***2016***

<<Greetings Ivan,>>

My third month in Kenya has been even more wonderful than the first two. Today, we visited the settlement that is being constructed about 2km inland from the launch site. Less than 6 months after the start of construction, it is already becoming a full-fledged town. The government plans to make it an official municipality, and the name that has been chosen is Kosmodrumu (a local rendition of Cosmodrome).

There are currently 8 completed and inhabited dwellings, with another 10 under construction. Also under construction are a school building, a clinic, and a municipal building. Though the launch contract with the ECC would be considered laughably small by launch providers in the developed world, it is perceived as a major win by the national government, and they are sparing no effort in building the town. Kamburu and his university collaborators are also working hard to ensure that the town is well-planned and well-built.Yuri, of course, is working to ensure that development does not encroach on the shore nearest the launch platform.

Although there are currently only a few active prawn beds, these have been successful enough to boost everyone’s optimism. The difficulties that I spoke of previously, when the success of the whole venture seemed to hinge more on shrimp than on rocketry, have been largely solved by switching to a species of prawn that can tolerate greater fluctuations in salinity. Coincidentally the biological term for such organisms is “Yurihaline”!

Some families here have been preparing the prawns by blanching, pressing and drying them to make a nutritious and durable, portable snack. There are already plans to do this on an industrial scale, and to package the prawns for the wider market. But you don’t want to hear about prawns.

With three successful launches behind us, and a good understanding of the cause of of our one failure, it is time to consider our next step. The obvious choice would be to design a smallsat launcher, however the market for such rockets is saturated (and becoming more-so every year). Another choice would be to build a human-rated rocket for up-and-down space-tourism flights. The market for such flights is uncertain, though, and it is also felt that our current capabilities are insufficient for the risks and difficulties involved in human flight.

As painful as it is to tarry in the suborbital realm, when the industry at-large is moving so quickly, Yuri feels that our best option is to stick with sounding rockets at present. Most of the players in this market are military contractors, using modified versions of guided missiles. The market is unprofitable, and has been neglected by these companies. Ours is the only liquid-fueled rocket in this sector, and Yuri feels that we have a good chance of dominating the small global market if we can get costs down. The plan is to build an improved version of our current design which will use a clean-burning fuel, and will be reusable, making ours the most ecological option available (a good selling point with the ECC and others like them).

Reuse will be attained by vertical, powered landing. Though this method is difficult, it is becoming standard practice, and it will allow us to gain experience in re-ignition, maneuvering, and other important aspects of modern rocketry. The design of a world-class sensor/sampling module is also within our reach, and will be an excellent test-bed for our engineering teams.

What we need most right now is a good lead for our Avionics team…

<<Godspeed friend, and Reach Higher>>,

Maxim

“A good lead for the avionics team.” Ilsa said to her husband. “That’s you, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Ivan. You know I’m excited to go, but…”

“I know. The pensions.”

“We can both get half our pension if we wait for just two years…. We couldn’t leave for six months anyway, so the wait is really just 18 months. The money will go far in Kenya.” Ilsa looked at her crestfallen man. “But if my husband goes mad, of what use is money?”

***2017***

<<Greetings Ivan,>>

All is well here. Development of our next generation launcher is stalled at the moment because we are still in need of avionics and programming expertise, however we are making progress elsewhere.

The launch facility itself is the highest priority. Although we are currently able to launch from concrete pad on land, we will need the sea-platform to accommodate larger launchers. In addition to our own plans, we are also in talks with states in the Gulf and near-east to do third-party launches. This will provide the KSA with a revenue stream to augment the funds from the ECC and the still-modest budget provided by the Kenyan government. Political issues are the largest obstacle to such launches.

The town of Kosmodrumu continues to grow, and the government is re-engineering and paving the ~400km of dirt road that remains, between it and Nairobi. This will be a big gain for both the prawn industry and for us. The trucks carrying our launchers must currently make much of the journey traveling at <10km/h. As always, Kamburu’s university cadre is working to ensure that the work is of the highest quality attainable here.

The last time I visited Kosmodrumu, about 3 months ago, there were almost 40 dwellings either completed or under construction. There are also now four businesses in town, a bicycle shop, and 3 stores. Retail businesses here tend to be general-purpose, and you will find automotive supplies for sale alongside food and clothing. The bicycle shop is owned by a recent NU engineering graduate.

Land speculators have already begun to take notice, and we expect their influence will soon be felt. The government currently owns all of the free land, and has so-far sold only to owner-occupants, however Kamburu warns us that soon money and influence will begin to change hands and the situation will worsen. For this town to be desirable is problematic, but not as problematic as if it were undesirable.

To mitigate future issues, the land around the launch site has been strictly zoned. There is a 2km keep-out radius around the platform itself (which is 500M offshore), and there is an additional 2km limited to agriculture (due to the scarcity of fresh water most of the year, agriculture is limited to the farming of marine and estuarine animal species). Beyond 4km, there is an another 1km that is limited to easily evacuated industrial uses.

Within the industrial zone, Yuri, who recently gained dual citizenship, has personally purchased a large plot. Another, smaller plot has been purchased by the company started by Masinga and Sergei. They intend to construct a secondary manufacturing facility there, dedicated to the production of large and difficult to transport components. They are doing well, and in addition to building our launchers, they have a good stream of work from mining, oil, and other industrial clients. They have now named their company <<Giraffe aerospace>>, which is Swahili for “Giraffe aerospace”.

Other than the fear of land speculators, the lack of fresh water, and a dispute over water rights has been the greatest obstacle. Due to upstream use, the river that runs to the West of Kosmodrumu is now almost completely dry for six months of the year, and completely dry for two months. Groundwater is difficult to access, and geologists at the university say that the local aquifer will not support much growth. Desalination af seawater is currently unattainable.

That is all for now. I still love it here, and I hope you will soon get to see some of these things in person.

<<Godspeed friend, and Reach Higher>>,

Maxim

Ivan folded the letter, and placed it on the nightstand. His wife smiled at him.

“It won’t be long now”

“We can only hope”

“Maxim and the others aren’t bothering to conceal their plans at all now.”

“No Ilsa, my hopes are known to my employer and to everyone else, but the space industry is preoccupied with the American corporate sector, which conceals almost nothing. They don’t have to.”

“Why?”

“Because they feel they have a big enough lead to not look back… and their founders profess to wanting the competition to flourish. They freely share images and information that would have gotten someone hanged for treason in the early days of the space race.”

“I know this delay is painful”. Ilsa put a hand on her husband’s shoulder, and looked at the moving-boxes that had been piled in the corner of their bedroom and elsewhere in their house for the past 6 months.

“There is hope now. Yuri still has connections, and he has arranged to have an excellent, but redundant engineer transferred over from Krunichev. I met him last week. He is at least as good as me in most respects, and almost 20 years younger. When you go to church, please keep him and Yuri in your prayers.”

***2018***

“Maxim! Are those Zebra?”

“that’s right Ivan, and the ones under the tree are gazelles. Thompson’s I think. We’ll probably see even more exotic animals before we arrive at Kosmodrumu.”

“I still can’t believe I’m here.”

“I remember that feeling. I hope you’ve taken your sulfaquin. This is the wet season, and it would be horrible for you to get ill so soon after arrival.”

“Of course. I almost want to remain in Nairobi to stay as safe as possible, and begin work immediately. I have almost everything designed on paper or in my head.”

“I would have liked to stay in the city too, but with a launch happening tomorrow this seemed like the proper time for a first visit.”

“I agree. So what’s been happening?”

“The town is doing well. Every time I make this drive, I see at least one prawn transport. Fresh water is certain to become an even bigger issue than it already is. Right now, the worry is flooding, but most of the year the problem is scarcity. Still, there are now over 100 buildings of some sort, and the university has been allotted an area in which to build a satellite campus. The biggest buildings right now are the town hall, and a steel building owned by Giraffe Aerospace. Giraffe isn’t doing anything there yet, but the building is used to store our rockets and other site-related supplies and equipment. Also, planning is underway for a port facility, and a breakwater is already under construction. Such things can happen quickly in Africa under the right conditions.”

“That’s good. I’m feeling the need for haste. What about the engineering effort?”

“Giraffe, which is half-owned by the government, is the main developer, but the KSA itself now has a headquarters, and a team of engineers and scientists There is also a team at the university that is focused on payloads. They are designing the next-generation atomospheric sensing package, and they’re also working on a smallsat which would launch as a secondary payload elsewhere. Maybe on one of your new Vostoks. This group is in the process of becoming an independent corporation in the same fashion as Giraffe…. And I plan to go to work for them”

“It sounds like the University engineering program is getting stronger.

“Certainly. I think that what Sergei called ‘Intellectual machismo’ meshes well with local attitudes.

“That’s good. Hopefully it won’t devolve into chessboxing... “

“I forgot how you guys object to my fandom.”

I don’t object Maxim. It’s just that… Hey! Is this a new bridge?”

“That’s right. On all of my previous trips I had to ford this river. If you look to the right, you can see the wrecks of a couple of vehicles that tried to cross when the water was too high. In a way, Ivan, this is all happening because of you.”

“I hadn’t thought of that… Say, are those crocodiles?”

***2019***

“What is it Boris? You sounded urgent.”

“Yuri and Kamburu are fighting.”

“They do that all of the time.”

“This isn’t one of their friendly debates. Kamburu punched a wall. We’ve got to get to his office. Lets go.”

“Alright. But how am I going to help?”

“I don’t know, but you’re as close to the root of this whole venture as either of them. At least they’ll listen to you. Go left here. It’s the third door on the right. The one with the flag.”

“That’s a big flag. Oh. I hear them.”

“Ivan. What are you doing here?”

“Boris said… There was a dispute.”

“Kamburu wants to source the airframe for Mark 18 from Ososa.”

“Ososa Engineering? In Nigeria? That won’t work.”

“You see Kibu. There it is. ‘It won’t work’. A rocket… a good one, can’t be built by bureaucrats.”

“I’m not a bureaucrat. I’m a physicist.”

“And a professor… You said it yourself. All professors are part bureaucrat.”

“The engineers at Ososa say they can do it, and you yourself said they have a better facility than Giraffe does.”

“And I have a better pen than Dostoevsky had. That doesn’t mean I can do his work. Ososa works for the oil industry. They know nothing of the tolerances we need. There’s also the issue of coordination. It will make development impossible.”

“The Europeans do it with Airbus. It helps bring the continent together… You and the Americans both did it in the space race.”

“You yourself said that these comparisons are worthless. And back in the space-race we got explosions. And then decades of stagnation.”

“There were successes too.”

“There was more money. They wanted to spend money. They could print money. We have almost nothing. And you yourself said that Africa isn’t one big happy family.”

“It can be better. It has to be! Instability knows no borders here. For the space program to be seen as a pan-African effort will help.”

“What about the work Ossoa did on the platform? The Nigerian flag is there. It will be seen at every launch. You said it yourself; it’s like the Canadian arm on the space shuttle.”

“You said that people laugh at that arm.”

“They laugh because they don’t know what a complex bit of engineering that arm is.”

“They don’t know how complex the platform is.”

“Sea platforms are Ososa’s specialty. Rockets are different. Whatever you say, it always comes back to what Ivan said. ‘It won’t work.’”

“Are you sure it won’t work Ivan? At least you Russians don’t always agree with each other. This is important. It’s my dream…”

“Well everyone says that vertical integration is a big factor in the recent American successes. And I believe them. Coordination across those distances could ruin our efforts, and it will certainly slow them.”

“But you yourself said that computer design tools make collaboration of this sort possible.”

“God. I have to watch what I say around you two.”

“Well Ivan?”

“Well. We could try. We could duplicate the setup at Giraffe... For development purposes. If the collaboration doesn’t work, then we will have a backup option.”

“Thank you Ivan. You don’t know what this means to me.”

“I can guess… Did you really punch a wall?”

“It was with the bottom of my fist.”