Rigellian Trade Authority

The Rigellian Trade Authority is an organization that oversees and administers trade in the Rigel system. The organization is headquartered on Rigel IV, but other planets known for their heavy levels of trade include Rigel VIII (Botchok) and Rigel X.

The exact age of the RTA is not known. According to the Muuly-Barsh projection, Rigel IV was first inhabited approximately a billion years ago (reference stardate -10000000/00). It is known that the RTA was functioning in 100,000 BCE basically as it does now; the earliest extant records come from the time of the First Interregnum, (around 90,0000 BCE, reference stardate -900/00), and they do not indicate a time when Rigel IV was not "well-known and well-trafficked".

Data from the RTA is responsible for modern historians' knowledge of much of the time prior to the modern day, especially the time from the Preserver Era and later.

The exact makeup of the races in control of the RTA has always been in flux. The system passed from alliance to alliance, from government to government for some time, leaving the worlds in a state of constant battle, up until the signing of the Treaty of Kammzadst on reference stardate -179/56 (around 18,700 BCE), which forbade combat on the settled planets of the Rigel system. (The Orions: Book of Common Knowledge)