Let Me Play Among The Stars (A Space Program Plan Quest)

When the war of 1939-41 started, all onlookers feared it exploding into another global conflict. As Poland fell to allied fascist and communist forces and battles raged on the Franco-German front, people prepared for the inevitable. Yet somehow it never came. The conflict fizzled out far more quickly than it had started and mainland Europe fell into peace.

In the years that followed war raged around the world, but Europe proper grew closer as a result. France, Belgium and post-annexation Poland signed the first treaty that would later become the European Coalition of Nations. The German government fell to internal unrest and Italy waged a low-intensity conflict in North Africa, Ireland, Austria and others signed onto the quickly growing organisation.

The USSR, seemingly content behind its fortified borders, watched the establishment of the ECN with feigned disinterest. It is well known that the Soviet intelligence apparatus already stretches deep into Europe.

In the United States, still slowly regrowing its economy after the financial collapse of the 1930's, corporations lead the way. Supported by a weak government, jobs programs are pushing the great nation towards a bright - and wealthy - future.

Imperial Japan and its co-prosperity sphere, fresh from giving the US a bloody nose and being bloodied in return, has turned inwards. There is a focus on redevelopment and establishing itself as a great power in the Pacific. With the resources of a colonial empire at hand, perhaps they will achieve it.

By 1950, the ECN was the dominant power on the continent, committed to a future safe from the horrors of war - at least for Europeans. Every nation committed a portion of its military to a defensive formation intended to prevent any future wars on the continent. Combined research programs were established to ensure Europe stayed at the forefront of progress and, as part of this, PEAC was established.

The Pan European Aerospace Committee, signed into being in 1949 but not truly formed until January 1950, is a research and development group intended to be at the forefront of scientific, commercial and military progress in rocketry and missile technology. Experts and specialists have been gathered and land has been allocated for a magnificent facility. Europe will not be left behind in this emergent field in the march towards the future.

It remains to be seen whether they will be able to compete with the rest of the world powers.

This world is very different from our own! In some ways, it's a lot worse. The purpose of this AU is to play with rockets and while I will be trying to avoid egregious faults in my logic please don't expect a deeply rational reason for every change.

Where is the PEAC Headquarters?
[ ] Paris, France. Based in the heartland of the ECN, PEAC has direct connections to the movers and shakers behind the scenes.
[ ] Dublin, Ireland. With direct access to the Irish Sea and the North Atlantic, delivery of rockets to their launch stations will be easy.
[ ] Gdansk, Poland. Sitting on the border of the USSR, the pressure will be on to deliver prestigious achievements - and with it will come budgets.
[ ] Vienna, Austria. Still recovering from a war a decade past, PEAC will be part of a revitalisation effort by the entire ECN.

Gain Perk - Gateway to Space - When selecting a mission to pursue, the program may ignore column restrictions and may choose a mission from the next tier at will.

Ireland's past had been, in a word, complicated. A dominion of the British Empire until 1937, the newly independent nation had kept itself apart from the brushfire wars of the 1940's. Relatively untroubled by these conflicts, the Irish had risked their peace and security for true freedom in 1948 with the passing of the The Republic of Ireland Act 1948. When it went into effect in April 1949, one of the first acts of the Oireachtas Éireann was to join the ECN and take an active part in the future of Europe as a free nation.

Of course, Ireland was not yet united. Britain maintained its iron grip on the Six Counties and Belfast. Distrust on the Northern border has remained strong and there is a notable British army presence in the occupied North.

The Irish reward - or perhaps a negotiated part of their joining the Coalition, the discussions have not been made public - was the establishment of the headquarters of the PEAC in Dublin. The Parisian contingent had argued for a base close to the ECN core, the Polish had suggested it would create an additional buffer against the Soviets, but the Irish have the ports, the distance and, importantly, the potential for local facilities.

Land has been purchased adjacent to Dublin Airport and the first make-shift buildings have been established. PEAC has been promised plenty of resources but as of yet many of them have not arrived. Nonetheless, in January 1950 the first of the multinational staff began to arrive and they would simply have to make do.

You are:
[ ] The Inventor - The primogenitor of many a rocket program, the Inventor is an engineer who relies on luck more than skill. After all, the books weren't written when they started building rockets.
[ ] The Director - Who leads a space program? Everyone thinks it's the Director, but they spend most of their time chasing engineers and scientists and fighter pilots.
[ ] The Rocketeer - Did they learn on military missiles, scientific experiments or did they build tiny rockets in their backyard? No matter what, the Rocketeer is a steely-eyed flight specialist.

You use:
[ ] He/Him
[ ] She/Her
[ ] They/Them
[ ] Write in (neo-pronouns)

Your name is:
[ ] Write in

Dublin Airport may be near the coast but the surrounding area is not nearly clear enough for rocket launches. Even with the small missiles PEAC is expected to put together there is too much danger to the city and to surrounding farms. Anything the Committee has built will have to be transferred by road to the port or to an actual coastal site prepared for purpose.

PEAC has leased an area of flat ground in the middle of nowhere which will be perfectly suited to flying rockets off of. Currently there is limited infrastructure in place but any construction is, frankly, up to PEAC to consider.

Where is the launch site?
[ ] Inis Meáin, one one of the Aran Islands on the Irish Atlantic Coast
[ ] CIEES, Hammaguir, Algeria, A french military base in its North African Colony.
[ ] Kronogård, Sweden the most northerly signatory of the ECN and PEAC