Gael Space Exploration Program - Unfortunate Ending

[CobaltShock]

Hey everybody! I will be starting a mission log of my newly created series using the Galileo System! I don't have any exotic mods installed, only those that basically relate to the stock game, with Tourism +, Strategia, Bases & Stations, and a few other mods. I wanted to skip past all of the boring stuff in the beginning, so we could get right into the action!

One swift year after the creation of Gael Exploration space program, we sent a Kerbal to another world, the surface of Iota. The funding was exceptional, so that year had a lot of progress.

Jebediah Looking out of his visor during the Grissom I Iota Mission

 

Following this incredible mission, a lot of hype for space exploration was lost. We had done what we wanted to. Most of our greatest scientists said "How about Ceti, It is incredibly close relatively speaking, and we don't know a lot about it". Most of the press took this as a statement and a challenge, and were excited to hear more about this fabled "Ceti program". Before then, we need to learn a lot more about space. Most missions lasted 1-10 days, with the longest being Jebediah's Iota mission. For this, Skylab was created. It had enough food to feed a crew of 5 for a month, and was made to test how long one could stay in space for, and to test other effects.

The first crew to dock at the space station wasn't a qualified Astronaut at all. It was Tito, an incredibly wealthy Space Tourist. His offer of £100,000 was too much to pass down, and so the first space tourist docked with Skylab! This was very exciting, and the station functioned properly. He is so far half way through his 2 week stay at the station, and despite him not being part of the space program, he will help the program gain more information about long term effects of space travel.

Also, We have 2 probes currently out of Gael's SOI, One dubbed Horizons IV, which will preform a flyby of Thalia in the coming months

And finally, Horizons III, which was originally made to test deep space propulsion technology, but had enough backup hardware that it was decided to have the spacecraft flyby Nero, an outer gas giant.

(It's so lonely out here!)

The probe is currently hibernating, but will be woken up in ~13 years, when it is expected to go into Nero's SOI. A long time indeed, but the Horizons III ground crew will be waiting patiently for the day to come.

That is all for Chapter I of the Galileo Exploration Program. I will get back to you guys in a few days, when new, better, and more exciting missions will hopefully happen!

 

Bonus Images:

Tito's View from Skylab

Quite the amazing view from the Sheppard III Spacecraft (Sorry for forgetting to F2)

Anyways, thanks for reading, and I hope to check back in soon!

[CobaltShock]

Chapter Two: Too Close For Comfort

Following the return of Tito from Skylab, the whole Skylab mission was put on a brief hiatus. Funding was slowly, but surely increasing in preparation for several Missions to Ceti. None of these claims seemed valid until almost a year later. Linuna and Johntop were recruited for a mission, but many weren't sure what the mission was about. The following week, Sean Kerman, founder of The Gael Space Exploration Program said "Ceti is our next target. Whether we land someone on the surface of that rock in the next year, 3 years,or 5 years. We are going to Ceti".

The budget rose substantially, and led to a new type of rocket.

This beast of a rocket was the most expensive Spacecraft made as of yet. The two crew, Linuna and Johntop were prepared to go on the 22 day journey to flyby Ceti. Their extensive training had helped them prepare for one of the most important missions of their lives.

 

"3, 2, 1, Liftoff!"

The launch went off perfectly. It was only the 9 day journey all the way out to Ceti. In the meantime, the two crew tried to keep themselves interested. 9 days and 5 hours into the mission, and mission control activated all science materials to get a glimpse at this strange rock.

"It feels like I could almost touch it!", Johntop said. "It has quite the red tinge, and looks akin to Iota in some ways".

The full day that the crew was in the SOI of Ceti flew by, despite there being a lot accomplished in that time. The only thing now was the return trip home.

Day 22 Of the Mission

The crew knew something was wrong. reentry was soon approaching, but one of the control switches was flashing red. "SAS problem", Linuna responded. The SAS was not responding, and the crew had to hope that the craft would flip the right way before disintegrating.

"Alright, we are at 50 kilometers up, traveling at 2......."

Connection lost. This was one of the most stressful 5 minutes of Mission Control's history.

"Linuna do you copy?" This phrase was repeated several times. The crew was thought to be lost.

.......

"Linuna do you copy?"

"Y... Yes, we copy." Connection had been restored.

"Great news. most of us down here were about to have our faces turn blue".

While the mission was a sheer success, the reentry showed us that there was still much to be learned about space travel. A mission that was almost too close for comfort.

 

Edited May 8, 2017 by Steeeeve

[CobaltShock]

Chapter III: Holiday On Iota

Spacecraft development was going swimmingly. The lander designs were just now being developed for the manned Ceti spacecraft, but we need to learn more about Ceti.

This simplistic lander only cost fewer than 50,000 funds, leading to an efficient spacecraft which will gain science from Ceti for the first time.

This efficient lander has plenty of fuel left, and will probably migrate to the poles in the coming weeks.

We were now ready to test the perfected lander on a closer, much smaller celestial body, Iota. This over engineered spacecraft was made to ensure that if anything went wrong with the new lander, the crew could get back home completely fine.

This landing coincided with a planetary alignment known as the Galileo alignment, which is a rarity. This time, 6 planets were visible in a straight line. I won't go into detail about this event, but it is special to show the diversity of the planets in the Ciro system, almost to show that they aren't alone.

Everything worked perfectly, and Valentina and Johntop were 2 of 3 to have set foot on Iota.

The crew, however, could not see the planetary alignment, but they are told they would see it before reentry.

After spending several hours on Iota, the crew heads home.

And going into re-entry, we see it! All 6 are visible in the night sky, and their colors are truly an amazing spectacle.

Both Johntop and Valentina come back heroes, and we are incredibly close to sending crew to the surface of Ceti. We certainly have the technology, and now we have the reliability.

 

Now that most of the important news is done,

The Horizons VI is scheduled to flyby, and orbit Niven before crashing into it's surface. We don't know a lot about Niven, but it doesn't seem to be the hostile world the Yellow tint of the surface and atmosphere make it to be.

And Finally, a crew was being sent to Skylab to test endurance. There was no payout for this mission, so the science department suggested attempting to make the bottom stage reusable. Most of the leading officials had never heard the term "reusable" for a spacecraft before, and so they followed along, until the Glenn booster was created:

The bottom stage had no landing legs, and was made just to test whether it could slow down in time to land in the water. The crew that built the booster hoped that the little amount of fuel left in the tank would help slow the spacecraft down while in contact with the water.

The booster came in contact with the water traveling at a little under 3 m/s, but tipped over and crashed into the water. Yeah, we need to learn a bit more about this whole reusability thing... 20k funds lost. Moving swiftly on,

The crew of 3 docked with Skylab, and is expected to spend 30 days in the station. I'm really starting to like what Skylab has turned out to be!

Anyways, that is all for chapter 3. Feedback is appreciated, and anything you guys think I should change about the representation of my space program can be commented down below! Thanks!

[CobaltShock]

Hey guys! I was trying to download another KSP, so I could test out some stuff in the stock Kerbol system. Upon moving the file to desktop, it replaced this save file. I apologize, but to compensate, I have created a new 3.2x Galileo save that can be found below! It also will allow me to do a proper mission report, starting from the beginning. Thanks!

 

Edited May 12, 2017 by Steeeeve