Britain in Space 1951

What if the British sent their first man into space by 1951?

Timeline
20 July 1944 (Point of divergence): The infamous "20 July plot" against Nazi dictator Hitler succeeds.

September  1944:  Nazi Germany preemptively announces capitulation and surrender to the Western Allies. Soviet Russia grudgingly accepts the fait accompli despite the fact that the western-backed Polish government in exile will come back and administer Poland. The British authorities captured Wernher von Braun and his rocket engineers who would be taken to Britain.

August 1945: Japan surrenders after they were hit by two atomic bombs.

1946-1947: The British Interplanetary Society put forward a manned rocket proposal codenamed "Megaroc " which intrigued the British Government. Later on the UK, short on funds, decided to approach USA to make it a joint program. US pilot Chuck Yeager is the first man to go past the speed of sound.

1950: Start of Korean War.

1951: UK launched the world's first spacefaring programme by sending Eric Brown into space in the Megaroc launcher.

1952: End of Korean War. Chuck Yeager is the first American in space by the joint Megaroc programme.

1953: UK set sights to launch a satellite after USSR sent their man into space with the BP-190 rocket.

1954: The first satellite "Victory" is launched with the British MOUSE launcher.

1957: USSR sent Sputnik I into space.

1959: Cuba's Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba.

1960: US citizen Alan Shepard became the first man to orbit the Earth with the (joint) Project Manned Orbital Winged rocket.

1961: USSR followed suit by sending Yuri Gagarin into space. UK-USA started their plan to construct an orbital space station afterwards. The Bays of Pigs invasion against Cuba succeeded.

1962: A satellite launching stations opens in Australia.

1965: With the BIS lunar spaceship, UK lands Eric Brown to the Moon, together with Americans Neil Armstrong and Alan Shepard.

1969: The rotating orbital space station which is named after Eric Brown is now complete.

1970: USSR lands Alexei Leonov on the Moon.

1971: UK set up the first lunar colony with USA.

1974: Eric Brown became the first man to land on Mars.

1978: USA and UK began to set up space based solar power station to fulfill its energy needs.

1985: The space based solar power station is completed. It is named in honor of Alan Shepard.

1986: Chernobyl disaster.

1989:  UK and USA set up a space colony on Mars.

1991: Soviet Union became extinct.

1996: A UK-USA manned expedition to a Near-Earth asteroid started.

1998: The asteroid expedition successfully concluded.

2000: UK and USA launched the first manned mission to fly by Venus.

2005: A concrete plan to mine an asteroid is formulated by UK scientists.

2012: The first asteroid mining operation is started by UK-USA duo when they brought back first ores from a Near-Earth asteroid.

2016: Hillary Clinton became the USA's first female president.