Sputnik I failed

In OTL the first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 nearly comes to failure when the Blok G strap-on had not attained full power at ignition and the resulting imbalanced thrust caused the booster to pitch over about 2° six seconds after liftoff, close enough to trigger an automatic shutdown command, which would have terminated the launch and sent the R-7 and Sputnik 1 crashing to the ground in a fireball only a short distance from the pad.

What if that happened?

Timeline
1945: Anthony Marchione was shot down by part of the Imperial Japanese air force, causing General Mcarthur to interpret this as an act of non-surrender. Small skirmishes between US and Japanese forces ensued but it was quickly brought to a resolution fortunately. Point of divergence.

October 1957: Russia's attempt to put the first satellite fails when their Sputnik I crashed to the ground, when Blok G strap-on had not attained full power at ignition and the resulting imbalanced thrust caused the booster to pitch over about 2° six seconds after liftoff. This caused the flight control system to compensate by rapidly moving the vernier engines and stabilizer fins.but the pitch was already great enough to trigger an automatic shutdown command, terminating the launch and sent the R-7 and Sputnik 1 crashing to the ground in a fireball only a short distance from the pad. As a result Russia delayed their satellite program.

The CIA intercept this knowledge and forced the US to ramp up their preparations to launch the first object into orbit.

December 6, 1957: The world was amazed when the USA launched the Vanguard 1 satellite into orbit. This marked the beginning of the space age.

December 13, 1957: Russia launched their own first satellite into orbit.

January 3, 1958: Russia launched Sputnik 2, carrying Laika.

February 1958: NASA is formed. Meanwhile Explorer I is launched and found the Van Allen belt.

November 8, 1958: NASA spacecraft Pioneer 1 is launched and would became the first to crash to the Moon.

1959: Luna 2 is the first spacecraft to photograph the far side of the moon.

January 1961: The U.S. launched the first hominid "Ham" into space.

March 1961: NASA astronaut is the first man in space, with a suborbital flight of the Freedom 7 space capsule.

April 1961: USSR's Yuri Gagarin became the first man to go into orbit.

May 25, 1961: As in OTL, U.S. President Kennedy delivers the moonshot speech in the Congress. In response the USSR ordered the preparation for their own moonshot as well.

July 21, 1961: NASA astronaut Gus Grissom is the second American in space, although his space capsule sunk into ocean after splashdown as in OTL.

August 1961: The Berlin Wall construction is started.

February 20, 1962: John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth.

July 1962: U.S. spacecraft Mariner 1 is launched as the first American mission to flyby a planet. It will return first images of the planet Venus.

August 1962: Mariner 2 is launched as a successor of the Mariner 1 mission.

Late 1963: US Project Mercury spaceflight mission ends with Mercury-Atlas 12. They moved on to the Gemini spaceflight program afterwards.

1965: USA performed the first space rendezvous and docking.

1968: With a Gemini spacecraft, USA performed the world's first manned circumlunar flight mission.

1969: Neil Armstrong became the first man to step foot on the Moon. NASA deployed the first space station based on the Big Gemini design.

1970: The fundings for manned lunar program were cut due to lost of public interest so no more manned lunar missions after Armstrong's.

1972: USA sent the second space station "Manned Orbiting Laboratory" into orbit. USSR deployed their own "Zarya 1" afterwards.

1973: Communist Russia performed a manned circumlunar flight, but stagnations will prove lethal to their ambitions to land a man on the Moon and level the playing field with the Americans. Meanwhile China launched Fang Guojun their first man in space in this TL in Shuguang-1 mission, though there will be a long hiatus after this due to the chaos of the Cultural Revolution.

1976: NASA sent a probe to land on Mars.

1982: The British began to develop the HOTOL spaceplane with the Americans.

1986: Russia launches the MIR space station.

1989: Zhao Ziyang's ascendancy ensures that the Tiananmen massacre in Beijing never happens.

1991: Collapse of communism in Russia. China transforms itself to a democratic socialist regime.

1993: The HOTOL spaceplane is operational.

1998: Launch of the International Space Station.

2003: China returns to space when astronaut Yang Liwei docks his Shenzhou spacecraft with the ISS.

2004: Japan became the first Asian nation to reach the moon when their Lunar-A impactor slammed into the Moon.

2016: Hillary Clinton won the U.S. presidential election.