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DispatchFactbookHistory

by The Federal Oligarchy of Blanjiland. . 13 reads.

History of the Blanji Space Program (WIP)

The Blanji Space Program


Blanji Association for Corporate Offworld Ventures
(BACOV)



Agency Overview



Formed: 2 November, 1957
Jurisdiction: Blanji Higher Parliament
Headquarters: Copenhagen
Motto: "Beyond Earth Lies Enlightenment"
Employees: 8,207
Annual Budget: BL 798.21 billion (2020)

Agency Executives:


Jean-Christophe Spears, Chief Administrator
(incumbent 2008)


Johann-Dietrich Wörner, Corporate Coordinator
(incumbent 2015)


Eula Møller, Chief Finanical Officer
(incumbent 2019)



The Space Program of the Federal Oligarchy of Blanjiland, commonly referred to as the Blanji Space Program, is the umbrella term for the federally-subsidized private space ventures throughout the latter half of the 20th century, and 21st century. The federal agency responsible for organizing these missions is the Blanji Association for Corporate Offworld Ventures (BACOV).

BACOV was established in 1957, becoming the first federal agency to be established in 35 years. The organization was distinct in its support by then-Prime Oligarch Percy Van Doorn, who feared the recent launch of the LinkSoviet artificial satellite Sputnik-1 would leave the free world - and more importantly, Blanjiland, behind in the rapidly escalating race for ballistic missiles. While the Higher Parliament had initially meant for the organization to promote civilian and commercial exploration into space, Van Doorn pushed for the agency to serve as a wing of the Blanji Armed Forces, which in the end would be rejected. Ultimately, the Higher Parliament and Van Doorn would compromise, established BACOV as a civilian agency that can freely be contracted by the BAF at their discretion.

Since its inception, almost all space exploration conducted by Blanjiland has been led by BACOV, including several Moon Landings, the Zahle Space Station, and the Joint Blanji-American Mars Landing. A portion of BACOV's budget is dedicated to maintaining the International Space Station, of which it is the largest contributor, and is currently overseeing space exploration conducted by Rowe Incorporated, Blanji Aviation, and EuroSpace.

In recent years, BACOV has placed great emphasis on commodifying space travel, developing increasingly efficient launch platforms, and deep-space rocketry. Since the start of its 2012 Asteroid-capture program, the goals of BACOV have widened to exploring the feasibility of asteroid mining, and Linkindustrializing space.

Creation



Rocketry had always been an interest for Blanji corporations, which viewed the novel technology as a means by which aircraft could reach greater speeds, massively reducing transportation times. With the advent of jet aircraft in the 1940s, however, the idea of rocket-powered planes became less lucrative, as jet engines proved to be far more reliable, and reusable, than rocket craft.

Then, in 1945, the Keepo Republic unveiled a new, never-before-seen weapon of mass destruction, the atomic bomb. Blanji scientists scrambled to develop an atom bomb of their own, but before they were successful, every rivaling power, including the United States, Swaden, and the Soviet Union, had successfully manufactured and tested their weapons. In this period, a second team of scientists was hired to produce a rocket capable of deploying an atom bomb over an extreme distance. The rocket, dubbed the EX-49, was finished in 1948, seven years before Blanjiland would finish its atomic weapons project. When neighboring nations Swaden and the Keepo Republic caught wind of this rocket, both rushed to produce their rockets with similar or greater capability. In 1950, Blanjiland's EX-49 would still stand as the world's most powerful rocket, with later models, including the XBM-16, surpassing its predecessors by several factors. By 1953, talks about using the XBM platform as a means to put a satellite in orbit started to become serious. With no hope for Blanjiland to become a nuclear power soon, the next best thing to show Blanji supremacy was an artificial satellite. In 1955, after the successful detonation of the "Budget Bomb", plans for Blanjiland's blossoming missile program once again shifted towards a military focus, with space exploration put off to the side. In 1957, however, the Soviet Union's Sputnik-1 program shocked the world, triggering the Sputnik Crisis worldwide. Immediately, Prime Oligarch Percy Van Doorn ordered the nation's rocket scientists to put a satellite in orbit by the years' end. The Higher Parliament convened in an emergency meeting on 8 October, where the idea for a federal space program quickly became a bipartisan issue.

The only point of disagreement was its purpose as a civilian or military agency. Many in the Parliament wanted the organization to not have any oversight by the BAF, due to concerns over the potential unethical application of research. Those in favor of establishing it as a branch of the military, spearheaded by Prime Oligarch Percy Van Doorn, as well as most of the Cabinet, wanted to ensure any discoveries made by this newfound agency would directly benefit the BAF, especially as Blanji neutrality in the Cold War was starting to look like a hopeless endeavor. Ultimately, on 2 November, both sides were able to compromise on a civilian department that could choose to conduct research for the BAF on their judgment.

The greenhorn BACOV began operations one month later, on 4 December 1957, with all 204 scientists on Van Doorn's rocketry team hired as well as an additional 3,000 scientists, technicians, and engineers, with an annual budget of BL 100 billion. Companies that had previously contracted to the BAF to produce ballistic missiles were brought on board soon after.

Leadership



(First Chief Administrator,
Roy Gibson,
1957-1965.)

BACOV's lead authority, Chief Administrator, is appointed by the Higher Parliament, which is then approved by Oligarch of Technology (incumbent: Edward Rowe), who reports directly to the Cabinet and acts as their senior advisor on all space-related affairs. At any point, the Chief Administrator can be subject to removal by the Higher Parliament with a 3/5 majority.

The first Chief Administrator of BACOV was Roy Gibson, who spent his early years bringing together the disparate and fractured private enterprises into a unified, efficient agency on par with rival space agencies. His tenure saw Blanjiland's first unmanned and manned spacecraft and stable orbit.

Joint operations between BACOV and private firms are managed by the Corporate Coordinator, who is appointed by the Chief Administrator and approved by the Oligarch of Technology. Intergovernmental operations are also conducted by the Corporate Coordinator, though to a lesser extent.

History


Project Van Blanj



(Van Blanj-1,
moments before launch.
Circa 1957.)

With less than a month to achieve Van Doorn's goal of an unmanned spacecraft in orbit by the end of the year, BACOV almost immediately began work on Project Van Blanj, named in honor of first Oligarch and historical figure Walter Van Blanj. The mission was planned to launch from the Clemmensen Naval Base in the Congo, though due to rapidly approaching deadlines, it was set to launch from the Brussels Airport, where missile testing had previously been conducted. The probe, Van Blanj-1, was to be launched using the XBM-17 launch platform, an experimental ICBM designed to be able to strike Moscow from anywhere in Europe.

Upon its launch day, 29 December, the rocket capriciously imploded 18 seconds into its ascent, presumably due to do a fatal engineering mistake. Word of the failed Explorer-1 project from the United States a month later reinvigorated Blanji scientists, who quickly went to work on Van Blanj-2. On 1 February 1958, Blanjiland became the second nation to achieve an unmanned orbit.

After Van Blanj-2, all Blanji space missions have operated out of the Clemmenson Naval Base.

After this achievement, BACOV neglected its unmanned program until it set its eyes on the Moon. On 18 March 1961, Van Blanj-3 made achieved a successful orbit around the Moon, collecting data until it ran out of power six months later. Van Blanj-4 became the first unmanned craft to achieve a soft landing on the Moon on 11 November 1965, a month before the Soviet's Luna-9.


(Artist's rendition
of Van Blanj-2.)

Van Blanj-4 and Van Blanj-5 were sent into the orbit of Venus, with Van Blanj-5 eventually de-orbited to collect atmospheric data of Venus in 1970.

Van Blanj-6 was sent to Mars, taking photographs and relaying data back to Earth. Van Blanj-7 was sent after Van Blanj-6 spontaneously de-orbited due to a calculation error.

Van Blanj-8 is in orbit of the Sun, collecting data of the Solar System, in particular the Asteroid Belt.

Van Blanj-9 and 10 were sent to Jupiter, 9 to collect atmospheric data and 10 to observe Jupiter's moons.

Van Blanj-11 was sent to Saturn to collect atmospheric data.

Van Blanj-12 was sent to Neptune, where it was destroyed during transit due to rogue space debris.

Van Blanj-13 was meant to enter the orbit of Pluto, however, due to a calculation error, it is currently in interstellar space.

Van Blanj-14 was sent to Neptune, to carry out the plans of Van Blanj-12, but unplanned disassembly 28 minutes into ascension put a temporary hold on the Van Blanj series of probes.

Project Thor



(Thor-1, shortly before
takeoff. Circa 1961.)


(Photograph taken
during spaceflight of
Thor-1.
Circa 1961.)

Project Thor was the codename for BACOV's mission to put a person in orbit before any of their competitors. Shortly after Van Blanj-2 had achieved orbit, the United States, Swaden, and the Keepo Republic had put satellites in orbit as well. The United States, like Blanjiland, established their own official space agency, NASA. The Keepo Republic soon followed suit. With the Space Race officially on, it was imperative for Blanjiland to achieve technological supremacy over their rivals.

Throughout 1960, Blanjiland refined its XBM-17 design, but no matter how efficient the rocket was, it became clear it did not have the required force to lift a human into orbit. Ultimately, BACOV scrapped the XBM series, selling its findings to the BAF. In order to meet the sheer power requirements to lift a man into orbit, Blanji scientists designed the HTS-1, a rocket with six times the force of the XBM-17. While it was being tested, news of the Soviet's Soyuz-1 mission arrived in April 1961, two months before the HTS-1 was scheduled for takeoff. A month later, The United States and Swaden achieved human spaceflight. On 20 June 1961, Thor-1 launched astronaut Cedric Hedley into orbit for three hours.

Thor-2 would send Hedley up a second time, in an attempt for the record time of one day and eight hours, beating the Keepan record of one day and three hours.

Thor-3 sent astronaut Oskar Lécuyer to an orbit of 800 kilometers, a record-breaking altitude that would not be beaten until 1966.

Thor-4 and Thor-5 were launched simultaneously to test theories regarding mid-spaceflight docking.

Thor-6 was called off moments before takeoff due to a leakage in the crew cabin being detected.

Thor-7 was meant to carry the first female into orbit, Odette Sampson Hallowes, nominee for Prime Oligarch in the November 1962 election. The mission was wholly a publicity stunt, but forty minutes into ascension, the rocket unexpectedly erupted. Hallowes survived, thanks to the first-ever successful use of the HTS-1's emergency escape system. After her election soon after, Hallowes called off any future plans for space missions, and ultimately the title of the first woman in space would go to Valentina Tereshkova of the Soviet Union.

Thor-8 would be the first launch of the HTS-2 platform, which boasted better safety features and was capable of exerting three times more force than its predecessor.

Thor-9 carried the first Congolese man, Umaru Mwangi, into space, and set a new record for the longest spaceflight at three days.

Thor-10, Thor-11, and Thor-12 would all be launched to test theories regarding in-orbit construction.

Thor-13 marked the first launch of the HTS-3, which was theoretically capable of reaching the moon.

Thor-14 would be the final launch of Project Thor during the 1960s, with the project temporarily suspended as BACOV allocated greater and greater resources into its Odin Program. Project Thor would be reactivated in the 1990s but has not had any missions yet.

Odin Program



The Odin Program was BACOV's mission to land a person on the moon by 1980. Activated in 1961, the Odin Program was at first extremely secretive in its nature, but after other world powers, most notably the United States, announced its desire to reach the moon by 1970, BACOV became more transparent about the program's activities. In 1964, Prime Oligarch Hallowes would allocate significant funding for BACOV to beat the United States to the moon, even ordering parts of the BAF to assist in developing the necessary technology for such a feat.

One of the greatest points of conflict during the Odin Program was whether the final mission should be LinkDirect-Ascent, or follow a complex order of orbital rendezvous and construction around the Earth or Moon. Ultimately, similar to American and Soviet lunar programs, Blanjiland would settle on a LinkLunar Orbit Rendezvous, while Swadenian and Keepan missions would use a Direct-Ascent method. This was primarily due to the fact no factory in Blanjiland or the Congo was large enough to produce the enormous fuselages required for a Direct-Ascent mission.

Odin-1 would mark the first launch of the HTS-4 rocket, which boasted the ability to carry a crew of up to five people into a parking orbit around the Moon by 1965.

Odin-2 would be the first manned test of the rocket, but would only enter Low Earth Orbit, in order to test and refine docking.

Odin-3 was a live exercise of the first stage of the final mission, carrying a full crew and lander module. During the exercise, however, a mistake during the docking procedure caused the lander module to crash directly into the ship's engine, leaving the crew stranded in space. The incident garnered international attention, as space programs from all leading players in the Space Race volunteered to help. Eight days later, a Keepan ship would successfully rescue all five crew members. This event has been memorialized by the critically-acclaimed Keepan film Odin-3.

Odin-4 would be the second attempt at a live training mission, with Thor-14 on standby to rescue the crew in the event of catastrophic failure.

Odin-5 would mark the first-ever manned orbit around the Moon in 1967, and carry the first Blanji woman into orbit, Sammie Achthoven.

Odin-6 was the first attempt at a Moon Landing, but the mission was abruptly called off after a gas leak was found.

Odin-7 was the second attempt but was once again called off after an unexpected storm hit the Clemmenson Naval Base.

Odin-8 was the first test of the HTS-5, which featured an overhauled layout that was considered far safer and more robust than its HTS-4 counterpart. It also contained more efficient reaction wheels and RCS thrusters, making orbital maneuvers and docking far easier.

On 20 July 1969, the American mission Apollo-11 successfully landed two astronauts on the Moon, nearly a year before Odin-9 was scheduled to attempt such a feat. As news struck, the roadmap for the Odin-9 mission was rushed dramatically, with parts ripped straight from previous missions without adequate safety checks, and a crew that had minimal spaceflight experience, save for its captain. Despite every attempt to cut corners, the Keepo Republic beat Blanjiland to the Moon as well, with its rocket, Lancaster-6, touching down on the Lunar surface four days before Odin-9 began its voyage. Eventually, on 31 December 1969, Blanjiland would become the third nation to land a man on the Moon, and was the first nation to land a woman on the Moon. Odin-9 landed three people, Sammie Achthoven (Captain), Frederik White (Lander Pilot), and Rudolph Swindlehurst (Technician), within the Tycho Crater, at coordinates 43.25°S 12.00°W. Two astronauts, Oliver Penn (Auxilliary Pilot), and Shirley Kalb (Communications/Radio Operator) stayed in orbit to monitor the landing and communicate with Mission Control. The crew stayed on the Lunar surface for one day, conducting various experiments before returning and eventually landing in the North Sea on 4 January 1970.

Odin-10 would be Blanjiland's second successful Moon Landing, conducting more experiments within the Tycho Crater, at coordinates 42.89°S 11.46°W, with the same crew as Odin-9.

Odin-11 was Blanjiland's last mission to the Moon, as BACOV redirected funding towards its upcoming Yggdrasil Space Station. Odin-11 landed in the Oceanus Procellarum to take samples in order to test theories regarding the LinkOrigin of the Moon. The mission performed several landings; Landing site 1 was 37.96°N 24.02°W, site 2 was 40.36°N 23.27°W, and site 3 was 27.73°N 25.78°W. Its crew was comprised of Eugène Morse (Captain), Nickolas Segal (Lander Pilot), Isaak Steele (Technician), Edgard Blythe (Auxilliary Pilot), and Isabella Baker (Communications/Radio Operator).

The Odin Program was terminated in 1972, with no manned missions to the Moon planned since. The official reason was the extraordinary cost of the HTS-5 rocket and subsequent training. Manned missions to other celestial bodies would start again in 1998 with the activation of the Mars Program.

Yggdrasil Incident


While the race to the Moon began to slow down in 1970, BACOV quietly redirected funding towards establishing a permanent orbital facility, where scientists can conduct experiments in space for prolonged periods of time and could act as a staging point for later space endeavors. The station, under the codename "Yggdrasil", was first formulated in 1968, and construction began in 1969. After the success of Odin-9, BACOV made their plans for a space station public. Piggybacking off the hype of the Moon Landing, BACOV's budget was further boosted, and the prospect of Blanjiland becoming the first to make such a major achievement threw the project into the national limelight.

The rocket was planned to be launched in five stages, but due to public pressure to perform, concerns about another nation beating Blanjiland, and rapidly approaching deadlines, the mission was altered to feature five rockets launched simultaneously (presumably for the prestige of such a feat). When the launch date finally came, over 80 million Blanjis (nearly 87% of the population (92 million circa 1970)) were viewing the event live, as well as another 30 million worldwide. Six minutes into ascent, Rocket #3, which was carrying the solar arrays and station's powerplant, suffered a catastrophic engine failure, causing the rocket's fuel to violently erupt; fragments and loose debris collided with the other rockets, and within the span of seven seconds, every rocket was destroyed. All six crew members, Kunigunde Neuman, Karin Saunders, Bruno Hathway, Guy Ludwig, Daniel Gage, and Rafaël Tatton were lost.

Zahle Program


Following the disaster of the Yggdrasil launch, BACOV massively scaled down their space station program; instead of a singular, monolithic station that served simultaneously as an orbital lab, workshop, gateway, and commercial recreation, a large array of smaller, specialized stations would conduct each of these missions, established over a longer period of time. This program was named after former Prime Oligarch Carl Theodor Zahle, famed for lifting Blanjiland out of the 1921 economic crash.

Zahle-1 was launched using a repurposed HTS-3 rocket, becoming the first space station in February 1971. It served as an orbital laboratory and remained in orbit for 150 days.

Zahle-2 was put in orbit after Zahle-1 was de-orbited, to test the viability of orbital manufacturing. It boasted the Icarus Foundry Module, which was initially destined for the Yggdrasil Station (but was replaced by the Burton Orbital Foundry due to a last-minute backdoor deal). It remained in orbit for 43 days but was abandoned and de-orbited after a leak was found in the oxygen storage unit.

Zahle-3 was unique for the Zahle series, as it served as an experiment regarding the commercialization of space travel. It remained in orbit for six years, seeing 95 tourists including Prime Oligarchs Hans van den Broek and Leopold Easton by the time of its decommissioning.

Zahle-4 was established to conduct ultraviolet spectrograms of the Sun, the Moon, and Venus. The station was decommissioned after 190 days but remains in orbit to this day.

Zahle-5 was intended to act as a Lunar Gateway and would serve as the first attempt at a manned Linkhalo orbit near the LinkL2 point between the Earth and the Moon. Ultimately, after the termination of the Odin Program, Zahle-5 was scrapped with it.

Zahle-6 was designed in mind with a joint project to dock three ships with the United States and the Soviet Union, in an attempt to both ease relations and further scientific collaboration between the three nations. The mission lasted 20 days before the American and Soviet crews left, with the Blanji crew remaining to conduct additional research. The station is still operational to this day.

Zahle-7 served a similar purpose, but with the Keepo Republic and Swaden. To this day, the station is maintained by the three nations.

While Zahle-7 was the last launch, the program is still active, mainly dedicated toward maintaining stations, as well as having the infrastructure in place for future planned space stations.

Project Venus


International Space Station


Mars Program


Asteroid Capture Program


Planned Missions


Low Earth Orbit Industrialization


Project Europa


Budget


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