[AlexanderHowl]

I think people are getting obsessed about inconsequential details. By 2008, you have a nearly 40 year divergence, meaning that people are different. The America that results is more prosperous and progressive, and it is because of space development and, as long as the people who become President do not interfere, that is all that matters.

When it comes to space development, 20% of the American economy would be space based (60% energy production, 20% electronics and pharmaceutical manufacturing, and 20% asteroid mining). Electronics produced in LEO suffer no atmospheric contamination or gravity defects, meaning that they are as perfect and as durable as you can make them (paradoxically, this would slow computer development, as people would expect computers to last 10 years rather than 2 years). Pharmaceuticals produced in LEO would likewise have no biological and chemical contaminants, making them cheaper and safer than pharmaceuticals produced on Earth.

Asteroid mining would be a rapidly growing business. NEAs like 433 Eros would be producing as much precious metals as all of the mines on Earth, and that would be a byproduct of transforming them into Earth-Mars cycler stations (transforming the asteroids into habitats produces reaction mass for mass drivers after everything valuable is extracted). Every cubic kilometer of empty volume produces 200,000 metric tons of precious metals (2,500 metric tons of gold alone), making it quite profitable even with a 90% drop in prices.