The Next Step: An alternate history

[Pr0xima]

May 24th, 1957

“3.. 2.. 1.. Ignition! Liftoff!” The Jupiter-C team watches as their mighty rocket lifts off from the pad, carrying the first ever satellite into orbit. The project had been going on for years, and had been in constant peril the entire time as the Navy with their Vanguard program competed for funding. But it seems like the years of grueling effort have finally paid off. America is the first country to reach Low Earth Orbit.

 

Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union…

 

The upper government is in chaos from the American launch of Explorer-1. They had seen it coming, of course- nothing can be hidden from Soviet spies. But they had no way of responding. The first Sputnik satellite wouldn’t be ready for months. If the Soviets weren’t able to compete with the Americans in space, who knows what they could do? They could send down nuclear weapons from orbit, for instance, or create spy satellites with cameras that could see all of the Soviet’s activities from afar. The advantage that the Americans would get if the Soviets didn’t attempt to achieve a superior space force was immense. They needed a way to avoid it. They needed to beat the Americans.

...

But at what?
 

 

The Americans had already gotten to orbit first. But they hadn’t started a manned space program yet.

 

June 9th, 1957

 

Vostok program started

 

[tinyspy44]

This seems like an interesting plot. Perhaps you could include the PKA Spaceplane as part of the plot. http://www.astronautix.com/p/pka.html, it is essentially the Soviet Dynasoar equivalent.

Edited September 15, 2022 by tinyspy44
Adding context

[raptor-m]

based. The alt history community is growing, keep it up

[Pr0xima]

Quote

 Perhaps you could include the PKA Spaceplane as part of the plot. 

Interesting idea, I'll look into it 

Edited September 15, 2022 by Pr0xima
clarification

[Pr0xima]

September 17th, 1957

 

Baikonur Launch Site, Soviet Union

 

The massive R-7 rocket looms over the pad at Baikonur as engineers tend to it to make sure it is ready for the launch of the first Soviet satellite, Sputnik 1. The rocket is slated to launch tomorrow, and it’s critical that every single part of the rocket is in top-notch shape before it lifts off from the pad. A couple engineers are having a conversation while walking towards the main town of Baikonur, and the bars. 

 

"Why don't we try that new place that opened up last night?"

 

"I don't know, how about that other one we went to last week? Don't they still have that double-strength vodka-

Over 20 engineers and staff were killed in the accident. The launch site was badly damaged, but not completely destroyed, allowing for another launch attempt 2 months later.  Sputnik would eventually orbit on the third of November, 1957. The Americans were none the wiser of the incident, but the 2 month delay only helped increase their belief that the Soviets were no match for the Americans in the playing field of space.

[Geonovast]

Moved to The Lounge as this appears to not involve KSP.

[kerbiloid]

The R-7 ICBM testing would keep going on like it did previously, and one of them would be spent on the satellite launch.

Not so much hype would happen, as the first American sats were too tiny to be useful in military sense, while R-7 was designed to carry a megaton-class warhead or a spysat.

[SunlitZelkova]

15 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

The R-7 ICBM testing would keep going on like it did previously, and one of them would be spent on the satellite launch.

Not so much hype would happen, as the first American sats were too tiny to be useful in military sense, while R-7 was designed to carry a megaton-class warhead or a spysat.

True, but the R-7 didn’t have the upper stages to lift a sat when it launched Sputnik- only a rather militarily useless ball- and the Americans went bonkers.

My issue would be getting the Americans to launch their satellite first. The military and political bureaucracy that kept it down was just as immovable as the things that doomed the N1 program.

It seems the author is doing a simple “what if things were like this” rather than “what if this one thing happened how would it change everything” though, in which case it is no issue  The former is actually my favored form for alternate history too.

Looking forward to further updates!

Edited September 16, 2022 by SunlitZelkova

[kerbiloid]

11 minutes ago, SunlitZelkova said:

R-7 didn’t have the upper stages to lift a sat when it launched Sputnik- only a rather militarily useless ball- and the Americans went bonkers.

It launched all three first Sputniks, up to 1327 kg (the third one), so it was able even to put a megaton warhead in orbit without an upper stage.

Or Mercury.

[pTrevTrevs]

On 9/15/2022 at 4:43 PM, Geonovast said:

Moved to The Lounge as this appears to not involve KSP.

FWIW, I'm pretty sure the first image in the thread is KSP. Isn't that the BDB Juno I?

[Pthigrivi]

Wait are you ready?

In November of 1957, unbuoyed by technological success and weighed down by falling living standards and fallout from the “secret speech” Nikita Khrushchev is ousted by the Central Committee in favor of the still-alive in this universe Leon Trotsky, who returns from hiding to enact broad reforms in the USSR…

Edited September 17, 2022 by Pthigrivi

[kerbiloid]

... but was beaten by secretly survived Sergei Kirov leading a fleet of atomic zeppelins of his name.

[Pr0xima]

January 18th, 1958

With the launch of Sputnik-2 and Laika, the Americans are feeling a bit less sure about their absolute superiority in space. The Soviets had just shot a 1000 pound satellite into orbit, with a dog onboard, no less. The Americans couldn't compete with that. They needed some way to retain their superiority in space.


February 28th, 1957

 

United States of America

The X-Plane program. It had achieved some of the most incredible feats in human history, and it seems there would be no limits to how far it could go. Behind closed doors, the U.S. Air Force had been working on the X-15 for years; a spaceplane set to test the true limits of how fast and how high an aircraft could go. But now it was to have another goal: To send the first man into space.

[kerbiloid]

... in a mission of no return, as it was just a fast plane with pressurized cabin for short jumping up, requiring Titan II+ to be put in orbit and then burn without a heatshield.

(15 t of total mass)

Edited September 18, 2022 by kerbiloid

[Maria Sirona]

On 9/17/2022 at 7:40 AM, kerbiloid said:

... but was beaten by secretly survived Sergei Kirov leading a fleet of atomic zeppelins of his name.

But then Sergei Korolyov overthrew him because their names are too similar, and subsequently led the Soviet Union to colonise the red planet Mars

Edited September 19, 2022 by Maria Sirona

[kerbiloid]

13 minutes ago, Maria Sirona said:

red planet Mars

Red. You get it right. Red. Yes.