Chamberlain's Dream - From British Empire to Imperial Commonwealth

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Paulo the Limey

Technology in the 1970s was barely capable of getting a probe to Mars, let alone achieving orbit, landing, completing science, then returning. Here you have one failure, followed by an unbroken series of successes way in excess of what is achieved in OTL. It's better than the original draft, but still not really plausible. Look at the OTL failure rates for NASA, I fail to see why the Commonwealth programmme would do better than this with way more complex missions.

You've also got to address the political aspect of this. This is a huge investment for the Commonwealth, why is it happening? I'm sure there are some realpolitik reasons behind this, just as there are with the rather esoteric ship names, but it helps if you actually explain them in the timeline.

EDIT:

With three separate space agencies conducting missions to the moon, there doesn't appear to have been a single incident or fatality is any of the programmes. Again, this needs addressing; rocket science was in its infancy, and if we are to assume US/German competition as an analogue of our Cold War race, there will be huge pressure to push the bounds of the achievable which will result in RUDs, deaths, delays and rethinks.
 
Miss Construction

Miss Construction

Paulo the Limey said:
Technology in the 1970s was barely capable of getting a probe to Mars, let alone achieving orbit, landing, completing science, then returning. Here you have one failure, followed by an unbroken series of successes way in excess of what is achieved in OTL. It's better than the original draft, but still not really plausible. Look at the OTL failure rates for NASA, I fail to see why the Commonwealth programmme would do better than this with way more complex missions.

You've also got to address the political aspect of this. This is a huge investment for the Commonwealth, why is it happening? I'm sure there are some realpolitik reasons behind this, just as there are with the rather esoteric ship names, but it helps if you actually explain them in the timeline.

EDIT:

With three separate space agencies conducting missions to the moon, there doesn't appear to have been a single incident or fatality is any of the programmes. Again, this needs addressing; rocket science was in its infancy, and if we are to assume US/German competition as an analogue of our Cold War race, there will be huge pressure to push the bounds of the achievable which will result in RUDs, deaths, delays and rethinks.
Click to expand...

The timeline isn't focused on space exploration so all you've got it some of the highlights. Yes there are accidents and incidents. I do mention challenger. I am already planning a major revision, stretching back to the first war. I'll add a lot more in that revision.

The whole thrust of this is that in aerospace and micro electronics the Commonwealth is considerably ahead of OTL, probably about five years by the early 70s, ten by the late 80s.

It stems from the decision of the Commonwealth to rely on low flying cruise missiles for strategic weapons rather than ballistic missiles. This has given them a leg up here, especially in guidance and communication systems.

Yes a lot does need to be explained, not least that the reason for the Commonwealth success is because they aren't doing it for prestige, they're deliberately doing it to maintain and extend their lead in aerospace. Part of the run down of the Commonwealth military in the 60s and 70s is due to the cost of the space program.

I will add all these details when I do that major revision. For the moment in focused on getting the gross flow of Earth bound geopolitics sorted.

EDIT: Rereading, my.responses might sound dismissive or even hostile. My apologies, I'll put that down to being in day three of my latest battle with the small white cancer sticks. Yes these are very valid points and I do appreciate them. They will be incorporated into the revision.
 
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Nurhaci

I like your work.It maybe due for I especially like Royal Navy.Your new version look like face some bottlelecks.I suggest you can complete all Fleet list
 
Miss Construction

Miss Construction

VERY BELATED POST
At the risk of thread necromancy. This version of the TL has been abandoned. For the exceptionally good reason I personally think it is utter crap. My next attempt was still crap too, but a little better. Things didn't really start improving until my third attempt, but that had serious issues too, requiring a reboot to fix.

The latest iteration can be found here.
Iteration Four
 
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