What If: Space Race

The Space Race was a competition, not in the traditional sense, between United States and the Soviet Union to get in to space. The Soviets launched Sputnik 1 on 4th October 1957 into Earth orbit. This was the first time a man-made object had been launched from the Earth’s surface and placed into space.

The Space Race then intensified to getting a man into space. Both sides had minor successes, and failures, and used animals to experiment on. The Soviets again were the first to succeed in getting a man into space with cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on 12th April 1961.

However, it was the United States who first managed to land a man, two to be precise, on the moon.  This occurred on 21st July 1969 with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin being the first and second, respectively, people to step on to the moon with Michael Collins remaining in the command module.

The Space Race pushed technology ahead at a massive pace.  So the question has to be, what if the Space Race never happened?

What if the Space Race never happened?

The years 1958, 1961 and 1969 pass without any notable events. It is not until the 1970's that a difference can be seen. The telecommunications sector is straining to provide reliable communication and World-Wide communication is still difficult at best without the use of satellite systems.  Thus it is evident that technology has been pushed back at least a decade if not two. Although the Integrated Chip (IC) may have been developed, it has not seen mass adoption and the realisation for its use as a microprocessor has gone unnoticed.  

Technological advances are slow resulting in microwave ovens and heat absorbing materials, for example, not being developed.

Hence, being a couple of decades behind, today, 2009 would be more like 1989.