In the Mars Trilogy timeline of Kim Stanley Robinson, John Boone was supposed to have flown to Mars last year (2024). The First Hundred, a group of astronauts, scientists, engineers, and agricultural experts (and one psychologist!) for the first permanent colony on Mars, is currently training and being selected in Antarctica, and the colony ship Ares is under construction in orbit, due to launch next year (2026). Russia and the United States cooperate; half the First Hundred come from these countries, the rest from various allied associates.
The Shuttle still flies, Russia fields the Energia rocket, and perhaps even the Buran shuttle, since the first book mentions Russian auxiliary fuel tanks as well as American ones used to build the ship Ares.
Red Mars was published in 1993, more than thirty years ago. The technologies presented were not that far ahead, and were very plausible. It underestimated the development and progression of computing technology, but this is true of nearly all science fiction works.
The most interesting aspects of the Trilogy are not so much the technology, but the social, political and economic angles of colonizing a new planet. Most science fiction I've read previously, glosses over who is actually paying for the development of technological marvels, or for colonization effort. It's taken for granted that someone will fund it, and the results will be for the good of mankind (assuming mad scientists are not involved!). Red Mars alludes to this, when Boone asks Sax Russell, "Sax, who is paying for all this?" Sax, a one dimensional scientist at this point, says, "The Sun." (Saxifrage Russell does grow a bit in the following books. Even takes an active part in the resistance.)
It's left to realists like Arkady Bogdanov and Frank Chalmers to explain to Boone that the colonization effort is a massive investment of capital, and the investors expect a massive return on their investment! The second half of Red Mars shows what happens when the capitalists start to exploit the planet. A space elevator on Mars enables a surge of immigration of workers to Mars, sponsored by giant multinational conglomerates, faster than accommodations can be built. Horrid work and living conditions for the newcomers. Massive profits for the companies from Martian minerals and construction contracts.
And who guarantees workers' rights on Mars when you leave governments behind on Earth, and only the companies hold sway?
A disastrous attempt at revolution, deadly retaliation by the companies that faraway Earth is unable to restrain. The Martian settlements and their life support systems prove too fragile to sustain any kind of militaristic action. The surviving First Hundred go underground to hidden colonies and bases.