Factbook WIP posts

The Ryū spacecraft has served DNSA for nearly forty years, with it being the second manned spacecraft operated by the agency. The spacecraft, in its modern iteration, launches with its orbital module stowed beneath it, where it is extracted from the launch vehicle upon reaching orbit.

Pictured: Recent variations of the Ryū spacecraft.
The current iteration of the spacecraft, the Ryū M, is designed for both station-borne operations and missions to lunar orbit. The spacecraft features a noticeable difference from previous versions with the abandonment of the TKU Active-Passive Docking Mechanism on its orbital module in favor of an International Docking System Standard (IDSS)-compatible docking system dubbed the "DNSA Docking System".

Despite the continued progress of the UHS program, which is planned to conduct its first launch later this year, DNSA has made it clear that it will commit to further launches of the spacecraft for at least another decade.

The UHS Spacecraft is an Orbital Spaceplane in development by the DNSA. Development began in the 1980s with the UYS program, though it stalled through the 90s before being cancelled. The UHS was designed with the launch of heavy payloads into LMO and service the Kyūden IV space station and its successors. It bears similarities in design to both the Tytorian Challenger and Rokkenjiman Hakken systems, with the latter being seen as closer in design as a result of the launch system, though the orbiter is closer to the former. Perhaps its strongest influence, however, was the planned UYS orbiter, which was largely cancelled due to cost overruns despite nearly completed in the 90s. The modern UHS will launch with a pair of reusable liquid fuel motors in place of the SRMS planned for the UYS, although the former is being maintained as an option.

Pictured: UYS Shirotsuru undergoing fit tests at MFS Artsiv, 1993 - The facility, though heavily modified, is planned to be used to launch the UHS starting in 2021.
While the UYS program was cancelled, its resources were not put to waste. Rather, the DNSA was ordered to research a way to salvage the equipment and if possible, to design a better, safer system. That led to the UHS (宇宙発射車両, Uchū hassha sharyō, Space Launch Vehicle) that is currently undergoing testing and is planned to launch in mid-October. The shuttle is capable of launching with a maximum of two remote manipulator systems (RMS), with the second being an auxiliary one in the event of damage to the primary one or for tasks which could, in theory, require the use of two arms, though it will largely only operate with one.

As of 9/20/21, there is one such orbiter in existence, the Tenryū (Heavenly Dragon). The Shirataka (White Hawk), scheduled to be the second completed, is currently under construction and due for its first flight in 2022.

Kyūden I, also known by its internal name "KYE", was a short-lived space station operated by DNSA. Its first and only crew was launched on the 12th of May, 1986 before being forced to abandon the station on July 5th. While it has never been confirmed or denied, rumors exist that it was operated in part by the military as a reconnaissance platform. The station was abandoned following a micrometeorite impact which caused it to begin to depressurize.

Pictured: A cutaway image of Kyūden I

Kyūden II, or KYE-II, was a space station operated by DNSA from October 19th, 1987 until August 12th, 1989. While it was indeed a KYE-type station like Kyūden I, it was explicitly a civilian station operated solely by DNSA. It has been dubbed a "Generation 1.5" station on account of it being designed for a long duration mission, capable of having more than one spacecraft dock with it, but being planned as a testbed for technologies that would lead up to Kyūden III and Kyūden IV. It saw six manned flights to the station and five cargo missions before being abandoned on the 12th of August. It burned up in the atmosphere over the Great Northern Ocean on April 27th, 1991.

Largely identical to its predecessor save for its paintjob and scientific experiments, the Kyūden III was a single-module station in use for nearly a decade from 1989 to 1998. Like its predecessor, it had its crews fly on a four-month rotation, receiving a resupply vessel on a similar rotation two months after crew arrival. Due to the limitations of the spacecraft used, the station would usually accommodate only three crew, though it was designed to be able to house an additional crew if it needed to rendezvous in an emergency; such a procedure was, thankfully, never performed.

In 1994, Ryū Y-23 was launched to the station. Without information on the situation with the station, one might've assumed it was a standard mission. However, the previous flight, Ryū Y-22, had departed the station early after it went dark (that is to say, the power systems on it failed), thus causing widespread systems failure and effectively killing the station in orbit. Thus, the mission would be devoted to getting the station back online, necessitating that the crew live in the spacecraft they arrived on for the first week and a half, a task they would ultimately prove successful in, though the station would only return to 100% nominal activity nearly two months after the crew arrived. To date, it is the only time an Daitōjin crew has had to dock with a dead station. The media would, afterwards, dub the station with the semi-affectionate moniker "Zombie Station" due to it being brought back from nigh-total systems failure.

The station saw 28 crewed and 27 resupply spacecraft visit during its decade-long mission, with 18 Ryū Y's and 10 Ryū YK's carrying crew and cargo to the station.

Kyūden IV, or KYE-IV/V, is the most "recent" of the KYE-type stations launched by DNSA and the first and so-far only modular station built by the agency. Its first module, Myōjō (KYE IV), was launched on December 9th, 2001, with the first crew arriving on February 3rd. The Myōjō module features a spherical node module on the more tapered end, originally designed to facilitate multiple supply vessels and other expansions. The second module, named Kasei (KYE-V), was of a similar design, though it lacked the spherical node and was effectively a copy of KYE-III. With its arrival in September 2002, the station was deemed to have achieved basic operational capacity, though other modules were planned and a few were launched. Despite this, the Basic Operational Capacity configuration of the station remains the most recognizable form of it thanks in part to a documentary series filmed aboard the station in late 2002 and early 2003 by the crew of Ryū YK-12. The Station was originally designed as a stopgap for Shirotsuru, though it would be decided it would be pursued for many years, delaying the latter station into the early 2020s. Below is a timeline of the station's various modules:
• Myōjō* - 9 December, 2001
• Kasei - 14 September, 2002
• Setsugō - 16 November, 2004
• Rikai - 5 July, 2006

Pictured: Kyūden IV in late 2004 with Setsugō docked to Port 2 on KYE-IV

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*OOC note: This only covers the basic structure. As the image above shows, the module possesses the same solar arrays as KYE-V and a similar paintjob to its predecessor. The node also has only three ports rather than five.

Shirotsuru is the planned successor to Kyūden IV and will be the first Daitōjin space station not primarily based around the KYE-type core module. While initial plans, then under the name "Space Station Nozomu", called for an entirely new station, due to the cancellation of the UYS program in 1997, proposals for what to do with the hardware prepared for it were undertaken. Eventually, it was decided that Nozomu would be cancelled in favor of converting the Shirotsuru orbiter and its fuel tank into a "wet workshop" which would provide ample space for experiments and habitation as well as potentially serve as a staging point for more ambitious programs in the coming decades.

Pictured: A Cutaway view of the Station's basic structure as currently planned by the DNSA

The Station will feature fifteen modules in total, including four built into the shuttle's hull, cargo bay, intertank, and liquid oxygen tank, two node modules, a cupola, a logistics module, an airlock, and three large laboratories, as well as two Pressurized Mating Adapters (PMA) and a docking module for visiting shuttle flights. It is intended to be able to host at maximum five spacecraft ranging from cargo vessels to the UHS and other similar orbiters and smaller crewed capsules such as the Ryū M and others. However, it is expected that at least one PMA will remain constantly occupied by a capsule as a sort of liferaft, with various competing designs for it being considered.

The station will feature a pair of solar arrays which will deploy from the station's cargo bay as well as, until these are deployed, a single interim array to keep critical systems online. It will eventually have two robotic arms installed, launching with one inside the former cargo bay and one being attached by a later flight on the former external fuel tank.

Taka (Hawk) was the first type of manned spacecraft launched by the DNSA, with its first launch occurring on 7 December, 1977. The spacecraft would launch another seven times over the next four years leading up to the beginning of the Ryū programme.

Pictured: A Taka spacecraft

Tenjin is the name of a family of modular rockets used by the DNSA since the 1990s, as well as their predecessor, the so-called "Tenjin I". Known for their distinctive red hulls, they have carried crew and cargo aloft for thirty years and are planned to continue to serve for decades to come.

Pictured: an assortment of Tenjin variants

Data on the Tenjin launch vehicle variants is provided below.