China's industrial-age space program

In 850, the Chinese alchemist who discovered gunpowder by accident, instead of adding honey to his concoction of sulfur, realgar and saltpeter, added animal dung, and subsequently discovered explosives. Burned and tossed to the ground, he witnessed as the explosion he created propelled a burning peice of bamboo hundreds of feet into the air. He was forever inspired to create a craft, powered by explosives, that could reach into the heavens. Rather than using explosives only as weapons, the Chinese also experiment with lighting the explosives in closed spaces, to propel objects skyward.

The project was temporarily abandoned as the technology was used to ward off invaders. After creating crude rockets that could go far without being destroyed, to deliver the explosives, the Chinese used them to decimate the armies of the invading mongols in the late 12th century. These were far superior to catapaults, as they had greater range, destructive power, and could be fired more rapidly. The Tang Dynasty never fell, and China's golden age continued.

They continued westward; with what are credited as the first "cruise missiles," the chinese invade Europe, overthrowing the feudal system and bringing about the renaissance over a century early. Constantinople is captured in 1347; after capturing the city, the general of the chinese forces is reported to have said "And it that this city on the sea shall become our golden doorway to the glorious west." The name given, in chinese, meant "Door of the golden sea," to reflect this. As this was the height of intellectual achievement in Persia at the time, the Chinese gained knowledge of advanced mathematics, which helped them develop their rockets further.

As the chinese pushed forward, the catholic church, convinced that the invaders were demons, launched a new crusade aganst them, which failed miserably. This was in no small part due to the casualties in the failed OTL crusades, which still occurred. As the church fell into disarray, the kingdoms across europe surrendered to chinese rule, ending the feudal system. Catholicism ended in 1392, which prompted english king Richard II to establish a new angligan church, though it was somewhat different from Henry VIII's OTL Anglican Church/

After the chinese invaded, the regions experienced an early renaissance. Of note is the famous italian visionary Darius da Milano, who was something of the ATL Leonardo Da Vinci, who never existed as his father was killed when the chinese invaded Vinci in 1411. Darius was less of a genius than Leonardo, but nevertheless influenced the Chinese. He was inspired by the Chinese rockets, and traveled to the capital of China to present his designs of an airship to emperor Li Al-Mu-Xiafong (After persia fell, one of the Caliph's daughters was taken by the emperor as a wife; Al-Mu-Xia is a corruption of Al-Musta, part of the then-caliph's name. Fong is the emperor's chinese given name.  In OTL, the Abbasid dynasty was overthrown by the Mongols, but the Mongols were busy fighting China at the time.)  The design was used in the world's first heavier-than-air airship in 1499.

In Spain, portugal, and England, the kings decided it was futile to fight to Chinese with their fearsome weapons, and they sought to establish empires elsewhere in the early 15th century. They built ships to travel to new lands. In 1430, Prince Henry the Navigator sponsored a naval exploration project, which gained much more support in ATL than the already-sufficient OTL support. The Portuguese and Spanish then explored the coasts of Africa, establishing many colonies to maintain the empire. The exploration Age in Iberia experienced a second surge when it was reported that France fell to China in 1450.

In England, however, the Exploration Age began in 1443, when China began attacking France...

more to come.