Rocket Design Agency - A Playtesting Quest

You hold your hands up for quiet, waiting until the reporters finally give you a moment to breathe and to think. They all have such interesting questions and while initially you feel the urge to give no comment and wait for the press conference that you are sure will come later once you know the true results, it is too tempting to say something, anything, to sustain them while you wait.

"Hope-1 is not a weapon and it's launcher, Prometheus, is not a military design. At EPL our mission is one of exploration, not militarism, and this program is no different. If we succeed today, then we are making a difference for the pioneers of the future. And succeed we will, and I see no reason to believe otherwise."

"So you don't have confirmation yet?" One of the reports shouts.

"No, we do not, and we won't for another half hour at least. But I am confident in my team and in the work we have done. I see no reason that you will not have an incredible story to run tomorrow."

"But what about the Europan reaction? Or Caspian?"

"I've got no other comments. You'll have to wait for later, i'm afraid, thankyou." You turn and walk back into the building, frustrated that you haven't managed to take the walk that you were intending. Instead you light another cigarette and head back to the control room.

---

There will always come a point when a question you don't particularly want to answer becomes unavoidable. Sitting in front of an audience of reporters, rather than just a gaggle of them, you suddenly feel like you've been caught by an entirely unwanted spotlight and are being held in its harsh glare.

You remember the last tense minutes in the control room. The fear. The nerves. The dry, rasping throat of too many cigarettes and too much coffee. It was intensely stressful, to the point that you prayed for an end to things.

And then it came.

---

The EPL Research head stands and calls for silence, projector remote in hand. After a few moments of hush, he presses a button and announces:

"Ladies and Gentlemen. Orbit!"


Questions are forthcoming;
[ ] Answer efficiently and completely.
[ ] Pass them off onto your colleagues.
[ ] Do not step outside your wheelhouse. Refuse political and other unimportant questions.

You spend the next forty minutes or so immensely frustrated as reporters attempt to ask you questions that are so far outside your field of expertise that you cannot imagine being able to answer them. You are not a politician and it would not be right for you to answer questions about what other nations will make of this achievement. You are not a diplomat nor a lawyer and it would not be right for you to pass judgement on the effects of orbit on international law. Why, you wonder, will they not ask you about your rocket, your satellite or any of the engineering difficulties you faces? They are, after all, what you are here to answer questions about surely. That is your job, after all.

There are, fortunately enough, a handful of men and women from technical journals who are actually showing an interest in what Hope can achieve and what you have accomplished on a mathematical and scientific level.

"We had three main experiments aboard Hope. A camera, simply to return photography of space, a photometer to return information on solar radiation and a geiger-muller tube to measure other radiation. Sadly, neither radiation counter functioned when we attempted to power them up, but otherwise the launch was entirely successful."

"So you didn't get anything? How can you call this a success if it broke?" A man asks and you smile.

"The experiments were not the purpose of the launch. We wanted to put something in orbit; we did. We wanted to prove our rockets could accomplish that; we did. We wanted to show the world that spaceflight is a plausible endeavour and that private companies could manage it: I would say that we have. Frankly, if they had worked it would have simply been a bonus."

"Okay, we have time for one more question." The moderator says and you thank whatever is watching over you that you can almost escape.

"Yes, last one." A reporter says, looking at you, "Who do you think will lead New Alleghany into space? I understand the presidents are already considering a national body to guide the nation."

Are they? This is the first you're hearing of the matter. But it's an interesting question nonetheless.

Who should lead?
[ ] The military, for strength and confidence.
[ ] The science community, because that is the future.
[ ] Commercial enterprises. What is exploration without exploitation.
[ ] Write-in.