Ristar
Ристар Alle stelle "To the stars" | |
 | |
| Formation | 1957-1984 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Durova, Galania |
Official language | Cacertian Syaran |
| Vyerzhany | |
Parent organisation | Cacertian Interstellar Exploration Institute Syaran Space Agency |
Ristar, also known as the Cacertian-Syaran Space Program, was a joint venture into space exploration and manned space flight conducted by Cacerta and the Republic of Syara from 1969-1984. The Ristar Program was conducted jointly by the Cacertian Interstellar Exploration Institute (Cacertian language: Instituto di Esplorazione Interstellare di Cacerta, IEIC) and the Syaran Space Agency (Syaran language: Вселенска агенција Сјаран, BAC) and was centered around three main projects: Elysium, a manned mission to the Moon, Aurora, an orbiting continuously manned space station, and DreamWeaver, a reusable orbital spacecraft.
Ristar had its origin in the 1960s following the success of the Syaran Hárma rocket program that had propelled Velizar Petrov Hadjiivanov into space. At the urging of the Cacertian government, the Cacertian Interstellar Exploration Institute approached the Syaran space agency with the prospect of a joint program, initially centered around continued manned space flight. While ostensibly done for the sake of increased access to resources and mutual assistance, a major component of the venture was driven by Cacertian desire to re-establish friendly relations with Syara following the end of the Occupation of Syara, an early example of space diplomacy. At the urging of President Marija Kostova BAC agreed, and the program was officially launched on 7 September 1969 following delays caused by the Seven Day War.
In 1970 Chairman of the IEIC Romero Sacchetti laid out the goals of Ristar as the completion of a manned mission to the Moon (of which work had already begun), the construction of a continuously inhabited space station in orbit (which had been planned but not officially begun), and the creation of a reusable spaceplane that would save time and resources on space travel. The latter of these projects, DreamWeaver, was the newest and in turn most experimental of the three endeavors, and work would not begin until 1976.
Elysium became the name for the moon mission, which had already been established as a goal for the IEIC in 1965. Because much of the ground work had already been laid out, work progressed quickly; by 1971 Ristar had launched two missions to visit the Moon utilizing Syaran Hárma rockets, which established stable orbits around Luna and identified potential landing sites for a manned mission. Elysium 5, the manned mission, took place in December 1972 and successfully resulted in Armenia Irenaea and Konstantin Rashaikov setting foot on the Moon on 21 December. The two remained on the Moon for 32 hours before departing and returning home three days later.
Although Elysium had been a success, Ristar was already shifting focus towards Aurora, the permanently manned space station. Construction of Aurora began with the first lift off in October 1973 and continued until 1981. At its peak Aurora had a crew of 11 aethernauts and cosmonauts rotating through, conducting numerous scientific experiments and tests in zero-gravity and analyzing its effects on the human body. Despite lofty goals for Aurora, the completed station fell short of expected goals in terms of capacity and capability, with much of its construction complicated by the Hayren War which was fought during its construction.
Compounding the complications faced by Aurora was DreamWeaver, the reusable space shuttle that was originally intended to assist in the construction of Aurora. Designed as a way to save costs and time by allowing for quick turn around for flights, DreamWeaver's extensive fiscal and material demands eventually ate into the budget that was meant for Aurora, leading to a slow down and eventual scale back in the construction of the space station. Despite the issues surrounding the project, DreamWeaver was finished ahead of schedule and successfully launched on 23 May, 1982 crewed by cosmonaut Branimir Vuksan and aethernaut Mancio Sarto. DreamWeaver's first flight completed two orbits before returning to Vyerzhany and landing safely, in a ceremony that was witnessed by both President Krunislav Mircevski and King Doriano.
After some modifications DreamWeaver flew again in November 1982, remaining in orbit for three days before returning safely. The third and final mission took place in June 1983, during which Helvia Parata conducted an extra-vehicular activity for two hours and 23 minutes, retrieving a defunct satellite for repairs back on solid ground. DreamWeaver was scheduled to fly again in January 1984, but the outbreak of the Refusal Crisis put a halt on all space activity in Syara. The subsequent Refusal War led the IEIC to declare Ristar over in February the same year.
Ristar's legacy has often been credited with furthering advances in space exploration and research, though it suffered at times from disagreements on strategic planning and contrasting philosophies of spacecraft design. Romero Sacchetti, writing in 1992, highlighted a number of differences in Syaran and Cacertian approach to engineering and mission planning:
[The Syarans] had never fully recovered from the loss of Nikola [Mladenov] in Hárma 3 and it shined through their efforts at every interval. The Syarans preferred highly automated systems with numerous backups, but relatively limited options for in flight troubleshooting and maintenance. In contrast to [Cacertian] payloads which included ample tools and spare parts to fix whatever onboard issues were deemed feasible to resolve, the Syarans were quick to abort missions if they encountered what we considered workable problems. Their emphasis on redundancy left little room for actual experimentation, and so we'd spend millions to send up a rocket just to test three items on the agenda than bring their cosmonaut back down as soon as possible. It was frustrating at times to approach our planning sessions with grandiose ideas of the things we could discover in space, only to have the Syarans whittle down everything until we had only a barebones plan.
Despite the disagreements, the program enjoyed generally high favorability with both populaces and remains frequently cited by modern IEIC and BAC personnel as inspiration for their involvement with space travel and exploration.