The Hoshikaze 2250 universe splits from our own timeline in the early '80s. This picture shows side views of 5 ships that defined the human expansion into interplanetary, then interstellar space. It is presented here near a top-view of the same ships, available from the same gallery. During the last years of the 20th century, mankind pushed on to space using plasma ships from Low-Earth-Orbit stations. Then in 2023, warp drive was discovered and nearly all existing classes were converted, allowing for the nearly extinct Mars terraformation project to take a new start. As space-based companies gained power and earthbound governments struggled to manage multiple crises, the 2050s were the era of PoliCorpos. With access to unlimited supplies from the asteroid belt and a strong rear base on Mars, they quickly gained the upper end. By 2060, Earth govermnents were nothing more than figureheads for the Political Corporations. Meanwhile, probes sent in the 1990s to Tau Ceti (10.6 LY), Delta Pavoni (17.4 LY), Eta Cassiopeia (18.1 LY) and 82 Eridani (19.1 LY) found earthlike planets. The Policorpos quickly unearthed abandoned projects of large-scale sleeper ISVs. Between 2052 and 2089, 4 expeditions were launched and the respective worlds of Hope, Heaven, New Earth and Sora no Shikyu were settled and dubbed "First Colonies". In 2089, so-called jumppoints were discovered throughout the Sol system and the first hyperspace motivator, tested in 2117, made FTL travel available via a network of wormhole-linked systems, enabling colonization of several exoearths. A company named "Better Worlds" started operating in 2123. It sold exocolonies to wealthy groups willing to take a new start. In 25 years of operation, the company greatly enlarged the Human Sphere, at the terrifying toll of hundreds of thousands of deaths in failed colonies due to cheap planet selection and sleeperships, and to much-needed supply ships being smuggled by the BW in secret agreement with illegal groups. The ships pictured here show the lineage of the great freighters that helped mankind conquer space throughout the 21st and 22nd centuries, from top to bottom : - The Weifeng (Great wind), first plasma-driven heavy space freighter, - The Iserlohn, warp-driven Weifeng derivate, whose cryosleeper version, the famous Olympus class, was the mainstay of Mars terraformation, - A projected Bételgeuse-class plasma-driven interstellar cryosleeper ship, which was never built, - The Rahjiv Nadrankha, the warp-driven Bételgeuse derivative that was send to Tau Ceti to colonize planet Hope, - A typical Better Worlds ship, an insystem freighter refurbished as low-cost jump-capable cryosleeper ship. These ships all share a similar cargo section, nearly unchanged for 2 centuries. They greatly differ in their propulsion sections, reflecting the history of space technologies from plasma to warp to hyperspace jump. Seeing the ever-shrinkig size in engineering sections, one also needs to remember that the Weifeng only accelerated at 0.2g and the Bételgeuse would barely have reached 1.3g, while the Iserlohn, Rahjiv Nadrankha and Better Worlds ships were all in the 2-5g range, with all 5 ships having similar payloads. (Models built with DoGA-L3 and taken to slide format with PowerPoint)