https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=164540
My old thread got way too confusing when I tried to write longer passages, so I'm resetting the timeline. I might use my abandoned ideas later in another TL.
Prologue
January 5, 1989
Sally Ride steadied herself as she prepared to take the first step onto Mars. It wouldn't do to have the first step turn into a fall, no sirree, it wouldn't.
But what words should be chosen? She had thought long and hard about it, and asked all sorts of people for suggestions, including the crew of Athena 5 (Robert Zubrin had given her some pretty good suggestions, but none of them seemed to have that spark needed, the spark that Aldrin's famous words on the moon ("That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for all humanity") had.
Suddenly, it came to Ride what she should say. Combining the words on Apollo 9's LM descent stage's plaque with some of her own would work.
And so the first words on Mars were:
"We come in peace, not just to explore, to discover, but for all humanity."
===
December 8, 1957
Cape Canaveral, Florida
"Looks like the tank pressure's a bit low- perhaps we should raise it?"
And with that instruction, a random launch manager would ensure that the first Vanguard launch would be successful...