Timeline

Able Artemis is set in an alternate history where the space race never ended. This page documents major events in the timeline from the point of divergence to the present.

1950s

1954

• John and Allen Dulles, Secretary of State and Director of the CIA respectively, are killed in a car crash in Washington D.C. celebrating John's birthday. Partisan infighting sends the US State Department into turmoil.
• The 1954 Geneva Convention secures a meaningful peace deal for Vietnam. The interim US delegation fails to secure the backing of either western or regional powers for military intervention, and has no choice but to back the peace deal.

1957

• The Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, shortly followed by Laika, the first animal (a dog), into orbit.

1959

• The Soviet Union launches the first spacecraft to visit lunar orbit, with Luna 1 performing the first flyby and Luna 3 transmitting the first photographs of the far side of the moon back to Earth.

1960s

1961

• Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepherd become the first men in space.
• Both the Soviet and US governments officially begin making plans to land a man on the moon.

1963

• John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas, USA. The CIA capture Lee Harvey Oswald and accuse him of being a Soviet spy bent on derailing the US space program.
• Lyndon B. Johnson publicly commits to permanent American habitation of the moon by the end of 1975, whilst also allocating a significant increase in the US defence budget to space defence.

1964

• Sergei Korolev, Chief Designer of the Soviet space program, is diagnosed with bowel cancer after being taken ill. Surgery is successful, but he stands down from his position in the light of his failing health.
• Vladimir Chelomei is promoted to Chief Designer. The Soviet government publicly announces that they will found a lunar settlement before the Americans.

1966

• Chelomei's bureau reveals the existence of the prototype UR-700, named the Super-Proton, superheavy rocket to the world, surprising American observers who were convinced Korolev's N1 program was the primary focus of the Soviet moonshot program.

1967

• The Soviet Union successfully launch a circumlunar mission using a UR-500 Proton rocket, putting the first men into lunar orbit. A failure in the CO2 scrubbers kills one of the two cosmonauts, a fact hidden from the public but identified by the CIA.

• Apollo 1, intended to be the first crewed launch of the Apollo program, suffers a fire on the launchpad which kills all three astronauts onboard.
• The USA launch the world's first space station, the Orbital Reef, reusing a specially modified Saturn V second stage known as a Wet Workshop.

1969

• Apollo 11 performs the first crewed landing on the moon.
• Delays in proving the Super-Proton cause the Soviet moon program to miss their initial deadline for a lunar landing, but manage to land three cosmonauts on the moon before the end of the year. A failure in the ascent stage strands the mission on the moon.

1970s

1970

• Multiple successive uncrewed Soviet landers successfully construct a makeshift base on the moon for the three stranded cosmonauts. The resulting structure is christened Zvezda.
• NASA place a Wet Workshop station in lunar orbit, christened the Lunar Gateway, in anticipation of permanent settlement.
• The Soviet Union launch their first space station, Salyut-1.

1971

• NASA land the first module of Horizon Base, but the first crew leave after three weeks before the lunar night begins due to power storage issues.
• The Soviet Union launches the military Luna-Almaz station into lunar orbit, marking the first permanent explicitly military installation on the moon.
• The Soviet Union officially transfers control of lunar orbit from civilian to military jurisdiction. The State Committee on Lunar Defence (or Goskomlunoby) is formed to oversee "the defence of Soviet interests on the moon and in cislunar space".
• UN efforts to ratify a treaty on the use of lunar resources ends in a stalemate, with both the USA and Soviet Union promising to veto any resolution.

1972

• Soviet engineers successfully install and activate the first lunar nuclear reactor.
• Improved power storage at Horizon Base allows NASA to keep a skeleton crew on the moon through the lunar night. A congressional inquiry results in the firing of NASA's director over the issues faced with continuous habitation of Horizon Base.

1973

• NASA land a nuclear reactor at Horizon Base, but technical issues prevent it from being connected to the base power grid.
• The first lunar skirmish occurs when a group of Soviet cosmonauts approach Horizon Base two days into the lunar night and attempt to steal a rover. The Soviet Union officially apologises, but both sides increase security at their bases.

1974

• The Soviet government releases significantly more detail about their space program to the world, publicly revealing three bureaus as the core of their lunar colonisation efforts: TsKBEM, the Lavochkin Bureau and NPO Mashinostroyenia.
• Soviet engineers establish two new settlements: a civilian-scientific settlement Chayaniya and the first explicitly military outpost Strazh.
• NASA repair the nuclear reactor at Horizon Base, finally permitting continuous occupation of the base.
• The US government creates the sixth branch of the US military: the Lunar Self Defence Force.

1975

• Conflicts over lunar water deposits result in the second lunar skirmish. Two cosmonauts and six astronauts are killed when a LTV "hopper" crashes into a dig site, potentially after being shot at by cosmonauts on the lunar surface.
• The second Geneva Convention on the Settlement of the Moon brokers the Moon Resource Treaty, marking out the Red-Blue line dividing the moon between US and Soviet occupation without recognising either nation's claim of ownership.

1976

• NASA and the LSDF unveil the General Dynamics Nexus superheavy launch vehicle and the Orbital Transfer Vehicle for rapid movement of personnel and material between the Earth and the Moon.
• NASA found three new surface bases, Jamestown, Plymouth and New Washington, intended for civilian habitation and significantly expand the Lunar Gateway station.
• The Soviet Union founds two new bases, Lunograd and Liteynaya, as well as the first on-moon manufacturing facility intended to produce spacecraft components.

1977

• The third Geneva Convention on the Settlement of the Moon succeeds in negotiating the start of the first shared US-Soviet infrastructure project on the moon. Both nations commit to the construction of a mass driver to enable payloads of lunar derived material from the moon to Earth to enable the commercialisation of lunar mining.
• The LSDF found the first American military base, Fort Collins, on the Red-Blue line.
• A permanent embassy of French nationals to New Washington marks the first long term habitation of the moon by a third nation.

1978

• Goskomlunoby successfully complete a three month series of wargames on the moon, marking the first preparations for large scale hostilities.
• NASA complete construction of the first large scale mining operation on the moon, and celebrate the completion of the first industrial scale aluminium smelter.
• NPO Mashinostroyenia unveil the UR-900 superheavy rocket, the largest Soviet launch vehicle to date, as well as the first prototypes for the UR-700A, the first nuclear rocket in history.

1979

• Leaked documents show that the Soviet government had simulated the use of the Shared Prosperity Mass Driver to fire kiloton payloads at American cities, pushing the US government to withdraw from the treaty and forcibly halt construction.
• The third lunar skirmish erupts when LSDF astromarines seize a NPO Mashinostroyenia convoy heading for the mass driver construction site. Eleventh hour negotiations defuse tensions before anyone is hurt, but the primary staging site for material and workers is destroyed.
• Over a dozen new settlements are founded between the US and Soviets, including the first notionally independent settlement: Prosperity. Located on the eastern lunar limb, it is intended as a scientific and astronomy hub. Officially sponsored by the British and Canadian governments, it is nonetheless practically supported and operated by NASA and the US government.

1980s

1980

• On orbit trials of the RO-31 nuclear engines by NPO Mashinostroyenia end in failure, killing over a dozen cosmonauts and engineers. This failure sets back the development of the UR-700A and UR-900A rockets significantly.
• The fourth Geneva Convention on the Settlement of the Moon ends with the withdrawal of the US delegation from the Moon Resource Treaty when the Soviet government makes the reactivation of the Shared Prosperity Mass Driver a prerequisite of ongoing collaboration in resource gathering, reflecting the Soviet disadvantage in superheavy launch capability.
• Three settlements, Neudeutschland, Przyjaźń and Szolidaritás, are established by the Soviet Union on behalf of their Warsaw Pact allies.

1981

• The first majority lunar-built spacecraft is launched from Horizon Base by NASA, intended to be used for a crewed flyby of Venus in 1984 following space-trials in and around cislunar space.
• Standoffs and near-misses between LSDF and Goskomlunoby forces increase over tenfold following the US withdrawal from the Moon Resource Treaty and the associated cross-border communication mechanisms.
• The first full lunar hospital is established at Zvezda.

1982

• NASA completes construction of the first lunar railroad linking Fort Collins, Horizon Base, Jamestown and New Washington.
• TskBEM and NPO Mashinostroyenia unveil the MTK-VP, a reusable spaceplane capable greatly increasing the ability for the Soviet government to move personnel to and from the moon.
• Increased LSDF troop movement in preparation for the Able Artemis wargames in 1983 begin to spook the Soviet government, who lodge a formal opposition in the UN. The US ambassador rejects the Soviet arguments, citing the 1978 Goskomlunoby exercises as precedent.

1983

• Agriscientists at Plymouth successfully harvest the first commercial scale food crop on the moon, paving the way for increased self sufficiency.
• NASA begin construction on the Extremely Large Radio Telescope Array on the far side of the moon.
• Able Artemis 83, the lunar companion to the NATO Able Archer wargames, incites the First Lunar War.

1984

To be continued...