, in reality, fly in 1998, however on Endeavour and on Dec. 4 of that 12 months. The STS-88 mission introduced up the “Unity” node to berth with Russia’s Zarya purposeful cargo block, which was already in orbit.
Atlantis, as historical past information, didn’t fly in 1998. It spent the primary eight months of that 12 months at its meeting plant in California, receiving glass cockpit displays, a GPS navigation system and a brand new docking port to allow future missions to the Worldwide House Station. The work additionally included the removing of the prolonged length orbiter package deal, which allowed Atlantis to stay longer in space with added cryogenics on board.
Historical past apart, the orbiter in “Atlantis” differs in look from its namesake — and all the different winged shuttles in NASA’s fleet.
“Like several sci-fi present, you begin to fray the perimeters a bit,” Gero stated. “For example, the flight deck is definitely very near the precise flight deck of the space shuttle. However the mid deck appears to be like completely completely different and features completely completely different.”
The flight deck set, which was beforehand used on different TV and movie productions, was modeled after the true automobile’s cockpit, however is rather more spacious to accommodate the motion deliberate for the episode and the cameras filming it. The mid deck, alternatively, was constructed for “Quantum Leap.”
“That was accomplished as a result of we wanted individuals to have the ability to actively be working upstairs and downstairs on issues that perhaps would not make sense to work on upstairs and downstairs. So in case you are an enormous shuttle fan and went to House Camp if you have been a child, like I did, you already know there are issues on this episode that can drive you completely insane,” Gero stated.
Not that the present acquired the whole lot improper. One of many main plot factors concerned having to redirect the shuttle from the place it was to deploy the Worldwide House Station module to Russia’s space station Mir. Though it now not exists right this moment, Mir was nonetheless in orbit and had a crew on board in March 1998.
“In concept, given the suitable situations — and that is an enormous if — you can fly a shuttle from what was the start of the Worldwide House Station to Mir,” Robert Yowell, a former NASA space shuttle flight controller who served because the technical advisor for the episode, advised collectSPACE. “The Russians did it earlier than with a Salyut and Mir years earlier.”
Soyuz T-15, launched in 1986, marked the primary time {that a} spacecraft visited and docked with two space stations in the identical mission. Cosmonauts Leonid Kizim (opens in new tab) and Vladimir Solovyov didn’t simply full the 29-hour switch between the Mir and Salyut 7 space stations as soon as, but additionally made the return journey.
“What’s attention-grabbing is within the episode, they dump the Worldwide House Station module. In case your automobile is quite a bit lighter, that leaves you with additional gasoline, so maybe you can obtain that sort of rendezvous,” Yowell stated.
Yowell’s contributions to “Atlantis” additionally included filling within the correct dialog for key mission milestones, such because the technical callouts throughout launch.
“The writers got here to me and stated there have been two or three scenes the place they wanted extra ‘NASA-ese’ dialog. In order that’s the place I helped,” he stated.
“Robert was unbelievable,” Gero stated of Yowell, “giving us what was the fact of what it will be and was additionally so accommodating, realizing that on the kind of present we’re doing, which is an action-comedy on this episode, that we wanted to bend the principles simply to make it just a little extra thrilling for the individuals at dwelling.”
Whereas the present takes quite a few liberties, it additionally consists of some nods to actual space shuttle missions and astronauts. At one level, there’s a point out of a later crew not making it dwelling safely resulting from particles damaging their orbiter’s warmth protect, a direct reference to STS-107, the 2003 ill-fated final mission of Columbia.
After which there’s the particular person Tune is making an attempt to save lots of, Japanese-American astronaut David Tamara, who’s initially destined to die on the shuttle. The character loosely evokes the memory of Elison Onizuka (opens in new tab), the primary Asian-American to fly into space, who died on the space shuttle Challenger in 1986.
“We need to be respectful to any actual particular person and attempt to fictionalize as a lot as we will, nevertheless it was one thing that was mentioned,” Gero stated.
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