Timeline (One Small Step for a Socialist...)

October 1943-- Werner von Braun and his colleagues were said to have expressed regret at an engineer's house one evening that they were not working on a spaceship and that they felt the war was not going well (a 'defeatist' attitude). A young female dentist later denounced them for their comments and, combined with Himmler's false charges that von Braun was a Communist sympathizer and had attempted to sabotage the V-2 program, this led to his arrest. Hans Kammler, a member of the SS and highly dedicated to Himmler, was also instrumental in von Braun's arrest by the Gestapo.

The unsuspecting von Braun was arrested on March 22, 1944 and was taken to a Gestapo cell in Stettin, where he was imprisoned for two weeks without knowing the charges leveled against him.

POD-- Unlike OTL, Walter Dornberger and Albert Speer were unable to convince Hitler that von Braun was needed for the V-2 rocket program. von Braun was held in Gestapo custody for a month, then ordered executed by Heinrich Himmler personally. His brother Magnus von Braun, also suspected, was sent to a labor camp in Poland, where he died of typhus in October 1944.

1945-- German scientists from the V-2 program are captured by the Russians. Though their aid in the Soviet rocket program isn't definitive, their technology, including several intact V-2 rockets greatly aid the Soviet scientists, including Sergei Korolyov.

1956-- Pre-dating OTL's "Sputnik" by over a year, the Soviets launch an orbital satellite on July 4th, 1956 to the astonishment of the world.

1957-- In corrollation with the International Geophysical Year, the Soviets launch "Sputnik-4", carrying a dog into orbit in July 1957 and later "Luna-1" which impacted on the Moon in October 1957.

In the United States, panic over the Soviet space program forces Eisenhower to push for an American satellite as quick as possible. Drifting with little funding or leadership, the US Army's "Redstone" rocket program in Alabama is still years away from development, as is the US Air Force's "Atlas" program.

Ultimately, the US Navy's "Vanguard" rocket is given the green light, but from May 1957 until June 1959, the rocket fails to reach orbit and failure after failure stalk the US satellite program.

1958-- CIA sources learn that the Soviets are initiating a manned space program, named "Vostok". Still years away from a successful satellite launch, the US initiates "Project: Hermes" and begins recruiting for seven astronauts.

Meanwhile, the Soviets launch "Luna-3" which takes pictures of the far side of the Moon and launch a 2000 lbs. test vehicle with two dogs onboard and return them to Earth after a day in space.

1959-- "Vanguard-VI" achieves orbit, becoming the first American satellite on July 25.