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It's quite a stretch to say NASA as a whole felt confident about beating the Russians to the Moon, or that a Moon landing was the only thing on the table. Retrospective analysis tends to focus on the Moon, but you get a much different feel from reading primary sources from the time. While a...

Here's the NAA Dyna-Soar booster I'm going to base the XSLV-6 on: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19780073127

Power to Explore #1 "It's too damn expensive, we can't do that!" - JFK, on reading LBJ's memo recommending a moon landing Kennedy was not trilled with his options. After the Russians first beat the US into space, and then humiliated his counter-revolution in Cuba, things were not...

Armistice talks break down in October 1918, and the war continues on. Internal revolts spring up all over Germany, and by the time Allied troops break into Germany, most imperial authority is gone from Bavaria. The Allies recognize an independant Bavaria in exchange for assistance against Berlin.

Which are not mutually exclusive; decoys only work if they are perceived as a threat by the enemy...

It certaily would have been interesting from a space prespective. Bush Sr. was probably the only real NASA fan to hold the White House, and the inflation-adjusted NASA budget under his term was the highest ever (yes, higher than during Apollo). He would probably still bring the Russians into...

Yeah, IMHO that's massively more likely than B-1Bs. Even the USAF doesn't really like the B-1B, and I doubt anyone else is going to fork over the money to buy some.

Also, never trust Astronautix as a definative source; it's often outdated and occasionally biased (especially on more recent programs). The larger consequence could have been a chance for the Energia program to survive a bit longer. It wouldn'y help Buran (at least not initially), but it...

This. MSRs, especially if you use thorium as fuel, can have a very high power density and zero proliferation risk. Given how far along thorium salt reactors were (i.e. the AEC had fully operation pilot plant in the late 1960s), it's not too much of a stretch to see them used on civilian...

So here's a question: What would have happen if Franz Joseph (the Kaiser) had been killed making that trip instead of his heir? There would still be a war, but it could have gone much differently...

Really depressing that a good TL has been turned into a nasty, unnecessary discussion.

Wow, that's nice.

I don't think a dictatorship is automatically a given. A perfectly plausible route is the South Korea/Taiwan model with Cuba ending up with a pro-US somewhat-repressive military govenment in the 1960s that gradually liberalizes over time. Imagine Cuba as a consumer electronics giant...

And of course, reality is a lot less predictable than many pudits would argue...

Skybolt, or something like it, is the easiest to imagine weapon for strike SR-71/A-12. The aircraft would do a zoom climb to Mach 3 at around 100,000 ft over Canada and deploy the weapon (without ever facing Soviet air defenses). Without air drag and with maximum rocket efficiency, the ICBM...

Well even before that, Whittle had great plans for turboprops; the Trent turboprop Meteor only flew in 1946 because it was a low priority. Had someone connected the dots to push for a turboshaft before 1940-or-so, you might be able to pull off a powerful helicopter by the end of the war. It...

What made the difference IOTL, and for good reason, was the development of the turboshaft gas turbine. The massive efficiency and power of the turboshaft is what transformed the Huey from a utility vehicle into the mainstay of the airborne calvary, and allowed the development of the Huey Cobra...

That's a bit of myth; at least in the US, the reason is that (before last week) no new designs had been approved since the Carter Administration, removing the ability of commercial reactors to adapt as quickly as coal. If the new designs weren't competitive, there wouldn't be such a long list of...

The envelope may be vacuum, but not the rest of the vehicle!

How much longer can the Soviets hold out? It'll be another year until the Western Allies actually make it to Germany, with the Germans putting most of their effort into the East in the meantime...