Equivalent to mid to late 21st century, TL 9 represents the first steps towards colonisation of a solar system. Most drive systems are either chemical powered or early plasma or ion designs. Even the best ships of this era are only capable of around 20km/s to 30km/s of delta-vee. This is enough to allow reasonably easy travel within the inner solar system, but journeys to the outer solar system can still take years.

Most of the designs from TL 9 - TL 11 were put out by the mega-corporation Black Sky Industries.