The first three interstellar guests were the heads of the warp engine development departments, each representing one of the earthly pre-stellar empires. Before humans were launched, there had been about forty successful launches of animals and plants. The journey was programmed so that after two days on the far side of warp, the ship would initiate a warp transition back to the Wastes of Jupiter. Once enough evidence had been gathered that warp travel was safe and that time stayed synchronized, with animals returning neither younger nor older, the first interstellar cosmonauts were approved. The transition was programmed for three days near Alpha Centauri with an automatic return, though if the human warp jump succeeded, the crew was to return after two Earth days.
The launch was broadcast to all five inhabited bodies of the Solar System: Earth, Mars, Europa, the Moon, and Earth’s first artificial satellite. About twenty billion people from every empire watched the ship depart Europa and head toward the Wastes of Jupiter for the warp jump. In the Wastes themselves, the cosmonauts sent their final signal, “Hayda,” and vanished from the radars of the Solar System. The gravitational wave of the transition shook the planets, though only instruments registered it.
Two Earth days later, another gravitational wave struck the sensors placed around the Wastes. Only a few hours after that, Europa received a video signal from the cosmonauts. The astronomical time of their return from warp became the start of a new Stellar Era, or SE. Humanity gained access to any star.