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, Salut-1.