Project Gagarin was the United Earth Science Federation’s program to send manned expeditions outside of the Sol System to meet intelligent life.
As the middle of the twenty-second century approached, Project Symbiosis began to bear fruit. The damage done by humans to the biosphere of their home planet since the advent of their industrial revolution was finally being undone. The mega cyclones common in the late twenty-first, early twenty-second century grew more infrequent. It was clear that soon the UESF would need a new priority to focus on going forward.
In 2142 researchers at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research successfully constructed a Higgs Attenuator. The attenuator directly altered the Higgs Field, the underlying strata of reality that confers mass onto objects in the universe. This could be used to generate localized gravitation, alter the mass of objects arbitrarily, or bend space time to allow objects to travel through Alcubierre geometry.
In addition to this new technology, many others had been developed in the process of building the Mars colonies, and Citadel. Bioreactors had been developed to recycle organic material, water and oxygen into a form humans can utilize. Combined, these technologies could make long term space travel safer and more comfortable.
At the UESF congress in 2144 a bold new program was proposed: Project Gagarin.
Named for Yuri Gagarin, the first human being to orbit their home planet nearly two hundred years earlier, this new project would develop technologies to explore the greater galaxy and meet intelligent alien life. The project followed two major tracks. The first developed transport technologies to achieve faster-than-light travel. The second developed comfortable environments for humans to occupy for this voyage.
The first major success for Project Gagarin was when the research department of the Brotherhood of Martian Workers provisionally joined Project Gagarin to aid in development of the habitation track in 2147. The team working on this track relocated to Mars and this improved relations between the worker’s republic and United Earth.
The next major success for Project Gagarin was the launch of UES Laika on June 3rd, 2148. Laika was a testbed for faster-than-light technology and controlled by Reykjavik-3c23y. Laika traveled at three times the speed of light using the Higgs Attenuator to travel through Alcubierre geometry.
As these technologies developed the separate tracks were gradually turned toward the ultimate goal of the project: to develop a vessel capable of carrying a large crew interstellar distances. Several designs were developed across the 2150’s and ultimately it was decided that one of them balanced speed, comfort and safety. Construction of U3S Gagarin began in August 2158. Gagarin was built at the newly christened Vulcan Service Station at the Earth-Moon L2 lagrange point.
The first ship’s congress was held May 10 through 11th 2161 in Cairo. Thomas Kafando, hero of the battle of the citadel and the Aphrodite Coup, was elected chairman of the ship nearly unanimously, two hundred sixty one to one. The second chair was Lei Xiu.
Starship Gagarin began it’s shakedown mission on January 13, 2161. With a reduced crew compliment, the starship traveled to various destinations across the Sol system, including Mars, Venus, Europa and around the Kupier belt. It’s technologies were tested and in the case of any deviations from expectations were brought into optimal operational parameters.
On April 12th 2161 U3S Gagarin was launched from Earth orbit and departed on it’s mission to meet and befriend intelligent aliens.