Newport

Newport is the third planet of the star system OSII 18267+0008 – named Virginia – in the constellation Virgo. Deeded to NewportNews-LTV by the Second Charter Deed Auction in 2345 CE, Virginia 3 was a late Paleogene world orbiting a G8 V star 17.2 light-years from Earth. Two large moons orbited Newport; Jefferson was 2,000km in diameter and orbited 80,000km from Newport, and Lee was 1,200km and orbited in a counterclockwise orbit 240,000km from Newport.

NewportNews selected Virginia 3 because the star system had a rich asteroid belt between Virginia 3 and Virginia 4 – an ideal location for a slowboat shipyard. Executives of NewportNews had an excellent intelligence network. In 2462 CE the nascent Atiyah Slipdrive came to their attention. Secret negotiations were undertaken with ExMShell and by 2470 CE a clever horse trade was agreed. NewportNews-LTV traded rights to Virginia 5, 6 and 7, the three gas and ice giants in the Virginia System, for the outworld production license of the Slipdrive. ExMShell jumped at the deal because, as of the 2460s, the engineers were highly skeptical of having a reliable Slipdrive before the mid-Twenty-seventh Century.

Lightship prototype III with a MarkVII Slipdrive was delivered to NewportNews March 13, 2432 CE with full technical documentation. NewportNews established graving docks on Jefferson farside and was producing Antitum-class transports by 2449 CE.