[Raellus]

Last night, I watched the first two episodes of For All Mankind on Apple TV+. If you're not familiar with the show's premise, the initial Apollo moon mission ends in fiery death, prompting the NASA program managers to pursue a more cautious approach on subsequent missions. As a result, the Soviets land a manned mission on the moon first. I don't want to spoil the show for anyone interested in watching, but the afore mentioned role-reversal sets off a further chain of alternate historical events, leading to a more militarized Cold War space race... (I'm looking forward to watching what happens next).

What I've seen so far got me thinking what the ramifications of a more successful Soviet space program- how this might be a way to explain how the Soviet Union could survive, and even thrive, into the 1990s, in an alternate history timeline.

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