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

Events

The 'krump' of an explosion has Hedwig halfway under her desk before she even realises what is happening. A memory of bombers over Europe attempts to worm its way into her head but she shakes it off as the sound echoes into the distance. An alarm begins to sound somewhere as she leaps from her chair and rushes to the window, trying to see if something has happened at the airport - maybe a plane crash or a fuel fire. But there is nothing to see.

She makes her way quickly down the stairs, glad she decided to wear flats today. As she pushes open the front door and feels the slight spring chill she wishes she had picked up her jacket before leaving, but she had been in such a hurry.

Fortunate, perhaps, that she was. As she rounded the corner one of Appoline's lab assistants almost crashed into her, racing at full tilt towards her building.

"What's happened? Are you okay?" She asks, grabbing the man by the shoulders.

"Gotta call an ambulance," he gasps out, panting for breath, "Accident," brushing her off her begins his run towards the main doors again.

Hedwig hurries towards the lab, taking in the picture in front of her. There's a faint plume of thin white smoke coming from one of the ventilation boxes on the roof. A handful of staff are gathered nearby the building, most of them milling around the few who are sitting on the ground. By the time Hedwig reaches them, Apolline has already waved her over.

She is sitting against one wall, drinking from a canteen of water, hair in disarray. A respirator sits discarded on the ground next to her. Her clothes are stained, burned in places.

"Madame director." She says, voice croaky.

"What happened?"

"Well-" she coughs, then gives Hedwig a winning smile, "I may have inhaled a small amount of ammonia gas. But we found a new rocket fuel."

• Corrosive fuel or oxidiser applies a -1 reliability modifier to an engine design that uses it.
• When designing an engine or booster using a Toxic fuel or oxidiser the designer can choose to take a -2 penalty to the roll to account for safety procedures. If they do not, apply a -2 reliability modifier to the component
• Semi-Hypergolic fuels apply a -1 modifier to the Ignition key phase when used.

Looking across the conference room at her small but close-knit team, Hedwig cannot help but smile. Apolline looks tired but nonetheless recovered from her experiences in the lab. Arne is all bright eyes and a curious expression. Dan has that same easy, comfortable look that he always seems to wear unless something is actively going wrong.

"I appreciate all the work you've done these last few months. We've managed to come together and begin work on something truly incredible." Hedwig begins, standing at the head of the table "I also realise that we have not been offered much in the way of guidance from above. Fortunately that means we have the scope to, essentially, do whatever we feel like."

"I don't want to build weapons." Arne cuts in almost immediately, "I realise that we don't have much choice if the ECN Council makes a formal order of it, but while we have the option I would much prefer sticking to peaceful use cases."

"You can probably guess my opinion on the matter." Dan adds, nodding along with Arne, "We stayed out of the Emergency for the most part, I don't want to play a part in risking that neutrality."

"No missiles unless specifically requested, got it. I have no issue with that. Appoline, do you concur?"

"Hmm? Oh, uh-" She looks distracted, gazing into the distance through the window. The weather is grey and overcast and Hedwig can't imagine there is much to look at. "I think we should send a person up."

There is a moment of quiet as the room chews on the suggestion.

"If we gave them a pressure suit-" Arne starts, before Dan interrupts him,

"An ejection mechanism and a parachute-"

"I could make accurate observations about the upper atmosphere, in person!" Appoline finishes with a fire in her eyes.

"Wait, you?" Hedwig asks

"But of course, madame Director. If not me, then who?"

Well, she certainly can't find an argument against that.

International News

January
Korea: Rumours abound that Soviet-backed North Korea is considering an invasion of Japanese-occupied South Korea to reunite the country.
China: The United Kingdom recognises the People's Republic of Free China which consists of most of the mainland other than Sino-Japanese territories.
United States: The USS Missouri ran aground and was stuck for two weeks at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay.
Republic of India: The Dominion of India is declared a republic by the Constituent Assembly as part of the ratification of the Constitution.

February
China: The air force of the Republic of China bomb power plants feeding Japanese Shanghai, cutting electricity to 90% of the city. 500 are killed in the raid.
Soviet Union: The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of Free China have signed a thirty year mutual defence pact.
France: Requests have been made of the United States for economic and military aid in the development of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
United States: Senator McCarthy speaks on the senate floor about the dangers of Communism, Facism and Syndicalism to the United States.
United States: Undersecretary of State confirms that McCarthy's list of notable ideological sympathisers in the State Department have been dismissed as they were all homosexuals.

March
France: Pledging a free Republic of Saarland by 2000, France leases coal mines for the next fifty years.
China: Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft strike targets on Taiwan and mainland China in retaliation for the ROC's raid on Shanghai. 47 dead.
Belgium: Voters approve the return of King Leopold III by a slim majority.
Korea: Japan has offered semi-independent South Korea significant military aid to deter potential Northern aggression. The United States has apparently made a similar offer on the condition of Japanese withdrawal.
China: Reports of the ROC invading mainland China centre around the capture of the town of Songmen, Wenling province.
Turkey: The Italian-Turkish war of 1911-12 formally ends after 40 years.

Voting

You have one vote for each month, April through June, for a total of three votes. Please write your plan in the month-by-month order you would like the actions to occur.
Design
[ ] A new Engine can be designed utilising the new, hypergolic fuel.
[ ] If we're going to complete the experimental mission we need a Booster.

Plan
[ ] Plan a mission using a currently available Engine, Booster and Payload

Order
[ ] Order a planned Launch Vehicle and pay the cost out of the current budget

Schedule
[ ] Schedule a mission using a Launch Vehicle that is currently in stock

Research
[ ] Commit more time to Fuel research and maybe improve safety methods in the lab.
[ ] Enhanced Engine designs will improve performance.
[ ] Our current payload options are very simple, let's enhance that.
[ ] We should look into how to build better Boosters before we design another.