What if the Apollo 11 crew defected?

Neil Armstrong steps out of the lunar lander but instead of the words we are familiar with he says this, "Hey Houston, I've got two words for ya. We defect!" He then unfurls a Soviet flag the astronauts somehow smuggled on board, and starts singing the Soviet national anthem.

All three astronauts are defecting to the Soviet Union. They intend to land in the ocean near by the Soviet Union or a nation friendly to them and defect as well as giving the soviets the space capsule.
While they are in space I don't see what the US can do about them. When they return I would guess the US would try to intercept them before the Soviets get to them. This could turn into a nasty stand off between both countries if they both arrive in the area at the same time.

First what do you think the first words to come out of Nixon's mouth would be when he sees it?
Second what do you think the repercussions would be when they return, both long term and short term?
 
The Soviet space program was hampered by layers of bureacracy; their scientists and engineers weren't allowed the kind of freedom that NASA had. I doubt an Apollo capsule would have made much of a difference since we already had the knowhow and could still beat them to the Moon with a later mission.

If Neil had done something like that and been caught after coming back they would have airdropped him over Vietnam and used him for target practice :D
 

Sachyriel

Banned
The tape is smuggled out of the studio they faked it in and it is somehow circulated as proof of the fakes, though the United States broascasts the correct version, this one makes it into the Soviet Union under a re-dubbing and editing to make the Astronauts more Cosmonaut-ish.

It proves to be much cheaper than staging the whole thing before hand and even if the Soviet Union didn't get to the fake moon first, it has the effect of making the United States waste a few million dollars to promote a fake Soviet Moon Landing.

Because of this extra million, the Soviet Union can finance a smaller group in some nations and it tips the balance. By the 1975 , even Afganistan has an Iron-fisted Communist Regime put in place by it's own populace.

The nineteen eighties are a big time for the conspiracy theorists as Neil Armstrong tells about a 'practice run' that they held where he held a soviet flag. He talks about this on national television for the 20th anniversary of the 'Landing'. To screw with the states, the Soviet Union releases the "Special 20th Edition Fake American Moon Landing Blooper Reel" and it hits it big, damaging America's reputation so much that it is laughed out of the UN when proposing an orbital weapons ban extensions to other nations gaining space-capabilities.

Because of this, the Soviet Union rushes it's chance with renewed co-operation between it and China, which didn't sign the treaty to ban weapons in space. Around the last decade's start they have a working set of orbiting rockets.

In 1995 the Korean War restarts and a North Korean mole has hacked the orbital rockets, using them to wipe out concentrations of the troops that would be facing North Korea. The US retaliates with three atomic weapons and China moves to intervene and annexes the entire peninsula, while Taiwan suffers from a coup. Within the next year, it comes into the fold as well. Japan is undergoing a bit of under-the-surface tensions as people wonder if life under communism would be safer than American imperialism for that side of the Pacific, and they point to the Orbiting Rockets as their biggest piece of evidence for kicking the United States out and starting their own actual military again.

In 1997 the British give back Hong Kong, and the Chinese communists got a large boost in trade, and in covert partnership with the USSR, begin to undermine the Republic of India, and Pakistan. The Chinese actually succeed in Pakistan, but India isn't really moving to communism quickly.

By 2000 there are increased votes for communism and acts of violence by radical communists in much of the Middle East. Turkey, instead of looking to Europe, looks to the giant bloc of wealth to the East and signs up due to internal pressure. It will be some time for the Middle East to open up entirely, but the doors are unlocked.

Australia puts down a violent socialist riot brutally and the Russians put pressure on the Middle East to stop the flow of Oil to Australia, as China stops exporting in such a great quantity. Australia relents and the opinions that sparked the riot get large amount of talking about, leading to a further socialist government slowly allying itself with it's closer Chinese neighbor.

I've just begun to scratch the surface, but, you can see how the balance is tipping...

2075: The World Socialist Alliance invades the continental US and shuts off it's Nuclear Silos with a psychic phone call. XP
 
Lol Meo.

By 2075 Household nuclear reactor will be omnipresent. Everyone down to the National guard and major businesses will have one, and materials science will harness Neutronium to create effective armors against explosives of this power level.

And, the True power of the world, the Federation of the Canadra, will launch its superweapon to defeat the evil alliance aligned against it.
 
I dubt that anyone willing to do that is recruited as an astronaut at the time but cool WI.

The US shoots them down as they land.

The US still got laws so that is out of question. They might be captured and brought to court but not outright killed.

But it might be *interesting* if both Soviet and US military units tries to pick 'em up.
 
from technical view is possible
the Apollo crew can reprogramm the autopilot for new landing site
like Sea of Okhotsk in nordwest pazifik
by the way the Apollo CM can land on ground - for crew only "harder"

so close to Soviet Union will USA risk a Shot down the Apollo ?

from logical point view
why should Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins defect ?
they are "king of Hill" on way back to Earth, the first men on Moon.
why give up all the Glory for life long stay in USSR ?

here is the Problem of the POD

more likely that Sovjet Cosmonauts defect with a Soyuz to USA !
(that one reasion why Soyuz is mostly automatic or backup remote control until end USSR)
 
from logical point view
why should Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins defect ?
they are "king of Hill" on way back to Earth, the first men on Moon.
why give up all the Glory for life long stay in USSR ?

Well it's theoretically possible they could be spies who infiltrated the program with the intent of destroying it, or more likely one of them was a spy and forced the other to cooperate somehow.

Alternatively, maybe renegade astronauts rejected from the program because of their ugliness or dubious political leanings tie up Armstrong and co just before launch, sneak onto the rocket, and go to the moon in their place. We're getting into 1970s disaster movie territory, but it would at least be amusing.

Could ground control take over control of the capsule at any point and "accidentally" press the big red button (reprogram the autopilot, etc)? I think it would have made a good (i.e. bad) film in the 1970s.
 
The most likely scenario is for the astronauts to veer their course as they come down, to a pre-determined position prepared for soviet pick-up. Then, they announce defection only after the soviets have the capsule.

Unfortunately, there is a logistical problem. The incoming trajectory is very narrow and difficult to control on a last minute basis. Remember (from the movie Apollo 13), Walter Cronkite held a sheet of paper next to a desk globe and said the safe path is narrower than the thickness of the paper compared to the globe.
 
Neil Armstrong steps out of the lunar lander but instead of the words we are familiar with he says this, "Hey Houston, I've got two words for ya. We defect!" He then unfurls a Soviet flag the astronauts somehow smuggled on board, and starts singing the Soviet national anthem.

All three astronauts are defecting to the Soviet Union. They intend to land in the ocean near by the Soviet Union or a nation friendly to them and defect as well as giving the soviets the space capsule.
While they are in space I don't see what the US can do about them. When they return I would guess the US would try to intercept them before the Soviets get to them. This could turn into a nasty stand off between both countries if they both arrive in the area at the same time.

First what do you think the first words to come out of Nixon's mouth would be when he sees it?
Second what do you think the repercussions would be when they return, both long term and short term?

Why do they defect? All 3 astronauts are extremely patriotic and certainly wont defect to the Soviet Union.
 
These Apollo 11 astronauts if they defected to USSR, US would shoot them down on their return from the Moon.


In this scenario i guess Apollo mission will suffer from an "ipredictable" falliure that will kill all the crew... If it is possible to smuggle a soviet flag it is also possible to smuggle other stuff, the kind of stuff that goes BOOOOOM if you push a button from, say, the oval office....
 
In this scenario i guess Apollo mission will suffer from an "ipredictable" falliure that will kill all the crew... If it is possible to smuggle a soviet flag it is also possible to smuggle other stuff, the kind of stuff that goes BOOOOOM if you push a button from, say, the oval office....
Or Mission control just happens to "loose contact" with the Command Module.
 
Top