United Earth Space Probe Agency

The **United Earth Space Probe Agency** is the name for the chief space exploration agency of United Earth from 2065 until 2295, when it was folded into Starfleet.

## History

Shortly after First Contact with the Vulcans, the various governments of Earth chartered a world-wide stellar exploration service in the rush of excitement after finding humanity was not alone in the universe. They created the *United Earth Space Probe Agency*, with the various national space agencies being members of its board of directors, representing their national governments' interests.

The first efforts of UESPA were the Friendship Probes, of which there were four launched from Earth from 2067 - 2075. The agency, finding numerous M-class (Minshara class) planets that were habitable in the vicinity of Earth, was pressed by widespread public pressure to start the Earth Interstellar Colonization Agency, licensing Zefram Cochrane's warp drive to bring people to the various planets. Earth's various nations claimed planets and fought over rights to the planets, before the EICA division of UESPA agreed to allot the planets to the various nations with the best claims and abilities to develop the planets. The wide push of the humans to colonize various planets worried the Vulcans, who had just given humans artificial gravity, antigravity, atmospheric recycling systems and a few other basic (to Vulcans) technologies, stifled their technology sharing, believing the humans would cause an interstellar conflict if they didn't recover from their war and advance socially first before venturing out into space.

UESPA coordinated the construction of numerous colony ships from Earth, leading to an exodus of several dozen million humans from Earth to a number of colony worlds. Soon after the colonies were officially founded, the Earth Cargo Service (ECS) was chartered by UESPA to ship cargo to and from the colonies. Many families became generational cargo runners in this service, upgrading their ships as needed to keep up with technology, though most ships kept warp 2 engines till the 2090s.

UESPA successfully coordinated the founding of the Lunar Colonies, with the city-states of New Berlin, Tycho City, and Lake Armstrong being among the first cities to form after their predecessor bases were absorbed under UESPA authority.

## Timeline

* 2065: United Earth Space Probe Agency chartered, with founding members being NASA, DZLR, UKSA, ISA,ROSCOSMOS, JAXA, and CNSA.
* 2067: Friendship One launched
* 2069: Earth Interstellar Colonization Agency chartered by UESPA to coordinate and assign planets to various nations of Earth and regulate their claims to planets.
* 2072: SS Conestoga arrives at Terra Nova; SS Vladivostok arrives at New Slavonia; SS Columbia arrives at Columbia, and SS Beauregard arrives at 'America'; SS Bismarck at New Germany; SS Victoria at Britannia; SS Xia to New China; SS Nippon to New Japan; SS Mohammed to New Islamiyya; SS Ramses to Om El Donia; SS Constantinople to New Byzantium; SS Augustus to Nova Roma; SS Indus to New India;
* 2130: Daedalus Class ship is launched with a Warp 3 engine.
* 2131: a series of conflicts with Orions, Kzinthi, and other species over the last decade prompt the UESPA to organize a commission to investigate the creation of a stellar defense service.
* 2133: The UESPA Commission into Stellar Defense and Exploration officially recommends the creation of a stellar navy, charged with defense and exploration. Many on Earth find the report controversial, mixing space and the military, and many don't want anything to do with other species, just with fellow Earth colonies.
* 2135: Starfleet is chartered as UESPA's official interstellar space exploration and defense agency
* 2151: The NX-01 Enterprise is launched as the first ship of its class.
* 2153: An attack on Starbase 1 prompts Starfleet to recall Enterprise, and put a squad of MACO enlisted on the ship to help with military issues.
* 2156: Enterprise is refit with a secondary hull, and at Archer's recommendation, is named 'Columbia class'
* 2161: Starfleet and UESPA are merged together into the Federation Starfleet, and all personnel are grandfathered into the new service; approximately 18% of the humans from Earth decide to retire around this time, leading to a recruitment crisis. The new Starfleet doesn't mix crews too much due to how new its structure is.
* 2295: UESPA is dissolved as a division of Starfleet.