"Dlya Rodina" - An SFS Alternate History

[MonkeSpaceflight]

Dlya Rodina is set mainly in the early 1960s, as the United States and the Soviet Union race to put a man on the moon. As with all alternate histories, there is a point of divergence from our timeline. (Real life.) In real life, the chief designer of the N1 rocket, and one of the mastermind engineers behind the Soviet space program, was Sergei Korolev. He passed away in 1965 during a medical operation for hemorrhoids. In the Dlya Rodina timeline, Korolev survives his surgery, and continued to develop his various projects. In real life, the Soviet Union was not very generous with funding for space projects, with a much stronger interest in their nuclear arsenal. In this timeline however, the defense budget was lowered and more money was funneled into the space program. This timeline will include manned lunar landings, space station construction, and even manned planetary missions!


My builds in this series are mostly vanilla. I did, however, use a few parts mods to make certain concepts into reality. (For the NASA side of things, I'm gonna be using BR-Apollo and New Horizons. Honestly I don't have time to build all that, especially since I'm focusing more on Roscosmos.)

Mod List:

• JunoUno's Dynamic Engines Pack
• Brioche's BR-Apollo
• Mac's BR-Apollo - New Horizons
• Lemniscate Biscuit's RL10-RO
• Picospace's Semi-realistic Engines Pack
• Dahzito's Custom Engines Pack

I'll be posting sections of the storyline in chapters. Each individual post will probably have 1-3 missions on it, as well as some written story sections for context. Dates will be included, so you can watch it all unfold chronologically. Stay tuned, first chapter coming soon...

 

[Cresign]

View attachment 129426

Dlya Rodina is set mainly in the early 1960s, as the United States and the Soviet Union race to put a man on the moon. As with all alternate histories, there is a point of divergence from our timeline. (Real life.) In real life, the chief designer of the N1 rocket, and one of the mastermind engineers behind the Soviet space program, was Sergei Korolev. He passed away in 1965 during a medical operation for hemorrhoids. In the Dlya Rodina timeline, Korolev survives his surgery, and continued to develop his various projects. In real life, the Soviet Union was not very generous with funding for space projects, with a much stronger interest in their nuclear arsenal. In this timeline however, the defense budget was lowered and more money was funneled into the space program. This timeline will include manned lunar landings, space station construction, and even manned planetary missions!


My builds in this series are mostly vanilla. I did, however, use a few parts mods to make certain concepts into reality. (For the NASA side of things, I'm gonna be using BR-Apollo and New Horizons. Honestly I don't have time to build all that, especially since I'm focusing more on Roscosmos.)

Mod List:

• JunoUno's Dynamic Engines Pack
• Brioche's BR-Apollo
• Mac's BR-Apollo - New Horizons
• Lemniscate Biscuit's RL10-RO
• Picospace's Semi-realistic Engines Pack
• Dahzito's Custom Engines Pack

I'll be posting sections of the storyline in chapters. Each individual post will probably have 1-3 missions on it, as well as some written story sections for context. Dates will be included, so you can watch it all unfold chronologically. Stay tuned, first chapter coming soon...

Im really interested in Interkosmos and i think it isnt talked about much, but it would be interesting to see even limited involvement from USSR satellite nations and others (kinda like Japan has its own module on ISS, but maybe a bit more)

 

[MonkeSpaceflight]

Im really interested in Interkosmos and i think it isnt talked about much, but it would be interesting to see even limited involvement from USSR satellite nations and others (kinda like Japan has its own module on ISS, but maybe a bit more)

I'll take this into account, I'm going to be showing european missions as well.
The main players in this timeline are:
NASA (USA)
Roscosmos/Interkosmos (Soviet Union)
UK Space Agency (UK)
ESA (EU)
There might also be some involvement from China and maybe even Japan

As far as the USSR satellite nations, they will at least be having cosmonauts fly on russian missions. There may also be some components of rockets or stations built by them.

 

[MonkeSpaceflight]

Prologue
While the Americans drew up plans for their Saturn rockets, the Soviet Union was working on their own launch vehicles behind closed doors. The first hints of their action became clear to the American public when, shockingly, the Soviet defense budget decreased. Where did the money go instead? The space program.
Several proposals for super-heavy launch vehicles were on the table, and eventually it was narrowed down to two concepts. The first of which was the UR-700, designed by Vladimir Chelomey. It would be built almost entirely using hardware from the UR-500, and was easily transportable by rail when disassembled into 4 meter sections. It had a promising payload capacity of over 100 tons, which could potentially be boosted even higher using nuclear engines. The second concept was the N1, designed by Sergei Korolev. It would use large spherical tanks encased in conical stages. The first stage engines it would use were already being built, and the engines for it's second and third stages were only slightly modified versions of the NK-15, which was already in production. It's payload capacity was expected to be anywhere from 75-95 tons.
In 1959, the N1 was selected for manned moon landings. Though it had a lower payload capacity, it would be much easier to manufacture, and would cost less to develop. The UR-700 was still given money for development. If Chelomey could develop the monstrous engines needed for it's first stage, the UR-700 could still fly.
Pictured below is the N1 rocket in its cargo configuration as of 1960. Sergei Korolev and his design team were already hard at work along with the manufacturing team, driven by the goal of beating the capitalists to the moon.

 

[MonkeSpaceflight]

Chapter 1: Third Place
As the Soviets and Americans captivated the world with their astonishing feats, a third power was hustling to catch up. In 1961 the United Kingdom began testing its intermediate range ballistic missile, Blue Streak. When both NASA and Interkosmos had both put a man in space, several European countries felt they were falling behind. France and Germany established the Ariane program along with many other nations, but there was no way it could fly at all before the 70s, let alone carry crew. The United Kingdom Space Development Agency, UKSDA, repurposed the Blue Streak missile as the first stage for an orbital rocket.
Said rocket was dubbed Commander 1, and combined with a second stage, it could lift 6 metric tons to orbit. They launched their first satellite in 1963 on a Commander 1, and proved it's capabilities. The UK became the third nation to place an artificial satellite into orbit. They had also been developing a crew capsule, with the goal of launching humans into orbit by 1965.
Pictured below is the Commander 1 carrying a Viking capsule next to the Atlas rocket and Mercury capsule developed by NASA.

The name for the Viking capsule is taken from the KSP YouTuber Carnasa, who made a crew capsule using the same name for the For All Kerbalkind series. This capsule design is my own, but inspired greatly by his original work.

 

[Orion]

Loving it.

 

[MonkeSpaceflight]

Chapter 2: The Race Around The Moon
While the stated goal of both major players was to land a man on the moon, many missions had to come before to make it possible. The first major milestone was circumlunar flight. While America was developing it's Apollo lunar complex, the Soviets had a chance to get there first. The Zond program had been going on for several years, with Zond 1 achieving a flyby of Mars, and Zond 2 and 3 flying by Venus. The spacecraft used on these missions was a stripped-down Soyuz spacecraft, without it's orbital module. The Chelomey design bureau proposed a circumlunar flight using the UR-500 and a modified Zond spacecraft. The spacecraft would consist of the propulsion and descent modules of Soyuz, with a small life support system attached in place of the orbital module. It would also carry experiments to the moon, to gather as much data as possible for lunar landings.

On March 10th, 1967, Kosmos 146 was launched into a highly elliptical earth orbit. Unbeknownst to the public, this was a prototype Zond-L1 spacecraft. The high orbit would simulate reentry from lunar velocities. This mission carried two live animals, a tortoise and a rabbit, so the effects of travel through the Van Allen belts could be observed in living organisms.

On April 8th, 1967, the Soviet Union was ready to launch a circumlunar flight. It would again carry living animals, but no humans yet. This flight, Zond 4, would fly around the moon and return to earth safely.

Zond 4 has reached the moon! (Continued in next post)

 

[MonkeSpaceflight]

After it's short trip around the moon, Zond 4 reentered and splashed down. It took two passes through the atmosphere to safely get down, but the extra time was worth it to ensure the safety of future cosmonauts flying on circumlunar missions.

On September 28th, 1967, Zond 5 flew around the moon. It followed the same mission profile as Zond 4, and safely reentered. Over in America, there was a growing worry that the Soviets would fly humans around the moon before they did.

As it turned out, that suspicion was justified. On the 22nd of November, 1967, history was made. Zond 6 carried Pavel Popovich and Vitali Sevastyanov on a circumlunar flight. They took the first photographs of Earth from the moon, and many high-resolution pictures of the lunar surface. The two cosmonauts landed safely in Kazakhstan, and showed the world a striking message of Soviet power.

The Americans did not give up, and managed to launch Apollo 8 months earlier than initially planned. Launched aboard a Saturn V, an Apollo CSM carrying three astronauts entered orbit around the moon, a feat which the Soviets could not achieve using Zond. Frank Borman, James Lovell Jr, and William Anders performed 10 orbits around the moon. Before firing the service module engine on an earth-injection burn. Six days after launch, the Apollo capsule was recovered by USS Yorktown in the North Pacific Ocean.

The Soviet Union had been testing the N1 rocket for several years at this point, and after 3 failed flight tests it successfully reached orbit. Inside the payload fairing was a real LOK spacecraft, and a mockup LKT lander. While the initial plan had been for a one-man LK lander, the N1s payload capacity had been increased enough for a two or three person lander. The LOK was derived from Soyuz, but kept the orbital module, meaning it had more living space for the trip to the moon. With the equal crew capacity, the Soviets could now claim that their L3 complex was better than the Apollo complex, whether that was true or not.

In the next chapter we will see the first manned lunar landings, and the first crew to orbit from the UK. Stay tuned!

 

[Jordan Filz]

NOOO It was sooo good!!!
Cant wait to read the next chapter

 

[TheMacTester]

ok lets do this, bet
if u want help im here
if not, lets enjoy the show baby!

 

[Lemniscate Biscuit]

Monke is actually so goated for doing this.

 

[TheMacTester]

are you planning to keep apollo going like ETS
if you are i made a few thinks that may help you

 

[MonkeSpaceflight]

Monke is actually so goated for doing this.

thanks!

are you planning to keep apollo going like ETS
if you are i made a few thinks that may help you

I’m going to do Apollo Applications, and missions to Venus and Mars probably. Lunar base stuff as well. If you have anything you want to share i’ll gladly take a look at it, no guarantee it’ll make it to the actual story though.

 

[TheMacTester]

thanks!


I’m going to do Apollo Applications, and missions to Venus and Mars probably. Lunar base stuff as well. If you have anything you want to share i’ll gladly take a look at it, no guarantee it’ll make it to the actual story though.

Nerva

 

[MonkeSpaceflight]

Chapter 2.5: Behind The Scenes
I won't have Chapter 3 out for a bit longer, so I thought I'd get a shorter post in to clarify some things and add depth to the story. I've also expanded the mod list slightly to include Orion's AEP and Lemniscate Biscuit's Advanced Cryogenic Engines Pack.

As public attention was, as usual, fixed on news of Moon landings and extravagant plans, there was still a demand for satellites to be placed into orbit. Most orbital launches of all spacefaring-nations were communications or military satellites. The USSR led the charge with Soyuz and Proton launches, expanding their in-space capabilities. Reconnaissance satellites were a big priority, but TV satellites were becoming more common. In the USA, launches of Atlas and Titan rockets carried payloads for commercial companies as well as the Air Force and Army.

Above: A Centaur upper stage ignites it's twin RL-10A engines.

In the UK, 10 orbital launches were completed in 1967, with just one failure. Ariane also debuted in October, and performed well until it's third stage failed to ignite. This led to the payload eventually burning up in the atmosphere.

Above: The first Ariane burns for the heavens.

Now for a quick side story. In Africa, several nations coalesced into one union in the early 1950s. Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, and Tanzania merged to form the United African Nations. The UAN acted as one country in international affairs, but each original nation still retained it's territory. Representatives from every area made up a council, with the leading role being rotated every four years. Development in the UAN advanced at a rapid pace, and the fledgling union shone held a vision of great promise. In January of 1960, it was reported that members of a leading aerospace design bureau had defected. To where? Africa.
In Chapters 4 and onward, an unexpected space power may emerge, so stay tuned...

 

[Lemniscate Biscuit]

Chapter 2.5: Behind The Scenes
I won't have Chapter 3 out for a bit longer, so I thought I'd get a shorter post in to clarify some things and add depth to the story. I've also expanded the mod list slightly to include Orion's AEP and Lemniscate Biscuit's Advanced Cryogenic Engines Pack.

As public attention was, as usual, fixed on news of Moon landings and extravagant plans, there was still a demand for satellites to be placed into orbit. Most orbital launches of all spacefaring-nations were communications or military satellites. The USSR led the charge with Soyuz and Proton launches, expanding their in-space capabilities. Reconnaissance satellites were a big priority, but TV satellites were becoming more common. In the USA, launches of Atlas and Titan rockets carried payloads for commercial companies as well as the Air Force and Army.
View attachment 129823
Above: A Centaur upper stage ignites it's twin RL-10A engines.

In the UK, 10 orbital launches were completed in 1967, with just one failure. Ariane also debuted in October, and performed well until it's third stage failed to ignite. This led to the payload eventually burning up in the atmosphere.
View attachment 129822
Above: The first Ariane burns for the heavens.

Now for a quick side story. In Africa, several nations coalesced into one union in the early 1950s. Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, and Tanzania merged to form the United African Nations. The UAN acted as one country in international affairs, but each original nation still retained it's territory. Representatives from every area made up a council, with the leading role being rotated every four years. Development in the UAN advanced at a rapid pace, and the fledgling union shone held a vision of great promise. In January of 1960, it was reported that members of a leading aerospace design bureau had defected. To where? Africa.
In Chapters 4 and onward, an unexpected space power may emerge, so stay tuned...

The lore is deepening.

 

[Jordan Filz]

Bro you should write a book!!
I would definitely buy it

 

[MonkeSpaceflight]

Bro you should write a book!!
I would definitely buy it

I honestly might in the future

The lore is deepening.

Indeed

 

[MonkeSpaceflight]

Chapter 3: Technical Difficulties
The space race is fast approaching a major milestone, the first crewed lunar landing. The Americans and the Soviets have both completed manned circumlunar flight, with the USA putting a man fully in orbit around the moon and the USSR slingshotting around. Before we see who wins the moon race, we'll take a quick trip to the UK for their own big milestone.

On February 7th, 1968, the UK prepared for a landmark mission. Britannia 1 would carry two crew members into Earth orbit, marking the first manned flight from Europe, the first country to put two men into orbit on their first mission, and many other achievements.

Crew members Pascal Jones and George Edwards successfully reached orbit, and completed 46 orbits around the earth, before reentering the atmosphere and safely splashing down in the Atlantic. This was a landmark success for the UK Space Agency, and showed the world that space was not exclusive to just America and Russia.

Now, the main event. Apollo 9 launched in September of 1968, and completed another lunar orbital mission. Zond 7 and Zond 8 completed lunar flybys in May and August of 1968 respectively. A Soviet N1 launch took place in October, and sent off alarm bells in the US. A functional LOK spacecraft and LKT lander were placed in lunar orbit with crew aboard. The United States had not yet made a landing, and still needed to complete Apollo 10 before they could put boots on the ground.

In March of 1969, NASA launched Apollo 10 on a Saturn V, carrying a functional Apollo CSM and LEM. This mission would serve as a dress rehearsal for future landings, and involved a simulated abort. LEM pilot Eugene Cernan reluctantly hit the abort button, and the ascent module coasted back up to orbit, where it eventually docked with the CSM.

The United States leadership now felt confident they could beat the soviets to a landing, and kept working towards Apollo 11 on the intended schedule. As they would soon find out, the Soviets had a trick up their sleeve...

(Continued in next post)

 

[Lemniscate Biscuit]

Chapter 3: Technical Difficulties
The space race is fast approaching a major milestone, the first crewed lunar landing. The Americans and the Soviets have both completed manned circumlunar flight, with the USA putting a man fully in orbit around the moon and the USSR slingshotting around. Before we see who wins the moon race, we'll take a quick trip to the UK for their own big milestone.

On February 7th, 1968, the UK prepared for a landmark mission. Britannia 1 would carry two crew members into Earth orbit, marking the first manned flight from Europe, the first country to put two men into orbit on their first mission, and many other achievements.
View attachment 129901 View attachment 129902 View attachment 129903
Crew members Pascal Jones and George Edwards successfully reached orbit, and completed 46 orbits around the earth, before reentering the atmosphere and safely splashing down in the Atlantic. This was a landmark success for the UK Space Agency, and showed the world that space was not exclusive to just America and Russia.

Now, the main event. Apollo 9 launched in September of 1968, and completed another lunar orbital mission. Zond 7 and Zond 8 completed lunar flybys in May and August of 1968 respectively. A Soviet N1 launch took place in October, and sent off alarm bells in the US. A functional LOK spacecraft and LKT lander were placed in lunar orbit with crew aboard. The United States had not yet made a landing, and still needed to complete Apollo 10 before they could put boots on the ground.
View attachment 129904

In March of 1969, NASA launched Apollo 10 on a Saturn V, carrying a functional Apollo CSM and LEM. This mission would serve as a dress rehearsal for future landings, and involved a simulated abort. LEM pilot Eugene Cernan reluctantly hit the abort button, and the ascent module coasted back up to orbit, where it eventually docked with the CSM.
View attachment 129905
The United States leadership now felt confident they could beat the soviets to a landing, and kept working towards Apollo 11 on the intended schedule. As they would soon find out, the Soviets had a trick up their sleeve...

(Continued in next post)

The cliff-hanger is so good.

 

[TheMacTester]

The cliff-hanger is so good.

Chapter 3: Technical Difficulties
The space race is fast approaching a major milestone, the first crewed lunar landing. The Americans and the Soviets have both completed manned circumlunar flight, with the USA putting a man fully in orbit around the moon and the USSR slingshotting around. Before we see who wins the moon race, we'll take a quick trip to the UK for their own big milestone.

On February 7th, 1968, the UK prepared for a landmark mission. Britannia 1 would carry two crew members into Earth orbit, marking the first manned flight from Europe, the first country to put two men into orbit on their first mission, and many other achievements.
View attachment 129901 View attachment 129902 View attachment 129903
Crew members Pascal Jones and George Edwards successfully reached orbit, and completed 46 orbits around the earth, before reentering the atmosphere and safely splashing down in the Atlantic. This was a landmark success for the UK Space Agency, and showed the world that space was not exclusive to just America and Russia.

Now, the main event. Apollo 9 launched in September of 1968, and completed another lunar orbital mission. Zond 7 and Zond 8 completed lunar flybys in May and August of 1968 respectively. A Soviet N1 launch took place in October, and sent off alarm bells in the US. A functional LOK spacecraft and LKT lander were placed in lunar orbit with crew aboard. The United States had not yet made a landing, and still needed to complete Apollo 10 before they could put boots on the ground.
View attachment 129904

In March of 1969, NASA launched Apollo 10 on a Saturn V, carrying a functional Apollo CSM and LEM. This mission would serve as a dress rehearsal for future landings, and involved a simulated abort. LEM pilot Eugene Cernan reluctantly hit the abort button, and the ascent module coasted back up to orbit, where it eventually docked with the CSM.
View attachment 129905
The United States leadership now felt confident they could beat the soviets to a landing, and kept working towards Apollo 11 on the intended schedule. As they would soon find out, the Soviets had a trick up their sleeve...

(Continued in next post)

tbh ur right, crazy cliffhanger, i love to see it

 

[MonkeSpaceflight]

The cliff-hanger is so good.

tbh ur right, crazy cliffhanger, i love to see it

Gotta keep the readers in suspense
Being honest I needed to get some sleep, I’ll probably do the next post sometime today or tomorrow.

 

[MonkeSpaceflight]

(Chapter 3 Continued)

The American press openly expressed that they thought the Americans could land first, and the public was getting excited. To the horror of government officials and NASA personnel, the Soviet Union made another N1 launch on August 12th, two weeks before Apollo 11 was expected to launch. Could this be just another orbit mission? Perhaps an abort test? Many didn't think so.

As it turned out, they were right. The USSR announced that Rodina 1 would land on the moon in 5 days time.
After coasting for several days, the L3T lunar complex arrived at the moon.

After braking into orbit, the LKT lander separated from it's Blok G TLI stage.

The LKT lander separated from the LOK carrying two crew members, and began it's descent to the lunar surface.

As the world held it's breath, the propulsion module of LKT-R1 burned, and a pair of cosmonauts grew ever closer to stealing the American's glory.

TOUCHDOWN! A monumental achievement for the world, the safe passage of humans to the moon.
Livestreamed around the globe by a small camera attached near an RCS pod, Alexei Leonov climbed down the ladder and jumped the final feet down into a thin layer of moondust. As he planted a Soviet flag in the ground, he grinned behind the reflective visor on his helmet. The first man to spacewalk, and now the first man on the moon.

A week after landing, the crew of three cosmonauts returned to the earth in their LOK capsule. After a safe splashdown, the crew members were checked over by doctors. After all had been deemed healthy, they were given medals of honor for their great achievement, and celebrations were held in their honor across the Union.

Over in America, there was nothing to do but finish preparations for Apollo 11. President Nixon was fuming, and addressed the nation later that day. He outlined American plans to establish a lunar base and gain surface superiority. The Apollo Applications program, which previously had little hope of ever happening, was revised and approved by NASA. The LEM would get upgrades to ferry more crew to the surface, and to carry base components autonomously. Saturn launch cadence would re ramped up, and funding for upgrades to the Titan launch vehicle was approved.

In Europe, ESA and UKSA saw the moon become a real possibility for them. Preliminary design was undertaken for a heavy-lift launch system, which could send humans to the moon in less than a decade. In addition, modules for an earth orbital space station began construction, with launch planned for the early 70s.

That's all for chapter 3, hope you enjoyed! I'm working on the next couple chapters now, so expect more updates soon.

 

[TheMacTester]

(Chapter 3 Continued)

The American press openly expressed that they thought the Americans could land first, and the public was getting excited. To the horror of government officials and NASA personnel, the Soviet Union made another N1 launch on August 12th, two weeks before Apollo 11 was expected to launch. Could this be just another orbit mission? Perhaps an abort test? Many didn't think so.

As it turned out, they were right. The USSR announced that Rodina 1 would land on the moon in 5 days time.
After coasting for several days, the L3T lunar complex arrived at the moon.

View attachment 129913

After braking into orbit, the LKT lander separated from it's Blok G TLI stage.

View attachment 129914

The LKT lander separated from the LOK carrying two crew members, and began it's descent to the lunar surface.

View attachment 129915

As the world held it's breath, the propulsion module of LKT-R1 burned, and a pair of cosmonauts grew ever closer to stealing the American's glory.

View attachment 129917

TOUCHDOWN! A monumental achievement for the world, the safe passage of humans to the moon.
Livestreamed around the globe by a small camera attached near an RCS pod, Alexei Leonov climbed down the ladder and jumped the final feet down into a thin layer of moondust. As he planted a Soviet flag in the ground, he grinned behind the reflective visor on his helmet. The first man to spacewalk, and now the first man on the moon.

A week after landing, the crew of three cosmonauts returned to the earth in their LOK capsule. After a safe splashdown, the crew members were checked over by doctors. After all had been deemed healthy, they were given medals of honor for their great achievement, and celebrations were held in their honor across the Union.

Over in America, there was nothing to do but finish preparations for Apollo 11. President Nixon was fuming, and addressed the nation later that day. He outlined American plans to establish a lunar base and gain surface superiority. The Apollo Applications program, which previously had little hope of ever happening, was revised and approved by NASA. The LEM would get upgrades to ferry more crew to the surface, and to carry base components autonomously. Saturn launch cadence would re ramped up, and funding for upgrades to the Titan launch vehicle was approved.

In Europe, ESA and UKSA saw the moon become a real possibility for them. Preliminary design was undertaken for a heavy-lift launch system, which could send humans to the moon in less than a decade. In addition, modules for an earth orbital space station began construction, with launch planned for the early 70s.

That's all for chapter 3, hope you enjoyed! I'm working on the next couple chapters now, so expect more updates soon.

wow, just wow.
where did you learn how to make rockets look so good

 

[Jordan Filz]

Are you still working on this monke you have me in suspense