Discuss @AndyC 's latest article here
Definitely.I suspect if we literally have 'Soviets land on the moon in 1970' there would be a lot of pressure from the top in the USSR to get the first moon base.
A TL where the Soviets get the first circumlunar flight, the Americans get the first lunar landing, and the Soviets start making a lunar base... could get interesting.
I'm pretty sure if the Americans still landed on the moon first they'd declare victory and leave the Soviets 'the scraps' the seventies were not a decade for spending big bucks on a PR stunt between Vietnam, Watergate, the economy running into a wall and all the rest. Who is going to be pushing for more space stuff on the American side?
I'm pretty sure if the Americans still landed on the moon first they'd declare victory and leave the Soviets 'the scraps' the seventies were not a decade for spending big bucks on a PR stunt between Vietnam, Watergate, the economy running into a wall and all the rest. Who is going to be pushing for more space stuff on the American side?
If the Soviets are about to plonk bases on the moon, I'd expect a push for more space in America but your point on the economy & political strife raises the question: what if the push is crap, half-arsed without enough funding? What would that do for American politics and the national mood if the USSR is proudly building Lunagrad and NASA's stuff is falling to bits? Which of course could mean the Soviets slack off after a vanity base which then sits there, cosmonauts swimming in their own farts for no reason.
(Alternatively, what if the US decides it's too expensive to be this alone but not if it can get friendly nation's space agencies to add some cash for a 'international' mission)
Thanks for the link; I hadn't actually seen those before.Great article! Korolev living is something of an interesting PoD, since you still might've been able to pull off just a bit further then they got (with say being able to get a crewed lunar flyby before Apollo 8 flies for example).
Oh, if I might ask @AndyC, have you ever read this bit on the insights from the Mishin Diaries? It's something rather interesting as it does give some rather fascinating information on what the Soviet lunar planning was like.
Indeed, a bit harder to credibly say "Moon Race? What Moon Race? Oh, that silly thing you Americans were obsessing about, right? Oh, no, we were only ever going for... um... space stations, yes, space stations. You know, to find out what could be usefully made in orbit and how to live in space for prolonged time, rather than just a silly stunt. Yes, that's it"This is actually something I've always thought about every now and then, considering what it'd do. One of the big things the Soviets getting a crewed circumlunar flight first would actually indicate the Soviets were also on the race towards the moon and didn't lie about it later on (by saying they were never on the race to the moon because of their effort just failing disastrously).
I'd 100% agree that there'd be the effort by the Soviets to work on a lunar base so they can achieve that 'first', with the US also being sort of faced into contending with that (the US likely looking at longer duration flights with existing hardware, such as the proposed six/seven-day flights with the Lunar Module).
Thanks for the link; I hadn't actually seen those before.
Indeed, a bit harder to credibly say "Moon Race? What Moon Race? Oh, that silly thing you Americans were obsessing about, right? Oh, no, we were only ever going for... um... space stations, yes, space stations. You know, to find out what could be usefully made in orbit and how to live in space for prolonged time, rather than just a silly stunt. Yes, that's it"
So they'd either have to actually admit defeat (psychologically very difficult, given the mindsets of the Soviet Leadership), or take it at least a bit further to declare the "real victory". The former isn't impossible, but the latter is more plausible.