Nixon has taken office under a cloud. Many are calling for RFK to be tried and imprisoned; many others believe that the released files and recordings are in fact hoaxes, and that Nixon actually stole the election from Kennedy. With that start, things look dire.
Over the next four years, a series of decisions are made that differ from Actual History. For starters: Nixon makes more of a push to get out of Viet Nam sooner; the war is massively unpopular, even more so than IRL due to the collapse in faith in the American political system. Popular opinion on the war collapses catastrophically. By late 1970, the US is on the way out.
Apollo 11 happens as IRL in July, 1969, but to slightly more public enthusiasm (due to it being something good in a sea of bad). It is immediately decided that this should be built upon. Some voices that IRL called for Apollo to be curtailed are now not as loud: Teddy Kennedy, part of the Kennedy clan that is now under much greater media and legal scrutiny, has been arrested for the drunk-driving homicide of Mary Jo Kopechne on July 18. Soon he is out of office and sent to prison for a term of several years. Others, such as William Proxmire, remain as opposed as ever, though due to the recent collapse in popularity of politicians as a whole, he has less of a public platform . The decision by the Johnson administration to cancel Saturn V production is reversed; Apollo missions to at least 24 are pushed through.
Due to Nixon Administration pressure, Apollo 12 is pushed up by one month with negative consequences; on the way to the moon in October, 1969, a propellant tank aboard the lunar module ruptures. While the crew manages to return safely to Earth, this delays the following Apollo missions. It has the effect, however, of spurring interest in the space program. A disaster that results in the survival of heroes, right at the height of interest (right after Apollo 11), makes both the public and Congress more interested in space. This is aided by Walter Cronkite: just as he had talked down the war effort in Viet Nam after the Tet Offensive in January, 1968, here he talks up the space program. In the general malaise gripping the US after the 1968 election, Cronkite turns Apollo into a point of pride.
As Viet Nam ramps down and Apollo continues on, further plans are put into place. The Apollo Applications Program IRL led to Skylab; it does so in Alternate History as well, but it is joined by plans for lunar bases by 1976 and manned Mars missions by the early 1980’s. The NERVA program is pushed ahead; the Space Shuttle program also proceeds, but as a smaller vehicle (25K lbs payload, limited crossrange, reusable manned first stage, second stage equipped with expendable external tanks). Plans are put in place to revive the Post-Saturn launch vehicles planned a decade earlier, in 1963: in 1971, a design contest is held among major contractors and General Dynamics/Astronautics wins with an improved version of their earlier Nexus launch vehicle. A long development plan is put into place to develop this as the “Neptune” booster.
The Presidential election of 1972, between Nixon and Hubert Humphrey, is both a landslide and a bore. Humphrey goes into the election under the cloud of the Watergate scandal, even though he was uninvolved; Nixon trounces him soundly. But the turnout is the lowest on record.
As IRL, the Yom Kippur War breaks out in 1973. The war plays out as IRL, with the Israelis repelling the Arab attack. As IRL, the Arab oil producing nations respond with an oil embargo against the US. However, things play out slightly differently. With the enhanced space program requiring nuclear power and nuclear propulsion, the nuclear industry is slightly stronger and much more popular than IRL. A consequence is that the OPEC oil embargo leads to a speedup in the approval and construction of nuclear powerplants. By the Three Mile Island incident of 1979, nuclear power is growing, and is seen as not only vital, but patriotic. The collapse of the American commercial nuclear industry following TMI as IRL does not occur. Much of this is due to the events of 1976…
To be continued