alternatehistory.com

The moon race hastened development in space a drew, for a short time, massive public support and awe. However, it also helped to ensure that the public stopped caring once the moon was conquered, and before infrastructure was established to keep the US in a long term commitment. In the aftermath, the heavy booster Saturn program was abandoned, as was manned travel beyond Low-Earth-Orbit, as well as grander plans like space stations and moon bases and all that.

But what if NASA, rather than doing that, followed a more "natural" route with a gradual build up to the moon and beyond? That evolution being something like putting a man into space, testing man in space, satellites and probes, a manned space station for long term duration and experimentation and likely some form of reusable space craft to go to the station (the space station would be an anchor keeping interest in space in a way), a mission around the moon, and a moon landing.
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