USS Virginia (SSN-774)
25 Years in the Future of the planet earth. Man has conquered mars and established a small base on the moon. The west Lead by America and Nato and much of the E.U, Have started on converting a small number of Nuclear submarines into space ships. There were refurbished in dry docks and taken apart to be built in space. At a small shipyard a modern marvel of science. The parts were sent up and built in place. The process was slow and cost was still immense undertaking. Fielding 5 converted nuclear submarines for the earths first military space fleet was long, and slow. Plagued by failures budget cuts,and a recovering superpower. It took nearly 13 years for the first of the Convert nuclear attack subs, A Virgina class attack sub.
But the success was short lived, as weaponry for it had not caught up. A primitive space torpedo based on the mark 48 was brought into existence. Beside that glaring problem several others were there. How to create oxygen was met by living garden of sorts in the sub. But hot to make artificial gravity was another, a possible solution was to rotate the entire ship in space. But that would take alot away from a military ship. Eventually that too was overcome. Now was the big problem how to get out of the system within in reasonable amount of time. All of us know of those many solutions we have gotten from sci-fi movies. So with only 1 actually working space ship with a range limited between mars and our planet, Would the worlds first actually attempt at not only a space fleet but exploration outside of own galaxy fall on its face. The fallout of the second Korean war and the Iran indecent and strained mankind. And on the cusp of first steps.