Post by Kingdoms of Cal on Feb 13, 2010 20:32:49 GMT -5
Warning: This be long, grab a coffee.
Dr Lainia sat on the sand dunes on the north eastern cost of Inleef. She was a leefen, her black fur was more than a little peppered with grey and her long hair had more than a few grey streaks. She was wearing the traditional leefen, sari, like dress and had a tablet like computer in her hands. She look up over the bay.
Before her lay the main launch facility of the CAS (the commonwealths space program). The platforms were build out at sea in the shallow gulf of inleef, they were numerous some obsolete, but the decaying platforms were now home to a large amount of marine life. Despite everything the CAS was surprisingly environmentally friendly as they launch facility was out of bounds for fishing and so acted as a de-facto nature reserve. Admittedly the area around the active platforms was less well populated as the rockets did tend to raise the water temperature somewhat when they launched. This was due to the fact the commonwealth suspended there rockets, so the exhaust went straight into the water. Thus the launch crew tended to say “Lets boil some water” when referring to launching.
She looked over at the active platforms, three were occupied, each with a different design of rocket, though one was derived from technology developed on another. The sun was setting but it was still light enough to see, especially for feline eyes. Silhouetted in the sunset she could see the three rockets. Since the commonwealth had no 'manned' space program they had to pull the odd stunt to ensure funding and three launches in one night would be a record and might cover up for the inevitable screw up that would be the Orianne XI launch.
The fact of the matter was that the Orianne project had a shocking record when it came to launching the first rocket of each generation. They usually got the kinks out by the second or third launch, this was rocket science after all. Most commercial launches occurred on the previous generation of the rocket to the current as they very reliable by then, that or on the Valtiana rockets.
The fact of the matter was that the commonwealth had two competing launch systems but as reliable as the Valtiana was it lacked the potential for development and flexibility that the Orianne system had. One of them was on, well suspended on it's platform, out at sea currently. Dr Lainia could see the rocket, it looked very similar to the a Soyuz rocket, held in place by four arms just above where it's main engines tapered in and another two close to it's tip. They were rug-git in design and shipped to their launch platform by sea and lifted into position with little ceremony, they were the workhorse of the CAS. It came from the Duchy/Saeie/Drewn space program and some were still launched in Drew, but most were now shipped here. They tended to be referred to as O.Gs (Old Gits) by the launch staff and were possibly the only launch system to be produced on a production line. The Drac production facility was very efficient and the workers took great pride in their work, there had only ever been five failures in the long history of the Valtiana program.
Though it was noted by Orianne engineers, Lainia being one, that experimental rockets were never counted as part of the Valtiana program by them
Her attention turned to the smallest of the rockets that were to be launched tonight, the Pirsa I. It was a rocket, largely, derived from Orianne technology. It was a simple craft, a light launcher being comprised of a Orianne solid booster with a custom cryogenic fuelled upper stage. It had been noticed that the CAS lacked the ability to launch small satellites cheaply into unusual orbits. They travelled as secondary payload if they were going into normal orbits and dropped off on the way by the Orianne rockets.
It was held over it's platform, well the sea and there was no floor on the platforms, by two arms just below it's bulbous second stage. Lainia was interested in this one as it was the first system the leefen had put together almost entirely alone.
The Orianne project was the result of the Teerie/Teuie/Leefen/Hybe space programs. But now most of the Valtiana programs research engineers had jumped ship to it. They had realised the Valtiana's limitations and the only thing left to do with it was tinkering, the design had run it's course.
Out in the distance dwarfing the other rockets was the Orianne XI, it was truly massive, the largest rocket the CAS had ever developed (and possibly the largest chemically fuelled rocket anyone had built). There was no one within ten miles of the thing and the beaches were cordoned off in case it blew, if it did, the explosion would cause a tsunami. The sand dunes were safe as they were tall enough.
Lainia was not alone, many of the locals were watching from the dunes, most expecting a show. You could usually see the inevitable explosion of the first of a generation of Orianne rocket from here. The other two launches were a bonus and the first launch had a good chance of failure. Only true geeks were likely to recognise Lainia as head of the CAS, and the first engineer to run the organisation (yes she is a rocket scientist), most had no idea who she was.
She was distracted and tapped her ear piece.
“Yes?” she enquired
She tapped at her tablet and said “Time to boil some water, keep me in the loop.”
This was the first launch she had seen with her own eyes, the Pirsa I rocket was about to launch. She checked her tablet, all systems were green, always a good thing.
The solid rocket booster fired and the two arms fell way as the launch platform disappeared in a fog of water vapour for a split second before the rocket rose out of the cloud of water vapour. Even though they were more than two miles away she could hear it now. But her attention returned to the tablet, all systems were still green.
A two minutes or so passed and the rocket was gone, the second stage was disengaging from the first, the mechanical release system had failed. However the explosive bolts fired and the upper stage fired. The solid booster started to deploy it's wings and to turn, well according to the telemetry.
“The wee gits coming home” Lainia heard and smiled.
“Turning, yes they work!” came a though her ear piece.
“Upper stage has compensated, all green again”
A little time passed before she heard what she really wanted to hear.
“We have deployment she is turning for destructive re-entry.”
Lainia smiled and had trouble restraining her glee. She took a blast from her hip flask.
An Orianne rocket had worked first time, well it used some Orianne tech, but that was good enough. Her people had a working rocket, that they had put together, it was likely to become a piece of leefen pride.
She had to wait for an hour or so and then heard via her ear piece “Valtiana seven launch crew to Dr Lainia, requesting to boil some water.”
She tapped her pad the swiped her finger across it, the Valtiana telemetry appeared. All was green but for one component, she zoomed in on it it was orange.
“One of the gyros is playing up.” she said.
“Not a problem, the customer is happy to go ahead.”
She tapped at her tablet a few times to find out who the customer was and what the nature of the payload was. It simply read “Military classified”.
“Well if the war lords are OK with it, you have go.”
“It's probably just the telemetry playing up, that platform is has been playing up of late, we'll find out soon enough. Going autonomous.”
The orange component turned green.
“Yeah the platform seems to keep giving us false positives of late. We still don't know why.”
A couple of minutes passed, Lainia listened to the launch crew going though there normal routine. They had all done this before many times and the chatter was far less than on the Pirsa I launch.
“Engine ignition”
The top arms fell away.
Lainia could see the flames below the platform hit the sea, a fog quickly turned it into a glow. 2.5 seconds passed and then the lower arms fell back releasing the rocket. It climbed slowly into the sky gaining speed and was soon a spot of light in the night sky. Lainia's eyes turned back to her tablet, all was green, this was the tenth launch for the rockets recoverable engines and their last. The Valtiana engineers always scrapped the engines after ten launches as the metal began to fail after then. A little time passed and the telemetry reported separation of the upper stages, still all green.
The Valtiana VII as usual preformed exactly as expected.
“Well it's only the big one left” Lainia smiled and was more than a little concerned. The Orianne XI had many new components any of which could fail, even it's launch system was new. Due to the vast size and weight of the craft it was not held in place by arms rather it was held by a shell just above the solid boosters. From the shell four more arm held the top of the rocket in place.
Three hours passed and the dunes were filling up for the show, there were many people having barbecues and drinking waiting for the launch.
“Orianne XI requesting permission to boil water.”
Lainia looked at her tablet, she didn't have to as she had been busily checking the rocket's telemetry, all was still green.
“Is all good?” she asked.
“Yes we are green to go.”
“OK, good luck.”
The Orianne's payload was massively heavy, it carried two Venus rovers. They were heavily armoured and owed more to a tank crossed with a sub than anything, even then no one expected them to last more than a couple of weeks on Venus. The scientists behind them had never though they would ever have the chance to build them, let alone launch them. Even with the Orianne's appalling first launch record this was there first and possibly only chance at getting them there. But even they didn't equal the lifting capability of the rocket, it had spare.
Lainia listened to the launch crew, the chatter was intense. She heard “Start terminal ignition sequence.”
She was scared to look but she couldn't take her eyes off the far off platform. She gave a quick prayer to the goddess of travel and travellers.
A few seconds passed.
“SRB ignition” she heard and could see the glow and steam as all six of the boosters fired. Then she could hear the noise “well this is it” she thought.
“Main engines start.” She heard as the glow became much more intense though the cloud, then the ground started shaking.
“Shel...”
Then there was a deafening roar, she couldn't hear what was being said.
The glow became even brighter as the shell fell back and the rocket plume was fully visible. It didn't seem to be moving, then it inched into the sky. Lainia's ears were back but she jumped up and shouted “It bloody well works”, it was not like anyone could hear her.
She couldn't keep her eyes off the initially fuzzy glow in the fog it had produced, then it became the mother of all rocket plumes. She glanced at her pad, it was mostly green, with a few orange spots. Orange just meant the primary system was failing and the secondary had taken over. Red meant tertiary system were taking over, flashing red meant total failure. Even total failure could be compensated for if they had time, the CAS engineers were inventive.
She watched the plume rise gaining speed, two minutes after launch the SRB fell away, she could just see their plumes threw her binoculars. She went back to her pad, but she couldn't help but feel the atmosphere of disappointment., nothing had exploded. But she drained her flask and went back to the telemetry. Over the next hours she watched as the second stage deployed with little drama, but about a third of it's systems were orange and a couple red before it burnt out. The third stage preformed perfectly and compensated for the second.
She fell back, partially because of the booze she had been drinking and partially onto the largely deserted dunes. Mostly because the Orianne XI had worked first time, yes it had, had numerous failures but it had done the job right.
As she headed back to the launch centre she heard threw her ear piece “Where the ^$%^ are you, we can't start here with out you.”
Dr Lainia sat on the sand dunes on the north eastern cost of Inleef. She was a leefen, her black fur was more than a little peppered with grey and her long hair had more than a few grey streaks. She was wearing the traditional leefen, sari, like dress and had a tablet like computer in her hands. She look up over the bay.
Before her lay the main launch facility of the CAS (the commonwealths space program). The platforms were build out at sea in the shallow gulf of inleef, they were numerous some obsolete, but the decaying platforms were now home to a large amount of marine life. Despite everything the CAS was surprisingly environmentally friendly as they launch facility was out of bounds for fishing and so acted as a de-facto nature reserve. Admittedly the area around the active platforms was less well populated as the rockets did tend to raise the water temperature somewhat when they launched. This was due to the fact the commonwealth suspended there rockets, so the exhaust went straight into the water. Thus the launch crew tended to say “Lets boil some water” when referring to launching.
She looked over at the active platforms, three were occupied, each with a different design of rocket, though one was derived from technology developed on another. The sun was setting but it was still light enough to see, especially for feline eyes. Silhouetted in the sunset she could see the three rockets. Since the commonwealth had no 'manned' space program they had to pull the odd stunt to ensure funding and three launches in one night would be a record and might cover up for the inevitable screw up that would be the Orianne XI launch.
The fact of the matter was that the Orianne project had a shocking record when it came to launching the first rocket of each generation. They usually got the kinks out by the second or third launch, this was rocket science after all. Most commercial launches occurred on the previous generation of the rocket to the current as they very reliable by then, that or on the Valtiana rockets.
The fact of the matter was that the commonwealth had two competing launch systems but as reliable as the Valtiana was it lacked the potential for development and flexibility that the Orianne system had. One of them was on, well suspended on it's platform, out at sea currently. Dr Lainia could see the rocket, it looked very similar to the a Soyuz rocket, held in place by four arms just above where it's main engines tapered in and another two close to it's tip. They were rug-git in design and shipped to their launch platform by sea and lifted into position with little ceremony, they were the workhorse of the CAS. It came from the Duchy/Saeie/Drewn space program and some were still launched in Drew, but most were now shipped here. They tended to be referred to as O.Gs (Old Gits) by the launch staff and were possibly the only launch system to be produced on a production line. The Drac production facility was very efficient and the workers took great pride in their work, there had only ever been five failures in the long history of the Valtiana program.
Though it was noted by Orianne engineers, Lainia being one, that experimental rockets were never counted as part of the Valtiana program by them
Her attention turned to the smallest of the rockets that were to be launched tonight, the Pirsa I. It was a rocket, largely, derived from Orianne technology. It was a simple craft, a light launcher being comprised of a Orianne solid booster with a custom cryogenic fuelled upper stage. It had been noticed that the CAS lacked the ability to launch small satellites cheaply into unusual orbits. They travelled as secondary payload if they were going into normal orbits and dropped off on the way by the Orianne rockets.
It was held over it's platform, well the sea and there was no floor on the platforms, by two arms just below it's bulbous second stage. Lainia was interested in this one as it was the first system the leefen had put together almost entirely alone.
The Orianne project was the result of the Teerie/Teuie/Leefen/Hybe space programs. But now most of the Valtiana programs research engineers had jumped ship to it. They had realised the Valtiana's limitations and the only thing left to do with it was tinkering, the design had run it's course.
Out in the distance dwarfing the other rockets was the Orianne XI, it was truly massive, the largest rocket the CAS had ever developed (and possibly the largest chemically fuelled rocket anyone had built). There was no one within ten miles of the thing and the beaches were cordoned off in case it blew, if it did, the explosion would cause a tsunami. The sand dunes were safe as they were tall enough.
Lainia was not alone, many of the locals were watching from the dunes, most expecting a show. You could usually see the inevitable explosion of the first of a generation of Orianne rocket from here. The other two launches were a bonus and the first launch had a good chance of failure. Only true geeks were likely to recognise Lainia as head of the CAS, and the first engineer to run the organisation (yes she is a rocket scientist), most had no idea who she was.
She was distracted and tapped her ear piece.
“Yes?” she enquired
She tapped at her tablet and said “Time to boil some water, keep me in the loop.”
This was the first launch she had seen with her own eyes, the Pirsa I rocket was about to launch. She checked her tablet, all systems were green, always a good thing.
The solid rocket booster fired and the two arms fell way as the launch platform disappeared in a fog of water vapour for a split second before the rocket rose out of the cloud of water vapour. Even though they were more than two miles away she could hear it now. But her attention returned to the tablet, all systems were still green.
A two minutes or so passed and the rocket was gone, the second stage was disengaging from the first, the mechanical release system had failed. However the explosive bolts fired and the upper stage fired. The solid booster started to deploy it's wings and to turn, well according to the telemetry.
“The wee gits coming home” Lainia heard and smiled.
“Turning, yes they work!” came a though her ear piece.
“Upper stage has compensated, all green again”
A little time passed before she heard what she really wanted to hear.
“We have deployment she is turning for destructive re-entry.”
Lainia smiled and had trouble restraining her glee. She took a blast from her hip flask.
An Orianne rocket had worked first time, well it used some Orianne tech, but that was good enough. Her people had a working rocket, that they had put together, it was likely to become a piece of leefen pride.
She had to wait for an hour or so and then heard via her ear piece “Valtiana seven launch crew to Dr Lainia, requesting to boil some water.”
She tapped her pad the swiped her finger across it, the Valtiana telemetry appeared. All was green but for one component, she zoomed in on it it was orange.
“One of the gyros is playing up.” she said.
“Not a problem, the customer is happy to go ahead.”
She tapped at her tablet a few times to find out who the customer was and what the nature of the payload was. It simply read “Military classified”.
“Well if the war lords are OK with it, you have go.”
“It's probably just the telemetry playing up, that platform is has been playing up of late, we'll find out soon enough. Going autonomous.”
The orange component turned green.
“Yeah the platform seems to keep giving us false positives of late. We still don't know why.”
A couple of minutes passed, Lainia listened to the launch crew going though there normal routine. They had all done this before many times and the chatter was far less than on the Pirsa I launch.
“Engine ignition”
The top arms fell away.
Lainia could see the flames below the platform hit the sea, a fog quickly turned it into a glow. 2.5 seconds passed and then the lower arms fell back releasing the rocket. It climbed slowly into the sky gaining speed and was soon a spot of light in the night sky. Lainia's eyes turned back to her tablet, all was green, this was the tenth launch for the rockets recoverable engines and their last. The Valtiana engineers always scrapped the engines after ten launches as the metal began to fail after then. A little time passed and the telemetry reported separation of the upper stages, still all green.
The Valtiana VII as usual preformed exactly as expected.
“Well it's only the big one left” Lainia smiled and was more than a little concerned. The Orianne XI had many new components any of which could fail, even it's launch system was new. Due to the vast size and weight of the craft it was not held in place by arms rather it was held by a shell just above the solid boosters. From the shell four more arm held the top of the rocket in place.
Three hours passed and the dunes were filling up for the show, there were many people having barbecues and drinking waiting for the launch.
“Orianne XI requesting permission to boil water.”
Lainia looked at her tablet, she didn't have to as she had been busily checking the rocket's telemetry, all was still green.
“Is all good?” she asked.
“Yes we are green to go.”
“OK, good luck.”
The Orianne's payload was massively heavy, it carried two Venus rovers. They were heavily armoured and owed more to a tank crossed with a sub than anything, even then no one expected them to last more than a couple of weeks on Venus. The scientists behind them had never though they would ever have the chance to build them, let alone launch them. Even with the Orianne's appalling first launch record this was there first and possibly only chance at getting them there. But even they didn't equal the lifting capability of the rocket, it had spare.
Lainia listened to the launch crew, the chatter was intense. She heard “Start terminal ignition sequence.”
She was scared to look but she couldn't take her eyes off the far off platform. She gave a quick prayer to the goddess of travel and travellers.
A few seconds passed.
“SRB ignition” she heard and could see the glow and steam as all six of the boosters fired. Then she could hear the noise “well this is it” she thought.
“Main engines start.” She heard as the glow became much more intense though the cloud, then the ground started shaking.
“Shel...”
Then there was a deafening roar, she couldn't hear what was being said.
The glow became even brighter as the shell fell back and the rocket plume was fully visible. It didn't seem to be moving, then it inched into the sky. Lainia's ears were back but she jumped up and shouted “It bloody well works”, it was not like anyone could hear her.
She couldn't keep her eyes off the initially fuzzy glow in the fog it had produced, then it became the mother of all rocket plumes. She glanced at her pad, it was mostly green, with a few orange spots. Orange just meant the primary system was failing and the secondary had taken over. Red meant tertiary system were taking over, flashing red meant total failure. Even total failure could be compensated for if they had time, the CAS engineers were inventive.
She watched the plume rise gaining speed, two minutes after launch the SRB fell away, she could just see their plumes threw her binoculars. She went back to her pad, but she couldn't help but feel the atmosphere of disappointment., nothing had exploded. But she drained her flask and went back to the telemetry. Over the next hours she watched as the second stage deployed with little drama, but about a third of it's systems were orange and a couple red before it burnt out. The third stage preformed perfectly and compensated for the second.
She fell back, partially because of the booze she had been drinking and partially onto the largely deserted dunes. Mostly because the Orianne XI had worked first time, yes it had, had numerous failures but it had done the job right.
As she headed back to the launch centre she heard threw her ear piece “Where the ^$%^ are you, we can't start here with out you.”
