Red Star: A Soviet Lunar Landing

Overview
What if the USSR landed on the Moon first?

Timeline
April 12, 1961: Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space.

May 5, 1961: Alan Shepard became the first American in space.

May 25, 1961: President Kennedy delivers an address to the congress and his nation.

June 1, 1961: In response, USSR'S leadership gave authorization for draft work for a booster and spacecraft capable of taking cosmonauts to the Lunar Surface.

February 1962: John Glenn is the first American to orbit the Earth.

April 1962: With Khrushchev’s blessing authorisation for the development of the N11 heavy lift launch vehicle was obtained. Point of divergence.

August 11, 1962: Simultaneous launch of Vostok 3 and Vostok 4 which came within 6.5km of each other in orbit. Later on Vostok 5 and 6 were launch with Valentina Tereshkova as the first woman in space. The space rendezvous of the latter came within just 4.5km.

April 4, 1964: NASA's Gemini I is launched as an unmanned test article.

October 12, 1964: The Voskhod 1 is launched with Vladimir Komarov, Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Yegorov. It achieved orbit with an apogee of 336 km breaking the record for highest manned spaceflight (that the Soviet's themselves set).

January 19 1965: Another NASA Gemini test capsule is launched.

March 18, 1965: Alexei Leonov is the first person to space walk in USSR's Voskhod 2 mission.

July 1965: A prototype of the N1 rocket called N11 is finally built and is launched to space, though a minor error prevented it from attaining orbit.

November 2, 1965: The Voskhod 3 mission carrying Boris Volynov and Vladimir Shatalov is launched to an orbit with an apogee of over 1,000 km. This is another propaganda coup for the Soviets.

November 28, 1965: Soviet rocket designer Sergei Korolev dies from cancer.

February 3, 1996: USSR's Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to soft land on the Moon.

February 26, 1966: NASA's first prototype Apollo rocket is launched.

March 16, 1966: The USA performed the first docking in space with a Gemini 8 spacecraft and the Agena stage.

July 21, 1966: NASA's Gemini 10 is the first American space mission to perform two spacewalks, to do useful work in space and to reach an apogee of over 740 km.

August 1966: The N1 rocket is flown for the first time, though it ultimately ended in failure.

December 1966: Another N1 prototype rocket successfully completed its mission by flying Block D/Soyuz payload into orbit.

January 27, 1967: NASA astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Robert Chaffee die in a disaster in a training exercise. Consequently Project Apollo was postponed.

Late 1967: A Soyuz spacecraft carrying Alexei Leonov and Oleg Makarov is launched into space as part of humanity's first circumlunar mission. When the mission ends, they splashed down in the Indian Ocean.

February 1968: Another N1 rocket is launched but a pogo oscillation caused the launch test to fail.

December 1968: NASA launched the Apollo 8 carrying Frank Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders as part of their circumlunar mission.

January 19, 1969: USSR launched the first manned lunar orbital mission L1-LOK with Gherman Titov in it.

July 1969: The Soviet Union became the first nation to land a man on the Moon when the L1-1 mission with cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Oleg Makarov is launched. After the LK lander touched down, Leonov is the first man on the Moon who uttered "I come in peace, for all mankind" when he step foot on the surface. This sent a huge shock to the Americans. Later on that month, NASA commenced the Apollo 11 mission and Neil Armstrong is the first American to step his foot on the Moon.

1970: Second USSR manned moon landing mission L3-2 landed just metres away from the Luna 9. Apollo 13 is successful in this TL.

October 19th 1972: USSR's Zarya 1 is the world's first space station.

March 1973: Apollo 19 make their way to Tycho crater.

June 25, 1973: Soviet space station Zarya 2 is launched.

July 29, 1973: Soviet Mars sample return spacecraft Mars 5NM is launched but lost contact en route to Mars.

September 1973: NASA launched their first space station Skylab A.

October 1973: Cosmonaut Irina Solovyova became the first woman on the Moon with the first manned lunar landing mission to touchdown on the lunar south pole. Around the same time, Vasili Lazarev became the first person to visit both the space station and the Moon, and to land on Moon's north pole.

April 1, 1975: Soviet Zarya 3 space station is launched.

April 5, 1975: Soyuz 12 is launched to dock with Zarya 3, however they are forced to prematurely abort the mission after they deviated from the intended trajectory.

1976: NASA's second space station Skylab B is launched. But most importantly they launched the first parts of their LESA lunar base to the Moon while the USSR launched theirs too. Later in June, a three man crew was launched to what will become humanity's first operational moon base. On the Fourth of July, the moonbase crew greeted their fellow citizens in a broadcast sent from the Moon. 16 days later they returned to Earth, and this lunar base mission caused the US to pull ahead of USSR in the Space Race.

September 1977: USSR launched the Zarya 4 space station. At the same time NASA's Voyager mission is launched to explore the four outer planets.

December 1977: Soviet Union launched Vladimir Kovalyonok and Valery Ryumin to the place where the LK shelter has been placed a year prior, effectively activating the humanity's second operational lunar base.

July 1978: NASA launched their third space station Skylab C.

1981: NASA launched the first space shuttle "Columbia".

1986: USSR launched the space station Mir.

1988: A NASA space shuttle docks with Mir, signifying the end of the Space Race.

1991: Dissolution of the USSR.

1992: USA's Mars Observer spacecraft successfully launched and reached the Red Planet.

1997: NASA's Cassini spacecraft is launched to the Saturnian system.

1998: Launch of International Space Station.

2001: The 9/11 attacks struck the American soil.

2008: A robotic NASA mission sucessfully retrieved sample from Mars.

2011: The Phobos-Grunt mission is successfully launched to Mars and its moon Phobos.

2014: Unrest and civil war in Ukraine.

September 2017: Cassini spacecraft is destroyed following a reentry into the Saturnian atmosphere.