A new world.

I finished every thing I needed so that I could coordinate the launch from a safe place out of prying eyes. Everything was in place by the evening and they began fueling immediately. The launch was scheduled for the next morning.

Beep…Beep…Beep. Sounded my alarm clock as I woke up in my secret base. I looked at the camera feed and to my surprise not a lot of ponies came. “Why are there not many ponies?” I asked.

“Well it’s being broadcasted on the radio. But they mostly think it won’t get off the ground.” Came the reply.

“Well, we will show them wrong then.” I said. “Is launch preparations complete?”

After a minute or two I got my reply.

“We are go for launch.” He said.

“Good, begin countdown.” I said as I switched to the Launchpad view.

10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1. When they said one I started the engine. The rocket slowly lifted up, and accelerated to the sky. The control ponies celebrated the successful launch. And the crowd had their jaws dropped. I had full control of the rocket and I made sure it was going to be in a successful orbit at 200,000 ft. in the air.  After a few minutes of controlling the rocket, I fired the last stage to finalize the orbit. The final stage consisted of a gas instead of a liquid, so that it would always fire. But after I lit the engine, it went out. “What happened?” I asked myself as I looked at a few things. “Looks like it has plenty of gas, but why did the engine burn out?” I relit the engine to some success. It finished the orbit burn without any more problems. “Control what was in that last stage?” I asked.

“The gas you requested sir. We also may have put some water vapors with the mix.” He replied.

“Who’s bright idea was that?” I asked.

“Uh let me look. Oh it’s a pony named Sunny Skies.” He replied.

“Okay tell them that they are fired.” I said.

“Why sir?” He asked nervously.

“They almost made it so that we didn’t make it into orbit.” I said. “We’re lucky that the rocket’s periapts was above the atmosphere when the engine went out. Otherwise it would have been a failure.”

“I understand. I’ll give her the pink slip myself sir.” He said.

“Ok then. Next on the agenda build the L-1 rocket, with the L-1 impacter.” I said.

“Are you sure we should do that? Princess Luna might get mad at us.” He said.

“Hmm you might be right. Send a message to the princess to see if it’s okay to send the L-1 to the moon.” I said.

“Understood. Anything else?” He asked.

“Begin construction of the capsule.” I said.

“Right away sir.” He said.

I closed the line and began designing the SO-1 rocket and still no clue as to how to construct a heat shield.

Meanwhile in the griffin kingdom,

“Sir we just finished triangulating that repetitive beep.” Said a griffin.

“Good what does it say?” Said griffin 2

“This can’t be right, it says that its 200,000 feet up.” Said griffin 1

“Are you sure about that?” Said griffin 2

“Positive, looks like a country has made it into space.” Said griffin 1

“We need to alert the king about this.” Said griffin 2

Back to me,

I had just finished designing a heat shield, “If only I can test it on the ground instead of launching a rocket.” I said as I saw an unicorn use magic. “That’s it! I can use magic to test it on the ground! Genius!”

“Sir what are you testing on the ground?” Asked Blaze.

“A heat shield. Begin construction of a new building for re-entry testing.” I said.

“Understood sir.” He replied before leaving.

Later that day,

I was listening to the radio, to hear the ruler give a speech.

“And without further ado, Princess Celestia.” Said a male voice.

“Thank you. Today is a day that will go down in history as the day equestria made it into orbit around our home planet. Our space agency may be new, but we have made it where nothing has gone before. I have much confidence that we will get a pony into space soon. I will now take a few minutes to answer your questions.” Celestia said.

“Do you think other countries will see this as an invasion of there land?” Asked a pony.

“The air above countries goes only 20,000 ft. in the air as stated by the law, our satellite is over 100,000 ft. in the air, thus making it no ones land.” Celestia replied.

“So does this mean that equestria controls the space above 20,000?” asked a different pony.

“No, we do not control that area, until somepony has made it past 20,000 ft. in the air.” She replied.

“What about the treaty that tells that we share technology advances?” Asked another pony.

“While that treaty does exist, they will only get the same results as we do.” She replied. “Also we have the knowledge on how to advance, the other countries don’t.”

“Do you propose a challenge?” Said a male voice with a thick accent.

“What kind of challenge?” Celestia asked.

“To successfully bring a pony or griffin into space and back safely.” Replied the voice.

“Whom am I speaking to?” She asked.

“The king of the griffins, oh and we won’t take any of your designs, we will build our own space vehicle.” The king said.

I decided to interrupt. “What makes you think you will get a griffin into space, and back successfully?”

“We are a proud kingdom, we will prevail!” The king said.

“What if a life is lost during your program?” I asked.

“No commit.” The king said.

“I see.” I said. “May the best one win.”

“Now then king, Let me lay down a few rules.” Said Celestia. “1. No fake propaganda. 2. No fake accounts as to how you did it. 3, no fake results. And 4, there must be a neutral party to confirm it. Do you agree?”

“I do.” Replied the king.

I turned off the radio after that.

THE NEXT DAY,

I was out and about when, “Sir you have a letter from the princess.” Said Blaze.

I took the scroll and read it.

To the Equestrian space program manager,

Do to recent events; I am allocating more funds to speed along our program. I also want to get into space as soon as you can.

Sincerely,

Celestia.

“Blaze, what is the progress of the heat shields?” I asked.

“We have all 3 you asked for sir. Made from zap apple wood.” Blaze replied.

“What about the re-entry building?” I asked.

“It will be finished by this afternoon.” He replied.

“And the g force training?” I asked.

“Finished sir.” He replied.

“What about the capsule?” I asked.

“Almost done sir, oh and the heat shields do fit the capsule before you ask.” He said

“Start looking for possible astronauts.” I said.

“Any suggestions as to narrow it down?” He asked.

“Around the average weight, male, above legal age, no nobility, and must be confidant that they will come back.” I said.

“Understood sir, may I suggest an ad in the newspaper?” He said.

“Why not, oh, and before I forget, make sure to check their background to see if they had contact with a griffin.” I said.

“I understand.” He said.

“You are dismissed.” I said before Blaze left.

Later that same day,

“Sir, we are ready to begin re-entry test 1, regular descent.” Said a pony.

“Good begin test when ready.” I replied.

Soon, the re-entry test began. It went well until it got to the Mack cone, I heard some strange sounds, that’s when, at Mack 6, the heat shield nearly came apart. “Abort, abort, abort!” I said quickly.

“Understood, aborting the test.” Said a pony.

“As soon as it’s normal, I want somepony to find out what went wrong with that heat shield.” I said. “In the meantime, bring in the second shield and test shallow approach.”

“Sir, what if it also goes wrong?” The pony asked.

“Then we have a problem on our hands and hooves.” I replied.