First Steps Towards The Frontier (Usagipost)
*There was not a cloud in sight over the small island of Hisokajima, 50 kilometres from eastern Saizumi prefecture. The island, only possessing a large reinforced concrete slab with a launch scaffold and a boxy launch complex, was one of a series of artificial islands serving as testing sites for confidential experimental technologies developed by the empire. Hisokajima, in particular, was created to facilitate rocket testing without using the main launch pad, which was still under construction.*
*A large metal object resembling a stubby dart towered over the middle of the launch pad, pointing towards the sky. Four tail fins were visible at the bottom of the metal dart. The exhaust of a rocket motor poked out from the anti-flash white cylinder, hanging just a few meters from the pad. This vehicle was one of the early fruits of Project Kaguya, the A-1 Experimental Rocket.*
*Weighing in at 27,763 kilograms and possessing a length of 21.1 meters and a diameter of 1.8 meters, the A-1 was a single-stage short-range rocket designed by Imperial Space Development Agency and produced by the Mitsuoka Aircraft Company. Its Mi-8-1 rocket engine, developed by Mitsuoka Aircraft Company, uses a promethium-ethyl alcohol mixture as the fuel and liquid oxygen as the oxidiser (in a 1:2.27 ratio), forming the propellant. The rocket had a payload capacity of 2,860 kilograms and used an Okunoshima Electric Cooperation BinShoSou flight processing unit as the guidance system. Carbon jet vanes, air rudders, spatial air jet nozzles and air vanes form the steering system of the A-1. This rocket stored a crash-resistant data measuring and recording system in its nose. The system, containing three gyroscopes, two magnetic compasses, an altimeter, an inertial speedometer and a data recorder, was designed to determine the rocket’s flight handling characteristics, air speed at different stages of flight, rate of climb, other performance characteristics of the rocket and accuracy.*
*Several ground-based and naval-based mobile air intercept radars were positioned near Hisokajima and dotted in the waters near the target area to track the rocket’s position through its flight. This was to make the search and recovery of the rocket easier.*
*Inside the launch complex, several engineers were preparing for launch. Several sparks were being sprayed near the exhaust of the engine. A flame spat out of the exhaust as the engine was ignited. The stabilising arms of the launch scaffolding released the rocket, allowing the A-1 to dart into the blue sky. A billowing trail of smoke was left behind the rocket, tracing its flight path out to the engineers at the launch centre.*
*The A-1 continued to accelerate as it sped through its flight arc. After a few minutes, the A-1 escaped the field of view of the air intercept radars. Both the radar operators and the engineers were blind to the rocket’s state for the rest of the flight. Ten minutes into the flight, an imperial recovery ship’s radar detected an object falling at extremely high speed into the ocean. A lookout on the ship’s starboard side spotted a big splash of water in the distance. The lookout reported it to the captain, prompting the recovery fleet to race towards the object.*
*The first ship found many chunks of metal drifting in the water, before finding the somewhat battered nose of the rocket. The nose was lifted out of the ocean by the largest recovery ship and gently placed on the deck. On board the ship, the crew went to remove the thick silver cylinder that was the data recorder from the data recording system. The data recorder was placed in a secure container and locked, ready to be sent to a laboratory in Saizumi City for analysis. The rest of the recovery fleet fished out more critical components that survived the impact to ensure no possible leak of the A-1’s design.*
uw/image is a R-1 ballistic missile launch