Jack of Harts

The first hyperspace jumps were performed by truly primitive engine.  They would not work inside our solar system, due to the clutter of planets, planetoids, moons, asteroids, and dust swirling around our sun.  We left the solar system on a month-long plasma rocket burn, waited for the interstellar conditions to approach nominal, and made our jumps.  The Chinese did it first.  The rest of us followed them to the stars.