Belfrasian Space Agency

The Belfrasian Space Agency (BSA) is the Belfrasian government agency that is responsible for civilian space program as well as for astronautics and aerospace research.

King Benjamin I established the Belfrasian Space Agency (BSA) in 1955 to replace the then-defunct National Aerospace Organization (NAO) with a distinctly civilian orientation encouraging civilian investment and interest in the agencies activities. The BSA directly replaced the NAO at it's headquarters in Nom Kutarr Base in 1955 until the completion of both the Karven Space Center and the Belfrasian Space Headquarters in Nos Kullstone.

Since that time, most Belfrasian space exploration and research efforts have been led by the BSA, including the infamous Neptune Disaster in 1967 that almost closed the agency.

History

Neptune Disaster

Main article: Project neptune
See also: Project neptune disaster
Neptune Debris Field

Project neptune was supposed to be an interplanetary project in which a spacecraft would be assembled in orbit through the usage of refitted Saturn-V rockets prior to being crewed by astronauts utilizing Jupiter capsules. The project was successfully initiated in 1961 with the positioning of a habitable section at a range of 150 miles that was crewed one month later by astronauts Cpt. Billy Valantis and Lt. William Keiper. Three months of testing was carried out including the endurance of which a human can remain in orbit prior to requiring to return. During this time three civilian crew-members were introduced; Patrick Yates, Zetran Yullan and Oscar Huan.

On February 5th 1967 the second section of the ship, an engine section that sported a large fuel cell and a propulsion system was situated at an identical orbit with a manned tug to bring the section to the main habitation module. The tug was manned by Colonel Nathanial Roberts and Lt. Tyre Gendri, who were to deorbit forty-five minutes after the docking process was finished to rendezvous with an awaiting retrieval ship in the Victorian Ocean. The habitation module reported visual on the engineering section at 17:42 but reported that the tug appeared to be in distress as its RCS thrusters were constantly in action. Captain Valantis declared an emergency after the engineering section continued its approach at a rated 52 m/s and all attempts to contact the tug went unanswered. At 18:01 the engineering section impacted the habitation at nearly 84m/s, instantly killing everyone on-board.

This triggered a two-event launch by the Belfrasian Space Agency which placed two Soyuz craft at the debris field with the intention of both claiming flight recorders and survivor/body extraction. By the time of arrival the debris field had increased to roughly 50 miles in diameter with the central piece of the tug intact. A recovery operation discovered the body of Colonel Nathanial Roberts at the controls of the craft, with an empty suit belonging to Lt. Tyre Gendri at his station, major damage to the suit led the recovery team to conclude he wasn't seated at the time of the incident and had been lost to space. The flight recorder of the tug revealed constant RCS activations by Colonel Roberts all angled away from the station in a manner that would lead one to conclude he was attempting to slow both the tug and the module down, to little avail. Considerations into the structure of the module and the tugs capabilities resulted in the unfortunate conclusion that the tug was unable to produce enough delta V to slow the module before impact.

Five days after the report was released on the anniversary of the accident in 1970 Colonel Roberts was honored for "Selfless actions to save the lives of those aboard the Neptune." the Medal of the Rose was presented to his family the same day, with a ceremony of his inscription into the book of Heroes a month later. To date the Neptune disaster remains the largest catastrophe to befall the Belfrasian Space Agency in orbit and second overall to the 1982 Soyuz launch-pad explosion, which killed 581 people.

Manned programs

Main article: Space Programs of the BSA

Project Ares (2008-present)

Main article: Project Ares

Project Ares was announced in January 5th 2008 with the mission of sending a manned mission to Mars with the eventual goal of landing and recovering a person from the surface of Mars.

Unmanned programs

More than 5,000 unmanned missions have been designed to explore the Earth and the solar system. Besides exploration, communication satellites have also been deployed by BSA. The missions have been launched directly from Earth or from orbital vehicles, which could either deploy the sallite itself, or with a rocket stage to take it farther then the vehicle can go.

The first Belfrasian unmanned satellite was Deslen I, which started as an early project for orbital operations. The Deslen project continues to this day, focusing on the Earth and the Sun, measuring magnetic fields and the solar wind among other aspects. A more recent Earth mission, unrelated to the Deslen program, were examples of the Hubble Space Telescope beign deployed to orbit between 2000-2005 in order to expand native scientific and exploration capabilities.

Refuelling program

Main article: Orbital Refuelling System
See also: Ceres and Albatros Refuelling Systems

The BSA operate two models of unmanned refuelling vessels designed to be launched by Energia and rendezvous with spaceflight equipment for refuelling duties prior to the aforementioned equipment moves on for other operations, leaving the refuelling vessel to deorbit.

The Ceres is a non-reusable refuelling vessel measuring some 32.2 meters long by 5.95 meters in diameter. It is launched on the back of an Energia and cocooned within a safety container to protect it from the harms of lift-off. The Ceres, thanks to its increased size and the lack of a need to make it aerodynamic or add reentry panelling, holds 60,000kg of fuel in its refuelling tanks alone with 23,200 kg of fuel in its personal use tanks for maneouvering in orbit or deorbiting for burn-up. In an emergency the Ceres can transfer its own fuel to other vessels but has a cut-off limit of what is needed to commit safe reentry. The empty weight of the vessel is 7,000 kg and has a main thrust of 26,077 pounds force.

The Albatros, in comparison to the Ceres, holds a significantly lower amount in the way of refuelling capability, having a meagre 25,000kg in its refuelling tank and 22,000kg in its personal-use tanks. It does, on a positive side, have the ability to come through the atmosphere and land for reuse. With a length of 31 meters and a wingspan of 22.5 meters, the Albatros is capable of bringing its empty mass of 45,000 kg to land safely at a majority of airfields that are capable of landing the Boeing 747.

Launch vehicle fleet

Cruithne Launch Vehicle Line

Main: Cruithne Spaceflight Launch Vehicle Line

Ceres Orbiter Capsule

Main: Ceres Orbiter

Facilities

• BSA Headquarters
• Karven Space Center
• Belfrasian Space Operations Centre (BSOC)
• Belfrasian Space Research and Technology Center (BSTEC)
• Belfrasian Astronaut Center (BAC)
• Belfrasian Space Tracking Network Headquarters (B-TRACK)