Roman E wrote:
Well first of all it's going to be an 'issue' at home because it's an utterly failed flight. (The US will have all the needed radar data and the fact that he landed in Canada there's pretty much no way to "spin" this as a success and while it will be an "unofficial" first given the USSR didn't let the US get away with those I don't see the US allowing them the benefit of the doubt here)
(See post: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/what-if-yuri-gagarin-landed-in-north-america.416336/#post-14775366, and an aerial view: http://www.bing.com/maps?&ty=18&q=Yellowknife&satid=id.sid%3a056615e6-d07c-bb79-d847-0dcb5df6a1c5&vdpid=4841196106249404417&mb=62.541874~-114.517967~62.408501~-114.3013&ppois=62.4544715881348_-114.370918273926_Yellowknife_~&cp=62.454472~-114.370918&v=2&sV=1 )
That's some rough territory as well and a bit hard to get to so the first inkling is an "incoming" projectile on a ballistic trajectory and alarms are going to sound. Luckily he's headed for the middle of nowhere... Unfortunately he's headed for the middle of nowhere and getting someone up there to "secure" the situation is going to take some effort. (Did Gagarin speak English?)
A "bad" thing here as brought up previously is Gagarin is not going to be the "official" first man in space, especially once the US gets look at the landing set up and after they launch Alan Sheppard into sub-orbital flight in the near future. So Gagarin is less of a "hero" ITTL because his flight is obviously a "failure" and while he may be give some credit for being unofficially "first" we'd be having "Alan's Night" instead of "Yuri's Night" celebrations.
(The Soviet's got away with it OTL only because they showed a rigged capsule to the FIA officials after the fact whereas here the capsule and systems will be available before the Soviets can jigger them)
Two outcomes from this is a much "closer" Space Race as the US will not have lost both initial 'firsts' to the Russians like OTL. Second there would be a lot of scrambling to ensure the next flight was an obvious success in order to gain back the 'momentum' in the Space Race and to 'prove' the Soviet system is fully capable of ORBITAL rather than SUB-ORBITAL flight. (At this point a very important distinction) There might be pressure on NASA to accelerate Glenn's orbital flight but frankly it's unlikely given the problems with the Atlas and Mercury. (Not to mention pushing NASA any harder given they can point to the Soviet failure as an example)
You may see the canceled Voskhod's re-instated to catch things up
On a darker note of course is what if he's NOT found or does not survive the landing? Hitting one of the lakes in the area, coming down in the forest and getting hung up in a tree, injured or killed... Face to face meeting with a bear... Hunter or trapper in bad lighting... The fact this would be sudden and with almost no way to get word out and assets on scene in short order is a huge potential for disaster. Keep in mind that while the US sees him coming the USSR will have lost him once he goes over the horizon and will have only a vauge notion of where he landed from the ballistics at the time he goes over said horizon. If he or the capsule is "not found" by the US and Candian authorities will they even be believed? Talk about some "Lost Cosmonaut" conspiracy theories...
Randy
What if on his spaceflight, for whatever reason something went wonky and Gagarin made his (safe) re-entry somewhere in North America.
Let's say somewhere remote, so right outside of Yellowknife, NT.
What happens next?
Well first of all it's going to be an 'issue' at home because it's an utterly failed flight. (The US will have all the needed radar data and the fact that he landed in Canada there's pretty much no way to "spin" this as a success and while it will be an "unofficial" first given the USSR didn't let the US get away with those I don't see the US allowing them the benefit of the doubt here)
(See post: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/what-if-yuri-gagarin-landed-in-north-america.416336/#post-14775366, and an aerial view: http://www.bing.com/maps?&ty=18&q=Yellowknife&satid=id.sid%3a056615e6-d07c-bb79-d847-0dcb5df6a1c5&vdpid=4841196106249404417&mb=62.541874~-114.517967~62.408501~-114.3013&ppois=62.4544715881348_-114.370918273926_Yellowknife_~&cp=62.454472~-114.370918&v=2&sV=1 )
That's some rough territory as well and a bit hard to get to so the first inkling is an "incoming" projectile on a ballistic trajectory and alarms are going to sound. Luckily he's headed for the middle of nowhere... Unfortunately he's headed for the middle of nowhere and getting someone up there to "secure" the situation is going to take some effort. (Did Gagarin speak English?)
A "bad" thing here as brought up previously is Gagarin is not going to be the "official" first man in space, especially once the US gets look at the landing set up and after they launch Alan Sheppard into sub-orbital flight in the near future. So Gagarin is less of a "hero" ITTL because his flight is obviously a "failure" and while he may be give some credit for being unofficially "first" we'd be having "Alan's Night" instead of "Yuri's Night" celebrations.
(The Soviet's got away with it OTL only because they showed a rigged capsule to the FIA officials after the fact whereas here the capsule and systems will be available before the Soviets can jigger them)
Two outcomes from this is a much "closer" Space Race as the US will not have lost both initial 'firsts' to the Russians like OTL. Second there would be a lot of scrambling to ensure the next flight was an obvious success in order to gain back the 'momentum' in the Space Race and to 'prove' the Soviet system is fully capable of ORBITAL rather than SUB-ORBITAL flight. (At this point a very important distinction) There might be pressure on NASA to accelerate Glenn's orbital flight but frankly it's unlikely given the problems with the Atlas and Mercury. (Not to mention pushing NASA any harder given they can point to the Soviet failure as an example)
You may see the canceled Voskhod's re-instated to catch things up
On a darker note of course is what if he's NOT found or does not survive the landing? Hitting one of the lakes in the area, coming down in the forest and getting hung up in a tree, injured or killed... Face to face meeting with a bear... Hunter or trapper in bad lighting... The fact this would be sudden and with almost no way to get word out and assets on scene in short order is a huge potential for disaster. Keep in mind that while the US sees him coming the USSR will have lost him once he goes over the horizon and will have only a vauge notion of where he landed from the ballistics at the time he goes over said horizon. If he or the capsule is "not found" by the US and Candian authorities will they even be believed? Talk about some "Lost Cosmonaut" conspiracy theories...
Randy