Red Moon.

In September 1969 Alexei Leonov is the third man on the moon.

9782756018669v.jpg


In Moscow Leonid Breznev announces to world:
"Soviet Union is on the moon to stay.
We build a base on the moon by 1980".
How this can change the American space program?
 

Cook

Banned
NASA doesn’t suffer cutbacks and dreams of an American Moonbase don’t die with Spiro Agnew’s resignation.
 

Cook

Banned
:D

Let’s just hope Alexei remembers to plant the flag further away from the Luna Lander so that it doesn’t get blown over by the launch blast like Apollo 11’s did.
 
NASA continues the lunar program. Month-long stays (perhaps launched by thrust-augmented Saturn Vs, whether with 4 SRBs or 4 liquid boosters), eventually a base somewhere (hopefully the south pole). Perhaps there will be a Venus flyby or Mars flyby, even a landing on Mars. Soviets might get a flyby too.
 

Cook

Banned
...Month-long stays (perhaps launched by thrust-augmented Saturn Vs, whether with 4 SRBs or 4 liquid boosters),

I like Freeman Dyson’s proposed alternative.

Every second and third launch is replaced with an unmanned cargo vessel, vastly extending the stay of each two man crew that goes.

And sending some geologists and other scientists wouldn’t hurt. Only one trained geologist has walked on the Moon.
 
In September 1969 Alexei Leonov is the third man on the moon.

9782756018669v.jpg


In Moscow Leonid Breznev announces to world:
"Soviet Union is on the moon to stay.
We build a base on the moon by 1980".
How this can change the American space program?

From the looks of it, the POD is a single change in the Russian space program.

From the memories of Korolev:

"We had spies in NASA analyzing every single bit of American technology and technique used so that it could be adapted into our program and subsequently improved."

"So we replaced the overcomplicated American computers with the superior brains of our cosmonauts and reliable mechanical calculators, the shielding with titanium and ablative ceramics and the foods the astronauts were eating with easily sourced local equivalents."

"Sadly, our spies in the NASA astronaut traning program had been compromised by the CIA and fed the wrong information. By the time we found out, Comrade Leonov was the only pilot available for the crucial third Luna mission."

"On hindsight, we should have realized that it was a bit odd that nearly every meal for the cosmonauts had two large pork obzhorchiki with extra mayo."

"Nichevo. We managed to recalculate the fuel consumption for the extra forty kilos and wedged him into the capsule. It all ended well."

"Of course, except for the two agents who got us the nutrition plan. They got to think about what they'd done while cleaning the outside walls. On Vostok Antarctic Research Station. With a toothbrush."
 

Cook

Banned
"So we replaced the overcomplicated American computers with the superior brains of our cosmonauts and reliable mechanical calculators, the shielding with titanium and ablative ceramics and the foods the astronauts were eating with easily sourced local equivalents."

This is hilarious!

Calculating orbital rendezvous in their heads were they?
 
From the looks of it, the POD is a single change in the Russian space program.

From the memories of Korolev:

"We had spies in NASA analyzing every single bit of American technology and technique used so that it could be adapted into our program and subsequently improved."

"So we replaced the overcomplicated American computers with the superior brains of our cosmonauts and reliable mechanical calculators, the shielding with titanium and ablative ceramics and the foods the astronauts were eating with easily sourced local equivalents."

"Sadly, our spies in the NASA astronaut traning program had been compromised by the CIA and fed the wrong information. By the time we found out, Comrade Leonov was the only pilot available for the crucial third Luna mission."

"On hindsight, we should have realized that it was a bit odd that nearly every meal for the cosmonauts had two large pork obzhorchiki with extra mayo."

"Nichevo. We managed to recalculate the fuel consumption for the extra forty kilos and wedged him into the capsule. It all ended well."

"Of course, except for the two agents who got us the nutrition plan. They got to think about what they'd done while cleaning the outside walls. On Vostok Antarctic Research Station. With a toothbrush."


:confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused:
 
NASA continues the lunar program. Month-long stays (perhaps launched by thrust-augmented Saturn Vs, whether with 4 SRBs or 4 liquid boosters), eventually a base somewhere (hopefully the south pole). Perhaps there will be a Venus flyby or Mars flyby, even a landing on Mars. Soviets might get a flyby too.

Yeah, pretty much. Nixon is going to ask for a Mars mission, probably. Certainly Paine won't look like a tool ITTL...
 
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