In 1957, when the first Sputnik satellite was launched, mankind broke free for the first time from the prison of the Earth's gravity and pursued one of man's great dreams: the exploration of the stars. Four years later Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth and was followed by the Apollo Lunar landing in 1969, the Aries Martian Colony project in 2047, and the fateful voyage of the Perseus to the edge of the solar system in 2088. By the middle of the 23rd century, corporations and governments around the world had established permanent settlements in low Earth orbit where a new generation of scientists and technicians lived and worked far above the crowded and polluted cities on the surface. As with all new frontiers, space has become a battleground for those who would control it.