Pacific micronation announces space programme

AP - Taiohae (French Polynesia) - 4/1/2011

The military ruler of the Marquesas Islands, part of French Polynesia, in the Pacific east of Australia, has announced plans for a new, indigenous space program. Initially, a suborbital space tourism facility will be developed, but the plans do include an eventual orbital capability.

The plans were announced today at a press conference in Taiohae, the capital of the islands, by General Makemo, the island's sovereign dictator. He explained that aside from subsistence farming and fishing, tourism is the island's only source of income for his tiny nation. However, due to the distance between the Marquesas Islands and the US, where most of the tourists are from, the tourism business has been in decline. With the tropical beaches not attracting enough attention, the standard of living in the islands has been dropping steadily over the years, and poverty is now the norm rather than the exception. The new space program is meant to reinvigorate the economy by attracting more tourism.

The Marquesas space program will be unable to use foreign technology, because of ITAR restrictions on US rocket equipment, and a historically bad relationship between the Marquesas Islands and Russia dating back to an incident in the time of Peter the Great. Instead, the plans include developing an indigenous suborbital rocket dubbed Ha'na U'ka (Great Palmtree). Exotic materials for its construction will have to be imported, but aluminum and even titanium can be mined from the inland of the main island Nuku Hiva. Indigenous coconut fiber will be used to strengthen the composite parts of the rocket, as well as for the heat shield, so that the main parts of the rocket can be built locally. The capsule is aptly named Coco, and will land in the ocean under parachute and be recovered by a large outrigger canoe.

Once the suborbital craft is flying and yielding income, an orbital rocket is planned. General Makemo even mentioned the possibility of eventually developing a nuclear-powered rocket, citing the islands' distance from major population centers as an advantage in the event of mishaps. "There is a reason the US and France tested their nuclear warheads in [nearby] Bikini and Mururoa." the General said, adding that SpaceX's first flight was launched from Kwajalein, another atoll.

Although the ambition may sound rather too lofty for such a small nation, various amateur teams have proven that it is indeed possible to develop suborbital rockets in the past years. Many of the Marquesas' islands residents go abroad to study, and although the islands are small, the population is well educated. Will we see a rocket launch from a tropical beach by 2014? Who knows...

Hmmm... do you think I could persuade one of Britains territories it needs a space program?

Pitcairn Space Program? Falklands Space Program? Hmmm?