WMG / For All Mankind

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The N1 rocket was fraught with technical problems, as were the early Soyuz capsules. In real life, the N1 never even launched successfully. The Soviet leadership, threatened by the Apollo program, got the N1 to a point where it could just launch and fool Western intelligence, but filmed Leonov's and Belikova's supposed landing in a studio, with the timing just right to steal America's thunder.

• It is since revealed that the Soviets pushed their moon-landing program too ambitiously and got at least one cosmonaut killed attempting a moon landing. So, not confirmed or jossed firmly yet, but it's not outside the bounds of probability that the USSR will continue to make overblown claims not backed up by their ability to follow through.
• NASA could invoke the Outer Space Treaty^note A 1967 treaty that states nothing beyond Earth can be claimed by any Earth nation; both the United States and the Soviet Union were signatories. and send a mission to the Soviet landing site, to make sure it was indeed genuine.
• Jossed. As of the S1 finale the Soviets and Americans remain neck and neck in their push to gain supremacy in the Space Race.
• There could still be an in-universe conspiracy theory alleging this, or at least that they faked Belikova being on the moon - just to mess with the Yanks.
• It's All There in the Manual - OTL the "Soviet von Braun", Sergei Korolev died in 1966. He designed the Soyuz which was for a time the only means any nation had of putting people into space - give him three healthy years of life and he'll fix the N1 - and that's exactly what happens in this timeline.
• Maybe in the For All Mankind timeline the Soviet Union had Andrei Tarkovsky fake the moon landing.

Between the solar flare Defcon 3, the guns on the moon in the trailers, and the Panama crisis in the background, a (small scale) nuclear war could potentially break out.

• Jossed

To us, having a news report interrupt The Real Ghostbusters in 1983 is anachronistic, however in the show's timeline it's likely that the Ghostbusters movie came out in 1980-81 with the cartoon in either 82-83.

Another point supporting this is that Star Trek II came out in 1983 in-universe instead of 1982. Not to mention that Alex Trebek did not host Jeopardy until 1984, yet was seen on Bill's TV in an important scene.

Sergei clearly has misgivings about the KGB using him as a Honey Pot for Margo. When she *does* go to the conference to meet her, it won't take much convincing for him to ask for asylum in the USA.

• Partly Confirmed. During Season 3, Sergei gets imprisoned by the KGB for giving Margo too much information about the Soviet program; when she finds this out after requesting his presence on the improvised joint NASA-Soviet Mars mission, she tries and ultimately succeeds in getting him asylum in the US. Unfortunately, as suggested by The Stinger for the season, they'll be split once again, as the CIA's investigation into Margo's ferrying info to the Soviets seems to have forced her to seek asylum in Moscow…

By whom, you ask? Well given, that it is in 1995, one would assume that it cannot possibly be the Soviets - but then again, Gorbachev has not shown up on the show (Season 2 ends with Yuri Andropov still in charge) and one of the many Disaster Dominoes that led to the collapse of the USSR (the invasion of Afghanistan) has been explicitly stated not to have happened. So it is entirely conceivable that a not-fallen USSR has beat the U.S. again. Or maybe it's China.

• Seemingly Jossed, then ultimately Confirmed. A joint NASA-Soviet mission ends up being the first to land on Mars midway through Season 3… or so most of the world thinks. The season finale reveals that North Korea had sent a manned mission to Mars under the guise of an unmanned probe before NASA, Roscosmos or Helios made their efforts, with the unidentified astronaut seen setting foot on Mars in The Stinger from Season 2 being revealed as Lee Jung-Gil, the lone survivor of the "probe's" landing and the true first person on Mars.

While the United States and the Soviet Union are officially working on patching things over, the Season 2 finale implies that there are forces behind the scenes who don't desire that. While they begin to work together on a trip to Mars, which will lead to a human landing in 1995, these secret machinations will complicate the mission, and could potentially destabilize the Soviet Union.

• Partly Jossed. Season 3 features a three-way race to Mars between America, the still alive Soviet Union and the private company Helios Aerospace. Complications with the Soviet mission midway through transit to Mars do force them to join forces with NASA's mission, but tensions still exist between the two parties (and ultimately with Helios as well) that compromise the mission further.

Just as John Lennon survived his assassination attempt in this timeline, one can hope that Kurt Cobain did not take his own life in 1994 in this timeline. The fact that "Come As You Are" is still a thing in this timeline's 1995 suggests he still has his demons. But maybe the events surrounding the coming missions to Mars at least helps the friends who tried to intervene in his self-destruction in the OTL.

He found Ellen to be so marketable as a political candidate that he was perfectly willing to overlook this detail as long as she and Larry were willing to maintain the farce. He even suggested that she and Larry have a child to increase their credibility.

Consider his suggestion in "All In" to Ed to crew Phoenix with "artists". Not exactly something you'd need for a temporary scientific research mission, but for a planned long-standing civilization, it makes sense. As part of FAM's parallels with real life, this also aligns with the long-term goals of the more prominent members of the contemporary aerospace private sector (*cough* looking at you Musk *cough*), lending the idea a little more credence.

• Building on this idea further: As a possible twist late in Season 3, Dev could reassert remote control of Phoenix (after the crew overrode his first override in "Seven Minutes of Terror") and effectively hold the Helios crew hostage on Mars, forcing a three-way team-up with the NASA-Soviet mission in order to reclaim the ship and ensure everyone gets home.
• Confirmed in Season 4 as he makes a comeback from the ending of Season 3 and moves forward with this goal.

Not intelligent life, obviously, but microbial life, possibly living in an underground reservoir. This will lead to a rift forming between the NASA, Helios, and the Soviets over what to do about Mars and whether to try to colonize the planet or leave the newly-discovered life forms be.

• Jossed, but the idea is entertained. Although Season 4 primarily focuses on the conflicts surrounding the discovery and proposed harnessing of a resource-rich asteroid, the subplot of Kelly's search for extraterrestrial life continues in the background, clearly building towards a future payoff as her research becomes more direct on the edges of Korolev Crater…

Jossed. The jump-forward instead uses M83's "Midnight City".

The season 4 opening newsreel indicates that Kennedy is looking to run for the open Senate seat in New York in 2000, which Hillary Clinton won in real life. This would set him up to become a presidential candidate in 2008 like Clinton and Obama, or possibly as a primary challenger to Gore in 2004, like how Ellen was challenged in 1996. Not having a living counterpart could lead to them casting someone full-time in the role for Season 5.

• Messenger Six reciting the discovery of Mitochondrial Eve, but edited to be ambiguous whether this is a reference to BSG existing in FAM, or whether the series is a Distant Sequel.
• Barack Obama losing the 2004 Senate election to Jack Ryan. Ryan's divorce records from Jeri Ryan leaked, causing him to end his campaign, but in FAM Voyager doesn't exist. No Seven of Nine means the scandal doesn't happen or doesn't hurt him as badly.

Given FAM's penchant for electing the runner-up to the U.S. presidency (think - Ronald Reagan, Gary Hart, Ellen Wilson, Al Gore), I suspect that John McCain will be elected president in 2008 (people want change anyway) and re-elected for another term in 2012 thereafter. Who succeeds McCain will be dependent on two outcomes in 2016:

Rodham 2016 > Republican candidate 2024

Hillary Clinton will become president in 2016. But because she divorced Bill Clinton in the season 4 opening newsreel, and barring any re-marriages, she will be known as President Rodham and become the first female president to be unmarried. Her handling of the Covid-19 pandemic (it will still come, and it will come to bite everyone) will help her win re-election in 2020, and afterwards, a Republican president who isn't Trump will succeed her in 2024 (probably Nikki Haley).

Trump 2016 > McCain's VP 2020 > Trump 2024

I'm putting this here because there is still a possibility of Donald Trump elected given his populist appeal. Because Hart was president, Trump would register as a Democrat, and then the Independence Party, then Republican during Gore's presidency, then back to Democrat, then independent, then Democrat again. He would become the standard-bearer for the Democratic Party for the 2016 election (which no one could stop him), to which he would ascend to the presidency while losing the popular vote, and pivot America to the far-left. His handling of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as social unrest will prompt McCain's vice-president to run for the 2020 election the way Joe Biden did in OTL, defeat Trump and pull America out of crisis. Unfortunately, because of persistent political polarization, good times will not last as McCain's vice-president will then be defeated by Trump again in 2024, just like in OTL, and veer America to the far-left. By then, gunmen, billionaires and foreign adversaries will be the ones deciding America's elections, and this will result in a Downer Ending to the series.