Chapter 1 - Piercing The Veil
Welcome, everyone, to Glorious Dawn!
This is an Alternate Spaceflight Timeline which should hopefully be factoring in the political landscape of the respective times, To keep everything as accurate as possible. If you see any historical inaccuracies don't be afraid to let me know, I'll try to rectify them as soon as I can.
With that out of the way, I hope you all will like the timeline, Let's begin.
Piercing The Veil
Those faint, Pulsating beeps from high up above pierce the public conscience, Broadcasts worldwide speak the same thing. "Mankind has placed its first construction among the stars" And it would not be the last. A Revolution set in motion Decades before would finally begin with Sputnik 1, sparking the beginning of Humanity's exploration of the cosmos.
It's likely this would not have happened until much later had one event not occurred just a few years prior, In July 1955 Then-President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower announced that during the upcoming International Geophysical Year the United States would launch an Artificial Satellite into orbit of the earth. Following this, Just a few days later The USSR Too announced plans for a satellite. The USSR Would go on to develop the R-7 Semyorka rocket, One of the first Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles developed, And the first-ever Orbital Capable Launch Vehicle
There had been plans for a larger satellite, But they never came to pass. The design had been much too complicated to end up being built in time to beat America's Attempt, So they decided to go with a much simpler design. a 58 Centimeter Ball weighing no more than 85kg. This small spacecraft was mounted to a Modified R-7 Semyorka, Called "Sputnik".
A short while after Midnight, on October the 5th, The dark sky was ignited by the piercing light of the engine plume as the Rocket screams upwards towards the heavens. Just under 2 minutes after launch the Side boosters run out of fuel and separate from the core stage, Continuing to burn for another 3 minutes pushing the rocket further and faster towards orbital velocity. Once having reached its target orbit the Fairings and Satellite separate from the rocket, Beginning its rhythmic beeping and cementing the USSR As the main force in space.
But it would not end there, For a month later while the US Was scrambling to get their rocket ready, The Soviet Union would launch “Sputnik 2”. But this time, Instead of its payload containing a small radio transmitter or just simple experiments, It contained a Mammal, A dog from the streets named Laika launched on an incredibly similar rocket, But their capsule would not separate from the core stage. The capsule had systems in place to keep Laika alive, Water and food and a Fan that would activate if it got too hot inside the cabin. Unfortunately, a piece of Thermal insulation tore off during fairing separation, stopping the temperature control from working to its full extent, And before the 5th orbit, Laika had perished due to overheating. She and her capsule would not return to earth for another 2500 orbits.
Early In 1958 After a slew of failures the United States would launch their first satellite, Explorer 1 Into orbit on a Juno I rocket, It would contain science experiments for measuring cosmic rays, micrometeorites and temperature. The cosmic ray detector was especially interesting, Most of the time it spent recording it reported 0 Cosmic rays. This would later be revealed as having been caused by Radiation belts made by the Earth’s magnetic field trapping cosmic rays in various altitudes. Eventually, these would be dubbed the Van Allen Belts. The satellite had also detected 145 Micrometeroid impacts during its time measuring.
Over the next few months, Numerous more rockets would launch to orbit, Mostly America's this time, except for Sputnik 3, Using the original planned design for Sputnik 1. America would launch Vanguard 1, A Small satellite just 15cm across, Also the first satellite to use Solar panels in its design. Also launched are Explorer 3, Explorer 4, Pilot-2 and Pilot-3
On December 4, Another rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, But this time it would not be bound for merely an orbit of the earth, They were setting their sights on the moon. Luna 1 would launch just after sundown, Burning its way through the thin clouds lingering above the launch site. Around 2 minutes into launch, the side boosters would run out of fuel, detaching and firing their separation motors to form the iconic Korolev Cross spiralling down to the ground. Once achieving orbit it would wait idly for a few moments before igniting its final stage, The Trans-Lunar Injection underway, It appears that something is wrong. The engines are underperforming, Outputting less thrust than required to make it all the way. Due to this, it fails to reach its planned transfer trajectory, ending up in a highly elliptical orbit, With an apogee of ~270,000km. But The mission is not a total failure, they can still do most of the experiments placed on the craft. A 1kg container of Sodium gas is released, Both to assist in tracking and to observe the behaviour of gases in the vacuum of space. Its unique albeit unintentional orbit also allowed special opportunities for measuring the Van Allen belts with more detail, and observations of the Earth's magnetic field. Luckily, they would get their chance to view the moon in January next year. Yet again the sky is ignited with a pillar of flames ascending into the sky, Its payload is identical to the previous Luna 1, Only this time its engine performed optimally all the way to TLI. The coast to the moon was rather uneventful, The sodium cloud had been released successfully and it began to observe the near-lunar environment, Due to minor miscalculations it would not end up impacting the surface as originally planned, instead passing just 1,200km above the lunar surface. During the flyby, it had detected no presence of a magnetic field within the sensitivity of its instruments. With all of this information, They now had the necessary information to send an impactor to the Moon.
This is an Alternate Spaceflight Timeline which should hopefully be factoring in the political landscape of the respective times, To keep everything as accurate as possible. If you see any historical inaccuracies don't be afraid to let me know, I'll try to rectify them as soon as I can.
With that out of the way, I hope you all will like the timeline, Let's begin.
Piercing The Veil
Those faint, Pulsating beeps from high up above pierce the public conscience, Broadcasts worldwide speak the same thing. "Mankind has placed its first construction among the stars" And it would not be the last. A Revolution set in motion Decades before would finally begin with Sputnik 1, sparking the beginning of Humanity's exploration of the cosmos.
It's likely this would not have happened until much later had one event not occurred just a few years prior, In July 1955 Then-President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower announced that during the upcoming International Geophysical Year the United States would launch an Artificial Satellite into orbit of the earth. Following this, Just a few days later The USSR Too announced plans for a satellite. The USSR Would go on to develop the R-7 Semyorka rocket, One of the first Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles developed, And the first-ever Orbital Capable Launch Vehicle
There had been plans for a larger satellite, But they never came to pass. The design had been much too complicated to end up being built in time to beat America's Attempt, So they decided to go with a much simpler design. a 58 Centimeter Ball weighing no more than 85kg. This small spacecraft was mounted to a Modified R-7 Semyorka, Called "Sputnik".
A short while after Midnight, on October the 5th, The dark sky was ignited by the piercing light of the engine plume as the Rocket screams upwards towards the heavens. Just under 2 minutes after launch the Side boosters run out of fuel and separate from the core stage, Continuing to burn for another 3 minutes pushing the rocket further and faster towards orbital velocity. Once having reached its target orbit the Fairings and Satellite separate from the rocket, Beginning its rhythmic beeping and cementing the USSR As the main force in space.
But it would not end there, For a month later while the US Was scrambling to get their rocket ready, The Soviet Union would launch “Sputnik 2”. But this time, Instead of its payload containing a small radio transmitter or just simple experiments, It contained a Mammal, A dog from the streets named Laika launched on an incredibly similar rocket, But their capsule would not separate from the core stage. The capsule had systems in place to keep Laika alive, Water and food and a Fan that would activate if it got too hot inside the cabin. Unfortunately, a piece of Thermal insulation tore off during fairing separation, stopping the temperature control from working to its full extent, And before the 5th orbit, Laika had perished due to overheating. She and her capsule would not return to earth for another 2500 orbits.
Early In 1958 After a slew of failures the United States would launch their first satellite, Explorer 1 Into orbit on a Juno I rocket, It would contain science experiments for measuring cosmic rays, micrometeorites and temperature. The cosmic ray detector was especially interesting, Most of the time it spent recording it reported 0 Cosmic rays. This would later be revealed as having been caused by Radiation belts made by the Earth’s magnetic field trapping cosmic rays in various altitudes. Eventually, these would be dubbed the Van Allen Belts. The satellite had also detected 145 Micrometeroid impacts during its time measuring.
Over the next few months, Numerous more rockets would launch to orbit, Mostly America's this time, except for Sputnik 3, Using the original planned design for Sputnik 1. America would launch Vanguard 1, A Small satellite just 15cm across, Also the first satellite to use Solar panels in its design. Also launched are Explorer 3, Explorer 4, Pilot-2 and Pilot-3
On December 4, Another rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, But this time it would not be bound for merely an orbit of the earth, They were setting their sights on the moon. Luna 1 would launch just after sundown, Burning its way through the thin clouds lingering above the launch site. Around 2 minutes into launch, the side boosters would run out of fuel, detaching and firing their separation motors to form the iconic Korolev Cross spiralling down to the ground. Once achieving orbit it would wait idly for a few moments before igniting its final stage, The Trans-Lunar Injection underway, It appears that something is wrong. The engines are underperforming, Outputting less thrust than required to make it all the way. Due to this, it fails to reach its planned transfer trajectory, ending up in a highly elliptical orbit, With an apogee of ~270,000km. But The mission is not a total failure, they can still do most of the experiments placed on the craft. A 1kg container of Sodium gas is released, Both to assist in tracking and to observe the behaviour of gases in the vacuum of space. Its unique albeit unintentional orbit also allowed special opportunities for measuring the Van Allen belts with more detail, and observations of the Earth's magnetic field. Luckily, they would get their chance to view the moon in January next year. Yet again the sky is ignited with a pillar of flames ascending into the sky, Its payload is identical to the previous Luna 1, Only this time its engine performed optimally all the way to TLI. The coast to the moon was rather uneventful, The sodium cloud had been released successfully and it began to observe the near-lunar environment, Due to minor miscalculations it would not end up impacting the surface as originally planned, instead passing just 1,200km above the lunar surface. During the flyby, it had detected no presence of a magnetic field within the sensitivity of its instruments. With all of this information, They now had the necessary information to send an impactor to the Moon.
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