Launching a space ship into orbit is no mean feat. Since the start of the war, the only satellites that had been launched were for military purposes. Humans had almost lost the knowledge of how to launch a ship carrying life forms into space.
The first rocket (launched for scientific research) was launched in the 1920s, however it did not reach orbit. What it did do, however, was prove that rockets could be used for science, if not space travel.
Decades later, the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos), launched the first man-made object, Sputnik 1, into orbit around the Earth (in 1957). 4 years later, Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space. A cosmonaut, he rode a death trap into space.
Although the Russians were successful in the early days of the first space age, the Americans had the most success in the long run. Their list of accomplishments went from Apollo 11 to the Voyager probes.
The technology that had been developed for the military purposes could be re-used for manned space travel. But the group needed to move quickly. The radiation, while not affecting them presently, would remain in their bodies and the less of it they got, the better. Therefore, there could be no delay.
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Jack sat down in front of his computer station, with a cup of coffee in his hands. It was going to be a long day.
Jack Starbright was one of the 80,000 humans that survived the Great War, and had been trained in flying military aircraft. Therefore, he was one of the best prospects for a pilot, despite the fact that he had never flown a space ship before.
Born 23 years before the end of the Great War, Jack had seen his father be executed by the Chinese army, shortly after his mother had been killed while spying for the Scottish Intelligence Division (SID). The SID had been attempting to win the war against China with a campaign of industrial sabotage. His mother had been transmitting plans for a new weapon that the Chinese would use on the Scottish when she had been captured, and killed when the SID did not agree to the terms of the ransom.After his dad had been executed, Jack had trained to become a fighter pilot, but he was captured on his first flight. Unlike with his mother, the SID had agreed to pay a ransom, noting Jack's uncanny abilities with computers. They hoped he could win the war and bring peace to Scotland.Scotland had voted for independence in 2150, and had initially attempted to remain neutral. But China, upon discovering Scotland's wealth, had first tried to win them over to fight with the Asians, and after Scotland denied this request, they declared war on Scotland. Even after the war was over, all surviving Scottish, including Jack, were distrustful of the Chinese. Which was why, when Daquang Ling