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.
 
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Chapter 2 - 72 Titanium Shields
72 Titanium Shields

As the year turns to 1959 the United States decides to Continue Project Pilot, with joint control from the U.S. Air Force, A Program plagued with failures, with only 2 Successful launches against 10 failures, the US navy continues air launching their Pilot ASAT Vehicles to prepare for the possibility of Soviet military satellites. Although the program is performing poorly, its reason for existing is still credible enough to warrant its launches and funding. The new version features more reliable solid rocket motors And is planned to launch on an X-15 For a more efficient ascent, As well as serving for potential further expansion to the X-Planes Program

On June 16th, as the clouds were parting in the morning, Luna 3 is preparing to launch on its path to Strike the moon, In an event that feels somewhat commonplace and unexciting, yet so unique and rare, the rocket ascends beyond the clouds once again, not even entering into orbit and burning straight towards the moon. Coasting towards that small grey orb, approaching it unbelievably fast. All it can do is silently broadcast its data back to earth while it waits to hit the desired target, lacking a maneuvering system of its own it can only hope the rocket placed it on the right trajectory.
On it this time are mounted 2 Balls comprised of 72 Titanium Shields each etched with the marking of the soviet emblem, and the text "CCCP ИЮНЬ 1959" Translating to USSR June 1959, Each of the spheres with a small explosive charge nestled inside it designed to detonate some time before impact and send the Penants scattered across the lunar surface.
Luna 3 continues, racing towards the weathered terrain of the lunar surface, its impact site targeted as the vicinity of Autolycus crater in Mare Imbrium, The sea of Rains. Its signal broadcast back to a world over 350,000 kilometres away that could do nothing more but wait for the signal to cease.
This craft did not have eyes of its own, blindly falling to the surface, but if it had them, what it would see is a desolate world scarred with ejecta sheets and long since cooled lava fields juxtaposed against the pitch black sky, broken up by the light of distant planets never before seen from up close, and the light of our own sun, with the disc of the earth hanging unmoving in the sky.
The signal stops.
For the first time in history, a man-made object has struck the surface of another world. Delivering the hope that man may one day plant their boots and flag on the lunar soil. The only question is whose flag will be flying on that momentous occasion.

Meanwhile, just a few hours after Luna 3's impact, The first flight of the X-15 Takes off after over a week of delays due to issues with its carrier plane. The fate of the Pilot program and Millions of dollars of funding for the Air force rely on this flight going well, As long as nothing happens in the few minutes between separation and landing, The program will continue.
To prove that both the X-15 and the potential of the Pilot rocket were worth it, the first flight would be riskier than most, Testing the powered flight and rocket engine after separating from The carrier plane "52-008" Also known as "Balls 8", The Pilot of the X-15 being the test pilot Scott Crossfield.
Once Balls 8 reaches its cruise altitude of 13km the X-15 Detaches, falling away for a brief moment before igniting its engines and shooting forwards, and upwards, The further it gets the higher it pitches up, aiming to go as high as it can and yet return safely. The atmosphere outside thinning to virtually nothing as the sky turns from aqua to blue to black as the harsh light of the sun shines through the capsule as the plane reaches a maximum speed of around Mach 4.5 and a peak height of 67km. As it begins to fall back down to the earth it heats up more than first expected, bringing thermal loads to dangerous levels, before it luckily slows down enough to let its hull cool down and begin to glide above the desert testing range. Scott pulls it around down towards the runway for a landing, Jetissoning the base tailfin and coming in for a nice touchdown, A bit bumpy but this isn't a passenger airline.

The success of the X-15 Has proven that it deserves the funding to continue, Less than a month later they would launch the X-15 again, with a dummy payload to test the newly added
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separation mechanisms, And just 2 weeks after that, the first Upgraded Pilot Launches on the base of an X-15, By the time the plane is landed, Pilot had already reached orbit, Its signal heard across the ground stations carefully listening from across the world, As the Reliability of the X-15 and Pilot improve over time, More and more missions are assigned to them, One upcoming mission calls for a Juno rocket to launch a dummy target into orbit to test targeting for potential Anti-Satellite Missions in the event of Soviet stationing of military assets in low earth orbit.

All while this was happening, The air force and NASA both had very similar but at the same time differing ideas
Both wanted a man in space before the Soviets, But for different reasons.
NASA Had been given the goal of sending a man into space, And once having done that would use human exploration to go further than ever before.
The U.S. Air Force wanted an American presence in space before the Soviets to secure their place as the leading force in space exploration and to prevent the USSR from gaining a foothold and potentially building an orbital nuclear weapons site. These differing reasons would lead to 2 very different programs emerging, One for the benefit of all mankind, And the other to protect from any oncoming attacks by hostile nations, Both led by different agencies. But both wouldn't be able to secure enough funding to go on and send the first man to space. One would have to prove more capable than the other.
 
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Singularity, this is wonderful! I love the early competition between the Air Force and NASA, as a good motivating factor which parallels our modern use of space. I'm super excited to see where you take this and how you explore the internal dialogue between the military and civilian sides of space. Perhaps a look at US culture at this time will give us some clues as to the victor? Who knows. I'm very excited none-the-less!

Nik
 
Chapter 3 - Aim and Fire
Aim and Fire

Project Mercury had first been approved just the year before, But changes in the politics of space had prompted the U.S. Government to rethink its budgeting and options to potentially consider a more Militarised space program. In response, Both NASA and the U.S. Air Force were requested to design their own potential programs for sending a man into orbit before the USSR. These resulted in two similar yet very different programs being researched, With only one able to secure the funding. Every moment spent was a moment the Soviets were gaining the upper hand.

They would of course continue to fund Project Mercury, But to a lesser extent than previously planned to allow enough funding for the other winning program.
NASA's Orbital concept was essentially an Improved upon Mercury using a larger booster currently titled Atlas, A Larger version of the In-Development Redstone booster, With enough fuel to reach orbit. Using a unique "Stage and a half" rocket design. At launch, 3 engines are ignited. The central one is optimised for Vacuum, and 2 on the sides are called "Auxiliary Engines" or in this case the Booster for Atlas, Just over 2 minutes into the flight the Two auxiliary engines would detach from Atlas to allow the Core engine to continue burning at maximum efficiency and decreased mash to bring to orbit. Once there the "Gemini" Capsule ( Named for having 2 Seats ) Will detach from the Atlas rocket, The doors of Gemini will be able to open if both pilots confirm, For this reason, astronauts will always fly up in Advanced Pressure Suits to protect them from the Vacuum of space, as well as having special protective thermal systems to keep them cool in the days and warm in the nights. The Gemini capsule will also be able to move around in space with its Orbital Manouevering System, This would allow for In-Space Rendezvousing and the potential for meeting with other spacecraft or even a future Space Station. Some booster Tech is already in development for other missions, So the first launch could be as soon as Late 1960 if funding is properly met.

The USAF's Idea consists of a Spaceplane, Building off of what has been learned from the X-15, A Crewed spaceplane launched on a modified ICBM to be Orbit capable called X-19, Project Spearhead as a special designation. Should it be funded it could be able to launch by Mid 1960. The spaceplane consists of the Crew section, a small area sufficient for 24 hours of Human
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Habitation with a special Canopy where the pilot would sit down and Close it 30 minutes before liftoff, It would be able to open in space as the pilot would be wearing a specialised pressure suit with all life support systems in the back of the crew section with a tether both Keeping them attached to the ship during a spacewalk and also provides the life support of the suit, This way the capsule doesn't have to be pressurised making opening the canopy much easier. The fuel section has 2 swept wings attached to it to help guide the craft during the landing phase, There are also 2 fuel vents to leak excess unnecessary fuel that may be left over from the use of the Space Manoeuvring Engines, Allowing for the ability to change the orbit of the X-19 To visit multiple targets, This permits "Orbital Reconnaissance" such as Visiting soviet satellites in orbit, It could also be used as a means to repair American Spy satellites, Such as a more advanced version of the CORONA satellites.
Moving onto the "Crossbow" Rocket, The first stage comprises 2 LR87 Engines and 155000lb of fuel, That fuel being RP-1 and Liquid Oxygen, Better known as Kerolox. Stage 2 has 3 LR91 Engines fuelled by 95000lbs of Kerolox as well.
Crossbow-Spearhead Would be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base into a Polar Orbit with an altitude of around 250mi. Multiple plans are already in development for further research into the possibilities of Spearhead, The plausibility of Space stations and Satellite repairs are currently very unlikely due to the developments necessary to make them simpler than they otherwise would be, An upgraded rocket with a wide crew area could make room for a Docking port, allowing transport from the X-19 to other pressure vessels such as Stations or other craft. Further extended ones could be sent to higher orbits, For example, a large telescope could be placed in such an orbit to view the territory of the Soviet Union at all times, An improved Spearhead could be able to service such a telescope frequently. It could even be possible to build a massively scaled-up version of Spearhead and use it to launch payloads into orbit that require delicate precision only given by a human.

America was missing a crucial piece of information though, For one they had been spending more time bickering about Reconnaissance Satellites than actually launching them and were missing crucial developments over in the Soviet Union. They had already begun developing their manned program. They had called it, Vostok. A Small capsule comprising of simply a Ball and some tanks beneath it. Should they get this into orbit within the next 1-2 years they could Beat America, And almost certainly beat them to orbit. America's Project Mercury wouldn't launch its first crew until at least Mid 1960, And that's only suborbital. They aren't setting their sights just on Earth's orbit though, Not even The moon. They're setting their sights on our sister worlds, Deep red mars and shining jewel Venus. Work has begun on a mission to send 2 craft to Fly past Mars in the 1960 Launch window, As well as a 1 Flyby of Venus in the Early 1961 Venus window, These alone would expand the soviet's reach to neighbouring worlds, Something America would almost instantly counter were they to find out about it. And as it turns out, They soon would.

On October 25th 1959, It is announced to the world their plans to send our own robotic scouts to venture to our closest worlds.
"We hope this not only lays out the path for further exploration But for one day our own men to set foot on these bizarre yet beautiful planets."
Mere days later, The US Makes a similar, yet bolder announcement.
"We have seen what we can accomplish, In 1962 during the Next Mars launch window, We intend to launch not just a Flyby, But two. With the promise that their success will lead to greater things, An Orbiter, A Lander, People on the red planet are all in our future from this point on."
These massive announcements would not finish. However, the next few would be behind closed doors. After months of research and weeks of judging options and weighing the benefits, The Crewed orbital program chosen to be funded was Gemini. Crossbow-Spearhead would be canned to allow the remaining Program to flourish.

One of the last flights of the year was an interesting Pilot flight, This one an experimental extended NOTS-EV-1 Pilot Containing longer solid rockets, Which resulted in an incredibly powerful launch, The pure shock of which caught the X-15 Pilot off guard, Even launching in the thin atmosphere for a brief moment it sounded like a lightning bolt had hit the plane and tore the sky asunder. The public began to be made aware of the Pilot program, after all even in the middle of the desert there isn't Nobody and occasionally amateur radio observers will have their receivers pointing in just the right direction at just the right time to hear its signals. The reaction was worse than expected. The thought of space being used as yet another platform for stationing weapons and nuclear warheads was absolutely appalling, However, the program would continue. In the minds of the U.S. Air force they were protecting America from any future satellite attacks from the USSR, Which isn't wrong. But with the USSR Showing no signs of military space intent, it felt like an empty program to the public onlookers.
But it wasn't the only program soon to be made public, With the first launch of Mercury beginning to loom near, NASA would begin to recruit its first Astronaut Candidates as soon as they gave control of the Pilot program to the USAF, Along with One X-15 to try and keep them from having to Interfere.
One can only hope that the Pilot program will continue to be as successful as it has proven to be since those first days, but nothing good can last forever.
 
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Wow, big steps! I cannot wait to see the designs that come out of this! I also really love your lifting body design, very neat. Can't wait to see more as always!
 
Trying to launch something from an x15 isn't going to work. The machine itself treads the boundaries of what's possible in terms of the plane and aerodynamic heating. Adding a separate external load? The heat and shockwaves would destroy both at high mach before they could launch anything.

Moreover, an X15 does about 1/4 orbital speed - and any hypothetical rocket you could hang from it would be tiny. There's just no point - using an ICBM first stage gives you a much more reasonable payload.
 
Trying to launch something from an x15 isn't going to work. The machine itself treads the boundaries of what's possible in terms of the plane and aerodynamic heating. Adding a separate external load? The heat and shockwaves would destroy both at high mach before they could launch anything.

Moreover, an X15 does about 1/4 orbital speed - and any hypothetical rocket you could hang from it would be tiny. There's just no point - using an ICBM first stage gives you a much more reasonable payload.
I thought it would be possible, The X-15 on some flights carried external fuel tanks which added quite a bit of mass, and the NOTS-EV-1 Pilot shown to be launching on the X-15 Only weighs 1,000kg so I thought it would be able to lift that extra mass somewhat high up, which would let it circumvent a lot of atmospheric drag and give it a small boost to help it on its way to orbit. I hadn't quite considered the actual aerodynamics of separation though, which would definitely be an issue
 
A 1 tonne rocket, eh?
Compare to the upper stages of Vanguard which were over 2 tonnes, and Vanguard only orbited a 3.3kg satellite.
Yeah, it's a pretty small rocket, Only 1kg to orbit but it was only ever meant to be an Anti Satellite weapon so 1kg is plenty for that. Apparently there was another concept that would use it but launch tiny spy satellites, but I don't think the technology back in 1958-1959 would've allowed such a small satellite to function in any meaningful way
 
Also. Why on earth would they go for an insufficiently (as I read it) Redstone, when the Atlas exists?
Also as to this, I'm not entirely sure which rocket you're talking about, but Project Mercury is remaining the same so that's using Redstone, Gemini's "Vulcan" is just the Atlas but with a different name, and Crossbow is a modified Titan Missile. I probably should've specified that instead of just saying "ICBM"
 
Trying to launch something from an x15 isn't going to work. The machine itself treads the boundaries of what's possible in terms of the plane and aerodynamic heating. Adding a separate external load? The heat and shockwaves would destroy both at high mach before they could launch anything.

Moreover, an X15 does about 1/4 orbital speed - and any hypothetical rocket you could hang from it would be tiny. There's just no point - using an ICBM first stage gives you a much more reasonable payload.

There was the "Blue Scout/X-15" concept and it would be a "logical" move forward from a successful NOTS/PILOT possible program.

If (as it sounds) there's a lot less 'over-sight' from the top over how and who gets the mission/funding then it might see such a proposal move forward.

I thought it would be possible, The X-15 on some flights carried external fuel tanks which added quite a bit of mass, and the NOTS-EV-1 Pilot shown to be launching on the X-15 Only weighs 1,000kg so I thought it would be able to lift that extra mass somewhat high up, which would let it circumvent a lot of atmospheric drag and give it a small boost to help it on its way to orbit. I hadn't quite considered the actual aerodynamics of separation though, which would definitely be an issue

It wouldn't be a straight "high-speed" flight but a combination of high altitude with high speed. Likely less than Mach 4 but over 300,000ft for something like the X-15 and Blue Scout combo.

Also. Why on earth would they go for an insufficiently (as I read it) Redstone, when the Atlas exists?

Kind of curious on that myself, I think he could be thinking the Saturn 1 (not the Redstone but built by the same people) which began work in 1957 and started bending metal in 1958 with a projected launch sometime in 1961. (IIRC there was a version of the Saturn that suggested an Atlas style engine configuration with the in-development E1's but as they would not be ready any time soon they went with clustered H1's instead)

Now granted by 1958 Saturn was transferred to NASA but Mercury was based on the Redstone, Jupiter and Atlas which the Air Force was supporting. Military wise the Air Force wanted nothing to do with "Army" developed launchers (Redstone, Jupiter and Saturn) but were more than willing to push Atlas and Titan as well as advanced versions of both if at all possible. (One such concept being literally welding seven {7} Titan 1 tank sets together and strapping a couple F1's to it and promising it could be ready before 1961! All without actually asking for Martin's input on the idea :) )

"Vulcan" was actually a proposed Convair "follow-on" to Atlas using two either E1 or F1 engines (not a lot of data really) which was hoped to be turned into a follow "fly-back" version at some point by adding wings. landing gear and a cockpit.

Randy
 
Also as to this, I'm not entirely sure which rocket you're talking about, but Project Mercury is remaining the same so that's using Redstone, Gemini's "Vulcan" is just the Atlas but with a different name, and Crossbow is a modified Titan Missile. I probably should've specified that instead of just saying "ICBM"

Well the Mercury Redstone can get the 'first' of a "man in space" even if it is suborbital which will take some of the pressure off the US early on. That may not be a good thing though :)

Randy
 
update
having an actual schedule now

chapters on Monday, Thursday and Saturday

might change in the future but right now my planning is really bad so I definitely need a schedule
 
Chapter 4 - Icarus
Icarus

The Pilot Campaign continues to push the X-15 Ever further and ever higher, Though bitter about their proposal losing to NASA, They still have plans to try and send someone into space first. It should be possible to give the X-15 just enough speed to go above the Karman line, Secretly working on externally mounting fuel tanks to give it that extra boost and even considering launch on a more capable carrier plane, Though these plans wouldn’t come to fruition for a long time, They would show that the USAF is still committed to sending someone into space one way or another.

On a frigid morning just before the crack of dawn on November 26 1959, A Light easily mistaken for the Sun’s warm yellow glow ignites the “Space Coast” of Florida bathing it in the light of Pioneer X’s Flaming rocket. Its goal, The moon. But this was not a simple impactor, Nor a flyby. This was a Lunar Orbiter, The first of its kind. As its engine flares out and her first stage is jettisoned, The atmosphere begins to thin outside, The protective fairing would jostle and gracefully fall away as Stage 3 ignites and shoots the craft beyond, Leading its path to the Moon. Its coast would be pretty uneventful, Earth shrinking behind it and La Lune growing closer and closer until the time finally came just 2 days later for Orbital insertion. Her engine would ignite, excited to be the first to see all of the Moon, all the wonders never before viewed by Human or Robotic eyes and all the science to be done. Thinking of the ones back home counting on her to get into orbit, succeed and send back all her findings. But something was wrong, Communications suddenly cut with earth, and in under a second…it was over. Due to imperfections in the tank not realised before launch, they suffered a catastrophic rupture and subsequent explosion. Back on earth, all that was heard was the steady hum of telemetry coming down, before a sudden spike and instant halting of signals. One that would never roar back to life with screams of success. A testament to the nature of space, and just how dangerous and ruthless it can be.

We turn back to the Military, Ever growing its presence in space. The first successful satellite of the “Transit” Network would be launched in April of 1960, This was planned to be a network of many satellites in Polar orbits designed to find the position of a receiver on the surface, To do this (This is an oversimplification) it would take 2 measurements of Doppler shift from the signals of the receiver, And use complicated mathematics to find a rough location of that object. It wasn’t perfect, providing around 200m of Location accuracy in the best-case scenario, A sort of precursor to our present-day GPS, Only quite a bit less advanced. Another military program running is the “Keyhole” Programme, Also called CORONA, A Swarm of secret reconnaissance satellites that launch into a polar orbit and stay there for a time, taking images on its Space rated film camera, and then separating from the main spacecraft body and deorbiting where it will safely be recovered mid-air by a plane. Or at least that's the plan. Numerous launches of Keyhole have been done in the past, But all failed one way or another. Launch vehicle exploded, the Film capsule didn’t survive Reentry, Plane failed to catch the canister in time. It would take until the 8th launch of the program for a reasonably successful mission to transpire. These launches also weren’t known to the public as their true intent, Being publicly called “Discoverer” With the facade of Performing experiments and returning Biological test canisters to earth after spending time in space. Of course this was just a front. If the public knew about a Spy satellite, everyone would know, Which makes the technology a lot less useful.

Across the globe, the Soviet Union was preparing for a deep-space launch of their own, The twin spacecraft of Luna 4 and Luna 5 would be launched just 1 day apart. The Launch of Luna 4 plays out wonderfully, the night sky illuminated by the soft glow of the rocket engines and the beauty of the Korolev Cross. As Luna 4 was well on its way to the moon, Luna 5 would launch as well, As it ascends upwards into the bright blue skies above, An issue would rapidly emerge. The rocket began to roll more than expected, and before anyone had time to even mention it, The rocket yawed immensely and was instantly engulfed in a cloud of smoke and flames. A poor job had been done on making one of the side boosters, It wasn’t found before launch but the jostling and pogo oscillation of the rocket, combined with the aerodynamic forces streaming outside the rocket, The booster sprang a leak. A Small leak quickly grew into spraying out of the necessary fuel, this was providing angular momentum that could not be fully accounted for, as the ship began to spin around the fuel was sloshing around inside the tanks even more, Weakening the internal structure and causing a weight imbalance. The rocket finally reached a literal tipping point as the rocket leaned over sending it into a certain path to death. The immense aerodynamic forces acting on the fairing shredded it to pieces as the rest of the rocket went with it, all of the fuel in the boosters and the first stage is ignited at once, and all that remains is a cloud of debris and flames falling from the sky.
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But still, although losing a brother Luna 4 continues on to the moon, A unique flyby with the intention of viewing the far side of the moon for the first time ever. Due to the 1:1 Tidal Locking of the moon with earth, The moon only spins Once for every One orbit it does. This means we only ever see one side of it, in mere moments we would see the first-ever view of the far side of the moon, Neither Human nor Robotic eyes have ever laid their eyes upon these sights, And it is…Smooth? Well, not smooth, But more uniform. Just craters and craters, Almost no Seas to be Seen. A Rather dull antithesis to the Near side’s contrasting terrains of craters and valleys, mountains and seas. Why was it like this? What could cause our side to be so much more lively looking than the far side? It would take further exploration to find out.

However, Near space exploration Is a bit more active right now.
The USAF recently began its own Entirely separate X-15 Program back in November of the previous year. NASA Had given them One X-15 To conduct their NOTS-EV-1 flights and any other Military purposes, While NASA Would keep the other one for more scientific purposes. On the 2nd of May, the latest flight would take place. Pilot William J. Knight would separate from the Carrier plane and ignite its engine, The X-15 Rockets forth, He pitches upwards to send it as high as possible to allow for the best NOTS-EV-1 Trajectory, This flight carrying an experimental satellite designed to better geo-location systems, when a Transit satellite is in range of an “AMSOL” Satellite they would briefly communicate with each other to try and average out the position, Narrowing down the location accuracy range even further. They are preparing to separate the NOTS-EV-1 When something happens

William: “We are go for Pilot separation”

CAPCOM: “We read you as Go for separation, Good luck”

William: “Separating now”

But nothing happens…The PILOT gets stuck during the attempted separation, The Detachment points had become weathered over the numerous flights resulting in tiny structurally weak areas appearing across the many moving parts on the lower part of the plane.

William: “Something appears to be wrong, I Heard a Clunk and then nothing, it doesn’t look like the PILOT has separated”

CAPCOM: We’re going to have to abort the flight then, We can try to diagnose the issue once you’re down here

William: “All right, Beginning desce-”

Communications were cut. Although the PILOT Had failed to detach, it thought that it had. Only One of its two first stage solid rocket motors activated. which almost instantly tore apart the detachment points from the forces being applied to it, however, the thrust of the PILOT was offset to its centre of mass, causing it to swing upwards and clip the very front of the X-15, The shards of debris from the Solid rocket exhaust plume striking the window cracking it caused William, startled, to send the X-15 Down as fast as possible in a steep dive, the PILOT spinning faster and faster above him as it spins itself apart sending burning shrapnel in every direction.
The dive that the X-15 had been sent into was unrecoverable, along with the damage done to the front nose cone and the damage dealt to the canopy, the heating of the atmosphere as the X-15 plunged deeper into the thicker reaches of it was too much, frying the insides leaving William helpless to his fate
The X-15 careens towards the ground, a victim of gravity. The same thing that very flight was fighting against, a cruel irony befitting of the highest-flying flight so far, 49 miles above the ground at its highest point.
A Monument would be constructed where William J. Knight Had crashed in the months to follow.
In the following weeks. NASA would announce its candidates for the Mercury missions dubbed the "Mercury Seven", And the USSR Had their plans set for the 2 Mars probes to launch later in the year, Our horizon shall broaden further to expand our sight to new worlds and new terrains never yet seen before.
 
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"Vulcan" was actually a proposed Convair "follow-on" to Atlas using two either E1 or F1 engines (not a lot of data really) which was hoped to be turned into a follow "fly-back" version at some point by adding wings. landing gear and a cockpit.
ok, this has actually been bugging me for a while and idk why I didn't respond earlier, but I genuinely had no idea there was a rocket concept called Vulcan that early on, I knew about the soviet vulkan and ULA's upcoming vulcan but like I just named the atlas "vulcan" because I thought it'd sound cool so I'm definitely going to go back and just stick with naming it atlas, sorry about the confusion
 
ok, this has actually been bugging me for a while and idk why I didn't respond earlier, but I genuinely had no idea there was a rocket concept called Vulcan that early on, I knew about the soviet vulkan and ULA's upcoming vulcan but like I just named the atlas "vulcan" because I thought it'd sound cool so I'm definitely going to go back and just stick with naming it atlas, sorry about the confusion
We live in a timeline where Jupiter (the IRBM) shouldn’t be confused with Jupiter (the multistage rocket that eventually became Juno) or Jupiter-C (the sounding rocket that has nothing to do with the IRBM and is only tangentially related to Juno). And that was just from the mind of Wernher von Braun! So overlapping names is not exactly a sin.
 
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