Interkosmos

Interkosmos was a joint project in the late 2540s and 2550s. Developed as a joint project between the Gilgamesh Free State, Republic of Levosia. Victorian Independent State, and Glabetovan People's Republic, Interkosmos was inspired by the long-duration convoy raiding missions of Jonathan Watts. However, the program was not designed with wartime in mind, but more along the lines of the creation of . The program envisioned four missions for each of the rebel nations involved, and for these new colonies to serve as refuges for if the rebels were forced to flee by the or the .
Although it was envisioned that the eventual goal would be colony missions, it quickly became clear to the leaders of the rebel nations and their respective leaders of Interkosmos that such a goal was financially mutually exclusive with creating a military that could stand against a UNSC invasion. 
However, in spite of this, the nations pressed on with the cooperation, intending it no longer as a true colonization method, but rather as a deterrent, as living proof that the rebels were willing and could move outside of controlled space to create their own colonies, with the intention of the UEG seeing any war as truly unwinnable, as the rebels would flee to continue the fight. It was hoped that this vision of an unwinnable fight would cause the UNSC to leave the rebel-controlled colonies alone, being worn from nearly thirty years of war.
In order to cut down on costs, the program did not use the rebellion's precious cargo ships, which had to continue running commerce in order to have income for the rebel governments. Instead, the rebels purchased and modified to serve as the carrier rockets, having Venezian shipyards build them reusable ships designed off the basis of antiquated spaceplane-era orbiters, to cut down on costs and ensure safety and efficiency. These measures, however, had a darker side, with the orbiters and their carriers intended to possibly be used during an invasion as kamikazes against high value UNSC ships, a tactic which would later come to pass in the Outer Colonies Crisis. Launching its first mission in , Interkosmos' missions were centered around the creation of a long-duration space station in orbit above Levosia. While the majority of missions were successes, in , one of the modified 11-B1 rockets carrying the spaceplane Ranger blew up on its ascent to orbit, killing all seven astronauts and cosmonauts onboard.
Two years later, after the fall of the Gilgamesh Free State, the Interkosmos program was decommissioned, with only the Republic of Levosia remaining as an independent nation. However, the spaceplanes continued to fly missions, although these were no longer of a scientific nature, instead using the space station and spaceplanes to lay around the planet.
==History==
===Genesis===
===Development===
===Missions===
===Ranger Accident and Decommissioning===
As the seventh mission of 2554, the crew of the Ranger was designated as the first long duration crew of Interkosmos, intended to stay aboard in spacefor a full year, aiding in the ongoing construction of the station Eridanus and observing the viability of a long duration aboard a confined ship in zero-G, given that it had been centuries since such a mission had been done. The end goal of the mission was to prove that it would be possible for a rebel group, onboard a singular larger vessel, to flee to deep space with small spacecraft onboard and create a station in deep space. The idea that was to be tested by the crew was that these spacecraft could be jettisoned in a certain area of space within six months to a year's time of non-slipspace travel from a colony, with noncombat crew onboard, while their mothership went raiding for supplies, and that not only could the ships and their crew survive and construct during that period of time, but if the mothership happened to be destroyed, they would be able to make their way to a nearby colony. However, as with the program as a whole, the mission had another purpose, to see if long-duration sentry missions by nuclear-armed spaceplanes to act as a watch for and lay mines for or engage incoming UNSC forces were viable.
In keeping with this, the crew was a mix between civilian and military, with the mission commander, pilot, and two payload specialists being military from Gilgamesh, Victoria, Glabetov, and Levosia, with the remaining three civilian mission specialists comprised of a doctor, a scientist, and finally, a selected civilian volunteer from Levosia, who was intended to act as a control group for the average noncombatant that may be on such a craft if it were left in deep space.
The mission was slated to originally launch on August 18th, 2554, however, the UNSC's invasion of Glabetov on August 2nd forced Interkosmos to delay the launch, fearing possible simultaneous actions against the Republic of Levosia by its foes in the People's Republic of Levosia that could endanger the mission's crew. A month later, on September 22nd, the crew boarded Ranger at 1000 local time. At 1100, the craft and its booster rocket launched off the pad. At T+1:52, the pilot of the craft, Captain Constantine Gavraliz of the Gilgamesh Free Air Force, reported to the Interkosmos-Levosian Air Force ground control that the engines felt like they were running rough. Two seconds later, the booster rocket abruptly tilted, and disintegrated in a massive fireball, flinging the spacecraft clear. Although the craft and crew had survived the explosion, the forces from the tilt and breakup had left the craft's control surfaces completely unuseable as it plummeted to earth, killing the crew on impact. 
Immediately following the accident, fingers were pointed at the People's Republic of Levosia or some other UNSC-aligned group for having allegedly sabotaged the booster with explosives. However, an investigation by the Levosian Air Force and Interkosmos' starship engineers indicated that the explosion instead came from a failure of two of the nozzles on the booster rocket, causing an uneven thrust. The thrust computers attempted to compensate by vectoring the remaining thrust, but were unable to overcome the fact that the booster was already angled to reach orbit. This led to it tipping over, which in turn led to the booster breaking apart, allowing the remaining solid fuel to ignite in a fireball. The same forces then led to the spacecraft being thrown clear, and the resulting acceleration tore the vertical stabilizer from the craft. The investigation publicly ruled that the cause of the nozzle failure was inconclusive, although they did not rule out the possibility of sabotage to the nozzles.
Despite the report's cautious statement that it may not have necessarily been sabotage, the recording of the astronauts' and cosmonauts' moments leading up to the disaster that showed nothing was out of the ordinaryOfficially, the audio recording stopped at the moment Captain Gavraliz noted that the engines were running rough, however, the recorder was going until the crash. Despite this, the final moments of the Ranger crew were not released to the public due to their distressing nature. that were released created an atmosphere in which someone had to be blamed, and it became accepted fact that it was sabotage that was responsible for the destruction of the Ranger. As such a belief only led to greater fanaticism against the UNSC, neither the rebel governments nor Interkosmos did anything to control these rumors. The remains of the seven astronauts were recovered several weeks after the disaster, and interned in a mausoleum, with an antechamber before the room their remains were buried in containing major pieces of the Ranger.
===Legacy===
==Notes==
Category:Safe Havens