After its technological coup in 1998 with the Hermes II spaceplane, the European Space Agency looked fit to control most of the rapidly expanding sphere of colonized space. In the same year ESA began the recruitment of milions of people from the central African nations. In an event now known as the ESA Hireout, entire African townships were brought into orbit, trained and put to work. ESA took control of LEO for manufacturing and colonization, developing the more advanced Aries series space planes and constructing hundreds of workshacks and the magnificent Crystal Palace habitat (a glittering toroidal playground for the rich).

Since its founding, ESA has focused on orbital manufacturing and has obtained funding from several Euromultinationals who have traded both raw material and eurobucks for a slice of the orbital manufacturing industry. ESA also implemented a historic deal with the Soviets, who provided heavy lift capacity in return for spaceplane payloads. Orbital Air (the main carrier of personnel into space) was instgated by ESA and is stil the only licensed owner of the Aries series spaceplanes.

By 2015, ESA was the largest, richest and most capable spacefaring organization in existence. It creamied a 10% commission off all space-related manufacturing, and controlled most of the law enforcement in LEO and out to Luna through the EEC-controlled Interpol space police. They proceeded, to build several major orbital habitats, including three O'Neill colonies (huge rotating cylinders of lunar rock and metal framing several kilometers in diameter).

Unfortunately, as ESA grew and expanded, it became more bureaucratic and authoritarian. The main orbital population (approximately 68%) stemmed from the Hireout and was growing exponentially. These individuals, many born and bred in space, were hardy and individualistic and saw the orbital colonies as "home". This population, known as the "highriders", eventually revolted against the growing pressure from ESA to overcrowd the orbital colonies and force many workers to operate in sub-standard conditions for litle reward. This blewup into a series of short but violent clashes between Highriders and ESA known as the O'Neill Wars, during which ESA lost control of both O'Neill One and the newer Galileo Cylinder.

By 2025 ESA still controls the majority of facilites in LEO. It maintains both Crystal Palace and Paradise Station (an O'Neill cylinder at the L-4 point). ESA also has access to long range drive technology and with Soviet help has set up a Mars Base at Isidis Planitia. All ESA facilities are now kept under oppressive surveillance by Interpol and elite ESA corporate squads to ensure that the O'Neill Wars do not have any successors.

The Japanese Aerospace Bureau traded the ability to mass-produce cheap, efficient workshacks for access to space via ESA space planes. As a result, close to 85% of all workshacks and space stations are Japanese built. JAB has little high-mass or passenger-lift capacity, although Japanese technology helped construct the Kilamanjaro massdriver (the first massdriver was used on a Japanese railroad in the 1980's). The Japanese are also the main manufacturer of heavy colony construction equipment, including their "mobile construction suits", and invented the technology used to create "crete", a mixture of native soils and chemical brew used as a form of high-tech cementin construction of both Luna and Martian colonies.

The Japanese also lead the way in space new tech, diving headlong into the nanotech revolution. Most of the active asteroid mining equipment and life support suits used in the Belt are of Japanese manufacture, and some of the latest technology just appearing from the Japanese research labs into commercial production indicates they are far more technically advanced than many Western corporates had feared.

NASA's Chryse base sports a 58% Japanese presence and current construction of a vast network of living quarters under the existing base is totally regulated by JAB. JAB is also investing heavily in exploration of the Belt, and already has close to a dozen experimental laboratory/factories in operation.

OTEC is an extremely large multinational megacorporation that has been in existence for over 35 years. They began as a group of at-sea oil drilling companies that were bought out by billionaire Damon Russell with the intent that at-sea colonization would start with the ownership of the ocean's vast energy resources.
As early as 1993 Russell began aquaculture and mariculture on an immense scale and introduced processed krill to the diet of millions worldwide. His attempts at genetically engineering sea plant and animal life resulted in the creation of new foods and other organic products for consumption. Their greatest creation is the floating synthetic plastic known as Crypropalan. Made from the remains of genetically engineered microfauna, it is what many of the floating cities rest on. Strong, incredibly bouyant, light and derived from a renewable natural source, it was a breakthrough in construction science.

In 1996 Russell's scientists perfected their tidal energy converters and thermal varience converters and began beaming energy to the power-hungry masses in major cities of the world. Damon Russell was killed in an extraction attempt in 2006 by OTEC's largest rival, Unified Ocean Sciences, a hostile takeover attempt by Sean Lowell, head of UOS. Amanda Russell, Damon's wife has run the company since his death and has expanded OTEC's earnings by thirty percent in seven years.

Since then OTEC has been the undisputed leader in ocean technological advances and continues to rule the seas. They have been under media assault in recent years because of the fact that they have attempted to nationalize their floating islands and stations. This would give them more claim to the surrounding resources than they already have.
The corporation has, however, been a large source of food, plastics, petroleum products, liquid hydrogen production, stress science technology (which gets used in space exploration as well as underwater colonization), genetic engineering, and motion energy sciences. Space exploration and colonization is their next field of endeavor and they are currently seeking an energy source with greater energy return per pound than fusion.

With the slow disintegration of the United Soviet Block under Gorbachev and the subsequent revolts during the Yeltsin-to-Gorborev transition era, the Soviet Rocket Corps was rapidly demobilized from military to civilian status. In a brilliant move, the SRC refitted nearly 40% of its MIRV missile fleet to heavy payload carriers, leasing them to ESA and other nations. With the best heavy lifting vehicles and the largest body of data on long-term, man-in-space projects, the Soviets were able to trade themselves into the current space frontier boom. They sold advertising on spacesuits, set up construction projects, and eventually established Kosmosov, the heavy lifting vehicle combine.

Trading for ESA technical information, the SRC also built up a moderate military presence with orbital stations, spy and laser sats, battle sats and ground laser arrays. The huge laser complex at Sary Shagan has since been entirely converted to laser-lift vehicle support, but can be reconverted within 72 hours.

Still working closely with ESA, the Soviets maintain a strong and active presence in space. They are clear leaders in terms of raw lift power out of the Earth well and have been enormously successful in construction of long-term life-support systems. The Soviets are also the recognized experts in space psychology. There is a minimal Soviet presence within the Chryse base on Mars; however, rumours abound that the Soviets are planning their own unmanned missions to Mercury and Venus to set up mining facilities.