‘For All Mankind’ alternative timeline vs reality: How Apple TV’s sci-fi show diverges from history

“For All Mankind” has just returned for its fifth season, continuing its ambitious mission to reimagine the Space Race.

Having started out with the unexpected sight of the Soviet Union planting its flag on the Moon, the hit Apple TV series has given us a vastly accelerated version of humanity’s exploration of the cosmos. The show had already taken us to the Moon and Mars by the mid-1990s, and now — as its fictional timeline reaches 2012 — a fully-fledged Martian colony is trying to exploit the riches of a nearby asteroid.

Below, we detail the entire “For All Mankind” timeline, from that first lunar landing through to the start of season 5 — and compare the fiction with what happened in real life. And with a sixth and final season already confirmed, we’ll be updating this feature as the show’s alternative history progresses.

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Season 1

1969

• Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov becomes the first human being to walk on the Moon in June.
• A month later, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin crash-land on the lunar surface. Contact is lost for four hours, but they successfully take off and return home.
• Cosmonaut Anastasia Belikova becomes the first woman on the Moon in November.

In real life (IRL): Armstrong and Aldrin were the famously the first people to set foot on the Moon. Leonov completed the first spacewalk in 1965. The USSR sent the first woman into space, Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963.

1970

• Playing catch-up after Belikova’s successful moonwalk, NASA invites its first group of women into the Apollo training program.
• The Vietnam War ends when President Richard Nixon signs a ceasefire deal.

IRL: No women ever flew in the Apollo program, though the show does make the point that Patty Doyle and Molly Cobb (both fictional) were Mercury 13 astronaut trainees several years earlier. The Vietnam War didn’t actually end until 1975.

1971

• Molly Cobb becomes first American woman on the Moon (and in space) as part of the Apollo 15 mission. She discovers water in the Shackleton Crater.

IRL: Molly Cobb was inspired by real-life Mercury 13 trainee Jerrie Cobb, though no American woman would fly in space until Sally Ride in 1983. Observations suggest that the Shackleton Crater (located near the lunar south pole) may contain ice.

1972

• Ted Kennedy (Democrat) is elected the 38th President of the United States.

IRL: Nixon (Republican) was re-elected in 1972. Kennedy was widely tipped for America’s top office until the Chappaquiddick incident in 1969 derailed his political career. He served as senator for Massachusetts from 1962 until his death in 2009.

1973

• Jamestown lunar base established next to Shackleton Crater.

IRL: The final Apollo mission, Apollo 17, departed the lunar surface in December 1972. No human has visited the Moon since, though NASA’s Artemis program is planning to change that very soon…

1974

• Apollo 23 explodes on the launchpad, killing 11 engineers, including NASA flight director Gene Kranz.
• Deke Slayton — one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts who was grounded by a heart condition and subsequently headed NASA’s Astronaut Office — makes his first trip into space. He dies on the way to the Moon while piloting the Apollo 24 mission that’s supposed to bring astronaut Ed Baldwin home from Jamestown.
• The Soviet Union establishes its own Zvezda base eight miles northwest of Jamestown.
• President Kennedy pardons his predecessor, Nixon, for his involvement in the Watergate scandal.

IRL: Slayton did belatedly fly on the joint US/Soviet Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975, and passed away in 1993. Gene Kranz is still alive, aged 92. The Soviet Union has yet to land any humans on the Moon. Nixon was given a presidential pardon, but by Gerald Ford rather than Kennedy.

Season 2

1976

• Ronald Reagan (Republican) is elected as the 39th President of the United States.
• The US scraps the space treaty with the USSR after repeated Soviet violations.

IRL: Jimmy Carter (Democrat) was elected President in 1976 — it would be four more years before Reagan entered the White House.

1979

• The USSR withdraws troops from the border with Afghanistan, as Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev abandons invasion plans to focus his resources on the Space Race.
• Three Mile Island meltdown averted by technology developed at Jamestown.

IRL: The Soviet Union would be at war with Afghanistan for a decade before the conflict ended in 1989. The Three Mile Island nuclear facility in Pennsylvania famously suffered a partial meltdown in 1979.

1980

• Reagan re-elected as President.
• Former Beatle John Lennon survives an assassination attempt in New York.

1981

• The first Space Shuttle, Enterprise (named in honor of “Star Trek”), is launched by NASA.
• Pope John Paul II murdered in Vatican City.
• Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, marries Prince Charles in London.

IRL: Enterprise was the name given to the Shuttle prototype, though it never flew in space — Columbia was the first actual Shuttle.

Reagan won his first term in 1980. Lennon died, but Pope John Paul II survived. Prince (now King) Charles married Princess Diana in 1981, but later married Camilla Parker Bowles (the current Queen) in 2005.

1983

• NASA launches Sea Dragon rocket from the South Pacific, carrying a plutonium payload to be used to power an expanded Jamestown base.
• Ed Baldwin, now chief of the Astronaut Office, gives himself command of Pathfinder, the first nuclear-powered Space Shuttle. Sally Ride is among the crew.
• As tensions with the Soviet Union escalate, Pathfinder is armed with ballistic missiles. Guns are also sent to Jamestown.
• Danielle Poole commands the Apollo-Soyuz rendezvous mission.
• NASA administrator and former Jamestown commander Ellen Wilson has a near miss when she doesn’t board Korean Airlines Flight 007. The plane is shot down by a Soviet fighter jet.

IRL: NASA recently announced plans for a spacecraft that will use nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) to travel to Mars. President Reagan announced the orbital Strategic Defense Initiative, nicknamed Star Wars, in 1984.

In a rare case of real-life beating “For All Mankind” to the punch, the Apollo-Soyuz mission actually took place eight years earlier. Tragically, Korean Airlines Flight 007 really was shot down over the Sea of Japan.

Season 3

1984

• President Reagan and Soviet Premier Andropov sign lunar peace treaty which essentially divides the Moon between them.
• Gary Hart (Democrat) is elected 40th President of the United States.
• UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is killed in IRA bombing in Brighton, England.

IRL: According to the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, no country can “own” the Moon. Gary Hart was defeated by President Reagan in the 1984 election. Margaret Thatcher survived the 1984 Brighton bombing and lived until 2013.

1986

• Dev Ayesa and Richard Hilliard make breakthrough in nuclear fusion. Global warming slows as new technology goes online.
• Polaris Corporation launches space tourism business.

IRL: Manmade nuclear fusion reactors remain in the realms of science fiction. Space tourism is still the domain of the super-rich.

1987

• Ayesa’s Helios company wins NASA mining contract.
• China establishes its first base on the Moon.
• North Korea abandons ballistic missile programme to focus on space exploration.
• The Beatles kick off eagerly awaited reunion tour.

IRL: NASA now frequently collaborates with private partners. China’s first human spaceflight didn’t take place until 2003, while North Korea reportedly reached space in 2024. The Beatles’ last live concert was their famous rooftop gig in 1969.

1988

• President Hart elected for a second term.

IRL: George HW Bush (Republican) defeated Michael Dukakis (Democrat) in the 1988 presidential election.

1990

• Thomas Paine Space Telescope, named after the former NASA boss who died in Korean Airlines disaster, launched.

IRL: The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990, and named after American astronomer Edwin Hubble. The James Webb Space Telescope, launched in 2021, was named after James Webb, administrator of NASA from 1961-1968.

1992

• Polaris launches orbital hotel, and hosts the first ever wedding in orbit. After damage inflicted by scrap from a North Korean rocket causes near-fatal damage, Dev Ayesa buys it for Helios Aerospace’s proposed private mission to Mars. He rebrands the craft the Phoenix.
• Ellen Wilson (Republican) defeats Bill Clinton (Democrat) to become the 41st (and first female) President of the United States.

IRL: Orbital hotels are still some way off. Bill Clinton won the 1992 election, beating the incumbent George HW Bush — Wilson is the first fictional character to become President in “For All Mankind”‘s alternative timeline.

1994

• NASA’s Sojourner 1, the Soviet Union’s Soviet Mars-94, and Phoenix all bid to become the first mission to land humans on Mars. In their efforts to win the race, the Soviets push their reactors too hard, prompting a meltdown — the NASA crew mounts a bold rescue mission, taking their Soviet counterparts on board.

IRL: Sojourner was the name of the Mars rover launched as part of NASA’s Pathfinder mission, launched in 1996. In real life, the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

1995

• The USA’s Danielle Poole and the Soviet Union’s Grigory Kuznetsov believe they’re the first people to leave their footprints on Martian soil, though it later turns out that North Korea’s Lee Jung-Gil got there a few months earlier.
• The Happy Valley base is established on Mars.
• Kelly Baldwin gives birth to her son, Alex, in Martian orbit. He’s the first child born away from Earth.
• The Johnson Space Center is destroyed in a politically motivated bomb attack that claims many lives.

IRL: Some 30 years after “For All Mankind” achieved the feat, landing on Mars remains on NASA’s to-do list — though Artemis will hopefully bring this giant leap closer to reality. No child has yet been born in space.

Season 4

1996

• Wilson defeats Jerry Brown to retain the presidency. Having “come out” a couple of years earlier, she is the first openly gay person to hold the office.

1997

• The US, the USSR, Japan, India, the European Space Agency, North Korea, and the Coalition of Communist Countries for Spaceflight establish the Mars-7 Alliance to manage the development of the red planet.
• Helios, which previously had a monopoly on the Moon’s resources, loses an antitrust lawsuit to Exxon, Shell, and Halliburton.
• Helios announces new plasma propulsion technology that will reduce trips between Earth and Mars to one to two months.
• Hilton opens first hotel on the Moon.

IRL: A Pulsed Plasma Rocket (PPR) is under development, though it does feel like it’s been added to “For All Mankind”‘s mythology for narrative expedience, in order to make travel time between planets that little bit shorter. Hilton is yet to announce plans for hotels beyond Earth.

1998

• Wilson signs Marriage Inclusion Act, legalizing same-sex marriage.
• Bill and Hillary Clinton file for divorce.

IRL: Massachusetts became the first US state to legalize same-sex marriage in 2004. Bill and Hillary Clinton are still married.

1999

• Movie mogul and Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein is charged with sexual assault.
• John F Kennedy Jr starts run for US Senate.

IRL: Weinstein wasn’t arrested for his numerous crimes until 2018. John F Kennedy Jr died in a plane crash in 1999.

2000

• Al Gore defeats George W Bush to become the 42nd President of the United States.
• Y2K bug causes computer problems when computers at international space port reset their dates.

IRL: Al Gore lost to George HW Bush’s son, George W Bush, in the 2000 presidential election. The infamous Y2K caused rather fewer issues than doom-mongers predicted, though it did prove lucrative for IT professionals.

2002

• Gore declares the Cold War over after agreeing on a historic partnership with Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev.
• John Lennon plays the Super Bowl XXXVI halftime show.

IRL: The Cold War had been over for a decade by 2001. U2 played the Super Bowl halftime show.

2003

• The so-called “Goldilocks” asteroid (2003LC) is located near Mars, and identified as a rich source of minerals, including the lucrative iridium. As the Mars-7 argue over the best way to mine its raw materials, Dev Ayesa, Ed Baldwin, and other conspirators launch a daring (and successful) plan to hijack the asteroid, and tow it into Mars orbit.

IRL: Iridium has many practical applications (including spark plugs and the aerospace industry) and is often more abundant in asteroids than in the Earth’s crust. Moving an asteroid may be a little bit beyond us for now, however.

Season 5

2004

• North Korea is expelled by M-7 for its ujunauts presumed role in the asteroid heist. Various other conspirators, including Baldwin, are also tried for their involvement.
• Jim Bragg defeats Al Gore to become the 43rd President of the United States, campaigning on an “Earth Comes First” platform.
• The so-called “Curse of the Bambino” continues as the Boston Red Sox lose the World Series again.

IRL: President George W Bush defeated John Kerry (Democrat) to win a second term. The Boston Red Sox won the World Series for the first time since 1918, ending the curse.

2006

• John Lennon and Jay-Z play the Grammy Awards.

IRL: Jay-Z actually performed with Paul McCartney at the 2006 Grammy Awards.

2007

• Workers at Happy Valley base permitted to bring their families to Mars.
• Blockbuster Video franchise opens on the Moon. CEO teases plans for “Blockbuster original content”.

IRL: Little did Blockbuster know that its whole world was about to get turned upside-down. Netflix had launched its by-mail DVD rental service in 1997, and transitioned into streaming in 2007. The company then moved into original content with 2012’s “Lilyhammer”, though such a plan would have seemed crazy in 2007. Blockbuster went out of business in 2014.

2008

• President Bragg elected for a second term.

2009

• John F Kennedy Jr is expected to run in late his father’s footsteps and run for President.

2010

• The original Pathfinder Space Shuttle is driven through Los Angeles highways on its way to its permanent home at the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center.

IRL: The Space Shuttle Endeavour made a similar journey in 2012, though it is currently away from public view.

2012

• Goldilocks is home to an extensive mining facility as the Martians look to exploit their greatest assets.
• Plans are announced for a space elevator to facilitate easier transport between the asteroid and Mars.

New episodes of “For All Mankind” debut on Apple TV+ on Fridays.