KSP 1.0 Careermode: Day 8 to Day 10 - First Mun flyby

A new rocket, new possibilities. The trusty R-05 has been replaced by the R-06 S2, where S2 stands for two Solid Rocket Boosters. Yes, there will be a S4 in the near future. But for now, two SRB's will be enough to bring a man in orbit around Mun.

The new R-06 S2 rocket

Jeb was tempted to take this mission, as he is with all missions, but he wants to be the first Kerbal on the surface of Mun. He left the Munar orbit mission to his buddy Bob Kerman, so Jeb could be sure he is next in line when things get really exciting.

Launch was successful, as was expected since Valentina already tested the R-06 on a LKO mission yesterday. With more than enough fuel to spare Bob pointed the R-06 top stage at the Mun and throttled up. Halfway on his way he made a short burn to correct the trajectory of the rocket so that it would achieve orbit more easily, instead of hurdling towards the center of the Mun with no way to stop. That would be unfortunate.

Bob Kerman performing science in Munar Orbit

Hours later, he made a burn to circularize the orbit and then the science could begin. One Munar orbit later, the science is collected and the return trip begins. At this stage, there's enough fuel for the burn to leave Munar orbit and make corrections later, but Bob planned it perfectly. On it's way back to Kerbin, mission control concluded that Periapsis was a perfect 35km and no more burns where necessary.

The final stage was ditched and the capsule with Bob and the collected science was on route to Kerbins atmosphere. Reentry was hefty, but the heat-shield survived and after a fiery reentry the parachutes deployed right on queue. Bob was safe.

KSP 1.0 Careermode: Day 7 - Jeb's first plane

I never was a (space)plane guy in KSP. I was a terrible pilot and I got enough out of the rockets. However, today's contract calls for a plane and it will also help me get science from the other biomes on Kerbin.

I tried a few designs with alternating success (they all sucked in different ways). I eventually settled for a traditional design. The laws of nature kind of push you in a certain way, no matter how hard you would like to build something special.

Jeb posing on the wing of his very first plane

Jeb demanded the first flight and no one dared to challenge him. The plane flew great and the contract to check out a few spots in the air above Kerban was almost done. Almost, because it seems this great plane cannot fly above 14km. The last mission in the contract called for a crew report at 19.8km... Oh well, two out of three ain't bad.

The next few days we will fly this beautiful plane to different biomes on Kerbin. Before that, we will add some equipment to gather those much needed  sciencepoints. Ultimately, we will unlock enough science to get the parts for Jeb's Munrocket.

But that is for another day...

KSP 1.0 Careermode: Day 6 - Tourists and science

This was a busy day at the KSC. After wrapping up the Munar probe mission, a mayday was received. It seemed a Kerbal was stuck in orbit and needed rescue. No clue to how this Kerbal got into this situation in the first place, but that has to wait. A R-05 rocket was hastily moved to the launchpad and launched for rendezvous with the unfortunate Kerbal.

After Lodble Kerman was rescued from space, preperations where made for the regular mission scheduled for today. Luckily Kerbals have been building a steady stream of R-05 rockets so the next was hauled onto the pad. This time, a tourist was scheduled to orbit Kerbin and pilot Hendous Kerman was to make two EVA's. One in LKO and one in HKO. The fuel should be just enough to make this happen.

And so, while Elimie Kerman watched in horror, Hendous left the capsule and made the very first EVA ever. Luckily for Elimie, everything went great and Hendous reentered the capsule safely. After raising the AP to 500km, Hendous made a second EVA that also went perfect. After these highlights, Hendous made a retrograde burn to return to Kerbin with his passenger and landed the craft safely in the ocean.

Hendous and Elimie Kerman at reentry after a succesfull mission

KSP 1.0 Careermode: Day 3 to Day 6 - A glimpse of Mun

A manned mission to Mun is out of the question, but a probe just might be possible. If the batteries hold out long enough. And so I built a Munar probe, strapped a R-05 rocket to the bottom and set out to conquer Mun.

First visit to a new world...

Just before the batteries gave in, I managed to send the temperature scan data back to Kerbin. I had just enought to make a retrograde burn to deorbit the craft before the batteries went completely dead. I don't like leaving debris in orbit and an impact with Mun makes for nice explosions. Jeb was realy pleased and so was I.

KSP 1.0 Careermode: Day 3 and update 1.0.1 and 1.0.2

New updates! 1.0.1 and 1.0.2 have just released and changed a lot of things. By the looks of it, it's a bit harder to orbit my rockets but it's much easier to reenter without blowing up. My standard R-05 rocket still makes it to orbit with fuel to spare, but it's a little less then before. Reentry is now very easy. Heating effects stop at about 13km instead of 8km and my heatshield is almost undammaged after reentry. It's now unwise to deploy parachutes too high since they will get burned. I didn't deploy before reaching 400m/s anyway but it's something to watch. Also, the chutes now deploy more gradually. Speed bleeds away much much slower, so Kerbals don't get exposed to enormous G-forces anymore.

Now for my careermode. I'm picking contracts to test parts and launch tourist in space to get more money. I hope to upgrade mission control, but this will set me back 228k in money. That requires a lot of contracts.

Jeb has taken two tourist in a suborbital flight and made quite a sum of money and Valentina made headlines taking a female tourist in orbit. This was the first all-female mission and the first tourist in orbit. That will bring some much needed positive PR!

Valentina and Valcine on reentry

I still need a lot more money and some science as well. Mun is still tempting Jeb and I'm afraid he won't wait much longer. Jeb is not the tourist-guide kind of guy...