Timeline of the Pioneer universe

The Space Age Begins (1957 - 2215)

1957 - The first artificial satellite

• One of the nations of Earth launches a satellite named "Sputnik" into low Earth orbit.
• "Sputnik" is a word in an ancient Earth language meaning satellite, companion, sputnik, fellow traveler, or attendant.
• This event triggers a "space race" between two of Earth's most powerful nations at the time, allowing politicians to justify massive spending on space-related research and activities.

1969 - The First Moon landing.

• The first astronaut to set foot on the Moon declares, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
• The space race was, in hindsight, considered concluded, though no formal victor was ever declared.
• Political will to spend money on space-related projects vanishes, causing stagnation in space activities.

2008 - The first launch into orbit by a private company sparks a new wave of increased space activity.

2033 - The first Moon base is established and is named Tranquility Base to commemorate the original Moon landing.

2053 - LEO Disaster

• Unregulated satellite launches culminate in triggering Kessler syndrome in low Earth orbit, several stations are struck and all astronauts are recalled to Earth, five astronauts perish before the evacuations can be completed. Humans are banned from spaceflight until conditions are deemed safe.
• Loss of surveillance satellites is used by criminal organizations to increase their illicit operations causing unprecedented levels of crime and unrest.
• The UN in a last-ditch effort orders satellite operators to de-orbit non-essential satellites.
• Tranquility Base, with a population of 24, is ordered to shelter in place and focus on becoming self-sustaining.

2071 - Spacebaby

• The first human ever to be born off-Earth is born at Tranquility Base. The baby, a boy, is named Adam. Due to inadequate medical facilities, Adam dies one month later.

2079 - Earth population reaches 10 billion.

• China and India along with other Asian countries form a federation to counter the dominance of Europe and the United America. The Asia Revolutionist Party becomes the dominant political party in the newly formed federation.

2085 - Under increasing pressure from ARP, United America and Europe form United Counties of the West (UCW).

2094 - Humans return to space

• The first humans since 2053 return to space.
• Advances in rocket propulsion reach the point where interstellar missions are considered feasible and construction of the Discovery series interstellar probes begins in orbit.

2099 - The first of the Discovery probes departs Earth orbit heading for a Jupiter gravity slingshot.

2146 - Discovery probe arrives

• The first of the Discovery series of interstellar probes to reach its target arrives at Epsilon Eridani, confirming the existence of a habitable planet in the system.

2186 - Haber Corporation is founded

• Through mergers and acquisitions, Haber quickly reaches a quadrillion dollar valuation, though its majority shareholders remain unknown.

A Third World War (2215 - 2281)

2215 - World War breaks out on Earth

• The two most powerful factions on Earth are the United Countries of the West (UCW) and the Asia Revolutionist Party (ARP).
• Conflict between UCW and ARP triggers a new world war, space being the high ground is rapidly militarized, mostly low Earth orbit but also establishing manufacturing bases on the Moon, Mars, Jupiter's moons and the asteroid belt.
• Many data vaults end up being destroyed by collateral damage, many early Earth historical records are seemingly lost forever.

2223 - Earth Truce

• A truce is established on Earth, but in space the conflict continues at a reduced intensity with occasional raids, invasions and bombardments of space facilities. The Moon and Mars are UCW territory. ARP makes Io and Titan their strongholds.

2227 - Construction of a colony ship begins

• Using spare military production capacity on the Moon, UCW starts construction of the first human interstellar colony ship.
• The construction is discovered by ARP spies and ARP starts drawing up plans for its own colony ships.

2259 - First colony ship launched

• The UCW colony ship reaches most major completion goals and is christened the Earth Colonial Vessel, ECV Pilgrim.
• A few months later after all systems pass inspection and tests, the Pilgrim is loaded up with supplies and 45,000 colonists and launched heading to Epsilon Eridani.
• ARP colony ships suffer several setbacks and accidents, allegedly caused by sabotage. The only finished ship is officially destroyed during departure from Jupiter's vicinity due to a catastrophic reactor failure just days after launch. Unconfirmed reports still circulate about it surviving the event and drifting in interstellar space.
• Further UCW and ARP colony ship efforts are cancelled due to public pressure and demands for improving conditions on Earth.

2279 - ECV Pilgrim enters orbit at Epsilon Eridani, establishing New Hope, mankind's first extrasolar colony.

Haber Supremacy (2281 - 2350)

2281 - ARP focuses on Io

• ARP restructures its industrial capacity by mostly abandoning its Titan holdings, moving assets to Io. However an industrial disaster in 2281 forces it to abandon all expansion activities. Failing its disaster response severely diminishes its power.
• Haber Corporation infiltrates ARP facilities on Io and instigates a coup, assuming control and claiming sovereignty and converting it a corporate state.
• Haber consolidates its power in the outer solar system and shifts its efforts to subversion of UCW control on Earth.
• Within a few years, Haber actions collapse the final remnants of UCW control and assert supremacy over the Sol system, eliminating the last of the world war conflicts. With this move peace is established and Earth and the solar system are united under one rule for the first time.

2285 - 2350 - Massive expansion period, colloquially named the Diaspora

• Peace and Haber supremacy allow for a massive colony ship building effort to colonize nearby star systems containing habitable planets.
• Official records show 25 colony ships departing Earth but only 17 of them reporting back on their expected arrival dates.
• Twelve new colonies are successfully established, the remaining eight ships are presumed lost.
• Haber focuses its resources on interstellar expansion, neglecting Earth.

2300 - 2350 - Earth is ravaged

• The Earth's environment is in ruins. Haber leadership spends no resources on rehabilitation initiatives. Extrasolar colonies start to gain influence.
• Haber loses its iron grip on Earth and the solar system, stretched thin by trying to manage its colonies without any means of superluminal travel or communications, making it weak and disorganized.
• Civil war erupts, and eventually Haber control is undone. It's executives and board members either are killed or flee.
• The surviving Haber executives and their military branch, along with as many civilians as they can abduct flee the solar system with the last commissioned colony ship to a then unknown system.
• Earth falls into a dark, chaotic, and stagnant period.
• Epsilon Eridani, Arcturus, Tau Ceti, and Sirius colonies begin to thrive.

The Birth of SolFed (2350 - 2590)

2350 - Solar Federation emerges from the chaos as the new government of Sol.

• After almost 25 years of turmoil, a new governmental body finally emerges from the anarchy and slowly assumes control of Mars, and then the inner Sol system.
• Communication is restored with the now thriving Epsilon Eridani colony, New Hope, and intermittently with other colonies. Mars welcomes New Hope to the Federation, only to receive no official response.
• After a period of reconstruction and military action, SolFed brings the whole balkanized outer solar system under its control.
• SolFed is able to slowly refocus on expansion and exploration.

2437 - Tolan Kingdom

• One of the colony ships presumed lost, now lead by a charismatic leader named Tolan Oberon, makes landfall in a far-out system, becoming the Tolan Kingdom.
• The kingdom adopts a primitive feudalistic system of governance, with Tolan Oberon as king.

2452 - The fleeing Haber colony ship makes landfall on Zekonbur, some 150 lightyears from Sol, and slowly starts to rebuild its corporate state far from the greedy eyes of SolFed.

2561 - Hyperdrive

• A team of scientists under the leadership of Henry Winkler makes a landmark breakthrough in the field of space-time manipulation, as experimental results point to the possibility of creating wormholes stable enough to allow matter to pass through.
• Years of directed research and development on space-time manipulation lead to further discoveries which culminates in the creation of the first practical hyperdrive.
• The first hyperdrives are crude, clunky and inefficient, limited to short ranges and with slow travel times, but a five-year torchship trip to Alpha Centauri is reduced to mere months.

Superluminal Expansion (2590 - 2714)

2590 - Hyperdrive travel unleashes the start of a rapid expansion of SolFed influence and increased colonization efforts.

• SolFed leverages its hyperdrive technology to establish reliable communication and travel corridors between Sol and the colonies.
• Previously unreachable star systems become accessible, and new colonies are founded at an accelerating pace, rapidly expanding SolFed's sphere of influence.
• Control over hyperdrive infrastructure allows SolFed to assert itself as the dominant military power, consolidating authority over Earth and the Moon.
• Outlying colonies are gradually brought under indirect SolFed control and reorganized as tributary states.
• With practical faster-than-light travel now established, large-scale exploration intensifies, leading to a sustained wave of new colonial foundations.

2620 - Monopoly has a price

• SolFed maintains a tightly controlled monopoly over hyperdrive manufacturing, trade and research, which it uses to exert influence over the colonies. Though internal security services struggle to maintain project secrecy at great cost, it is only a matter of time before someone else reproduces a functional hyperdrive.
• SolFed's authoritarian regime means tight and controlled lives for the general public on Earth, the vast distances and travel times result in increased personal freedoms in the colonies.
• Massive numbers of people emigrate to the colonies in search of more personal freedoms and opportunities.
• Calls for colonial independence grow stronger year by year but is suppressed by SolFed using its hyperdrive monopoly.

2633 - Explorers make contact with the Tolan Kingdom.

• SolFed explorers discover a previously unknown colony - The Tolan Kingdom, a simple isolationist feudal society largely uninterested in the rest of the galaxy.

2650 - Haber located

• The first explorers reach Haber's small sphere of influence, only to be captured by Haber security patrols. Only a few pilots manage to escape by jumping back into hyperspace, carrying the news of Haber's resurrection back to SolFed.
• Haber scientists start reverse-engineering captured hyperdrives.
• Remnants of Haber spy networks on Earth are revitalized by the discovery of Haber-controlled worlds, sending couriers to Zekonbur carrying intelligence and trade secrets.

2698 - Haber tries to invade the Tolan Kingdom

• Haber attempts to occupy and integrate the resource-rich Tolan Kingdom, but finds itself easily repelled by the surprisingly strong and disciplined Tolan forces.
• By the turn of the century, SolFed's monopoly on hyperdrive technology continues to be undermined by several factions.

2708 - Monopoly broken

• Scientist on New Hope manage to reproduce a hyperdrive practically indistinguishable from ones manufactured by SolFed.
• SolFed internal security quickly swoop in to arrest all involved but not all scientists or data can be accounted for.

SolFed Loses Control (2714 - 2740)

2714 - Colonial uprising

• The SolFed-friendly government of New Hope is overthrown after planet-wide protests and riots.
• The power vacuum allows secessionist forces to take control of New Hope, leading to the announcement of the Free Republic. Reinforcements are weeks away, and local SolFed Navy outposts and ships are seized.
• After months of failed negotiations, SolFed sends in its third fleet.

2715 - Bombardment of New Hope

• The SolFed Navy begins to bombard New Hope from orbit to crush the rebellion.
• After five days of devastating destruction, the New Hope leadership signals unconditional surrender and is replaced with a puppet government led by SolFed loyalists. However a large populist independence underground movement continues to operate.
• SolFed rules the inner parts of Epsilon Eridani, but the independence movement thrives in peripheral outposts and is able to grow to the point where it can threaten the SolFed fleet.
• Haber explorers gather intelligence on the state of affairs around Sol right around the start of the war. While this is a good opportunity, the Haber board decides against taking action until a better opportunity presents itself.
• SolFed, lacking local production facilities at New Hope, is forced to build an extensive (and vulnerable) logistics chain to supply and support its forces in the Eridani system. Epsilon rebels use guerrilla warfare to continuously inflict damage on the deployed SolFed Navy forces.

2720 - The War of Hope devolves into a hopeless war of attrition with neither side making any lasting gains.

• The first real battle signifies the emergence of the Commonwealth of Independent Worlds (CIW)
• The newly formed Commonwealth forces fight out of desperation to protect their homeland, and succeed in fighting off the SolFed fleet three times.
• SolFed has numeric superiority, with the fourth fleet on its way. Once the fourth fleet arrives, the fierce battle that follows quickly decimate the commonwealth forces.
• As SolFed victory seems inevitable, with Commonwealth forces close to being wiped out, reinforcements arrive from other colonies weary of SolFed oppression, and the situation turns into an impasse.
• After years of sending their sons and daughters to die in space around a far-distant world, the population of Earth shifts toward anti-war sentiments, and the government gives up on offensive actions and begins a slow withdrawal.

2724 - Haber Re-emerges

• Haber makes its presence known by establishing formal diplomatic presence in fringe SolFed and CIW systems, officially in a peaceful and friendly manner.
• SolFed reacts with suspicion, maintaining readiness for military action against Haber, diverting resources from its conflict with CIW.
• The CIW government reacts with skepticism, knowing Haber's history all too well.

2725 - SolFed abandons the war

• Surviving CIW forces observes the withdrawal of SolFed Navy ships, expecting a ruse they use the absence to fortify their defences, repairing a rebuilding their fleet. But as time passes without the expencted assault happening, the people of the Commonwealth worlds start adjusting their lives to enjoy their hard won freedom, but staying ever vigilant of the threat of renewed conflict. Peace is never formally established.
• The Commonwealth starts to rebuild and expand, concentrating on habitable worlds. Their main aim is to build a strong military force and a stable democratic government that is able to oppose any SolFed hostilities in the future.
• Expansion and rebuilding alone wouldn't cut it in the beginning, so CIW diplomats start to persuade old worlds and new colonies alike to join their ranks against the oppressive SolFed.
• SolFed also rebuilds and expands extensively, and tries to maintain an image of peace, prosperity, and freedom among its citizens and outwardly. At high levels, it still seeks to bring back all of humanity under its wings.

At long last, "Peace" (2740 - Present Day)

2740 - Prolonged cold war between the CIW and SolFed.

• Borders and trade are tightly regulated; official communication is sparse. Clandestine operations are routine and continuous.
• Frequent skirmishes flare along the frontier, with both sides denying responsibility or attributing incidents to pirates or insurgents.
• Haber covertly inserts itself into several of these proxy conflicts, seeking to destabilize both powers while informally benchmarking their capabilities.

2957 - Hyperdrive progress stagnates

• No new breakthroughs in hyperdrive technology are made in many years, natural laws sets the limits on the performance and all manufacturers offers basically identical performance.

3012 - Time for Diplomacy

• SolFed Ambassador Meredith Pell is dispatched to New Hope for trade negotiations but is detained by the CIW on allegations of espionage.
• Rhetoric escalates into open warfare, with both navies exchanging broadsides in high orbit above New Hope.
• The confrontation triggers the largest military mobilization in nearly two centuries. The battle settles into stalemate, later broken under unclear circumstances, after which the SolFed fleet withdraws. Ambassador Pell—alive or dead—remains unaccounted for. Both governments suppress media inquiry and public speculation.

3014 - Aftermath of the Pell Incident

• The two powers enter a prolonged era of strained, frigid relations marked by diplomatic silence and heightened vigilance.

3068 - 3105 - Gradual diplomatic thaw

• Quiet, highly formal negotiations resume concerning limited trade and controlled travel. References to the Pell Incident and the undeclared cessation of hostilities are deliberately avoided.
• Borders reopen in a restricted, heavily monitored capacity, and trade cautiously resumes.
• Both parties ratify a border plane perpendicular to the Sol–Epsilon Eridani axis, formally limiting territorial expansion to their respective sides.

3105 - 3226 (present day) - Managed coexistence

• Economic exchange becomes routine, though tightly supervised by both governments.
• Joint navigation, customs, and traffic protocols are established to reduce the risk of accidental military escalation near the border plane.
• Cultural and scientific exchanges occur intermittently but remain politically sensitive.
• The isolation of the two superpowers eases in practice, yet their relationship remains distant, formal, and strategically distrustful.