Pipcard

1970-09-12 - Utahime-01, the first crewed space mission, with Yuzuki Morita

1970-09-12 - Hatsunia's first astronaut

Phase 2 - 14 1970-09-12 - Utahime-01 was the first Hatsunese human spaceflight, launched on an M-1A rocket. With a mass of 2 tonnes, the Utahime (diva/songstress; literally "song princess") capsule was similar to Mercury and Gemini, and did not have much in capability compared to Apollo or Soyuz; it was only meant for the prestige and to prove technologies for larger, future spacecraft. The cone-shaped Core Module had enough room for one astronaut, several days worth of food, water, and oxygen, and a heat shield and parachutes to return from orbit safely. The Propulsion Module contained avionics, propellant, and thrusters, able to perform rendezvous and docking tests on future missions. Electrical power was provided by alkaline fuel cells running on liquid oxygen and hydrogen, which required insulation to prevent boil-off. Living space in the vehicle was cramped, so HASDA was looking for small, lightweight candidates who also had previous piloting experience. After going through several rigorous physiological tests, three candidates were selected. The first astronaut was Yuzuki Morita. At 24 years old, she was one of the youngest to go into space. The other two astronauts were Marumi Nabatame (who was of Hatsunese and Micronesian descent) and Akari Miura. Together, they were known as the "Rocket Women." The launch took place 39 minutes after noon (locally). The M-1A leapt off the pad with a sudden jolt, gradually increasing in acceleration as the fuel and oxidizer burned off. At booster separation, it reached up to 9-10 Gs for about a second. Yuzuki and the other astronauts had undergone special training to handle these high forces, and even they could only withstand it for a few seconds before losing consciousness. The second stage separated, and the launch escape system tower was jettisoned at three minutes after launch. The thrust of the LE-03B engine felt relatively calm compared to the wild roller coaster of the first stage and boosters. After 9 minutes, Utahime-01 had finally reached orbit. Yuzuki tested the reaction control systems to rotate the craft, and viewed the Earth 200 kilometers below through a tiny window. As she waited, she sometimes drank vegetable juice, which became HASDA's version of "Tang." After orbiting two times, Utahime-01 performed its de-orbit, separation, and re-entry maneuvers, re-entering with an offset center of mass at a certain angle of attack to generate a small amount of lift and reduce forces to just under 3 Gs. The parachutes deployed, and the capsule splashed down south of Saipan almost five hours after launch, having gone about 3 times around the Earth, to be recovered by a vessel of the Hatsunia Maritime Defense Force. With the completion of this mission, Hatsunia had become the third country to send a human into space. This was celebrated within the country and met with fanfare in Hatsunia's Asian and Western allies, but did not get as much attention as the American manned Moon landing that occurred in the year prior. It had some impact in that it was the second time a woman was launched into space (the USSR had, but not the US). In the US, this brought attention to the "Mercury 13", a group of 13 women who went through the same tests as the actual, all-male astronauts selected for the Mercury program. A few of them would be selected to go on the last few Apollo missions and visit the Skylab space station. The flight also encouraged the European space program to develop their own crewed spacecraft, using an evolved version of the "Europa" rocket based on the British Blue Streak missile with French and German upper stages. South China was also interested, but would need to overcome post-war restrictions on indigenous rocket and re-entry vehicle development. Some news media dubbed Hatsunese space travelers "uchuunauts," combining the Hatsunese term for "universe"/"outer space" with the Greek term for "sailor." Officially, HASDA used the term "astronaut," or uchuuhikoushi. September 12 also became known as "Space Day" in Hatsunia.

1969-04-17 - M-1A launches the "Nozomi" probe to Mars 1970-02-24 - Nozomi flies by Phobos and Mars Nozomi on the day side of Mars

Phase 2 - 13 In the 1960s, HASDA did not have the budget to develop rockets to send humans to the Moon, but had enough to launch probes to explore the solar system with whatever rockets they had. In the 1964 Scientific Satellite Symposium, during the development of the M-1A rocket, two flyby probes were proposed for Venus and Mars. These probes, known in development as "PLANET-A" and "PLANET-B," would share a common satellite bus with the Sakigake spacecraft, but with different solar panels (which used more complex folding mechanisms) and scientific instruments that were designed for only a few days of observation. Both probes (along with all future interplanetary probes) carried metal plates as counterweights, etched with the folklore character of Hatsune Miku. [context: this happened with our universe's Akatsuki probe in 2010, and is one of the inspirations for this whole project] 1969-01-12 - An M-1A launched the "Akatsuki" (Dawn) probe, or PLANET-A, to Venus. It was named as Venus is one of the brightest objects in the sky at dawn, and would travel to Venus in four months. Smaller solar panels were used as more energy could be absorbed by a certain surface area closer to the Sun. 1969-04-17 - "Nozomi" (Wish/Hope), or PLANET-B, was launched to Mars on another M-1A. This used larger solar panels as it would go farther away from the Sun. The launch had to be timed correctly, as the inclination of Mars's orbit around the Sun differed more from the Earth's. Launching from Negishima (over 26 degrees north of the equator) required a dogleg maneuver to shift the inclination around the Earth to 24 degrees, and once in interplanetary space, there was another inclination difference of almost 2 degrees that needed a change in velocity of over several hundred meters per second. To minimize Delta-v, an off-plane transfer was required in which the spacecraft would depart Earth on April 17 and arrive at Mars over 10 months later after going past its orbit. 1969-05-14 - Akatsuki arrived at Venus, reaching the closest point (over 6000 kilometers) on May 15/16. The spacecraft observed the thick, featureless clouds blanketing the surface, and the high temperatures of around 500 K that remained mostly the same, even at night. Akatsuki at Venus (TUFX default config) 1970-02-23 - Nozomi arrived at Mars, making a small burn to intercept its closest moon of Phobos. It passed by the tiny asteroid moon for only a few seconds and almost 30 kilometers away on the next day, then went on to see Mars's barren, rusted, and cratered surface covered by a thin atmosphere, from as close as 3500 kilometers. Nozomi at Phobos Nozomi on the day side of Mars

1969-01-12 - M-1A launches the "Akatsuki" Venus flyby probe, Hatsunia's first spacecraft to visit another planet 1969-05-16 - Akatsuki makes its closest approach to Venus

Phase 2 - 12 1968-04-28 - Usagi-6, Hatsunia's first lunar orbiter, was launched on an M-1A. The third stage sent the spacecraft towards the Moon, but the probe needed to perform a correction maneuver about two days in, to redirect its trajectory so that it would pass over the poles. After almost four days, Usagi-6 reached a perilune of over 100 kilometers above the surface and decelerated by almost 800 m/s, becoming the first Hatsunese spacecraft to orbit another celestial body. Usagi-6 featured a variety of scientific instruments, including optical and infrared imaging devices to scan the surface and its temperatures. This would assist NASA with finding landing sites for the Apollo program, and inform HASDA as it had plans for robotic lunar landers once the M-1 launch vehicle had gotten another upgrade. The magnetometer was able to detect the faint magnetic field of the Moon, the distribution of which varied around the surface. Variations in the Moon's gravitational field caused by uneven mass concentrations were also detected. Using the parabolic antenna, all of this data could be transmitted at a higher rate compared to previous lunar probes. The six solar arrays were sufficient to power the spacecraft for several years before the cells decayed. (Meanwhile, in the previous year, Hatsunia had signed a treaty with other East and Southeast Asian countries to form the Mutual East Asian Cooperation Union [unlike Imperial Japan's "co-prosperity sphere," this had genuine intent]. The Hatsunese government had made English an official language to take advantage of its status as a lingua franca of business and science, and improve diplomatic and economic internationalization. The greater focus on English education would benefit computer programmers and the burgeoning software industry, as computers at this time did not have the capacity to store and display thousands of Chinese characters, known as kanji in Hatsunia.)

1968-04-28 - M-1A launches Usagi-6, Hatsunia's first lunar orbiter

1967-10-15 - M-1A launches Sakigake, Hatsunia's first probe in interplanetary space

Phase 2 - 11 1967-04-05 - M-1 launched "Denpa" (electromagnetic wave) to another highly elliptical orbit. Its primary instrument was a plasma wave detector to measure how Earth's magnetic field affects and creates waves in the rarefied ionized gas particles surrounding the planet. A quadrupole mass spectrometer used four parallel electrically charged rods to separate and distinguish ions of different masses and charges. 1967-07-08 (local) - Usagi-5, the third and final lunar impact probe, was launched by an M-1 and hit the crater of Timocharis. 1967-10-15 - "Sakigake" (pathfinder/pioneer) was Hatsunia's first interplanetary probe, launched by an M-1A. It was not destined for any planet or other body in particular, but was launched to an orbit between Earth and Venus and meant as a demonstration of long-range communications systems far away from Earth. The spacecraft also acted as observatory for the Sun, its magnetic field, the solar wind, and other space weather phenomena. This mission was the precursor to the first Venus and Mars flybys.

1967-01-25 - First launch of the M-1A rocket with the Neginohana-2 test satellite (edit: retconned from original)

Phase 2 - 10 [note: this post has been retconned - original rocket configuration here] To launch a human into space, HASDA needed a larger launch vehicle. The M-1A rocket featured the addition of two liquid rocket boosters (LRBs) using the same LE-04 engine (without vernier engines), a larger second stage using the upgraded LE-03B engine with a larger vacuum-optimized nozzle burning Aerozine-50 and nitrogen tetroxide, and a larger fairing that all had the same diameter as the first stage. The tanks used a lighter aluminum-copper alloy. This quadrupled the mass that could be carried to low Earth orbit from 700 to 2800 kilograms. The M-1A was thus nicknamed "Thor Heavy" or "Thor Multibody" in the United States. The original military purpose of the LE-04 liquid oxygen/kerosene engine was superseded by solid-fuel motors that were easier to store and didn't need to be fueled briefly before launch. However, the M-1A did not use solid rocket boosters (SRBs) unlike its American Thor-Delta counterparts, as they could not be stopped once ignited, unlike liquid-fuel rocket engines which were deemed safer for crewed missions. The LRBs had tanks that were 2 meters shorter than the central first stage to enable an earlier shedding of weight to increase performance (as the engines could not throttle), and decrease maximum acceleration to 9 Gs at booster separation, which was nearing the limit of what a trained person could handle without losing consciousness. The M-1A could also launch without boosters, with an LEO payload of 900 kilograms. The third stage used the LE-03 engine of the Negi-2A and 2B rockets same LE-03B engine instead of a solid motor for more flexibility in mission planning and operations. It could boost payloads up to 800 900 kilograms to geostationary transfer orbit, or 500 600 kilograms to the Moon. Conducting a flyby of Mars or Venus might also be possible. 1967-01-25 - The first M-1A lifted off carrying the Neginohana-2, a designation used for engineering test satellites. Neginohana-2 tested a new 2-meter-diameter satellite bus and parabolic dish communications system. The satellite was only launched to an elliptical geostationary transfer orbit, and did not have enough propellant to reach the circular geostationary orbit.

1966-03-20 - Sakura-4a communications satellite 1966-07-22 - Usagi-4 impacts the Moon at the Montes Apenninus

Phase 2 - 09 1966-02-13 - The Ajisai-5 navigation network, made of five satellites that were almost identical to the original Ajisai, was completed. The five satellites were in polar orbits spaced 36 degrees apart, and helped to determine the position of cargo ships traveling around the world, although it could not provide constant coverage. 1966-03-20 - A year after the launches of the Sakura-2 communications network in 1964, the solar panels turned out to be producing too little power due to the degradation of the cells. Thus, the Sakura-4 network was launched in 1966 (up to October 12) to replace the old network and ensure longer-term operations. The solar panels wrapping around the cylinder were replaced with four folding arrays to increase the maximum area exposed to the Sun while maintaining the same mass. 1966-07-22 - Three-and-a-half days after launch, the Usagi-4 probe impacted the Moon at the Montes Apenninus mountain range, near Mons Bradley and Mons Huygens.

1965-08-26 - Launch of Usagi-3, Hatsunia's first lunar impact probe (RSS/RO)

Phase 2 - 08 1965-04-01 - Jikiken-2 used a vector helium magnetometer (lighter than the previous version) to measure magnetic fields, a higher-resolution magnetic ion-mass spectrometer to determine the composition of particles in medium-high Earth orbit, and a scintillation counter to measure the energy from cosmic rays. Due to the heavier mass of the instruments, the probe only reached 90,000 kilometers instead of 240,000. 1965-06-12 - The Himawari-3 weather satellite carried a higher-resolution infrared radiometer (mounted on an extendable boom) to measure cloud and surface temperatures, and an infrared interferometer spectrometer gained insight into the structure and composition of the atmosphere. Eight folding solar panels made the satellite resemble its namesake, the sunflower. 1965-08-26 - Usagi-3 was the first lunar impact probe of Hatsunia. Because the spacecraft was designed to observe the lunar surface for only a few minutes, it did not carry a lot of specialized scientific equipment, while the TV camera was used to broadcast live images at a lower resolution so they could be transmitted quickly. The mass saved was used to give the probe additional reaction control system propellant for course corrections. The RCS could only translate forward or backward, so it could not target any location on the Moon, but it could make sure that the probe did hit the Moon. The probe arrived three-and-a-half days later (1965-08-29), impacting at over 2.5 kilometers per second in Oceanus Procellarum (the Ocean of Storms) north of Aristarchus Crater (bright white crater in the image below) and east of the smaller Väisälä crater.

1965-06-12 - Himawari-3 weather satellite

1965-04-01 - Hatsunia launches the Jikiken-2 magnetospheric probe with the Scintillation Counter Cosmic Ray Telescope, Helium Magnetometer Boom, and Magnetic Ion-Mass Spectrometer (modified RSS/RO)

Phase 2 - 07 1964-09-21 (09-22 local) - The Usagi-2 was launched in the early morning to align with the Moon's orbital plane, and with better timing of the M-1 kick stage burn, achieved a closer flyby to the Moon at just over 1000 kilometers, two-and-a-half days later. The probe was equipped with a television camera with enhanced picture quality, the data from which took several days to transmit due to low antenna bandwidth, high power consumption, and multiple battery recharging cycles. The next lunar mission was planned to be an impact probe. 1964-11-02 - The Sakura-2 communications network in Medium Earth Orbit, with four satellites spaced 90 degrees from each other, was completed. This was mostly intended as a telemetry and data relay for most satellites in low Earth orbit. The altitudes of the satellites were just enough to not be blocked by Earth's horizon. The distance between each satellite (almost 13000 kilometers) was approaching the limit at which they could communicate with each other, but the effective data transfer rate remained the same as direct communication with a ground station.

1964-07-01 - Sakura-3, the first geostationary satellite

Phase 2 - 06 1964-07-01 - After being launched by a three-stage M-1 rocket, Sakura-3 became the world's first geostationary satellite. This meant that it orbited over the equator at an altitude (about 36000 kilometers) at which the orbital period was the same as Earth's rotational period (23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds), so that it could effectively remain over the same area of the Earth and appear stationary when observed from the ground. The third kick stage accelerated the satellite to an elliptical and inclined geostationary transfer orbit, in which it waited for the Earth to rotate until the apogee was over the Pacific Ocean, near the International Date Line. Then, the satellite used its small thrusters to simultaneously circularize and reduce the orbital inclination from 26 degrees to 0 degrees. Sakura-3 had hinged solar panels that were folded up during launch, which then unfolded when in space to provide maximum solar exposure. The satellite was used to transmit messages between Hatsunia and the United States, and broadcast the 1964 Olympics in Miraito three months after launch.

1964-04-09 - M-1 launches the first Information Gathering Satellite for a reconnaissance mission [modified RSS/RO]

Phase 2 - 05 1964-02-12 - The Sakura-2a was launched as the first of a four-satellite communications network. This and the future Sakura-2b, 2c, and 2d satellites were planned to be spaced 90 degrees apart from each other to enable almost-constant communication relays in low Earth orbit. This required them to be at an altitude of about 2700 kilometers to preserve line-of-sight contact. The satellite needed to use a more efficient propellant compared to hydrazine (specific impulse of 198 s) to be able to achieve such an orbit after separation from the M-1 second stage. Thus, a bipropellant composed of Aerozine-50 and nitrogen tetroxide (specific impulse of 282 s) was used in the satellite's thrusters. Aerozine-50 is a a half-and-half mixture of hydrazine and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine originally developed by Aerojet. 1964-04-09 - IGS-1 (Information Gathering Satellite), the first reconnaissance satellite of Hatsunia, was launched by an M-1 with a larger-than-usual fairing. The launch and on-orbit operations were not managed by HASDA, but by the Cabinet Intelligence Office, which intended to perform reconnaissance checks on the Soviet bloc. The wider fairing accommodated a camera and film storage mechanism, and solar panels on one-half of the satellite. The payload remained attached to the M-1 second stage for orbital maneuvering, similar to the Corona/Discoverer satellite attached to the Agena upper stage. The film recovery capsule, nicknamed "Coconut," had its own small engine and some propellant to de-orbit and re-enter. The satellite was launched into a sun-synchronous polar orbit, meaning that it could pass over a certain point of the Earth's surface at the same local solar time every day. Launching a satellite this large to a slightly retrograde orbit (against the rotation of the Earth) pushed the M-1 to its limits. The first generation IGS program remained top secret until declassification in the 1990s.

1963-07-30 - "Usagi" lunar flyby [modified RSS/RO]

Phase 2 - 04 1963-07-27 (1963-07-28 locally) - In this decade, Hatsunia was not developing huge mega-rockets to land humans on the Moon, but had enough of a budget to send small probes. The "Usagi" probe, named after the mythical rabbit that the dark markings ("seas"/"mare") on the Moon resembled in East Asian cultures, was launched by an M-1 rocket and sent on a lunar-bound trajectory. Like Jikiken, the probe was integrated with the third stage, but contained less instruments as it was only meant for short-term lunar observation. The antenna was built with a stronger signal gain to be able to transmit data from the Moon. The trans-Lunar injection maneuver, which accelerated Usagi by over 3.1 kilometers per second, was performed automatically while the spacecraft was not in range of any tracking stations, and it took several minutes until a signal could be confirmed. The timing had to be just right so that the probe would pass close to the Moon without hitting it. Two days after launch (1963-07-30), Usagi entered the Moon's gravitational sphere of influence and became the first Hatsunese spacecraft to visit another celestial body, transmitting pictures and basic data about the Moon and the space environment around it as it passed as close as 4486 kilometers from the lunar surface. The orientation of the solar panels was not ideal for gathering power, but was sufficient enough to accomplish the mission goals. [context: In our timeline, the first lunar probe not from the Soviet Union or United States was from Japan... in 1990.]