United Nations Space Police Station

A United Nations Space Police Station was launched on December 2 of an unknown year. The next day, a crew of 8 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome. (Presumably, they launched in either a series of Soyuz capsules, or a shuttle or shuttles borrowed from the United States or various other powers, including Russia.)

The mission was led by Commander James McFadden. He was born in Scotland but emigrated to the United States and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. He became a top fighter pilot and joined NASA 3 years ago, when he was 29. His interests include acrobatics, ice-climbing, free-diving, and Chinese ceramics.

Also on the mission were British astronaut Esmee Templeton, 3 more Americans, 2 Russians, and 1 Spanish astronaut.

The mission was to police space and enforce UN space laws. Not long before this, NASA had launched another deep-space probe.

Dating is uncertain, although the book states that the space station was launched from a vessel on the equator at 0300 on 2 December. Personnel were launched on 3 December. No other information about the personnel was given, although it is implied that they were all veteran astronauts in order to be assigned to this posting. While the mission is not the focus of the book, one of the teen heroes does have a signed photograph of Esmee Templeton and is clearly infatuated with her, implying she is attractive. There is supposed to be a massive solar flare around this date, the biggest one ever. In our reality, the biggest one ever recorded by instruments took place on November 4, 2003. Since the book was first published in 2007, I think that we could assign a tentative date no earlier than December 2003 (to account for various inter-universal differences, such as a Big Bang that happened a month later), and no later than December 2006 (to account for enough lead time to write the book and publish it). We are given no information about the design of the station, although I believe it is not a toroidal station (like in 2001) but a cylindrical affair similar to Skylab, based on its shipboard launch.

This mission would be part of the STORM timeline (named for the book series by E.L. Young where it first appeared). See my companion blog, Gordon's Galaxy, for information about the book and a review.