Launch of the Galatea - Project Pinnacle Succeeds

1st April, 2011 , 15:59 (Novian Mean Time) / Silanor Launch Site, Situated 56 miles from Berne outskirts, Avinistratus

It was today, that the combined minds and industry of the Avinistratus Space Program and its Administratum advisors got to see the fruition of their years of solo work, combined in months of furious development. While not everything had come to completion within such a short time, the first stage of Project Pinnacle was getting underway with a single, glorious move to show just how capable it really was.

Stood there, on the virgin launch pad was the first true spaceship ever to be produced within Sermo. The Avinistratus Orbital Craft Galatea didn’t look like much to the naked eye, with all the interesting components tucked away under the shrouding it was simply a bulge atop the heavy lift vehicle, stretching the shape of the booster even further into the sky.

There was no chance of the Galatea operating within an atmosphere, but that was the job of the booster, to boost it into the vacuum where it could show the region just what Avinistratus engineering was capable of. The basic ideas and parts for Galatea had been in place for several years, being a variant of the Administratum’s Solaris-class but the actual construction had taken its time to get underway.

Times had changed since then though, Galatea being the first of the vessels currently completed with another two in the final stages of construction. It wasn’t the outstanding rate of production the Administratum had achieved, but the three vessels would be enough for the years to come, needing only maintenance, propellant and resupplieing the basic human needs to continue running throughout the void.

The initial flight for Galatea was long decided, even if the press release had been subtly different than the flight plan provided to the crew. The press release stated that the Galatea was going to be lofted into the atmosphere by the heavy rocket beneath it, after which it would release and power its own way into orbit. Once there, it would be able to undergo a series of tests to confirm that it was fully capable of inter-satellite flight at the very least.

In the control bunker situated several metres beneath the launch pad just in case of a catastrophic failure of launch, a single voice kept count of the seconds remaining until launch, his eyes occasionally flicking to a chipped ceramic mug upon his desk. It was a new addition to him, but the faded 'A-within-an-eye' showed its age better than any barcode, it was a reminder of who else was in there with him. And the Regional Intelligence were not known for tolerating mistakes… Were they?

As he passed the ten seconds mark the ignition sequence began, flames spewing out from beneath the rocket on the monitor. All was going to plan, nothing wrong from here on in. A mixture of fear and training kept his voice steady as the countdown came into the final stretch, everyone knew how this bit would go. He knew it, the Galatea-crew knew it, the Reg-In girl beside him knew it…

“Five,”

“Four,”

“Three,”

“Two,”

“One,”

“Zero, all engines are running…”

As the booster went to full power, chemical rockets blazing with fury as they began to heft thousands of pounds of weight up and into the sky.

“…We have lift off. Just on the hour, Galatea has lift off.”

Within seconds it had cleared the tower, and from then on it was simply a pillar of flame topped by a glorious statue of white, black, orange and blue. It accelerated onwards until not even the cameras could track it, and with none of the exploding which might have plagued the space flight were it poorly constructed.

Once it had left the camera’s eye, all the Avinistratus News crews had to go on was the information drip-fed them by the staff on site. The next visual contact with the craft came when it was over two-hundred kilometres up, the shrouding which had protected the Galatea from the buffeting effects of the atmosphere fell away, to reveal the ship itself.

It wasn’t a pretty ship, but it wasn’t designed to look pretty, it was designed to carry people safely from planet to satellite or even another planet without harm, and this was it’s maiden voyage. Explosive bolts fired and the final burnt out remnants of the booster fell away, leaving the Galatea silently drifting upwards upon momentum alone, then the main drive started up.

It wasn’t all that impressive at first, merely a cylinder falling free from the disc at the back of the craft… Then the pulse unit activated, and above the Ocasian coast, a new star burned ever so brightly in the sky. The pusher plate took the force of the blast directed at it, and was hurled backwards into the craft, which was propelled upwards and away from the Earth as a result.

On board, the eight-men/woman crew breathed a collective sigh of relief, and the process began anew, driving the Galatea onwards to vacuum upon a string of miniature suns which lit up the sky behind it. Everything was going to plan, and yet… The Galatea did not stop at a Low-Earth Orbit… It continued onwards, something which astounded many watching, was the craft going out of control? If so, they could always request support from the Administratum Vacuum Service…

Those not in the know yet with access to the telemetry were puzzled, until they realised just what the craft was doing. They were not going for LEO, instead they were heading directly for a Trans-Lunar Injection. What better surprise could there be for the nations, than to learn that not only was all well, but it was exceeding their wildest expectations!

The chain of star-fire ended only when Galatea had settled into it’s path, one that would take them in a slingshot around Luna, before returning them to Earth after a little pulse-unit based encouragement. With all the calculations correct, they wouldn't even have to manuever until over a day from now, for the Earth’s moon would wait longer than any machine of man.



- Avinistratus Orbital Craft Galatea, caught on zoom-camera by the ASV Artemis.

Congratulations on your success. May I ask what scientific purpose this launch served, or was it simply a test run?

Frenzland admires any nation who can make it into the depths of space on its own steam. What would be your plan for later missions?