[b]Republic of Japan[/b]
The UEAS has gladly allowed the revealing of the Constitution to take place in their own capital, and Fergus McClain has promised to be present during the vote. He said he wouldn't miss it for anything.

[b]Chinese Liberation[/b]
All spare troops have been sent to help the De Vidian forces in China, and multiple missile cruisers have been dispatched to provide strategic bombardment of military bases and moving armies. A conventional bombing of all active military bases in China has been ordered, but no authorization has been sent for a nuclear attack.

[b]Brazillian Alliance[/b]
"We gratefully accept your offer, our two nations shall stand together!"

[b][u]NASA[/u][/b]

[b]Cape Canaveral, Florida[/b]
"This is Capcom to [i]Planetes[/i] 01. All aircraft have cleared your planned trajectory, ground vehicles and spectators have left the blast, sound, and heat lethal areas. All spectators are in launch bunkers, and the cameras are rolling. You are go for stability tower disengage."

The rocket stood on the pad, connected to the three remaining red stability clamps that held it in place, three other blue ones were disconnected. In the distance, multiple concrete bunkers could be seen with nearly six inch thick glass. Emily Natālija sat inside the space capsule, with just enough room to move her arms to the controls. Luckily, she had convinced the engineers to give her a nice big window in the nose of the spacecraft. Originally, it was going to be a small porthole just above her head, but instead it was like the cockpit of a B-29.

"Roger that, Capcom. Stability tower disengaged. Gyro stabilizers compensating. All systems nominal, permission to begin final preparations?"

"Permission granted, Colonel."

She began to flick the multiple switches in front of her into their launch positions, every once in a whole looking over to her notebook to check whether or not she missed anything. Though the controls were similar to the aircraft she had flown in before, she only had a month or so of training in the actual capsule, so she had opted to take a notebook with a checklist for each stage of the flight. 

"Launch escape system armed, parachutes armed." She said, ,flipping switches must faster now. "Engines primed, supplies locked down, launch guidance engaged. I am prepared for liftoff, where's the countdown?"

"We're at T minus twenty seconds, Colonel. Prepare to engage engines."

Emily moved her hand to the switch that would engage the solid rocket boosters, and only now did she become nervous. There was no way to control the boosters, if there was a problem in one of them then all she could do would be to wait for her death to come. Her hand started trembling, and she was torn between wanting the launch to happen and wanting to to be scrubbed at the last minute.

"T minus ten seconds. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five-"

"Ignition sequence start!" Said Emily, flicking another switch with her left hand. She could feel the clunk of the stability clamps disengaging, knowing the only thing holding the rocket upright now was the gyros and the clamps at the very bottom of the ship.

"Four. Three. Two. One!"

"Engines engaged!" She yelled, flicking the final switch. A deafening roar was heard as the engines began to burn, and Emily was slammed back into her seat by six gees of force. 

"LIFTOFF!" Yelled Capcom, and she could hear the cheering from the others in the room. At this point, there was only one thought going through her mind.
[i]I'm going to space[/i]

The voice of Fergus McClain came through on the comm line, sounding like he couldn't believe the launch was happening.

"I would call dibs on 02, but I'm not allowed to voluntarily endanger my life. Make us proud, Colonel. Ad Astra Per Scientiam!"

"Ad Astra Per Scientiam!" She responded, half expecting to wake up.

But she didn't, and the rocket kept on ascending towards the sky, refusing to obey gravity.