1961,Nixon President. a man on the Moon before 1970?

[lounge60]

If Richard Nixon had become President in November 1960,
which consequences on Space Program? Gagarin is first man in space,so that decisions would have taken nixon? The same of JFK? " landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth before this decade is out" was one chosen unavoidable with any President? And if not,which alternatives ? one reusable spaceplane? one Space station?

[Anaxagoras]

Considering his role in gutting the manned space program after he became President, I think the effect of an earlier Nixon presidency would have been negative rather than positive in terms of the American space program.

[lounge60]

So the moon was not a chosen unavoidable with any President?

[Dean_the_Young]

Considering his role in gutting the manned space program after he became President, I think the effect of an earlier Nixon presidency would have been negative rather than positive in terms of the American space program.

Of course, Nixon became President after the Race was pretty much over. The Race might be slower, but I doubt he'd surrender space to the Soviets.

[Doctor What]

Weren't the Soviets being quite open about the idea of them being the first in landing a man on the moon though? Nixon would still be honour bound to save US face by coming up with something similar. In fact--I get the feeling from what I've read about the guy that he probably would have made NASA a pure military operation rather than the civilian operation that Kennedy did.

[Dean_the_Young]

Weren't the Soviets being quite open about the idea of them being the first in landing a man on the moon though? Nixon would still be honour bound to save US face by coming up with something similar. In fact--I get the feeling from what I've read about the guy that he probably would have made NASA a pure military operation rather than the civilian operation that Kennedy did.

Which would have made my neighbor a much happier man back in the day. He worked on the Saturn V rocket and such, and he had nothing but complaints about the quality of the contracters when NASA was made private compared to the quality of the work when it was a non-profit government shop.

Can you imagine people who work across the country and don't even use the same blueprints as the best hope for the space program?

[Doctor What]

Which would have made my neighbor a much happier man back in the day. He worked on the Saturn V rocket and such, and he had nothing but complaints about the quality of the contracters when NASA was made private compared to the quality of the work when it was a non-profit government shop.

Indeed--and as a military operation, all kinds of funds could have been dumped into it without having to go to Congress to approve everything.

Read an AH story once where this very premise was used--and they had all kinds of nice touches, such as there being a base in space in '64 and Walter Cronkite being the first anchorman in space and Star Trek being the number one TV show--then the late 60's come in and the space program (being military) becomes tied up with Vietnam and all that stuff and you have hippies protesting at the gates of NASA and Jane Fonda taking a swing at Neil Armstrong for being a tool of the evil imperialistic military industrial complex....