Kerbol eXploration, Chapter 5: Defying Gravity.

[Delfinus]

Update, June 5th 2016, it has been a month since I last updated this, I have made attempts to write Chapter 6 (and almost was successful in one of them) but unfortunately Hard difficulty is too hard for me, and it isn't the greatest difficulty level to use when writing a Mission Report, and I have gone bankrupt in-game, so sadly Kerbol Exploration will not receive any more updates, however I may start a mission report about my main KSP career save, in which I am preparing to launch my first Kerbbed Duna mission. -Dolphin.

 

Hey guys, as you may know 1.1 is out!

YAY!

Sadly my old save was modded, probably too much to be moved over to the new version, (Edit: It works in 1.1) and although I'll be continuing it in 1.0.5 I'm also starting a new save in 1.1, and I've decided to make a mission report/story about it, which has been one of the things I've always wanted to do in KSP.

 

So, here it is!

Mod List:

StageRecovery

Kerbal Alarm Clock.

Porkjet's Habitat Pack.

Firespitter. (Plugin only.)

KIS.

CustomAsteroids.

Hyperedit. (For testing stuff in an "R&D Simulations" save only)

KAS.

KAC.

Sigma Binary.

Kopernicus.

Xen's Planet Collection.

Trans-Keptunian.

Mouse Aim Flight.

SigmaBinary.

Planetary Base Systems.

Layered Animations. (Plugin Only)

Kerbal Engineer.

Distant Object Enhancement.

Scatterer.

Stock Visual Enhancements.

Texture Replacer.

Scart91 Texture Pack. (Heads only)

Gregrox's colored EVA/IVA Suits. (To my knowledge was only found on Kerbalstuff, which as most people know has gone down, but I still have the files and they work on 1.1)

Space_Kraken's (awesome) Andromeda skybox. (Doesn't have it's own thread but there's a link to it on the Texture Replacer thread to a page on the old TR thread with a download)

And remember, I'm not a great writer. In other words, I'm terrible at it.

 

KX, KERBOL EXPLORATION: CHAPTER 1, NEW BEGINNINGS...

 

It was a normal day on Kerbin, the Kerbals busy eating snacks, launching rockets, flying planes, and eating even more snacks, while Kerbonauts on the Mun and Minmus happily bounced around and tested the edibility of the surface...

 

Then the Supernova of Ketelgeuse 1.1 hit, the radiation knocking out satellites and spacecraft across the Kerbol system. Luckily the Kerbonauts onboard the bases, stations, and spacecraft around Kerbin and it's moons managed to get their return craft operational and return to Kerbin, and the space program had yet to send any Kerbbed expeditions interplanetary.

But most of Kerbin's infrastructure in Space was destroyed, and while the Space Program was busy rebuilding Killionare Joe Kerman decided to take the opportunity to help in the return of Kerbals to space, he quickly founded Kerbol eXploration, or KX. With it's goal being to quickly re-establish the supply of Mint Ice Cream from Minmus, oh, and return Kerbals to space, but mainly the Mint Ice Cream.

 

Joe quickly managed to find an old unused factory near the equator for sale, which they purchased and made their new Space center, Joe also managed to "convince" (AKA bribed them with snacks) some of his friends, Gene, Jeb, Bill, Bob, Valentina, Wernher, Mort, Linus, Walt, and Gus to help assist with the founding of his new space program.

 

Their first action was to find some unused junk, fill it with gunpowder, and hope something flew up into the air and stayed intact in the resulting explosion, they named it "Dreamer I" due to it being the first step towards accomplishing their dream of re-establishing the supply of Mint Ice Cream from Minmus to Kerbin. They left some snacks in the pod in the hopes that it would lure some dumb creature into the pod to allow them to study the effects of being launched inside a small capsule upon relatively fragile stuff, which would provide essential knowledge for making their spacecraft capable of transporting Mint Ice Cream.

The snacks were successful in their purpose, as they managed to lure Jeb into the pod, Bill, who was in charge of assembling the spacecraft, quickly ran over and sealed the hatch shut, which Jeb did not seem to care about or even notice, as he was happily eating the snacks, while Jeb was distracted eating the snacks the capsule was quickly carried out to the Launchpad, at this point Jeb finished eating the snacks and began trying to figure out how to escape the capsule, but before he could open the door the gunpowder was ignited and the capsule was sent flying up into the air.

Jeb was thrilled by the force of the liftoff, and as he was bouncing around the capsule he bumped into a button that opened a hatch containing a spare blanket donated by Mort to use as the parachute, as he had no need for it, due to spending most of the night calculating taxes and finances (The others are still trying to figure out how he doesn't die from sleep deprivation).

The parachute remained attached to the spacecraft via some spare belts donated by friends of Joe that had spent too much time eating snacks, and therefore the belts had become too tight for them, but they were perfect for use in the spacecraft.

The craft was successfully slowed down by the parachute, and (to the surprise of many) landed intact.

Jeb immediately found the duct tape keeping the hatch closed, somehow managed to defy the mighty strength of duct tape, and tore it off, causing the hatch to fall open, he then jumped out of the craft excitedly.

Jeb: Woho! THAT WAS AWESOME!!!

Bill: Yeah, thanks to my fine engineering!

Jeb: Wait, you built that? Why didn't it immediately fall apart?

Gene: Jeb...

Wernher: Ze kraft vas much more successful zan I predicted, I admit I vas expectingz it to explode from ze gunpowder, and if it did survive zat then for zit to be destroyed by ze force of the kraft accelerating.

Bill: Both of you need to have more faith in my designs.

Joe: Let's quiet this arguing, we managed to successfully launch our first rocket!

Jeb: Fine.

Bill: Whatever.

 

The Kerbin World-Firsts Record-Keeping Society arrived with a trophy for launching the first post-Supernova rocket, aswell as some money, which was spent on developing bigger boosters, snacks, and bribing people to not arrest them for "borrowing" their stuff to use in building the rocket.

 

While happily devouring a mountain of snacks the crew realized that they were supposed to be running a space program, and quickly looted the nearest town for spare garbage cans, after narrowly escaping the authorities they arrived back at their space center, they then duct-taped two garbage cans together to make an even bigger booster, filled it with gunpowder, once again lured Jeb inside it, and set it on the pad. They also duct-taped an additional garbage can filled with snacks onto the craft, to study what happens to snacks when subjected to the force of acceleration of a rocket, this would give them essential knowledge for keeping spacecraft in orbit supplied with snacks once they reached space, and also transporting Mint Ice Cream.

Jeb was happily sitting in the capsule with a grin on his face, ready for the liftoff.

Gene: 10, 9, 8,

Jeb: Booooored.

Gene: 7, 6, 5, 4,

Jeb: T-Z-Space.

Gene: JEEEEEEEEEEB!

Jeb: Yeehaw!

The craft reached over 20km, which allowed KX to study what happens to snacks at high altitudes, Jeb temporarily passed out from the lack of oxygen at this altitude.

Wernher: It vould appear zat ve need oxygen and heating systems at zis altitude, Ja?

Bill: Yes, although the temporary peace and quiet is nice, do we need them on the ships Jeb is piloting?

Gene: Yes, Bill.

Bill: Dang it.

The booster was detached, as they feared that the combined weight of the larger booster and the snack-filled trashcan would be too much for the parachute.

Jeb: Ugh... hey, what happened?

Gene: You passed out from lack of oxygen at such a high altitude, luckily your suit supplied enough oxygen to keep you alive up there.

Bill: Oh great, he's awake again.

Jeb: Hey!

Gene: *Sigh* Is it even possible for Jeb to get along with the two B's?

Bob: Hey, did somebody mention me? I wasn't paying attention, I was busy playing Human Space Program, this game's great!

Jeb: That joke's gotten old.

*Fourth wall breach alarm goes off*

Bill: EMERGENCY! Fourth wall breach!

Gene: JEEEEB!

Walt: Oh great, now I have to cover up the fact we breached the fourth wall.

Joe: Ugh, this'll be a disaster for us if anybody besides us hears about it.

Gene: Yeah, we gotta stay focused on the mission for now though, we'll worry about that later.

 

While descending through the clouds the parachute was opened, this one had extra duct tape on it to ensure it didn't fail with the heavy load of snacks.

Once again the craft was successfully delivered to the surface intact by the parachute, with it's cargo of snacks and a very excited, slightly frozen Kerbal.

Upon landing Jeb immediately jumped out and tried to open the garbage can full of snacks, luckily Bob and Linus successfully kept Jeb under control while Wernher carried the snacks over to the Lab.

Jeb: Let go of me, dang it!

Linus: We need to study those snacks!

Bob: If you eat those snacks now then we won't be able to study them and figure out ways to keep you supplied with snacks while you're in orbit, besides, you can eat them after Wernher is done studying them.

Jeb: Fiiiine.

 

Wernher began analyzing the snacks in the lab and developing new technologies based on the data gained from them, and the fourth wall breach was successfully kept a secret, and the crew had a feast of snacks in celebration.

And that's all for now, folks, stay tuned to see what happens next! Will Jeb be the first Kerbal in Space? Will more fourth wall breaches happen? Will they accidentally eat all the snacks on Kerbin? Find out in the next chapter!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 5, 2016 by DolphinDude3

[Delfinus]

KX, KERBOL EXPLORATION: CHAPTER 2: SPAAAACE!
 

After analyzing the data from Jeb's last mission, KX received two contracts,  One to test the BACC-Thumper SRB, and another to break out of the atmosphere, apparently you can't be considered a space program if all you do is steal trash cans and blow them up while a Kerbal sits on top, weird, right?

Bill, Wernher, and Gus quickly went and duct-taped most of their remaining trashcans together, and once again filled them with gunpowder, and painted it to look somewhat like the BACC-Thumper SRB used by KIAA, or Kerbal International Aerospace Administration, which was the official space program of Kerbin. Making it look like the BACC wasn't hard, as it looks very similar to a trash can (This made the crew wonder if the Space Program also used trash cans for their rockets to save money).

For some reason the contract also required them to ignite the BACC while airborne, so they used two of the last three trash cans to make a 2nd, smaller rocket below the BACC, which would lift the BACC to the required altitude, they then cut some cardboard into a roughly fin-like shape and nailed it onto the sides, finally they used the last trash can to once again carry a scientific payload of snacks, and attached some steel struts to the side, with a button to release some of the duct tape holding them on, allowing them to extend downwards and act as deployable landing gear. Lastly they stole a pre-Supernova space capsule from a museum, and got some of the basic systems operational, and then once again put in the Jeb-luring snacks and set it on top of the rocket.

Somehow Jeb managed to get inside the capsule despite there not being any way to climb up the rocket, and everyone available helped carry the heavy rocket out to the Launchpad, and it was decided that in the future they would need to figure out a way to transport rockets to the launch pad other than carrying them, and somehow the Universe's volume indicator appeared near the Launchpad, which Wernher decided to investigate later.

Gene: 10, 9, 8, 7,

Jeb: Not going to wait while he counts down, T-Z-Space.

Gene: Not again! Maybe I should just give up with having a countdown when Jeb is the pilot...

Bill: That's probably a good idea.

Jeb: Yeehaw!

Gene: First booster close to running out of fuel, decoupling in 3, 2, 1!

The first trash can was fried by the force of the rocket above it, and fell back to Kerbin, almost hitting the head of Gus, who turned a lighter shade of green and quickly decided to stay in the Launchpad bunker for the rest of the day.

Jeb's craft flew up through the upper atmosphere, decoupled it's booster rocket, and reached....

Jeb: SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!!!

Bill: Jeb, can ya be quiet for once?

Gene: Show some more enthusiasm Bill, Jeb is the first post-Supernova Kerbal in Space!
Bill: HE is the first one back in Space? *Sigh*

Gene: Jeb, run those experiments, it is crucial that we regain knowledge of what happens to snacks in 0 G!

Jeb: Fine.

At this point Jeb temporarily turned off his normal craziness to admit that...:

Jeb: Admittedly, the view from here is quite beautiful, I can see all the cities, the islands, the landmasses...

Bill: Wait, Jeb said something that wasn't insane?

Jeb: *Craziness: On* Hey! You're talking to the first Kerbal in Space!

Wernher: Ze virst post-supernova Kerbal in space, Zeb.

Jeb: Whatever.

The capsule quickly re-entered the atmosphere in a quick, un-eventful re-entry.

Jeb: Wow, that re-entry was quick, so quick the author didn't take a screenshot in time.

*Fourth wall breach alarm goes off*

Gene: JEEEB! You need to leave the fourth wall intact!

The craft drifted down through the clouds, and while doing so opened the drogue 'chutes.

Jeb: What was that bump?
Gene: That was the drogue parachutes opening, they're some of Walt's old shirts.

Jeb: What are they used for?

Gene: Slowing down the craft before opening the main parachute.

Jeb: Aww, but I like the G's from the main 'chute opening at high speed!

 

The drogue parachutes successfully brought the craft down to a speed where it was safe to open the main parachute.

And the craft hit the ground...

Er, what? It hit the ocean?

Jeb: Hey, why is half the capsule filled with water?

Gene: What? How did the capsule land... in the ocean?!

Bill: I checked the flight logs, we tilted over during launch, putting us on a southern course, also we didn't start the BACC at the right altitude or velocity.

Joe: Dang it, now I have to rent a ship to go get Jeb!
Bill: Or we can leave him there.

Gene: No, Bill.

Bill: Dang it.

Joe: Also, we didn't complete that contract!

Gene; Dang it, now we have to re-do that contract.

 

The crew successfully found an old rusting boat that was on sale, and conducted an epic, perilous journey to the Southern Kerblantia Ocean to rescue Jeb, luckily the snacks were in special waterproof packages and were not harmed by the ocean water.

They then conducted an epic, perilous journey back to their space port on a peninsula sticking off the southern coast of Kafrica, began developing rockets better suited to the hauling of snacks and Mint Ice Cream based on the data from the flight, and once again looted the nearest town for spare garbage cans, note: If you see a bunch of Kerbals with snacks, trash cans, gunpowder, lab coats, and hard hats, along with a crazy idiot talking about snacks and explosions please inform the Boosterville Police Agency.

 

The money that was gained was spent purchasing more gunpowder for their SRBs, and bribing the guards of the National Snack Vault to let them inside...

And that's all for now, folks, stay tuned to see what happens next! Is there a part of Jeb that isn't completely insane? Will they get arrested for repeatedly stealing garbage cans? Will Jeb once again be stranded in the Kerblantia Ocean? Find out in the next chapter!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 20, 2016 by DolphinDude3

[max_creative]

JEB!!!!! WE NEED THE FORTH WALL INTACT!!! Stop it! Go play human space program! 

[Delfinus]

KX, KERBOL EXPLORATION: CHAPTER 3: GOING THERE AGAIN.

Despite their reputation as Garbage Can thieves being the first ones to return to space after the Supernova got KX much media attention, and donations flowed in, much more than they needed for their simple gunpowder-filled trash cans, as a result it was given to Wernher and Linus with orders to bribe some of their scientist friends into helping them analyze the data they were getting from the effects of space travel on snacks. Unfortunately they spent most of the money on snacks, but some of the money still went towards getting extra help in analyzing scientific data.

Joe also stole purchased some new suits for the crew, the Pilots, Jeb and Val, got Red suits, the Scientists, of which Bob was the only one so far, got Blue suits, and the Engineers got Yellow suits, Joe claimed that this was not at all an attempt to blend in easier when "borrowing" parts from the official Space Program due to them being the same colours that the Space Program used.

At the same time Wernher sent in a request to Mission Control to test a new parachute he was testing, claiming it was much more effective at returning Minmus Mint Ice Cream to Kerbin, Gene thought it didn't look any different from the parachute they had been using, but Wernher was willing to give some money in exchange for testing it, so they dusted off the Dreamer 1, Bill wanted to see how his craft performed in flight himself, so he piloted it.

Once again the craft was hauled to the Launchpad in the early morning sunlight.

Gene: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4,

Jeb: Let's just get this thing launched!

Gene: *Sigh* 3, 2, 1,

Bill: Liftoff! Alotta G's here!

The small gunpowder filled trash can , Er, rocket, accelerated with extreme force up into the sky, narrowly missing a few birds and nearly causing a rare break in the general peacefulness of the Kerbals when two nations almost went to war thinking it was a missile of the other nation.

But Bill's craft successfully flew up into the sky and fulfilled the requirements to successfully test Wernher's parachute.

With the parachute's durability at high altitude while stowed successfully tested Bill then waited until he was at a lower altitude, and then deployed the parachute.

Bill: Parachute deployed, I need to design a version of this that doesn't pull so many G's.

Jeb: But the G's are awesome!

Bill: And also dangerous to our health!

Gene: Mission Control to Dreamer I/IV, We've detected a incoming Tidal wave Buggy-Scatterer class, be prepared to run for your life once you land.

Bill: Oh great...

The parachute successfully brought the craft safely to the ground, and Bill quickly started to unlock the hatch...

...And successfully managed to get out of the craft and to safety, the Tidal wave fortunately managed to wash away nothing important, although Jeb would disagree, as his secret snack stash was lost.

KX then decided to once again attempt to complete the contract to test the BACC, and used the blueprints from the craft Jeb used to attempt to complete it to build a similar, but slightly different craft to once again attempt the contract, the new craft featured larger fins, as there was a sale at Kerman's Hardware and Duct-Tape .Co. It also featured extra trash cans on the sides to help get the BACC to the altitude it needed to be at for the test before ignition, Bill also fixed some problems with the parachute staging, and made the heat-shield (which was made from old, moldy snacks) detachable, to save weight during descent, he also removed a lot of the snacks to save weight during liftoff.

The craft would be piloted by Valentina Kerman, to give her some experience in flying spacecraft.

Gene: 10, 9, 8,

Valentina, PЦTIЙ this, T-Z-Space.

(Apologies to @CatastrophicFailure for stealing your fake Russian swears :D)

Gene: Dang it, Val does this too?

Bill: Looks like the answer is, yup.

Gene: Booster separation in 3, 2, 1.

Gene: Booster separation confirmed successful.

Valentina: This is awesome!

Gus: Dang it, one booster nearly hitting my head was bad enough, but now, three?!

Bill: Four once the primary first stage booster detaches.

Gus: Oh fudge.

And soon, Valentina Kerman was in...

Valentina: Spaace!

Gene: Mission Control to Dawn IV, You have successfully reached space.

Bill: Yeah, the BACC got the ship to space pretty fast.

Valentina: Da, so fast author didn't take a screenshot fast enough to get picture of spaceship in upper atmosphere.

*Fourth Wall Breach Alarm goes off*

Gene: Val! You're supposed to keep the fourth wall intact! We've already had to tell Jeb this multiple times!

Valentina: Ah, apologies, Is sorry.

Gene: Fiiine.

Jeb: Yeah, it's like we're having a fourth wall break every chapter.

Gene: JEEEB!

Jeb: Oops, Sorry.

Bob: How's the view from up there?

Valentina: Wow, I can see the clouds, the cities, the oceans...

Gene: See the sights while you can, hitting atmo in 30 seconds.

Valentina: PЦ-BLEEEEP.

Walt: Phew, I reached the button quickly enough this time! I forgot to mention, this is on TV in front of millions of people.

Valentina: Oops.

Gene: Re-entry incoming!
 

The spacecraft entered the atmosphere in a fiery re-entry at high speed, luckily nothing burned off, besides the moldy snacks.

(Oops, apparently I accidentally hit F12, and no, I don't have the Steam version of KSP, I've just added the non-steam version to Steam as a non-steam game.)

Valentina: Is outside supposed to be on fire?

Gene: I think so.

The craft successfully deployed it's drogue chutes, and them deployed the main chute and cut the drogues once at a low speed.

Valentina: I see ocean around capsule.

Gene: Dang it, we went south again!

Joe: I might aswell just start a Ocean Rescue Company if we keep doing this...

Wernher: Nein, me and Bob vill fix ze craft to stop tilting zouth and landing in ze ocean.

Bill: What Wernher said.

Valentina: I have landed, Komrades! Why is water filling capsule?

And once again KX mounted a dangerous, risky, and epic voyage to the Southern Kerblantia Ocean, (Imagine 20,000 leagues under the sea but with Kerbals) fighting storms, giant Sea Krakens, and other dangerous things, but they successfully rescued Valentina, and managed a similarly epic voyage back to their Space Center.

Once back at the Space Center Mort began analyzing their funds, and noticed something:

Mort: Chaps, I must say we appear to not have gained the funds from testing the BACC!

Gene: What?!

Bill: I'm checking the data now... hmm, it appears that at nearly the exact same time we reached the required altitude we went below the required speed.

Joe: Well what do we do to remain at the required speed while we're at the required altitude?

Bill: More Boosters!

And so the crew went on another trip to obtain garbage cans, narrowly avoiding being hit by the moldy snacks being tossed at them by the police, and successfully managed to return to the Space Center, to begin preparing for their next launch.

 

And that's all for now, folks, stay tuned to see what happens next! Will they ever manage to successfully test the BACC? Will Kerbonauts keep getting stranded in the Southern Kerblantia Ocean? Will there be more Tidal Waves? Find out in the next chapter!

Edit: I forgot to mention, I've added some mods between Chapter 2 and Chapter 3, to support the moving of my main save (This is not my normal "Playing Kerbal" save, I only use this for the story.) from 1.0.5 to 1.1.

 

Edited April 22, 2016 by DolphinDude3

[max_creative]

MOAR BOOSTERS!!! Less fourth wall breaking.

[Delfinus]

Greetings, Kerbonauts!

Chapter 4 may be slightly delayed due to devoting my KSP time to doing missions and stuff my primary save, but don't worry, it will still arrive (hopefully) by the end of the week!

Also, what is everyone's thoughts and comments about this mission report? I'm eager to hear them.

Oh, and my ultimate goal on the KSP forums: Make the phrase "as hard as testing a BACC" semi-common on here when talking about how hard something is.

 

-Dolphin.

Edited April 23, 2016 by DolphinDude3

[max_creative]

My thoughts: 

1. first 1.1 mission report! 
2. Will you go to Dres? 
3. What do you have in mind as a basic plan for your save? 
4. THIS IS AWESOME!!! MOAR!!!

[Delfinus]

16 hours ago, max_creative said:

My thoughts: 

1. first 1.1 mission report! 
2. Will you go to Dres? 
3. What do you have in mind as a basic plan for your save? 
4. THIS IS AWESOME!!! MOAR!!!

1: Yeah, Woho!

2: Yes, once I have the required tech to send probes interplanetary.

3: I don't really have a basic plan, although I do intend to do a lot on Minmus.

4: Chapter 4 should come in a few hours!

[Kerbalstar]

I like it. It is wonderful.

[Delfinus]

Hey guys, sorry for being 1.5 days late, I've been busying playing KSP and other games rather than writing about it, but here is...

KX, KERBOL EXPLORATION: CHAPTER 4: TO ORBIT! OR NOT...

It was a normal day at KX, launching fireworks, eating snacks, and gazing up into the sky, longingly watching Minmus and wishing they could eat it's vast Mint Ice Cream plains.

Then Gus walked past the VAB, noticed the rockets inside, and remembered they were running a Space Program, so the crew quickly ran over to Mission Control and checked what contracts were available...

After recovering from the initial shock of a contract description that actually made sense, the crew quickly started to assemble a craft to reach orbit, this was the result:

Jeb: Needs more boosters.

 Bill: Indeed, but the Launchpad can't support a craft heavier than this, the fact that we had to remove a lot of the fuel means that you may have some trouble reaching orbit, but you should be able to reach it if you follow a efficient path.

Jeb: Efficient? What does that word mean?

The meaning of efficient was explained to Jeb, who quickly began to hate it after learning that SRB's are not efficient. The crew then decided to figure out how to move the rocket to the Launchpad, they decided to steal an old rocket-transport crawler from a museum to transport the rocket to the Launchpad, the rocket was lifted onto it with the help of a crane system Gus and Bill built in the VAB, it was then transported out to the pad, and lifted off the crawler and onto the pad with a helicopter Jeb donated, it is unknown where he obtained it or how it was able to lift the 17.9 ton rocket.

Gene: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6,

Jeb: Z-Space.

Gene: Jeeeeb!

Bill: Uh, guys? He forgot the T.

Gene: Dang it, Jeb.

Walt: Uh, guys? We forgot to take a screenshot during liftoff.

*Fourth Wall Breach alarms go off*

Gene: *Sigh*

Jeb: Wait, I don't feel like the rocket behind me is an SRB.

Wernher: Ja! Is ze new liquid fuel rocket I have developed! Uses chemical reaction between oxygen and hydrogen to propel ze rocket!

Jeb: Awesome! Oh hey, I can see the Mun!

Gene: Affirmative, beware, you spent a bit of fuel correcting the initial drift after you forgot to press T, fuel levels will be dangerously low for orbital insertion, commence orbital insertion in 3, 2, 1.

Jeb: Woho! Uh, guys? I think I'm out of fuel...

Gene: Dang it, should've pressed T during liftoff!

Jeb: Sorry.

Gene: Re-entering in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Jeb: Hey, there's a lot of fire outside!

*Several seconds which would've been filled by a screenshot if I had remembered to take one (I really need to stop forgetting to take screenshots) go by*

Jeb: I'm coming out of re-entry.

Gene: Alright, deploy parachute in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Jeb: Parachute deployed, landing, that was close, I'm pretty close to the ground, so close the author doesn't have enough time to take a scree...

Gene: JEEEEEB!

Jeb: Sorry, but I gotta let the readers know why there isn't a scr.. *Communication is cut off by Gene*

Bill: He should be landed by now.

Gene: Yeah, we gotta get going before the Kasiaitaly border patrol discovers he doesn't have a passport, how cheap are airline tickets these days? (Author's Note: Kasiaitaly is pronounced: Ka-Ze-At-Aly, it covers the entire peninsula east of the KSC.)

Bill: Ya sure we can't just leave him there?

Gene: Yes, Bill.

Bill: Dang it!

 

The crew successfully managed to travel to Kasiaitaly, and retrieve Jeb from the authorities there, they then returned to the KSC and began figuring out how to build a vessel that could reach orbit but could also be supported by the Launchpad...

 

And that's all for now, folks, stay tuned to see what happens next! Will the author stop forgetting to take screenshots? Will they manage to reach orbit on the next mission? Will this mention of another nation of Kerbin lead to me revealing the full map of Kerbin and it's backstory? Find out in the next chapter!

 

Oh, and as an apology for the chapter being 1.5 days late, a few screenshots missing, and it being shorter than usual, have a teaser of KX's first 2-Kerbal spacecraft and the orbital stage of it's booster rocket, which won't make another appearance until much later in the story...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 25, 2016 by DolphinDude3

[Kerbiter]

You know what? Make probes, man... you need to test out probe cores before you try and get to the Mun maaan...

[Delfinus]

KX, KERBOL EXPLORATION: CHAPTER 5: DEFYING GRAVITY.

It was a regular day at KX, Jeb eating snacks and dreaming of riding SRBs, Wernher running calculations on how to get more Delta-V for less gunpowder filled trash cans, Mort calculating taxes...

Then Wernher finished his calculations and quickly ran over to Bill and Gus, showing them a design for a rocket that could reach orbit but would still be able to be built and launched with their current facilities, they quickly began assembling it in the VAB...

Bill: You sure this'll reach orbit?

Wernher: Ja, I am very zure zis vill be able to vreach orbit!

The craft was hauled out to the Launchpad, and Jeb climbed inside.

Gene: Alright, Jeb, for the dang last time, wait until the countdown is done before you launch.

Jeb: Fiiiine.

Gene: Alright, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Gene: Liftoff!

Jeb: Woho!

Gene: SRB detachment in 3, 2, 1, decoupling of SRB's confirmed successful.

Jeb: Yeehaw! Er, I'm experiencing some minor drift.

Gene: Dang it, be careful, don't wanna use up all our fuel keeping the ship on a equatorial trajectory.

Jeb: Alright.

Jeb: Rising through the clouds!

Gene: Affirmative, first stage will be dry soon, prepare for staging in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Gene: Staging successful, throttle up!

Jeb: Yeehaw! Goin' a kilometer per second!

Gene: Apoapsis is above the atmosphere! Cut the throttle until orbital insertion.

Jeb: Hey, I have enough fuel left I might manage to reach orbit!

Gene: Affirmative, commence orbital insertion in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Jeb: Woho!

Bill: I'm checking his trajectory now, wait, he... he's in... *faints*.

Jeb: Woho! I'm in orbit!

There was much partying, eating of snacks, and launching of fireworks across Kerbin, as Kerbals had finally returned to orbit after being rudely forced out of it by the Ketelgeuse 1.1 Supernova. KX received many awards, donations, contracts, and had a large boost in reputation, Kerbals all around the world could turn on their radio and hear the beeping sound of the radio transmitter on Jeb's capsule, aswell as the sound of a Kerbal chewing snacks when he had his microphone turned on.

Jeb: Wow, I can see cities, clouds, seas and oceans, mountains, stars, nearby galaxies such as the Milky Way, our own Andromeda Galaxy, the planets... This is awesome!

Jeb completed 4.5 orbits around Kerbin, spending 2.5 hours in space!

Gene: Alright Jeb, you ready for de-orbiting?

Jeb: It's already time for de-orbiting?!

Gene: Yes, Jeb, you've been up there two and a half hours.

Jeb: Fiiine.

Gene: De-orbit in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, throttle up!

Gene: Aaand outta fuel, de-orbit confirmed successful, you're on a trajectory back home, hitting atmo in 5 minutes.

*5 minutes pass*

Gene: You've hit atmo, decouple the orbital stage.

Jeb: Alright, decoupling orbital stage.

Orbital stage decoupling confirmed successful, re-entry in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Jeb: Woho!

*Several seconds of re-entry pass*

Jeb: I'm coming out of re-entry.

Gene: Affirmative, prepare  for chute deployment.

Jeb: Alright.

Gene: Deploying chute and detaching heat shield in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Jeb: Parachute deployed and heat shield detached!

Gene:  Affirmative, prepare for landing!

Jeb's capsule was safely delivered to a small pasture near a coastal town, startling some nearby Kows.

Jeb: Woho! I'm landed!

 

Luckily the crew didn't need to mount a dangerous expedition to retrieve Jeb, as due to him having the fame of being the first Kerbal to go into orbit after the Supernova he was offered a free high-class seat on an airline, which he accepted. After Jeb's arrival back at the Space Center Wernher began developing aviation tech, as KX was receiving many contracts which were done most easily via aircraft...

 

And that's all for now, folks, stay tuned to see what happens next! Will there be any more chapters without fourth wall breaches or missing screenshots? Will KX's aircraft be successful? Will Jeb continue piloting most missions? Find out in the next chapter!

 

[septemberWaves]

You mentioned earlier that you don't have many specific plans for future missions. I also noticed that you have Mios installed. I'd love to see a mission there when you have the time and tech, it's a wonderfully designed planet. Its atmosphere is 0.65 atm of pressure which could pose a challenge early-game, but on the bright side it has slightly lower gravity than Duna, so takes a similar amount of delta-v to get into orbit (around 1900 for a 60-degree orbit 5km out of the atmosphere, probably less for a lower inclination but the equatorial ocean may cause some difficulties). Its moons are much easier to deal with, and if you manage to make a craft that can get into Mios orbit as a single stage then you'll be able to use it for both moons as well (with some refuelling probably).