Story
Author and creator Kou Yaginuma began writing the back-story of Twin Spica in 2000 with his debut work "2015:Fireworks" (2015年の打ち上げ花火, "2015 Nen no Uchiage Hanabi"?). In it and in subsequent writings, Yaginuma constructed a future history of the development of Japan's spaceflight program. He introduces readers to a future following the launch of Japan's first manned spaceflight mission, the Lion (獅子号, Shishigō?), in 2010. The mission ends in disaster when the liquid rocket booster fuel catches fire 72 seconds after liftoff. Mission controllers are unable to activate the craft's abort sequence, and the rocket crashes into the city of Yuigahama, causing many casualties among residents.
The Lion's explosion becomes one of the major accidents in spaceflight history and sets Japan's spaceflight program back by over a decade. In the years following the accident, the public accuses those involved with the Lion program of negligence. Rumors also begin to circulate about the offshore outsourcing of the rocket's production despite the government's claims that it was developed domestically. To promote recovery from the tragedy, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology establishes the Tokyo National Space School in 2014 as a vocational high school dedicated to training a new generation of students in the space sciences. Japan's spaceflight program is finally reactivated ten years later with the admission of students into the academy's astronaut training program. In the same year, the last operating module of the International Space Station is retired and destroyed by atmospheric reentry following completion of the station's long-term mission. Subsequent development projects are to be completed by individual countries with active spaceflight programs. Of the students in the inaugural class of the astronaut training program, one is selected to join the crew of Japan's second manned mission in 2027. It is the final mission toward completing a space-based solar power satellite.
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