Space Race

The **Space Race** was a major technological competition through the 20th century between the Cold War adversaries of the Aryan People's Federation and the Empire of Japan. Its origins at first lied with the chthonic ballistic missile arms race following the Calamity in the North.

The Race's origins mainly originated from Wernher von Braun, an acclaimed Nazi Party scientist who had led the development of experimental A-4 and later V2 rockets during World War II, which came to be used in Operation Sea Lion. The two new "wunderwaffe" schools of chthonic weaponry became sources of a growing militaristic rivalry inside the Volksbund, as the Schutzstaffel, which had been a primary contributor to funding chthonic projects and operations, had become increasingly opposed within factions of the existing German military; primarily the Luftwaffe, which had supported Braun's missile projects due to being a successful alternative to a second aerial battle over Britain. Hermann Goering, the leader of the Luftwaffe, personally saw chthonics as an unnatural Pandora's Box of potential global destruction, and as such had personally integrated the German rocketry program into a branch of the Luftwaffe instead.

After Adolf Hitler perished and a power struggle began within party leadership, the weak leadership of Rudolph Hess as a puppet and Heinrich Himmler's intrigue against all other candidates had led Hermann Goering, who had formerly been exiled to the Russian Wasteland, to return to Germany and attempt to overthrow the loathed Hess government; failure of this coup resulted in the East Prussian War. Wernher von Braun was himself a staunch supporter of Goering, and had joined much of the Luftwaffe in launching operations against Schutzstaffel strongholds. While much of the Volksbund had expected the abandonment of the rocketry program in favor of the Schutzstaffel increasing influence through the chthonics program, the new Fuhrer himself had seen its usefulness, offering Braun a "second chance" under heavy surveillance. Although he would no longer lead the rocketry department, he would lead the new experimental Germanic space agency; the Aryan Cosmic Agency. Braun was disappointed in what he saw as the demise of German rocketry, however, he found new passion in the program.

With Braun at the ACA's head, the Volksbund had an early advantage in the early Cold War's space programs. Japan had seen chthonics as the future of the 20th century, and had invested relatively little into rocketry beyond developing the first chthonic missiles, giving room to dominate a new potential field before there could be competitors. The ACA had successfully launched the first satellite into space, Pfadfinder-1, in 1963, triggering panic in some factions of Japanese leadership due to its potential for reconnaissance. Fumimaro Konoe, the Prime Minister of Japan, had authorized the creation of the Japan State Corporation for Aeronautics and Astronautics (J-SCAA) as a new state conglomerate responsible for space research and development, with the TAIYO Project as its head department in lunar affairs.

Despite being heavily advantaged in other technological programs compared to the Aryan People's State, the TAIYO Project's development had been sluggish due to delays and setbacks in adapting to space rocketry. J-SCAA was not seen as important in comparison to other aspects of the Cold War arms race, until the Aryan People's Federation in 1966 successfully launched Sigmund Jähn as the first human to in space. Following this, the ACA's progress began to slow; its original position was as an unimportant post to resign a formerly dangerous Goeringite, and now von Braun was making progress again, which frightened the Schutzstaffel and Himmler himself. Wernher von Braun was purged from the Nazi Party in 1966 following his colossal ascent to fame, being forced into early retirement and replaced by Helmut Gröttrup as the ACA's head.

Braun's deposition had caused a huge setback into the project's process. Gröttrup was widely disliked within ACA as he frequently butted heads with the program's management, and had not possessed the innovative skills nor the management skills Braun did. A staunch perfectionist, Gröttrup's inability to get the projects done had caused the ACA to stagnate. Japan had completed its original goal of matching Nazi development in spy satellites, developing its own system of missile detection. Heinrich Himmler, who had interest in forcing the ACA to adapt, believed that, by setting a new and ambitious goal and a quota to do so, it could be encouraged to work harder and become more efficient; he had declared in 1967 that *"within eight years, the Aryan man will settle upon the golden surface of the Moon; in my lifetime, lebensraum will reach towards the night and into the cosmos".*

This backfired; while the close deadline forced the ACA into high gear, the existing inconsistencies left Gröttrup and the scientists alike more and more frustrated. Disasters at tests grew more and more common, with the disastrous Balder-7 explosion killing eight German raumonauts. Japan never prioritized human aspects of the Space Race, rather focusing on orbital technology and robotics, and as a result had not prepared for the extension of this goal. The Balder program attempted its official landing with Balder-10. However, due to inconsistencies with the mechanical design of the shuttle itself caused by the program's crunched development, it exploded upon exiting the stratosphere, killing many of the Volksbund's most skilled raumonauts. It soon became apparent that the Aryan People's Federation simply did not have the resources, time, nor organization to accomplish such an ambitious goal, and neither did Japan. Nevertheless, work continued.

Seeing the massive hole in Nazi development of space technology and high-gear focus into an impractical goal, Japan had entertained the goals of a manned moon landing while truly focusing on other orbital technology as they had originally intended to; something that had been rather controversial within J-SCAA, particularly from the TAIYO Project department as numerous nevertheless did want to attempt a moon landing, but did not have the influence nor resources to do so. The TAIYO Project continued work, but its budget had not increased, even with the goals being stated by the Volksbund and the opportunity of said power vacuum.

Instead, J-SCAA directed orbital technology and militarization to outmatch the distracted and disillusioned Volksbund, keeping them investing in ACA's impractical lunar program in what they believed would speed their downfall. The K2 Space Station was a well-equipped permanent orbital base, practically a military station in disguise, equipped with cannons intended to be able to combat potential opponents. The Keystone Sun was another development, one of the most well-known and controversial. As an orbital launching station, it was designed to drop chthonic bombs for a new property discovered in the weaponry: in addition to being able to use chemical, existential warfare from any point above, the nation also now had the ability to use high-altitude electromagnetic pulses at any point above orbit.