America in Space 1956

Most space race buffs know that the US had a pretty good shot of putting Explorer 1 into orbit a year before Sputnik was launched. But due to Eisenhower's fear of the military industrial complex and complete ineptness in fighting it allowed America's chance it early space supremacy too slip away; which ironically resulted in the myth of the missile gap and the complete victory of the military industrial via that fear.

So we have Explorer 1 and the US in orbit before the Soviets. Does this ironically lead to a Soviet moon landing? Or does the, space race as we knew it never happen?
 
Whoa! I'd been thinking of writing up a TL along these lines but forgot about it a while back. It's cool to see someone else had a similiar idea.

An early lead in the "Space Race" for the Americans will have a major impact. First off there'll be no panic caused by the Soviets beating the Americans in the space race. TTL's "Space Race" will see America consistently stay one step ahead of the Soviets probably leading to a much more stable space program in the long run.

But personally I think the bigger impact will be the US not pushing science as much in their school system (which they did as a result of the space race). As a result the humanities remain the primary focus of American schooling and as a result Americans as a whole remain much more idealistic.

Perhaps...
 
So we have Explorer 1 and the US in orbit before the Soviets. Does this ironically lead to a Soviet moon landing? Or does the, space race as we knew it never happen?

Probably put quite a dent into the U.S. space program, I suspect. The whole feeling of trying to catch up to the Soviets never happens. Various flow-on effects follow, both in terms of education and spending in other areas. Where does the money for the Apollo program get spent instead?
 
Jared said:
Probably put quite a dent into the U.S. space program, I suspect. The whole feeling of trying to catch up to the Soviets never happens. Various flow-on effects follow, both in terms of education and spending in other areas. Where does the money for the Apollo program get spent instead?

Good question. I think that with the uS in space first you'll see a gradual build up in US space assets. Von Braun may get his Project Horizon approved.

Here's some info on it.

http://astronautix.com/craft/hornlerv.htm
http://astronautix.com/craft/horation.htm
http://astronautix.com/craft/hortpost.htm
 
Whoa! I'd been thinking of writing up a TL along these lines but forgot about it a while back. It's cool to see someone else had a similiar idea.

An early lead in the "Space Race" for the Americans will have a major impact. First off there'll be no panic caused by the Soviets beating the Americans in the space race. TTL's "Space Race" will see America consistently stay one step ahead of the Soviets probably leading to a much more stable space program in the long run.

But personally I think the bigger impact will be the US not pushing science as much in their school system (which they did as a result of the space race). As a result the humanities remain the primary focus of American schooling and as a result Americans as a whole remain much more idealistic.

Perhaps...

Very good point. Ironically, if the humanities remain the focus of education then the spread of fundamentalism is much less likely. A more rational and tolerent America as well as a more idealistic one is promising.
 
I can see with the success of the Army's Project Orbiter that the military has won the confidence of congress and President Eisenhower has to give up his dream of a civilian dominated American space agency. So with the Army getting approval for its Horizon station, the USAF pitches its Lunex plan to congress.

The congress sees the need to avoid the army gaining complete dominance and approval of the USAF project would give a certain amount redundancy should the Saturn launch vehicles face unseen technical problems. The Navy gets Nerva...they've got nuclear submarines why not nuclear rockets.

You do see NASA created out of the various civilian space programs but is purely a research organization(that is NACA with the addition of rocketry). The military has a bigger seat at the table. I can see a mission dedicated agency created eventually top coordinate US Space Policy. USSA-The United Sates Space Administration. The agency would be headed by a rotating leadership(Army, Navy, Air Force).
 
A successful US in 1956 proves the fact they are superior to and have nothing to fear from the USSR. Less money and effort goes into the "space race" and they don't have the progress as in OTL. When the Cuban Missile Crisis occurs in 1962, the US does not respect the Soviets and invade Cuba. We know now that there were nuclear warheads in Cuba and they are used. WWIII kills millions.
 
Not Neccesarily

While the launch of Sputnik won't be that big of a deal to the public because of the US's early lead, it will be of consequence to the Administration. Sputnik was a lot heavier than the early US satellites; in fact it would become apparent to the DOD that the Soviets now had the advantage when launching payloads into orbit. It may even be as big or a bigger shock than when the Soviets exploded their first A-bomb.
 
As far as the Soviets were concerned, the early space race was 100% about displaying a technological superiority to the West, which equated to a moral and philosophical superiority, a vitally important tenet of Communism. They really couldn't have cared less about the science.

The Americans, while still driven largely by competition with the Soviets, at least were somewhat interested in the scientific gains to be had. Von Braun's Army funded Jupiter/Redstone missile was a capable and fairly well developed vehicle in 1956 and was fully capable of launching a satellite at that time. Unfortunately he had been ordered to ballast the vehicle with sand in order to keep it from eclipsing the cobbled together official "civilian" Vanguard program. So, an American satellite in 1956 using a Von Braun Jupiter was a very realistic scenario.

At no time was there ever a "missle gap". Technologically, the Americans were always ahead and only stupid political interference prevented us from being first. The Russkies got ahead only by taking enormous risks, especially with the manned program, and just got plain lucky. When Kennedy took office, the political interference largely ended and the engineers were left to work their mojo. By the last flights of Mercury we were back in the lead and by Gemini were were surging rapidly forward. The Russkies never got beyond the politics and Khrushchev's constant interference distracted their program into a distant 2nd place.

With all this in mind, I see America being first with Explorer 1 as going one of two ways:

1. The Russkies take their lumps initially, but plod on in heightened secrecy, with their eye on a bigger prize. They perfect the R-7 launcher and launch a series of Sputniks. They initiate the Vostok program at about the same time. The Americans, meanwhile, kind of coast along believing that they are ahead of the Soviets. Mercury is started up pretty much as per OTL, but with a lack of urgency. An accelerated Vostok program puts Yuri Gargarin into orbit in January, 1961 with two more flights by summer. The Americans are caught completely flat footed and stumble along with Mercury, not managing a sub-orbital flight until December, 1961. Scott Carpenter finally orbits a year later, John Glenn's mission having failed to reach orbit (he aborts but survives). The American overall technological superiority reasserts itself at this point and the situation stabilizes and curiously reverses itself. By 1964, the space race is virtually indistinguishable from the OTL.

2. The Soviets goad themselves into greatly accelerating their program due to the need to upstage the Americans. They suffer numerous failures and in April, 1961 manage to kill Yuri Gargarin in an ill advised orbital attempt. They virtually shut down the program at this point and divert the funds to the military. They do manage to secretly orbit several crews later in the deep black military Almaz/Soyuz program, but deny there was ever a space race. The lack of the perceived competition from the Soviets cause the American program to proceed at a leisurely pace. The Mercury flights are completed and the Gemini program finishes in 1966 after six missions. The program converts over to unmanned missions and probes are flown to the Moon, Mars, and Venus by 1970. No manned lunar program is started or contemplated.

So, scenario 1 results in big changes initially, with the OTL reasserting itself eventually. Scenario 2 has the Soviets pretty much backing out of the space race altogether and the American program fading away due to a lack of competition.

Dave
 
Whether or not the US puts up a grapefruit sized satellite before the Russians, when the Russians put up a several tonne Sputnik it's going to cause conniptions in Washington. Not a big a ruckus as OTL, likely, but still major. It might possibly even be bigger, as the complacency and self-congratulations will be shown to be empty and hollow.
 
Whether or not the US puts up a grapefruit sized satellite before the Russians, when the Russians put up a several tonne Sputnik it's going to cause conniptions in Washington. Not a big a ruckus as OTL, likely, but still major. It might possibly even be bigger, as the complacency and self-congratulations will be shown to be empty and hollow.

Sputnik didn't weight several tons. It weighed about 185lbs.

Torqumada
 
Most space race buffs know that the US had a pretty good shot of putting Explorer 1 into orbit a year before Sputnik was launched. But due to Eisenhower's fear of the military industrial complex and complete ineptness in fighting it allowed America's chance it early space supremacy too slip away; which ironically resulted in the myth of the missile gap and the complete victory of the military industrial via that fear.

So we have Explorer 1 and the US in orbit before the Soviets. Does this ironically lead to a Soviet moon landing? Or does the, space race as we knew it never happen?

The reason Eisenhower didn't let a satellite go into orbit sooner wasn't some dreaded fear or the American militray industrial complex, but an uncertainty of international law regarding airspace violations. He didn't want to give the USSR or any other country a pretext for declaring war. He had his people working on UN resolution to do that. Once the Soviets launched Sputnik, it allowed Eisenhower to let the program go forward, since he now had a legal precedence the Soviets couldn't complain about. Now he did cause a delay by letting the civilan based program go first instead of the military one.

Torqumada
 
Sputnik didn't weight several tons. It weighed about 185lbs.

Torqumada
Sputnik 1, yes. That wasn't the shocker. Sputnik 2 at .5 tonnes, with a live animal (poor Laika), and Sputnik 3 at 1.3 tonnes, those were the shockers.

True, I misremembered the mass of Sputniks 2&3, I thought they were larger than they were, but they were both MUCH bigger than anything the US could possibly hope to orbit at the time.
 
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