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This story takes place in an alternate timeline. One where the American Civil War never occurred, and the United States Supreme Court never heard Texas v. White in December 1868. This (if I'm correct) makes a state's secession legal. So I've decided to have my home state secede, thus creating an alternate timeline. Then, I had my newly independent state create it's own space agency. This is the imagining of what it might be like. And just to be clear: WASHINGTON STATE, not WASHINGTON, D.C.. I'm not here to argue about the politics of all of this, and I most certainly don't want a moderator involved in it. Questions and comments are open. Note: The spoilers below contain some important notes that will be of interest to readers. Reading them is not mandatory, though. I have no control over that. The Washington Air National Guard is the aerial service branch of the Republic of Washington’s military. It is, along with the Washington Army National Guard and the Washington Naval Militia, a component of the Washington National Guard. It was formed on August 6, 1924 as a state militia, becoming a dual state-federal reserve force in 1933 until 1937. As of 1951, they are headquartered at Camp Murray near Tacoma in the State of Pierce. The Washington National Space Agency is an independent agency of the Washington federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. It was established by the Washington National Space Agency Act 1950 in the Washington Legislature. As of 1951, they are headquartered in Olympia in the State of Thurston with primary operations out of McChord Air National Guard Station in Tacoma, in the State of Pierce. Some notes should be read before anyone starts reading or following the series. Some of them are lengthier than others. It is not required to read the notes, just heavily suggested. The chapter begins here. PRESIDENT OF WASHINGTON: Arthur B. Langlie (R) CHIEF OF STAFF, WASHINGTON AIR NATIONAL GUARD: General George S. Payne ADMINISTRATOR, WASHINGTON NATIONAL SPACE AGENCY: Richard Simons AIR NATIONAL GUARD LIAISON, WASHINGTON NATIONAL SPACE AGENCY: Major General Wallace Seaver DIRECTOR, MANNED SPACEFLIGHT CENTER: David Heath DIRECTOR, MCCHORD LAUNCH STATION: Alexander “Alex” Turner Prologue Washington Capitol, Olympia, November 14th, 1950 Richard Simons strolled into the conference room and set down his briefcase on a vacant chair at the head of the table, and had his aide hand out the materials to the collective of Senators and Representatives sitting in the room, facing him expectantly. Outside the grand windows, it was raining persistently. Rain was extremely common in this part of North America during the non-summer months. Rather depressingly so. But summers were getting hotter and hotter, and wildfires more and more frequent and more and more severe. “Well, Senators. Representatives. My name is Richard Simons, and I have an exciting proposal for you all: a space program!” Everyone in the room promptly scoffed. Space programs? They had more important things to deal with, like national defense, and the economy. They had just seceded from one of the world's largest superpowers, after all, nevermind that it’s been thirteen years. Space wasn’t exactly on their minds. Two Senators straight up left the room. “Gentlemen, the Soviets and the Americans have been playing around with suborbital flights for several years now. Ever since the end of the War, the United States has sent up not one, not two, and no, not three, but four rockets! None of them ever stayed up there, of course, but that doesn’t matter at the moment. We don’t even have the technology to put natural satellites in orbit yet, but it’s something we’re discussing.” Senator Michaels spoke up. “You’re damn right we don’t, mister. We should be focusing on more important issues, Mr. Simons. National defense. The economy. Public utilities.” “Please, Senator, we’ve gotten that taken care of. It’s been thirteen years.” Mr. Simons was, of course, referring to Washington’s secession from the United States on November 11, 1937. “And three days. But these issues are still important to the public. They won’t like it if we waste funds that could better be spent elsewhere on a space program.” “Do you even have a proposed launch center?” This time, it was Representative Russell MacDougal. “We’ve narrowed it down to two possible locations: Camp Murray, and Camp Harmony.” “Camp Harmony? That’s in Puyallup, Mr. Simons. Puyallup’s a town of ten thousand people in my district. People who want nothing to do with your waste of resources.” “I know. When the Japanese were held at Camp Harmony during the War, it supported a population of 7,390 Americans of Japanese descent from across Western Washington and Alaska starting in May 1942. We’ll have barracks, with 50 square feet of space per individual and one small window, a single electrical socket, and a wood stove. These can support our staffers and astronauts. Several mess halls, laundry facilities, and latrines are also present at the Camp Harmony facility. A one-hundred-bed hospital was built in Area D, as well, and existing facilities from before Camp Harmony was established were used by the Army as administration offices and community centers. The place is chock full of workshops.” “And what if something happens? An explosion, say?” “That’s the tricky part. See, all the buildings at Camp Harmony are made of wood. It’s a fairgrounds and a concentration camp, both of which are temporary and meant to be taken down, so what better material to use than wood for that, am I right, gentlemen?” “That doesn’t answer my question, Mr. Simons.” “Ah, yes, I was getting to that. We’ll need one launchpad—” “Launchpad?!” “Yes, launchpad. Don’t worry, only a small one. For now. We won’t be able to do much beyond sounding rockets. Tiny little things. But as I was saying, we’d need a launchpad located fairly far away from the wooden buildings, at least until they are renovated, because any explosion would mean bad news.” Representative MacDougal grunted in dissatisfaction at the thought. “Mmm… I don’t sense anything good coming of an explosion at Camp Harmony. But you said something about astronauts earlier, Mr. Simons, did you not?” “Yes, I did. I must admit that’s more of a pipe dream at the moment, but those astronauts will need somewhere to sleep before missions, and Camp Harmony still has its buildings from the war.” “Why not use Camp Murray? You know, the National Guard—” “—I know what Camp Murray is, Representative. I mean, yes, it will provide essentially ‘free’ security because it’s already a National Guard station and it has sentries. But the truth is, Camp Murray is near an area too densely populated for our tastes.” “What about the McChord Air National Guard Station? Puyallup can’t be the only option… Can it?” “McChord does have a railroad line, that is an advantage, I must admit. McChord would also have this ‘free’ security given to us. But rockets would be flying over 12 miles of populated area. Rockets launched from Puyallup would only fly over 7 miles of populated area, and wouldn’t encounter any settlements beyond farming towns of 100 people at most, thinly spread, until Spokane, at which point it would be well high enough to not pose a significant danger. Not to Spokane, at least.7” Representative MacDougal considered this a moment, then started quietly discussing with his peers. “We’ll give you McChord. It has the railroad so you can order and ship supplies in. Besides, looking at this folder here,” MacDougal said, flipping through it to the AVIATION PROGRAM page, “you look like you want to deal with airplanes, too. McChord has a runway, Camp Harmony doesn’t.” There was a long pause. Nobody said anything. Nobody moved. “Take it or leave it, son. Final offer.” “That’s true, Camp Harmony doesn’t have a runway...” Another pause. “McChord it is, then, Representative,” Simons said as he closed his folder. Administrator Simons and Representative MacDougal stood up and each leaned over the table, giving each other a thorough handshake. The deal was done. Chapter 1: Ad Astra McChord Air National Guard Station, Tacoma, September 6th, 1951 | Program: Tiny Delta | Program Launches: 3 | Total Launches: 3 By February 9th, 1951, Launch Complex 1 had been completed at the Washington Air National Guard’s McChord Air National Guard Station, formerly belonging to the United States Army Air Corps before Washington’s 1937 secession. Launch Complex 1 was built only to support a rocket 16 feet1 in diameter and 32 feet2 in height. The Tiny Delta was the first ever sounding rocket designed and developed in Washington, being an offshoot of the Delta program that was started by a partnership between the 10th Civil Support Team of the Washington Army National Guard and the University of Washington up in Seattle. The ultimate goal of the program was to develop a military ballistic missile, but the Military Department had permitted the Washington National Space Agency to use 10 Tiny Delta rockets per year, just as long as the Army Guard got to keep an extra 20 for their own use. The Washington National Space Agency agreed to this arrangement. It was not ideal, but it was better than nothing. It was composed of two stages: a kick stage, composed of the Tiny Sergeant booster to get it up in the air, and the Tiny Delta missile itself was powered by a leftover Aerobee engine. As there weren’t many in Washington, and since neither the United States nor the Aerojet Corporation was going to provide them to Washington’s space program, the University of Washington was working on a similar engine to replace the Aerobee when the supply ran out, and it would. Fairly quickly, too. The Tiny Delta booster lifted off from the pad with the Tiny Tim booster doing most of the work. Unfortunately, the Aerobee engine failed to ignite, causing it to reach less than 3,900 feet3 in altitude, crashing back down after just a 32-second flight. Another Tiny Delta booster lifted off from the pad on January 23rd, 1952, and was much more successful. The Tiny Tim engine and the Aerobee engine ignited at the same time, and clean separation occurred at T+00:00:03. The Tiny Delta upper stage went on to achieve an altitude of about 20,500 feet4 before it started arcing back towards the southeast. Engine shutoff occurred at T+00:01:05, and power ran out at T+00:01:22. Another Tiny Delta booster arrived at McChord by steam train on June 3rd, 1952. Liftoff occurred at 12:29:23 p.m. local time with the rocket tilted in a southerly direction. After a roughly 1 minute, 30-second flight, the second Tiny Delta crashed into a patchy forest, sparking a blaze. East Pierce Fire and Rescue were called to the scene and swiftly put out the fire after eight hours of hard work. Nobody was injured in the crash and only an abandoned cabin was threatened by the fire, but was ultimately saved. The Tiny Delta program was closed after lots of hard work by the engineers involved. Administrator Richard Simons announced that the agency would instead be focusing on the M-1 missile, and publicly announced the goal of reaching the upper atmosphere by 1956, and outer space by 1958. Administrator Simons also announced that the agency would begin working on aviation no later than 1959. Chapter 1 Appendix 1 16 meters (rounded) 2 10 meters (rounded) 3 1,050 meters (rounded) 4 6,250 meters (rounded)