Star Trek Pre-FTL Spaceflight Histories

Terran:
* Space race between the liberal capitalist United States and the state-communist Soviet Union starting in the mid 1950s. Soviet Union made the greatest initial strides, but during crewed exploration the United States slowly pulled ahead. The United States put more resources into their moon rocket, and the Soviet Union's moon rocket had a series of catastrophic failures. The United States put astronauts on the Moon in July 1969. The Soviet Moon landing would follow in the 1970s. During the Eugenics Wars of the 1990s, the dictator Khan oversaw the development of a new propulsion technology, with the Indian Space Research Organization launching fusion-torchdrive-powered lunar freighters and slowboat interstellar sleeper ships. The United States and Soviet Union followed suit, with the soviet crewed exploration of Saturn in the late 90s, United States exploration of Mars in the 2000s, and exploration of the Jupiter system and Europa in the 2020s. Several nations launched huge sleeper-ship expeditions and colony missions, some of which took advantage of a gravitational anomaly in the Kuiper Belt to travel to very far off systems. Some of these ships are thought to be drifting in space to this day. In the late 2030s, Cochranian Physics, now known as subspace mechanics, was discovered, as well as the Cochrane FTL Metric, a generalization of the general relativistic Alcubierre Metric to subspace mechanics. Small scale sublight warp drives were tested by various nations, but none could actually break c. In 2063, the Phoenix, a Cochranian drive designed by Zefram Cochrane himself, broke warp 1 and became humankind's first faster than light ship.

Orion:
* The first Orion spacecraft was a satellite launched by the tech startup Mal'tak in the 1830s. It utilized solid fuel propulsion and a large degree of "off the shelf" technology to put a small radio beacon in space which advertisers could use to send radio messages on public frequencies. Their funding model collapsed quickly, and their assets were bought up by Ukla, to form the Ukla'tak Conglomerate, a mature aeronautics monopoly that could afford to run their aerospace wing as essentially a publicity stunt. They tried a few different funding models to make their space program turn profitable. Initially they planned to launch a megaconstellation of communications satellites, but the launch vehicle costs would end up being prohibitive and the cost to use the service would be too high. Orion spaceflight really kicked off during the Orlaz-Ji Syndicate War, as both monopolies were willing to contract Ukla'tak and other aerospace conglomerates to use access to space for defense purposes, including spy satellites, orbital weapons platforms, and eventually crewed military vehicles and space stations. After the war was over, the technology had developed enough to set up a robust space tourism effort as well as scientific space probes. The discovery of large amounts of precious metals such as Lithium in the asteroid belt by one such space probe lead to another corporate race to mine the asteroids. In order to make this as profitable as possible, ion engines were initially used, then Nuclear Pulse Propulsion-class freighters which could carry huge payloads to and from the asteroid belt and the other planets in the Orion system. When Orions discovered subspace physics, the initial technology they developed from it was inertial dampeners and gravity plating, allowing for much smoother rides on NPPs. When warp drives were developed using the alcubierre metric, it was found that the entire Orion civilization literally did not contain enough verterium metal to make it work, so they did a shortcut--trace amounts of verterium would be spun at high speeds in energized plasma whirligigs in order to produce the same toroidal warp field metric. This would spin any normal ship apart, but of course, due to the nuclear pulse rockets, inertial dampeners were a mature technology. The first faster than light warp drive was installed on the former tramp freighter NPP Marasha, before it was removed and members of its class were rebuilt into war rockets to fight in the Alnitak War in 1975. The war didn't last long, before the activity caused the Klingons to notice them and invade the system, starting a war that united the Orion monopolies together against the Klingons, ultimately leading to a great degree of technological advancement from stolen Klingon designs.

Klingon:
Klingon Spaceflight began with the Hur'q invasion and subjugation of Qo'noS in the 13th century, as Klingon laborers were flown into space--an arrangement that did not last long. The Klingon rebellion "slew their gods" and banished the Hur'q from Qo'noS. The aftermath of the Hur'q invasion resulted in the stagnant feudal Klingons forming a communist republic and industrializing, to ensure the Klingon people would never again be subjugated. The first spacecraft was built from scavenged Hur'q impulse engines and simple pressure vessels tested for airtightness against the ocean. It was used to fly around the moon Praxis before the pressure vessel failed catastrophically. Various attempts were made to replicate Hur'q technology, but they all failed--there was simply no understood operating principle. Continued space flight was achieved using hypergolic fuels, using alchemy discovered through reverse-engineering Hur'q reaction control systems. In the early 14th century, The Klingon republic built warships using Hur'q heat-rays (disruptors) and impulse engines, to be stationed in orbit on standby. They would be crewed long-term by bi-yearly crew-changes. They did not realize that they would come more in handy from within than without, as a growing fascist movement infiltrated the Klingon Defence Force with the stated goal of bringing back Kahless' Empire. They mutinied, took control of one of the warships and opened fire on the Republican capital, then fought the other warships. The Klingon Empire was born again. A century of all-out war between the Republic and the Empire resulted in imperial supremacy due to control over the Hur'q-based war machines. The feudal empire banished "the new ways," including most Hur'q-derived science and technology except for weapons, putting Klingon science back a hundred years. [unfinished, i'm not sure about this one actually tbh]

Ferenginar:
The Ferengi Space Program was developed under the leadership of Ferenginar's first trillionaire, Archnagus Groob, who needed a project to launder additional Latmarks from his oil empire. He had the grand design of a hotel to be built in space that would allow wealthy Ferengi to relax in a zero-gravity spa and casino. Groob's plan was of course not remotely profitable, but if he could manipulate the investors of large aerospace conglomerates to make it happen, the rocket fuel necessary would be enormous. The plan worked out, at first, with the first tourist, the billionaire Proat, flying on a suborbital hop in 1630 and becoming the first Ferengi to fly in space. Three years later, the son Yek of the billionaire Walg was the first Ferengi to orbit Ferenginar. However, there's only so many billionaires willing to fly on experimental technologies, and Groob himself's unwillingness to fly on his own rockets didn't inspire confidence in the safety of these machines. An industrial use for the rockets would be necessary, which would come from the GroobNet Megaconstellation. It was genius, because in addition to providing an income stream from people desperate to avoid paying for the landline internet monopolies, Groob would also make bank on advertising in the night sky, AND launching telescopes into space from disgruntled university astronomers, and the aerospace investors would make bank building the telescopes. It required building reusable spaceplanes, but Ferenginar's thick atmosphere made that easy enough. The Ferengi Commerce Authority under leadership of Grand Nagus Alk nationalized Groob's industry in 1660 after Groob's assasination. Though the same profit incentive was utilized, Alk's strategy was grander--he looked to the stars and started an enterprise to explore the other planets in the Ferengi star system. The Ferengi made first contact with their alien neighbors in 1705 and purchased warp drive technology from them in exchange for ownership of the third planet in their solar system, which was rich in dilithium. They would later buy the planet back after using FCA-backed privateers to drive down the planet's property value.

Mellanus:
Mellanus' first experiments with spaceflight were performed by Dr. Yeag, who built early liquid-fueled sounding rockets for meteorological experiments. Dr. Yeag put tiny pieces of themself in the rocket in order to guide it, and eventually lost their memories and personality after one too many rockets ended up unrecoverable. A piece of Dr. Yeag was the first mellanoid slime to enter space in 2290. [unfinished]

Vulcan:
Vulcan or Ni'var, the second planet of 40 Eridani A, has had three separate technological epochs and two separate space programs. Though the details of the first space program are largely lost, cosmoarchaeology has recovered some of the details. The early Vulcans were illogical risk-takers who built huge haphazard chemical rockets to explore the planets of their star system. Chemical rockets were barely sufficient, as Vulcan is a super-earth with high gravity. Terrifying tripropellant and fluoride-oxidizer systems were common in this early space program, as were huge industrial accidents both on and off-planet. The development of the nuclear bomb, catastrophic as it would inevitably be for vulcan civilization, resulted in the first long-range, large-scale space habitation through the use of Orion-type nuclear pulse rockets. When the Vulcans on Ni'var bombed themselves into near oblivion, there was a disaspora of colonists and laborers who remained in space, attempting to build a civilization. It was long thought that the diaspora simply died out, until the discovery of Romulans--the existence of which implied that this Vulcan offshoot was so successful that they actually managed to develop slowboat interstellar travel, or even warp drive--thousands of years before Vulcans did.

The second space program in the era of Surak, established in the 12th century BC, was much different. It was slow and methodical, risk-averse. For 100 years, the Vulcan Science Academy operated uncrewed robotic chemical-propelled spacecraft to explore the solar system, including some quite advanced mission plans such as Ni'var-Orbit-Rendezvous to build larger spacecrafts, and sample return missions from T'khut, the other super-earth of the Vulcan system. The Vulcan Science Academy's aerospace division only flew their first crewed spacecraft when they began to reach the limits of robotically teleoperated rovers (and they only even flew rovers after stationary geophysical and meteorological laboratories reached their limits!) Twenty years were spent in low Ni'Var orbit studying the Vulcan reaction to the space environment in detail in a series of increasingly complicated orbital laboratories, before expeditions to T'khut and the other planets could commence. (To be fair, it's not like Vulcan has a nearby moon!)

The Vulcan Science Academy had a very well developed understanding of subspace and a toroidal warp field metric for centuries before the first attempt at building a full scale warp drive even commenced. However, due to the long lifespan of Vulcans and the autonomous nature of the space missions at the time, the annular warp ship was merely a physical curiosity, and slower-than-light ramjets were used to chart much of local space. The notion of a crewed spacecraft to other star systems seemed completely illogical and unnecessary, until the discovery of the planet P'jem around 40 Eridani B, which was the first extrasolar planet to be found which harbored life. Despite orbiting a white dwarf star, P'jem's ecosystem was still extant. Thorough exploration of the planet would require crewed expeditions... but not warp drive. In the 9th century BC, the research base which would later become a monastary which would later become a spy station was established. Over the past 32 centuries it has been terraformed into a Minshara-class world even lusher than Vulcan-- a work of art, science, and discipline.

Early Vulcan expeditions to other star systems also used slowboats, due to the long lifespan of Vulcans warp drive remained "unnecessary" until expeditions got long and far away enough to demand them. Once the Vulcans discovered other intelligent spacefaring species in the 1st century AD, they phased out slowboats and robotic exploration as they faced more and more interference from other spacefaring species. Tired of the chaos, they eventually took to directly guiding young spacefaring civilizations (read: turning them into colonies and suppressing their technological development "until they're ready.").

The chronology of Vulcan spaceflight is incredibly long and drawn out. Vulcan physicists and engineers took centuries to refine their warp drives to reach higher and higher speeds, and only as needed when dealing with faster peers--the species that develop so quickly they slip through the cracks.

Tellar:
Tellar Prime, orbiting 61 Cygni B, had seven global superpowers, each one carving up their own section of the world in a vaguely stable arrangement, with conflicts being fought via public debate rather than military engagements. The Space Race (translated through a quirk of language literally as the Void Debate) was an extension of this propensity to find ways of expressing supremacy outside of violence. All seven global superpowers, starting with The Rnoul Herd, developed Space Industrial Complexes to flex their technological might. (with the unspoken implication that rockets and missiles were the same technology.) Tellar Prime has 4 moons--all asteroid-sized--and each one would have to be carved up by some subset of each of the superpowers.

By the 1800s, each of the planets of 61 Cygni B had been flagged-and-footprinted by at least two of the global superpowers. Colonization of Tellar Two, the icy ocean world beyond Tellar Prime, also commenced, but the idea of going to live on a frozen iceball with no hope of return was such an unpopular prospect that many of the colonists had to be taken from desperate situations--including orphans, criminals, and abuse victims. This practice would persist all the way into the interstellar sleeper ship era as the Tellarite nations competed to spread out into deep space and go farther and faster than ever. Tellarite sleeper ships made first contact with Vulcans, who deemed the Tellarites too argumentative and illogical to deal with.

Tellarites invented warp drive in 1957 using deuterium fusion reactors and a single-axis warp nacelle system which had much of the disadvantages of both Cochranian dual-nacelle drives and Vulcan ring drives--they were neither efficient nor maneuverable. Subspace physics was predicted by physicists but would only be confirmed by precise gravimetric experiments on the North pole of Mesklin in 1952, a bizarre whirligig world of a planet orbiting 61 Cygni A with a polar gravity of 700g. Mesklin was also the site of a 2159 Coalition of Planets joint mission operated by Tellar, Vulcan, and Earth--but in that case, the much more advanced gravimetric probe failed catastrophically at its south polar landing site, requiring the help of the non-humanoid natives to recover it. The results of that probe would go on to provide some important empirical data involved in the theoretical subspace mechanics, which would ultimately result in the transwarp drive and the exponential warp scale for Federation starships in the 2280s and beyond.

Andoria:
Andoria, the third moon of the third planet of the red dwarf 40 Eridani C, is a frigid world kept warm by powerful tides generated as Andoria moves in its slightly elliptical orbit around the superjupiter-mass parent planet Andor, with the Andor-facing side noticeably warmer due to radiant heat from the planet. Andoria is half the mass of Earth but has a thicker, taller atmosphere. There are five other large moons--a lunar-mass volcanic world very much like Jupiter's moon Io, two cryovolcanically active ice-balls similar to Saturn's moon enceladus, a huge earth-mass ice world with no rocky surface, and a captured rocky world from the inner solar system which is ice-poor. And in addition, a dozen minor moons embedded in Andor's rings, and five captured asteroids. This is a fertile playground for a space program, and Andoria had several. The Leaders focused on thorough robotic exploration first, with a few crewed flyby missions blazing the way of andorian spaceflight, while the Northerners focused on trying to discover life.

A war nearly broke out, and for such a silly reason. The Northerners planned to fly a crewed landing expedition to one of the ice moons, but the Leaders threatened to shoot any such mission out of the sky unless it had been thoroughly inspected by the planetary protection office--the Leader institution which makes sure germs from Andoria do not contaminate other planets or vice versa. The Northerners refused to let the Leaders steal their aerospace secrets, and insisted they were taking the proper precautions. Ultimately the mission flew, it was indeed shot out of the sky, and nuclear war would have broken out were it not for a last minute agreement between the politicians to save the world and prevent a permanent nuclear snowball planet. An international planetary protection office was established, which would be impartial and would inspect both space programs, and a treaty prohibiting violence in space was signed.

Although lacking in minerals, the largest moon of Andor was remarkably habitable, requiring only an oxygenated breathing mask and a suitable coat to survive on, and it was inhabited by both space programs at first with part-time research stations, and then full-scale cities, and then the planet would gain its own independence, its own nations, and its own space program.

And its own interlunar wars...

Andorian Northerners developed their own warp drive in the late 19th century, using a quad-axial warp drive system with two pairs of drives, the "high-gear" drives for coasting, nicknamed the Shen and Zhen drives, and the "low gear" drives nicknamed the Thaan and Chan drives for sublight maneuvering and accelerating. Though the Vulcans had been observing the Andorians for centuries, it wasn't until the early 20th century, when Andorians discovered Vulcan, that first contact officially occurred. It didn't go well--the Andorians considered the entire 40 Eridani system to be *andorian*, and saw the Vulcan presence in the system outside of the inner 40 Eridani A system a threat to their sovereignty and security. The Andorian Northerners used their secretive warp drive technology to establish colonies across the 40 Eridani system and beyond, and even went so far as to hijack trade routes and industrial infrastructure belonging to other species (including the Vulcans), which gave them such an edge that they forcibly united Andor by the early 21st century. Their focus on military might and relatively maneuverable (albeit short-range) warships meant that they were a match even for the ancient Vulcan civilization.