What if Joint US-USSR Space Program?

Just thinking off the top of my head, it might have been possible if Kennedy didn't get killed. The combination of American and Soviet skills in various examples (for example, moon landings & space stations) could definitely lead to some very interesting things.

Also, I just had a weird image of a Saturn V powered by a bunch of RD-170s.
 

JRScott

Banned
Going back before Kennedy if you perhaps change the end of WWII a bit where the United States gives more support and assistance to Russia to rebuild after the war it might have gone a long ways to have made better relations that would butterfly down thru time resulting in more cooperation over time.

This would probably lean to a US/USSR/China vs French/Britain on the security council setup (instead of the OTL USSR/China vs USA/French/Britain in the decades after the end of the war).

Such an alignment means the US military buildup after the war isn't really needed as they don't see the USSR as a threat, no European bases, money spent on that could have been spent on space exploration etc.

Britain and Frances military would be stronger than in the OTL as they would fear probably a USSR/USA/China attack. They would be the primary occupiers of Western Germany etc.
 
Stalin didn't trust the West either

For a POD, have Stalin die in April 1944, and FDR living till 1948, hopefully longer. Molotov will take control of the USSR, and is a die-hard Stalinist, but is not Stalin, so needs support to rule. FDR sets looser strings to aid, and East Europe is Finladized (spelling?) instead of forcibly communistic. France, Italy, Greece, and Czechoslavakia (spelling?) all have strong, legally elected Communist parties.
Although USA/USSR are anti-imperialist, neither will go to war over it. The key IMHO is to avoid the Cold War, ironically, as that means both sides see the world as a zero sum game.
Another POD might be Malenkov/Beria attempt detente in 1953, but I need a nap... I just keep thinking of Watchmen for the POD...
 

Phyrx

Banned
The thing is, if there's no Cold War, there's no Space Race. I suppose they might still do a joint mission, but it will probably be in 1999, not 1969, if at all.
 
Thinking about Watchmen

Early 1960's, so Cold War same before that. Butterfly away Kennedy assasination. Maybe a smallish asteroid hits somewhere in the world, preferably not USA/USSR just so they can devote more resources to space, and destroys a city. World panics, science community mumbles about Near Earth Objects, Khruschev boast that the worker's paradise will build a lunar outpost with a telescope to scan for more, and mockingly offers the decandent capitalists to help.

Kennedy accepts, and we get a permanent outpost. No real ideas beyond that, but figure no Vietnam War, lesser Great Society, more money for space. I also think it will be like the ISS today; regular and boring, ties the US to a space program, but might not excite voters into something grandoise.
 
Just have Kennedy survive, and keep it under wraps until he gets reelected.

Kennedy had already announced it by the time he died.

This prompted Congress to pass legislation whereby, if the United States cooperated with the Soviet Union in Space (don't recall if the Moon race or Space in general), all funding would be cut from NASA. Kennedy was fighting that at the time of his death, but I don't see him getting it overturned.
 

JRScott

Banned
Just have Kennedy survive, and keep it under wraps until he gets reelected.


Wouldn't be enough, Khrushchev would leave General Secretary position in 1964, any hope of a joint space mission assuming that history remains the same would be in Kennedy's 2nd term if at all possible, Congress is very unlikely to pass such in an election year.
 
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