Federal Space Administration of Kafrica

The Federal Space Administration of Kafrica (FASK) is an Independent Central Kafrican Federal Agency which was established by President Blimp Drimp in the Space Exploration act of 2201. The agency is responsible for Central Kafrica's civil space program and research into advanced aeronautical concepts.

FASK Federal Space Administration of Central Kafrica
Founded		25th January 2201
Type		Civil Space Agency
Headquarters		Angus, North Grestin, United States of Central Kafrica
Membership		United States of Central Kafrica
Administrator		John Placeholder

History

Creation

FASK traces its roots back to a contract issued by President Rhonda Reguwu's Administration relating to returning Kafrican machinery to Low Kerbin Orbit after an absence of nearly an entire century, issued in 2198, the contract was subject to proposals throughout the year by the CK Airforce, CK Army and the CK Coastal Defense Force. The contract was eventually won by the CK CDF, proposing the use of their in development Forerunner launch vehicle, beating out both the Airforce's Farnese-A ICBM and the Army's Jane-A MRBM proposals. This contract was shrouded in controversy as it was claimed by the Airforce's presentation team that the contract had been won because of Reguwu's Comeri background. The Coastal Defense Force's team stubbornly continues to deny this allegation.

In December of 2199, Central Kafrica found itself embarrassed by the televised failure of the Forerunner 1 launch, with the vehicle successfully igniting the gimbaling Eloh Engine, only for the rocket to keel over and partially destroy the pad, the approval to launch had been given by the outgoing Reguwu Administration, its last official act before it began the transition of power to Blimp Drimp and his cabinet. It was an international disrobement of the apparent incompetence of Kafrican Engineering. While the Coastal Defense Force investigated the incident, the Army was given the go ahead by the President Elect to use a modified Jane Missile to launch a small satellite within 100 days of the request. On March 20th 2200, the Army conducted a flight of the Jane-A PGM-11 Missile, wanting to secure the reliability of the main stage that would carry its satellite, New Grunt, which was scheduled for launch sometime in April.

After the test operations at the Teorann-Canfield missile range had concluded, the Coastal Defense Force held a conference, announcing that they would be ready to launch Forerunner 2 on April 1st 2200, a shock to the Army Missile Development Group. Media reported and speculated for the week prior to the launch that the rocket boosters contained within the third solid stage was defective and the Coastal Defense Force had been severely undercutting the cost to its subcontractors. The 2nd flight of the Kafrican space program took off from Canfield-Teora Missile test range on the night of April 1st, rising skywards successfully for around 90 seconds before its engine weakened. Wanting to ensure that staging and second stage relight could be done in challenging conditions the Range Safety Officer allowed for Forerunner to reach this point in its flight. The first stage detached successfully and the 2nd stage engine ignited just as reliably as the first before the vehicle lost control, this was expected with the low altitude separation event. The RSO consequently terminated the flight and it splashed down in the Bay of Kafrica a few short minutes later.

On the 100th day of the Army's challenge to put a satellite in Low Kerbin Orbit, New Grunt 1 was ready and waiting at the pad by 2am that morning, following final prelaunch checks the GO was given for flight. At 9am sharp, the engine of the Jane-C ignited successfully, the missile rising up into the atmosphere of Kerbin swifter than the Navy's Forerunner rocket. Yet unknown to the engineers and technicians on the ground, an electrical transient, caused by a high voltage spike from the rocket's jerk, in the communication system of the launch vehicle had occurred 6 seconds into the flight. With no commands being sent for a period of 3 seconds, and an altitude less than 100,000ft the engine cut, ending any hope the army had at reaching orbit on its first attempt.

Forerunner 3 on the pad prior to liftoff, June 10th 2200

10th June 2200, Forerunner 3 lifted off from LC5 at Canfield-Teora Missile test range, with the expected success of a Forerunner 1st and 2nd stage the rocket ascended gracefully into the atmosphere, reaching heights and speeds that no other Central Kafrican rocket had at that time. At T+5 minutes the second stage engine burnt out, completing its job. Solid motors on the sides of the 2nd stage began to roll the rocket around, stabilizing it as it separated and ignited the 3rd solid kick stage. To the surprise of the controllers it successfully ignited and propelled the Forerunner into a high energy suborbital trajectory. It would burn up in the atmosphere around September the same year following a gradual decay of its suborbital trajectory. The following launch, Jane-C New Grunt 2 suffered the same fate after a failure of the 2nd solid stage, the 3rd kick stage was unable to reach the required altitude for orbit however reached a high orbital energy.

The first success wouldn't come until the initial test flight of a new liquid upper stage, developed by the airforce, the Tyr missile lower stage powering an Aramore upper stage, which contained a camera for basic intelligence gathering over Chikushinal. The announcement of a Central Kafrican satellite came from Zokesian Signals Intelligence. A triumphant embarrassment for the Drimp administration, the more civilian scientific side had been uprooted by the militaristic space opportunism of having eyes above the SS occupied territory.