Eh. Losing sucked the life out of the Soviet program. No reason to think it would have been any different for us in the reverse situation.
Honestly, I think if Kennedy hadn’t been assassinated, there simply wouldn’t have been as much focus on making his moon vision come true. Both sides saw it as a prestige project, with little direct value. So once there was no prestige to be gained by being first, there was no longer any real motivation to continue.
But one thing the US program had that the Soviet program seemed to be missing was a “bus factor”. The Wiki page on the Soviet lunar program has repeated instances where personnel changes (up to and including the Soviet Premier) or key people dying unexpectedly caused significant delays. But that probably argues more for the inevitability of a US victory than as any sort of predictor on what the US would have done after a hypothetical loss in the moon race.
I think it would have continued even if JFK wasn’t assassinated. It was one of the battles of the cold war along with the Berlin airlift, Korea, the Hungarian revolt, Cuban missile crisis and Vietnam.
According to Alexi Leonov, (First man to walk in space). The single point of failure in the Soviet Moon program was the sudden death of their Chief Designer, Korolov. Once he was gone, it went down hill from there. I am using Leonov’s excellent autobiography “Two Sides of the Moon” as my source.
A pity its on Apple TV, where you pay for each individual show you watch – as opposed to Netflix or Prime where you pay a flat monthly rate. I may wait and see if the Blu Ray comes out – but it looks an interesting show.
F.A.M. is also available on Amazon Prime and Vudu for $ 2.99 per episode , less than the $ 3.99 asked at iTunes/AppleTV. I am guessing it will eventually show up as a free stream… somewhere
Maybe losing wouldn’t have been such a bad thing compared to how things have turned out since we won.
Eh. Losing sucked the life out of the Soviet program. No reason to think it would have been any different for us in the reverse situation.
Honestly, I think if Kennedy hadn’t been assassinated, there simply wouldn’t have been as much focus on making his moon vision come true. Both sides saw it as a prestige project, with little direct value. So once there was no prestige to be gained by being first, there was no longer any real motivation to continue.
But one thing the US program had that the Soviet program seemed to be missing was a “bus factor”. The Wiki page on the Soviet lunar program has repeated instances where personnel changes (up to and including the Soviet Premier) or key people dying unexpectedly caused significant delays. But that probably argues more for the inevitability of a US victory than as any sort of predictor on what the US would have done after a hypothetical loss in the moon race.
I think it would have continued even if JFK wasn’t assassinated. It was one of the battles of the cold war along with the Berlin airlift, Korea, the Hungarian revolt, Cuban missile crisis and Vietnam.
Intriguing idea, and RDM makes good TV, so hopefully a good show.
According to Alexi Leonov, (First man to walk in space). The single point of failure in the Soviet Moon program was the sudden death of their Chief Designer, Korolov. Once he was gone, it went down hill from there. I am using Leonov’s excellent autobiography “Two Sides of the Moon” as my source.
A pity its on Apple TV, where you pay for each individual show you watch – as opposed to Netflix or Prime where you pay a flat monthly rate. I may wait and see if the Blu Ray comes out – but it looks an interesting show.
F.A.M. is also available on Amazon Prime and Vudu for $ 2.99 per episode , less than the $ 3.99 asked at iTunes/AppleTV. I am guessing it will eventually show up as a free stream… somewhere