Your challenge, should you accept it, is to have the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics cooperate and jointly send men to the Moon by 1980 at the latest, with a POD no later than October 4, 1957(when Sputnik I was launched). Bonus points if the POD occurs after July 20, 1969(Apollo 11).
AHC: Soviet-American Mission to the Moon
- Thread starter Superman
- Start date
Well, there was that deal Kennedy proposed to Khruschev about a joint moon mission in 1962. Khruschev refused at first, but he reconsidered, and was planning on accepting when Kennedy got shot. Khruschev deemed Johnson untrustworthy, and dropped the affair. However, I did hear that Congress was opposed to this move, and they wanted to cut funding for NASA if it did. I suppose you have to navigate that, if you want this scenario.
Yeah, avoiding Dealy Plaza should be simple. Congress is the sticking point. You somehow have to get Congress to back down. I'm not sure how you do that, but if you can, the butterflies from this will be epic.
Cook
Banned
It negates the entire reason for going to the Moon in the first place. It was never about science, The Space Race was quite literally that: a global media sporting event between the Superpowers to showcase the superiority of their respective ideologies and technologies. Have them come together sufficiently to seriously consider this and you don't get beyond funding for a joint space station serviced by Gemini/Titan II and Soyuz rockets.
Yeah, in the sixities. But what about after the Space Race? Maybe a joint-mission in the Seventies or Eighties.
Son of Leman Russ
Banned
A better Soviet Moon Program, capable to almost go on their own to the moon, but has some flaws so it doesn't absolutely win the moon race, almost, and Soviet program, only scheduled to launch a week before Apollo 11, but halted due to some technical errors.
Apollo 11 goes as almost OTL, but the lunar lander are somehow failed, Armstrong and Aldrin stranded on the moon without much hope for return to Earth, Oxygen and water supplies only enough for three days...
Soviet Union goes to the rescue and willing to Help USA, at exchange of fixing that minor error, and due to emergency involved with two Americans stranded on the moon, NASA agreed to put away their differences, and half gambling to sent another rocket to the moon in a day and a half's notice.
The crew is just one soviet cosmonaut and one american astronauts, they minimize all non necessary supplies, and ordered to throw away scientific only instruments to save weight, so two US astronauts can be picked up, preferably alive.
With minimal fuss and celebrations, the "Duct Tape and Spit Rocket" are launched, and successfully rescue Armstrong and Aldrin alive (although hungry and dehydrated).
They arrived at earth, welcomed as Heroes, and from there, US-Soviet relations warmed to the point of friendliness...
From there, joint space missions become much more common.
Apollo 11 goes as almost OTL, but the lunar lander are somehow failed, Armstrong and Aldrin stranded on the moon without much hope for return to Earth, Oxygen and water supplies only enough for three days...
Soviet Union goes to the rescue and willing to Help USA, at exchange of fixing that minor error, and due to emergency involved with two Americans stranded on the moon, NASA agreed to put away their differences, and half gambling to sent another rocket to the moon in a day and a half's notice.
The crew is just one soviet cosmonaut and one american astronauts, they minimize all non necessary supplies, and ordered to throw away scientific only instruments to save weight, so two US astronauts can be picked up, preferably alive.
With minimal fuss and celebrations, the "Duct Tape and Spit Rocket" are launched, and successfully rescue Armstrong and Aldrin alive (although hungry and dehydrated).
They arrived at earth, welcomed as Heroes, and from there, US-Soviet relations warmed to the point of friendliness...
From there, joint space missions become much more common.
Get the Americans to fly Skylab B and you could see the original ASTP proposal happen which was three Apollo visits to Saylut, followed by three Soyuz visits to Skylab.
Cook
Banned
Same problem; why run a race you've already won, and why take the loser with you?
Here's what NASA's annual budget looked like:
Note that their budget was declining even before they'd won the race to the Moon. It was sexy while they were racing to the finish line, but after they'd crossed the line people got bored with it really quickly.
Apollo-Soyuz was in 1975, and was a flags and photos rendezvous in Earth orbit to celebrate détente, which is the politically equivalent situation to what is being proposed. But Apollo-Soyuz involved the use of a vehicle that had been payed for and built back in the heyday of the race years and was just sitting around, so the cost of the mission was substantially less; no-one would have been willing to stump the cash to develop equipment to go to the Moon to celebrate détente. And it gets worse: the life span of détente was so short that a program involving the development of a new space station (a Skylab or Salyut) would probably have been axed half way through when the relationship soured. In fact, if the scenario relies on Khrushchev agreeing to a joint mission (and the US Congress accepting that), then the program dies at the end of 1964 when Khrushchev is ousted and the hardliners regain control of the politburo, so well short of any actual hardware having a chance of being produced.
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Ultimate Paragon
Banned
Yeah. The Space Race was just that: a race. And I don't think a joint mission after the fact would have the same impact.