alternatehistory.com

Based off the Soviet moon landing thread...

The main reason why the Soviets lost the space race was the failure of their N-1 heavy lifter, the equivalent of the US Saturn V. However, what is interesting is that the Soviets had rather broader and more ambitious plans for the N-1 than the Americans had for the Saturn V - which was limited to a dozen or so products and production was terminated just before the Apollo-11 moon landing, partly because the Saturn V was inefficiently assembled from parts made all over the USA due to pork-barrel spending by Congress. So if the N-1 succeeded, the result might not be limited to "only" the Soviets landing a man on the moon first.

The history of the N-1 design can be found here if anyone wants to suggest a specific POD based on that.

The Soviets planned to use the N1 to launch massive space stations, manned Mars missions, and even a nuclear-powered upper stage (which the Americans also considered for the Saturn V). Most interestingly, they even considered using the first stage of the N1 to launch a miniature reusable shuttle design as early as 1974, when the US space shuttle was in its earliest planning stages.

Of course in the real world with budget realities not all these things would happen if the N1 worked. But what if it did...?
Top