Power to Explore

Power to Explore #1

"It's too damn expensive, we can't do that!"
- JFK, on reading LBJ's memo recommending a moon landing

Kennedy was not trilled with his options. After the Russians first beat the US
into space, and then humiliated his counter-revolution in Cuba, things were
not looking good. He need some way to push back, but the best that Johnson
could come up with was to suggest landing on the Moon! Space seemed the way,
but there had to be something cheaper.

Seeking alternatives, Kennedy had Johnson create a committee to propose
cheaper options for beating the Soviets. After a month of work, their results
were presented to the President in June 1961. The committee laid out three
goals for the end of the decade:

* 6-man space station
* Piloted recoverable rocket with Atlas-class performance
* Nuclear rocket with 80,000 lbs thrust

Saturn III (formerly C-3) will launch space station in 1967, and could launch
a full lunar landing mission with the help of the nuclear rocket engine. Crews
will reach the station with Apollo vehicles launched on Saturn I (C-1). The
recoverable rocket, XSLV-6, is a joint project with USAF, and will be used to
support the Dyna-Soar program*.

The estimated cost of these three goals was considered to be a tenth of the
proposed moon landing, but would develop all the technologies needed to
perform that landing. In addition, the committee was assured by Intelligence
that all three fields were areas the US could beat the USSR.

Kennedy accepted their proposals, and a week later announced them at a press
conference at the White House.

*Actually, it's to support KH-8 spysats, but Dyna-Soar is good cover.
 
Power to Explore #1

"It's too damn expensive, we can't do that!"
- JFK, on reading LBJ's memo recommending a moon landing

Kennedy was not trilled with his options. After the Russians first beat the US
into space, and then humiliated his counter-revolution in Cuba, things were
not looking good. He need some way to push back, but the best that Johnson
could come up with was to suggest landing on the Moon! Space seemed the way,
but there had to be something cheaper.

Seeking alternatives, Kennedy had Johnson create a committee to propose
cheaper options for beating the Soviets. After a month of work, their results
were presented to the President in June 1961. The committee laid out three
goals for the end of the decade:

* 6-man space station
* Piloted recoverable rocket with Atlas-class performance
* Nuclear rocket with 80,000 lbs thrust

Saturn III (formerly C-3) will launch space station in 1967, and could launch
a full lunar landing mission with the help of the nuclear rocket engine. Crews
will reach the station with Apollo vehicles launched on Saturn I (C-1). The
recoverable rocket, XSLV-6, is a joint project with USAF, and will be used to
support the Dyna-Soar program*.

The estimated cost of these three goals was considered to be a tenth of the
proposed moon landing, but would develop all the technologies needed to
perform that landing. In addition, the committee was assured by Intelligence
that all three fields were areas the US could beat the USSR.

Kennedy accepted their proposals, and a week later announced them at a press
conference at the White House.

*Actually, it's to support KH-8 spysats, but Dyna-Soar is good cover.


So why exactly has Kennedy changed his mind about the moon program he had already consulted NASA on and been assured was feasible before he made his OTL speech on May 25th? The one area in which NASA felt they had a good chance of beating the Russians?
 
Oooh! Maybe this stands a chance of allowing a Soviet victory in the Moon Race. Given their usually persistent and methodical style, I doubt they'll drop the ball after. That may force the U.S. to get to work on their own Lunar program.

With continuing competition, by the '90s, or earlier, moon-based propellant and maybe tankage manufacturing may be starting up and those big solar power satellites look pretty darn plausible.

Oh, yeah. And all those space stations, recoverable rockets and nuclear thermal goodies may prove cool, too :) .
 
So why exactly has Kennedy changed his mind about the moon program he had already consulted NASA on and been assured was feasible before he made his OTL speech on May 25th? The one area in which NASA felt they had a good chance of beating the Russians?

Presumably, some time before the speech a POD occurred which shook NASAs confidence. My knowledge of earlier Apollo history is pretty shaky, so I don't have any suggestions, but I'll see if I can do a little research.
 
Oooh! Maybe this stands a chance of allowing a Soviet victory in the Moon Race. Given their usually persistent and methodical style, I doubt they'll drop the ball after. That may force the U.S. to get to work on their own Lunar program.

That's why this won't work as stands. The threat that Kennedy had to address is the USSR planting the Hammer and Sickle on the moon first. Once NASA told him it was technically possible there was no other lesser objective that would guarantee showing US superiority. No one in 61' knew how much it would really cost or how long it would take. It's a myth that NASA was taken by surprise by Kennedy's announcement of the Moon as the objective but they were taken aback by the time scale.
The notion that Kennedy rejects the moon program because it will be expensive is far fetched to say the least and simply ignores the Cold War politics of the time.
 
So why exactly has Kennedy changed his mind about the moon program he had already consulted NASA on and been assured was feasible before he made his OTL speech on May 25th? The one area in which NASA felt they had a good chance of beating the Russians?

It's quite a stretch to say NASA as a whole felt confident about beating the Russians to the Moon, or that a Moon landing was the only thing on the table. Retrospective analysis tends to focus on the Moon, but you get a much different feel from reading primary sources from the time. While a lunar flyby was certainly in the cards (with proposals due in the Fall of 1961), a landing wasn't considered as possible until at least 1975. At the same time, there were numerous space station proposals, the Dyna-Soar program was very active, and the first nuclear rockets were being tested in Nevada.

So, what JFK decides to do is keep that 1975 goal for landing, but really push the interim steps as being significant. They might not beat the Russians to one of the goals, but they can beat them to all three. Plus, note that all three goals have military implications, meaning a much more militant space race...

This is very much a TL inspired by real documented proposals from 1959-63, and I'll post those proposals as I go along.
 
Top