Commonwealth Space Program

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= Founding =

The Commonwealth Space Program was founded by T_Rex1525 in early September of 2013. The idea of building a rocket was jokingly purposed by Stormsky. T_Rex took it as a challenge, and scouted out a location to build a 1:1 scale Saturn V. A mountain side location right outside the former outside wall of the Commonwealth was chosen, around -2555, +3434. Early on, the CWSP became associated with CASE, Civcraft Aerospace Science and Exploration, founded by Baragoiun of Orion and T_Rex1525 of The Commonwealth. Since then, CASE has gone inactive and the CWSP moved to the forefront of space builds in the world of Civcraft.

= Saturn V =

The Commonwealth Space Program was originally designed to just be the Saturn V rocket with a launch pad and one &quot;command&quot; building. The Saturn V was to be built at a 1:1 scale of the real life counterpart. The rocket stands tall at 111 blocks. The first and second stages are both 10 blocks wide, and narrows to six blocks wide for the third stage. The command module on top is four blocks wide with a 2x2 area to stand in. The engines, five F-1's, are built out of eight hoppers and eight cauldrons each. Reinforced with iron ingots, the engines amount to about 1000 ingots worth of iron. The rocket also uses over 1800 snow blocks and 350 black wool blocks, all reinforced with stone. As of April 2014, the interior of the rocket is closed to the public, but will be made into a museum dedicated to the real life Saturn V rocket.

= Astronomy Museum =

In February of 2014, T_Rex1525 began to touch up the area around the completed Saturn V, and expand the space complex. This lead to the construction of a new building next to the launch pad. The building stands at four stories tall and will serve as an astronomy museum. The ceiling has the constellation Ursa Minor built into it with glowstone. The building is completed as of April 2014, but empty.

= Space Shuttle =

In March of 2014, /u/T-Rex1525 hinted towards the construction of a space shuttle with this picture posted to the Commonwealth's subreddit. It wasn't until early April that work began on the shuttle itself. It was completed a few days later. Again, the spacecraft is built at a 1:1 scale of the real life counterpart. The Shuttle was not built to represent a specific Shuttle in the American fleet, but the paint scheme resembles that of either the Challenger or Discovery. The Shuttle required nearly 500 snow blocks and over 450 black wool, along with approximately 200 quartz block materials. In contrast to the Saturn V, the Shuttle uses dispensers and wool as the main components to represent the engines. The real life Shuttle has two Orbital Maneuvering Thrusters, one on either side of the fuselage. The Civcraft version has each thruster represented with two dispensers and netherbrick stairs, instead of one. This is just how the placement worked out with Minecraft's blocks. The Shuttle is completed as of April 2014, but the interior is empty. A small museum dedicated to the real life counterparts will be located within the Shuttle.