The year-by-year news clips for season 4 have come out on Apple TV, covering the gap between seasons. Based on what's happened the last two seasons, most of it will probably be condensed into an opening montage in the season premiere, but there are always interesting details in the expanded version. I'll sum up the fictional history, if you have trouble pulling up special features on Apple TV (the streaming services do make it difficult, don't they?). If you want the post-scripts showing the real-world history they're riffing on, I don't know, ask an older adult or look it up on Wikipedia.
1996: Ellen Wilson-R defeats Jerry Brown-D in what's described as the greatest Presidential upset since Truman defeated Dewey, making her the first opening gay person elected President. Following her coming out in '95, the GOP turned its back on Wilson, even discussing impeachment proceedings. She benefited from a rally-around-the-flag effect after the Johnson Space Center bombing. Her Vice President attempted to primary her, but she was endorsed by her secretary of state, George H. W. Bush, who she choose as her running mate for her re-election campaign. Bush's endorsement encouraged moderate Republicans that it was acceptable to support Wilson, while she herself was able to win over moderate and conservative Democrats who considered Brown too far to the left.
1997: Wilson and Gorbachev sign the "Mars-7 Alliance" treaty, an agreement to jointly administer the Happy Valley Mars colony. Members are the United States, the Soviet Union, the European Space Agency, the Coalition of Communist Countries for Spaceflight, a group of Soviet-aligned countries including Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, eastern Europe, Ukraine, and Egypt (that's what that red mystery flag with the midcentury communist-style block lettering was), Japan, India, and North Korea. China and Canada elected to remain independent in terms of space exploration. Helios was awarded a contract for expanding the Mars base, rescuing the company from near-bankruptcy following Dev's ouster, Karen's death, and their lunar Helium-3 mines being ruled to be an illegal monopoly (which led to Exxon, Halliburton, and Shell quickly securing their own mining operations on the moon).
1998: Hal Goodman and Sunny Hall were convicted for the Johnson Space Center bombings, on multiple counts of conspiracy and 195 counts of murder. They are both eligible for the death penalty. Jimmy Stevens testified against them, having struck a plea-bargain the previous year for a twelve-year prison sentence and $200,000 fine. Former astronaut Charles Bernitz was not convicted, having been killed in the blast.
1999: The Unity, a new spacecraft built by Helios, sets a new speed record for manned* spaceflight of 100,000 miles per hour, able to travel between Earth and Mars in 31 days. The ship uses a fusion reactor to power a plasma thruster. The previous record transit was Sojourner 3, taking approximately 90 days. The engine makes it practical to travel to and from Mars at any time of the year, rather than having to wait for Earth and Mars to align to their closest relative positions. Helios is already building a second ship of the same design, which is 300 feet long, can carry 100 metric tons of cargo, and 50 astronauts. The ship is also spacious, featuring private crew quarters, showers, communal areas, and gyms. This will allow Happy Valley to continue to expand operations, with an eye towards becoming a base for asteroid mining. Asteroids having recently been confirmed to be a literal and proverbial goldmine by the OSIRIS-REx sample-return mission.
2000: Election night nailbiter! Bush v. Gore! But it's Vice President George H. W. Bush, this time, and it all comes down to... Pennsylvania? Gore won Florida by ~1000 votes, despite Katherine Harris deciding not to require overseas absentee ballots to be postmarked on or before election day, a move expected to bolster Bush's total since most of those would be Republican-leaning servicepeople. Gore's victory in Florida is credited partially to the Elián González affair boosting his popularity with the Cuban community. Wilson seemed to attempt to return him to his father in Cuba (as happened in reality under the Clinton administration), or at least was hands-off on the whole situation, while Gore lead a coalition of Democrats and Republicans in the Senate to (somehow) grant González citizenship. Breaking news, Gore wins Pennsylvania, giving him 273 electoral votes and the presidency, making Al Gore the 42nd President (oh, right, they skipped Ford's half-term). It is implied he also won the popular vote, having exactly the same number of votes he got in reality (albeit more usefully distributed in the ATL).
2001: Moscow is becoming known as "the Paris of the East" thanks to an "economic miracle" resulting from Gorbachev's policies of glasnost and perestroika opening the USSR to western capitalism. Leningrad, Minsk, and Kiev, among others, are also feeling the good times, attracting corporate investments and luxury retailers. The boom is being led by technical innovations coming out of the Soviet space program, and by exports of heavy metals used to construct batteries and complex electronics. However, class resentment is building against this new group of oligarchs and rising inequality, with Gorbachev's political opponents accusing him and the incipient middle- and upper-classes of selling out (so to speak) the ideals of Marx and Lenin. Observers believe Gorbachev's administration might not survive an economic downturn, which may be coming as iridium and lithium mines are becoming tapped-out. Lack of diversity in the Soviet economy could leave them more vulnerable to recession, though Warren Buffet points out that the Soviet Union still has the largest crude oil reserve in the world, if the energy sector returns to drawing on fossil fuels.
*Their word, you'd think Nixon's Women and the ERA would've had them switching to "crewed" a bit earlier, guess not.
That damn app! When I first loaded it up the new content was visible. Then I logged in and it f$^@*n vanished! Can't find it!
