Dreadling Point

Dozens of years before the first spaceborne pirate, a social scientist named Dreadling, theorized a point of technological advancement in humanity's future. That point of a self realized ability of space colonies to independently propagate. Long and acrimonious political discussion between independent propagation proponents and colony control advocates swept the federal political system for years.

After the victory of the colony control advocates, certain elements of space ship component and technology were declared secret and their construction limited by federal law to the lunar shipyards.

Just as predicted and argued by the independent propagation proponents, the people in the space colonies developed alternate methods or downright reverse-engineered the necessary tech to allow them to create new colonies of their own.

The arrival at the dreadling point was only delayed by a few years.