| abstract
| - 1944: Production of the V2 is put on hold as the Red Army comes closer to Berlin. 1945: Operation Paperclip is launched by the Americans. Many Nazi scientists leave Europe with their families for the US and work with the government. MI6 launches a similar operation to retrieve intelligence and hears about Operation Paperclip. 1946: With the Second World War over the remaining Nazi scientists in the UK are granted citizenship through MI6's knowledge of OP. A young scientist going by the name of Werner von Braun moves to the US with blueprints of the Vergeltungswaffen (Vengeance weapon) 1956: After years of working with the USAF, Von Braun submits his idea of a government funded space program to Congress, they approve of his idea. NASA is created with Von Braun as head of staff. 1957: The USSR launch the first artificial satellite Sputnik 1. This is a shock to the US as they struggle to launch the Explorer prototype, but eventually succeed. Britain looks at a crown-funded space program. The USSR celebrates their success on state radio and television. 1958: President Kennedy challenges the Soviets to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. The Russians reply with sending Luna 1, but impacts into the lunar surface, a blow to the Soviet space program. Meanwhile, the Brits launched a small satellite but it crashes into the English Channel. 1959: The British Government gains assistance from the newly formed NASA, helping the British Space Agency. Project Mercury is started at Huntsville, Alabama to achieve manned spaceflight. Soviet probe Luna 2 makes a hard landing on the moon, the first probe to do so. 1960: The US unmanned lunar program flops with most probes crashing into the lunar surface, the USSR's manned program is going swimmingly with some candidates already being chosen as the US does the same with the Mercury project. The US follows the Russians success with Luna 2 by landing the Ranger probes, the first two fail at launch but Ranger 3 sends back images of the moon to an excited public. 1961: The USSR shocks the world by sending the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin spent two hours in space before landing in Kazakhstan. The US catches up three months later with John Glenn in a suborbital trajectory, the Mercury project is a success for NASA and boosts US morale. To help practice with rendezvous with other spacecraft and practicing EVA's, NASA puts the green light on Project Gemini, with applicants being selected. 1962: Vostok's 3 and 4 orbit simultaneously as the USSR work on their lunar program. The US looks at the possibility of an armed spacecraft. The US lunar program starts with a prototype Lunar lander being designed. The program is named Apollo with the first test flights starting in 1964. 1963: The first manned version of Gemini, Gemini 3, is launched at Cape Canaveral, with Gus Grissom and John Young at the controls. The flight is a success and they land safely in the Pacific Ocean. Gemini 4 becomes the first mission to perform an EVA, Micheal Collins performs the world's first spacewalk above Australia. The US public believe that they can beat the USSR in the Space Race. The USSR follows with Yuri Gagarin, performing the first space walk by the USSR. (Gagarin died in a plane crash in OTL). 1964: President Kennedy announces that the Soviet space program is catching up to the US on live television and suggests nuclear disarmament for a peaceful world. (Kennedy survives his assassination attempt by surgery and Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested.) Technicians at NASA recommend upgrading the computers at Houston, the R&D team at Huntsville upgrades the computers in the Apollo lunar and command modules. The US and USSR cut defense spending, this shocks the world as it shows how serious they are with the Space Race. 1965: The US sends Apollo 8 around the moon, the three astronauts are the first to see the dark side fo the moon. With practice from the Gemini program the rendezvous is a success and Gordon Cooper, James Lovell and Edward H. White splash down off the coast of Hawaii. The USSR sends an unmanned Zond craft around the moon. The first unmanned probe to Mars is sent by the USSR, Mars 1 does a fly-by and takes photos of Mars' satellite Phobos and the surface, showing large mountain ranges and canyons. 1966: The US prepare for a manned landing in two years time, the USSR send a manned Zond craft around the moon with two cosmonauts, Gherman Titov and Alexi Leonov perform the first EVA in lunar orbit after the solar panels on the Zond II fail to open, leaving the craft underpowered for a few hours, although the EVA was improvised, the craft landed safely in a field in the Ukraine SSR. The British Space program, plagued by debt gets put on hold indefinitely. Meanwhile, the Soviets and the US share their computing technology. 1967: The USSR lands a manned spacecraft on the moon, the Space Race is not over though, with the US wanting peace with the Soviets, announcing that they will land the following year and build a moon base. The US accepts the challenge of continuing the Space Race. The Outer Space Treaty is signed by the USSR, the UK and the USA, prohibiting weapons of mass destruction on the moon and earth orbit. Puerto Rico is given statehood and becomes the 51st US state. 1968: Project Horizon, a USAF project of a military base on the moon is restarted after being deemed to controversial. A small fleet of Saturn V rockets are built as the US moon landing reaches its final stages. Apollo 10 lands on the moon with Michael Collins and James Lovell in the Lunar lander, Lovell quotes the famous line: "We came in peace for all mankind." The crew put the US flag onto the surface along with a memorial to the deceased USSR and US astronauts. After three hours of experiments the crew leave the Lunar surface and land in the Pacific near Australia about 456 km off course. 1969: Leonid Breznev and the newly elected Richard Nixon convene in East Berlin to propose a joint moon base. The plans succeed and a joint US-USSR unmanned program to the inner and outer planets is also approved. With the upgraded hardware from the R&D team at Huntsville, the Soviets develop the Soyuz craft as an upgrade to the aging Vostok fleet. The Americans look at building a scientific base in Earth Orbit, the project is called Skylab, the space station will be built from Apollo hardware.
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