United States Space Administration The United States Space Administration ( USSA ) was the agency of the United States federal government responsible for the administration of the nation ' s space program . Background . In the 1960 s , the USSA became involved in the Space Race . Mr . Pebbles was the first animal — a common house cat — launched into space . On May 5 1961 , Captain Carl Bell of the U . S . Air Force became the first human in space . This claim was disputed by both the Soviet Union and China . Captain Bell ' s flight in Space Capsule " Defiance 7 " lasted twelve minutes and seven seconds , and made a full revolution around the Earth . Bell died when the capsule crashed on its return to Earth . During the 1960 ' s Space Race , U . S . Air Force Colonel Hartigan and his ship Clarabella 7 were returning from a low orbit space flight when Mothership Zeta abducted them . His recording demonstrates him trying to make a peaceful " first contact " with the aliens , until he is violently cut - off by them . Around this time Holly Barrisford , a linguistics specialist for the USSA , is also abducted . In 2277 , Colonel Hartigan is found dead in a cryogenics pod by the Lone Wanderer and an alien captive recorded log detailing Holly Barrisford ' s interactions with the aliens is found onboard Mothership " Zeta " . On July 16 , 1969 , The Virgo II Lunar Lander " Valiant 11 " with U . S . Air Force officers Captain Richard Wade , Captain Mark Garris , and Captain Michael Hagen landed on the moon . The astronauts became the first humans to walk on a celestial body other than Earth . On November 14 , 1969 , the Virgo III Lander " Valiant 12 " also landed on the moon . In 2020 , the Delta IX rocket was commissioned by the USSA . The Delta IX rocket was the last of the manned rockets to the Moon . The longest recorded spaceflight in a rocket of this type was the 17 - day Zeus 12 Mission to the moon . Almost 15 years later in 2035 , the Delta IX rocket was converted for U . S . military purposes . The crew and instrument sections were replaced with a nuclear warhead . The last manned mission to the moon , which recovered the Valiant 12 flag from its surface , occurred in 2052 . In 2073 , the Bloomfield Space Center was in the process of building a rocket that would go to Mars . However , as nuclear proliferation reached an all - time high as tensions mounted around the globe in the midst of the Resource Wars , the U . S . government completed a space station / satellite that housed two - dozen nuclear missiles , each carrying four warheads as a reaction to possible nuclear threats . This orbital station was named the Ballistic Orbital Missile Base , or the B . O . M . B . - 001 , and it was considered the ultimate offensive weapon by the American military . The only things missing on the station when the Great War began were the main power reactor and the launch instructions and codes for the missiles . However , since all other space and rocket facilities had already used up their resources constructing the missiles for the station and launching the cargo rockets that carried them to the base , the U . S . needed to scramble to get the much needed codes and a power reactor to the station . Their answer was to convert the Mars rocket into the vehicle that would carry the codes and reactor to the base . The conversion started in 2074 . In August 2076 , the " Hermes - 13 " space rocket was completed and ready to launch at Bloomfield . Unfortunately , by October 2076 , funding for the rocket and the Bloomfield center had to be drastically cut and diverted to the development of Vault technology , thanks in large part to the rising world tensions and the imminent threat of nuclear war between the United States and China . As a result , the launch of the Hermes - 13 had to be put on hold . All personnel , except for a skeleton maintenance crew , were reassigned to other locations . Bloomfield , B . O . M . B . - 001 , and Hermes - 13 were essentially mothballed . In November 2076 , the Enclave seized control of the Bloomfield Space Center . They knew nuclear war was imminent , so they tried to refit the Hermes - 13 and convert it into a vehicle that would take selected personnel ( mainly themselves ) off - planet , the destination to be determined . Unfortunately for the Enclave , the nuclear bombs started dropping less than a year later . All Enclave personnel at the space center were either relocated to " hot - spots " or took cover away from Bloomfield . The last people to leave shut down the sub - reactor at Bloomfield and abandoned the facility , letting Hermes - 13 and Bloomfield brave the elements of the post - nuclear wasteland . In the 2070s , the USSA planned the Mars Shot Project ; an attempt to launch a manned mission to Mars by July of 2078 . ArcJet Systems was contracted by USSA to produce the XMB booster engine and deep range transmitter for the Mars Shot Project . In early 2076 , problems arose over the XMB ' s weight , however , these problems were eventually fixed shortly after the project went public . In September 2077 , the USSA raised concerns over rising political tensions , estimating that the Mars Shot Project may be delayed for a year or more . The Enclave ' s plan . The U . S . government ' s real plan to survive a nuclear war was simply to find another planet to live on after having helped to destroy the Earth . A spacecraft designed to ferry the human race to another planet was either under construction or ready to go before the Great War broke out . The plan was for the government to flee to the Enclave ' s Oil Rig , wait out the conflict and then pack up the populations of the Vaults to head into space . The Vaults were funded by the U . S . government and , accordingly , the government had control over them . Ostensibly , they were intended to allow a selection of privileged United States citizens to survive the Great War . Secretly , however , a large part of the Vault Project ( Project Safehouse ) had a far more sinister goal . Any voyage to space would have been very difficult and fraught with unforeseeable complications . Thus , to test the aptitude of the average American person to travel to another planet , many of the Vaults were designed to have some sort of critical flaw . Vault 12 , in Bakersfield , California ( better known as the Necropolis ) after the Great War , had a faulty Vault door that wouldn ' t close all the way , allowing dangerous radiation from the Wasteland to leak in , leading to the creation of California ' s ghoul population . Vault 15 was built normally ( the rock slide that buried its control center was accidental ) , but it was populated with a diverse mix of ethnicities and peoples to see what sort of social tensions arose when people of varied backgrounds were packed into a small , stressful environment . Eventually , due to either a change of plans by the Enclave ' s leadership or the spacecraft being destroyed , the Enclave abandoned their initial goal of settling on another planet , and decided to resettle on the one they already had .