Chapter One — Dawn of the Space Age
I. — Early Developments, at home and abroad In the early 20th century, there had been a burst in scientific exploration into interplanetary travel, inspired by the works of authors such as Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, as well as a number of other authors. The first truly realistic proposal of spaceflight goes back to Rodinan rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. His most famous work,
"The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices", was published in 1903, but this theoretical work was not widely influential outside Rodina. Spaceflight became an engineering possibility with the publishing of
"A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes", a 1919 paper by Gaultier Martel, which demonstrated that his application of the de Laval nozzle to liquid fuel rockets gave sufficient power for interplanetary travel to become possible. This paper was highly influential on several later key players in spaceflight, including the future head of the Daitōjin Space Program, Hisamitsu Itokawa.
Throughout the 20s and early 30s, the scientific usage of rockets was largely unknown in Daitō, although some amateur groups
did exist at the time. But in 1934, Dr. Hisamitsu Itokawa, Isamu Maekawa, and Yasuji Chujo, nicknamed by some as the "Fathers of the Daitōjin Space Program", came together to found the Uchū Ryokō Kyōkai (宇宙旅行協会,
Society for Space Travel), an amateur rocket group. Between 1934 and 1939, they successfully designed and tested the Shūkei Sh-1, -2, and -3 before the group was, by order of the YFD, folded into the Imperial Daitōjin Army merely a month prior to the start of the country's involvement in the Great War. Due to the nature of their work, there was significant pressure on these men to join the YFD, which, by 1941, they all had done, which certainly aided in their work as it was easier to negotiate for more funding to their program.
II. — A Dream or a Nightmare?Shōri Rocket Launch, Summer 1944 It cannot be said that Doctors Itokawa, Maekawa, and Chujo were overly pleased with the prospect of making weapons of war. Indeed, they had all gone into the field of rocketry inspired by the works of many past authors and in pursuit of perhaps a utopian ideal, one where mankind traveled to the planets and beyond. While on one hand, they now had the backing of the Imperial Daitōjin Army, allowing them greater resources than they could've ever hoped for, on the other, it came at a sharp price. They were, after all, now forced to turn their dream into a weapon of war, targeting not other worlds, but foreign cities. From their base in Susaki, in Otobe prefecture, they worked day and night to complete their task, eventually devising the
Shōri, a long-range guided ballistic missile which, in the final months of the war, terrorized Ardia's cities in an attempt at reprisal for Ardia's bombing raids in Daitō.
Though their work was successful, few in the nation's rocket development program were pleased by their work, save for those who ordered its development. Even so, they could at least take some joy in knowing that, though today they worked on weapons that would destroy lives, they were setting the groundwork for their dream of flight. Even in 1943, at the height of the war, Itokawa had written up a proposal for a manned variant of their Shōri rocket, one which would, in theory, be capable of performing reconnaissance deep behind enemy lines before returning to Daitō or allied territory. While this particular proposal didn't make it far, it inspired something that, to the end of their lives, the men who worked at Susaki regretted.
With a length of six meters, a wingspan of five, and a top speed of 648 km/h, the K-2, nicknamed the
Ōka, or "Cherry Blossom", was an aircraft borne out of desperation. Designed to be used by
Tokubetsu Kōgekitai units, better known abroad as
Kamikaze, it was a suicide craft often described as a rocket plane or a rudimentary guided missile. It would be joined by the K-3
Baika in the final months of the Great War, with the Susaki arsenal being responsible for both vehicle's engines, while Aizawa and Negishi, respectively, were responsible for the airframes. Despite their intention, it is believed that only one major ship was ever sunk by one of these aircraft, more specifically a K-3
Baika on the 17th of July, 1945.
With the end of the Great War, the team at Susaki Arsenal was greatly downsized, owing in large part to the economic depression that swept the country in the aftermath of the war. Even Hisamitsu Itokawa, who had been a founding member of the URK and the director of the Arsenal, resigned his post, instead transferring to the National Aerospace Laboratory on the 19th of November, 1945, and moving to what remained of Shinkyō.
III. — The NAL and the IDAFLogo of the National Aerospace Laboratory (1927 - 1958) From the end of the war until 1958, Dr. Itokawa put himself to work as a high-ranking engineer in the National Aerospace Laboratory (国立航空宇宙研究所,
Kokuritsu Kōkū Uchū Kenkyūjo), or NAL. Based primarily out of Shinkyō, its headquarters had been heavily damaged during the war and, as a result, would temporarily relocate to Otsu while reconstruction was underway. Of course, as he had during the war, Hisamitsu threw himself into his work, which, owing to his reputation at the time, was never in short supply. One of his earliest tasks was to assist in converting the
Shōri missile into a sounding rocket, which largely meant ripping out its payload of explosives, fuses, and everything else which would allow it to carry a bomb and instead replace it with scientific equipment. As a result, he would spend much time on the island of Tsukishima, making frequent trips to the Shirasu Missile Range on the island. Of course, it was still a military program, but the pay was good and it was, thankfully, not being used in a war.
Those who remained at Susaki Arsenal were folded into the newly-established Imperial Daitōjin Air Force, or IDAF, in 1947. Under its supervision, they would work to upgrade the
Shōri missile, as well as to develop other rockets should the need arise. With Dr. Itokawa's resignation, Dr. Isamu Maekawa was promoted and made director of the Susaki Arsenal in early 1946, working alongside the remnants of Daitō's aerospace industry to develop the tools necessary to win the next war. In effect, at least as Itokawa saw it, Maekawa had betrayed their vision for the future in 1947, though the latter justified himself by promoting the idea that peace could only truly be achieved through strength. For the better part of the next twenty-three years, the two didn't see eye to eye, and indeed it wouldn't be unfair to say they considered each other rivals, although neither man wanted it once the Space Race kicked off.
First Photo of Mundus from Space, 22 October, 1946 The late 1940s and the 1950s, while comparatively lacking in
"major" developments with regards to spaceflight, were far from unimportant. Starting as soon as 1946, the first scientific payloads were launched into space, with a notable example being the launch of a camera aboard a
Shōri missile, allowing for the first time a photo of Mundus from space. 1947 saw the first animals fly to space, though this, like many feats, was not first achieved by Daitō. NAL and the IDAF would launch one of the first two-stage rockets, the
Kanshō, in 1949, and in 1951, Daitō would launch an East Ardian Macaque aboard a
Shōri missile. Throughout the 1950s, Daitō, like many other countries, would push for higher and higher altitude records, all the while, the IDAF's team at Susaki Arsenal was hard at work to make its first Intercontinental Ballistic Missile as part of the country's ultimately aborted nuclear program. Finally, in 1955, Prime Minister Toshinari, like many other prominent figures across Mundus, declared that Daitō intended to launch "small Mundus-orbiting satellites" between 1 July 1957 and 31 December 1958 as part of the upcoming International Geophysical Year. The race was now on, the only question to be answered was who would do it?