France the first nation on the moon?

With a POD after 1945, can we get the french flag to be the first one planted on the lunar soil?
 

ninebucks

Banned
A French secret agent breaks into the Kennedy Space Centre in 1969 and switches the American flag due to be taken up on Apollo 11 with a French tricolour, and sneaks out without being noticed.

By the time the switcheroo has been noticed, Apollo 11 is already way into space.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin frantically unfurl the Tricolour and, with a pen, scrawl the world 'AMERICA' in block capitals in the middle of the flag. The explain the situation to Houston and suggest that in the remaining days untill they reach the Moon, the administration should consider swiftly changing the design of the American flag to a defaced Tricolour. The suggestion is considered, but ultimately rejected.

When Apollo 11 reaches the Moon, the astronauts end up not planting their new flag, instead, the take it out onto the surface, throw it onto the ground and trample it with their boots - 'planting' it an inch or so into the ground.

Franco-American relations suffer a down-turn.
 
A French secret agent breaks into the Kennedy Space Centre in 1969 and switches the American flag due to be taken up on Apollo 11 with a French tricolour, and sneaks out without being noticed.

By the time the switcheroo has been noticed, Apollo 11 is already way into space.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin frantically unfurl the Tricolour and, with a pen, scrawl the world 'AMERICA' in block capitals in the middle of the flag. The explain the situation to Houston and suggest that in the remaining days untill they reach the Moon, the administration should consider swiftly changing the design of the American flag to a defaced Tricolour. The suggestion is considered, but ultimately rejected.

When Apollo 11 reaches the Moon, the astronauts end up not planting their new flag, instead, the take it out onto the surface, throw it onto the ground and trample it with their boots - 'planting' it an inch or so into the ground.

Franco-American relations suffer a down-turn.
The funny thing is, that sounds like just the kind of thing the 20th century french would do!
 
somehow they are able to take all the German rocket scientist/engineers before the US / Soviet?
or is the pod to late?
what was that comic when the British did this and became the worlds space power?

Edit: Ministry of Space
 
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in 1946 france try to bulid V-2 Rockets, but abandon the Project in 1948 du lack of key V-2 components
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/superv2.htm

but wat if France had those key V-2 components ?

POD Charles de Gaulle become President of the France 4 Republic in 1946
1948 France launch there version of a V-2
1950 test launch R-1 & R-2 rocket aka Super V-2
1955 test launch R2M (a A-9 rocket with 2 big solid Booster)
to prove the R2M works its launch the first satellite in to Orbit "Le Petit Prince"
this shock the world USA , UK , USSR start on there satellite programs

1956 the USA launch "Explorer One" with Redstone, President Eisenhower talk of Man-In-Space-Soonest
1957 France launch the first men in to space (suborbital flight) on R2R
USSR launch the satellite "Spuntik" in world press only on page 10

1960 UK launch there first satellite "Pospero" with Black Prince rocket
1961 USA first suborbital manned space flight, prepare for Orbital flight in 1962
USSR launch Vostok Yuri Gagarin in Orbit, suborbital hops know look pathetic .
1962 USA launch John Glenn in Orbit
Charles de Gaulle give TV Speech to France
"French ! the time are changing, The progress and succes of our great nation are challenged !!
in nuclear or in spaceflight Technology, is time to challenged those nation to prove our great nation,
la France will go to moon...VIVE LA FRANCE !!!"
 
I was thinking about a Communist France sending a spy to infilitrate the American space program, successfully inciting everyone to believe that he is American.

Yeah, I know we have a terrible accent, so this is pretty much ASB, but check this out: just before landing, he is thrown into some kind of killing frenzy due to elaborate French drugs, and proceeds to brutally murder Neil Armstrong and everyone else aboard (you know, a bit like in the Simpsons movie). Then he just stakes him with the French flag! :D

edit: Oooops...apparently, I was not the first to think about that. Just proves there is no other way to get this to happen!
 
France and Britain committ to a joint space program. By themselves neither of them would have the money to achieve such a feat, together they might of had a small chance of at the very least keeping up with the two superpowers.

Obviously this would be greatly bolstered by an earlier incarnation of the European Community of Steel, perhaps including all of Western Europe, although once again you have to remember that it was busy recovering from World War Two in this period. (The European Community of Space and Air Perhaps???)

Of course this would not result in the tri-colour being present on that voyage to the lunar surface, so I guess this doesnt answer the question asked.
 

Jasen777

Donor
Of course this would not result in the tri-colour being present on that voyage to the lunar surface, so I guess this doesnt answer the question asked.

Well, they could put a flag in for every contributing nation, and the person putting the French flag in could be a bit faster...
 
In the wake of the German victory in WW1 France enters into a strategic partnership with Britain for the mutual benefit of both. Ra, ra, ra. The Anglo-French effort to reach the moon first in 1964 is successful by a matter of 9 days. The French astroman, being first down the ladder, plants the tricolour some 2 minutes before the Brit astroman plants the Union Jack. The Germans are furious that their launch was delayed by the automatic shutdown of an engine during their launch attempt a week earlier. Upon inspection a plastic cover is found not have been removed from a part before being installed in the engine.

Ooops, PoD is too early. Oh well, I'm not deleting it now.
 
Cuban Crisis goes hot.
France lands a man on the moon in 1998

France would have been hit in the exchange by tactical and medium ranged soviet bombers operating out of East Germany, Poland, and Czechloslovakia. The idea might work, but I think uerope (western and eastern) would on average be hit at least as hard as, say, CONUS (quite likely harder since the soviets have fewer missiles which can range on the United States, and Russian bombers have less distance to cover).
 
With a POD after 1945, can we get the french flag to be the first one planted on the lunar soil?

1945: French leadership takes a hard look on her resources. Clearly the prospect of fighting large scale colonial war in Indochina is impossible. Vietnam gets independent on premise that democratic elections will follow.

1948: Cold war gets colder with Berlin Crisis. French leadership tries to analyze fortchoming situation. They come into conclusion that it will be nuclear weapons for deterrent and technological leadership for economics which will be most important in the course of the long cold war to follow. Instead of pouring vast amount of money into conventional forces more money is spent to R&D efforts on aeronautical and electronic sectors. At same time there's a spiritual effort to rebrand French identity. Instead of a great power there's effort to rebrand French national image as a country of science and technological ability. Conventional French military budget is vastly cut to 2% of GNP. French technological training at every level is expanded.

1958: To promote International Geophysics Year the first French satellite is launched. President De Gaulle orders immediate effort to put Frenchman first to the orbit to promote French Glory. This effort, in difference with USSR and USA, is the main effort of the French R&D as French atomic bomb is not ready yet, thus there's no need to develop SRBM's and ICBM's yet.

1961: Just two days before mr. Gagarin, Captain Michel Tanguy is the first man on orbit. President De Gaulle holds a speech in which he promises that the sixties will be the decade that France will be the first country to truly leap into the future, an future of atomics and space. As the vanguard of space effort, an intention is made that France will be the first country to have man to step on the moon.

1969: On Bastille Day Lt. Col Michel Tanguy and Major Laverdure step on the Moon. This is a small step for a man, but great step for the glory of France!
 
The Apollo astronauts take the flags of every nation in the world--they're small, pocket-sized flags. Neil Armstrong sets foot on the moon, says his famous words, and then Buzz Aldrin hands him a whole bunch of the flags. One of them falls to the ground, and it's the French one. :D

Or...after 1945 there's an ultra-conservative backlash in the US, and the US focuses on internal problems like civil rights, pollution, the inner cities, stuff like that. Stalin is overthrown in a coup and the military takes over, peacefully, with a non-communist government. The Russians and Europeans cooperate in rebuilding Europe. The US keeps its atomic secrets safe but doesn't do any further nuclear research; the cold war is avoided. China is isolationist and apparently non-threatening.

France and Britain develop aeronautical technologies, France focusing on manned flights, Britain focusing on unmanned flights.

How's that?
 
Well, if we just want the flag there, then how about the French sending some sort of penetrometer probe in for a hard landing? one which has a flag painted on the side. Then technically, they will be the first to have their flag "planted on the lunar soil"...
:D
 
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