NotAgain

Dinklestein - 1 Mission: Place the Dinklestein - 1 commercial satellite in orbit. Launch Vehicle: Devoid 2A Launch Site: LC - 1, Cape Canaveral Date: 29/3/1955 FLOOYD Dynamics - 2 Mission: Fly another Type A SCB for FLOOYD Dynamics. Launch Vehicle: Devoid 3A Launch Site: LC - 1, Cape Canaveral Date: 23/4/1955 Kor-Azor - 1 Mission: Take high-definition pictures of Earth, and return the film. Launch Vehicle: Devoid 2A Launch Site: SLC - 1, Kodiak Date: 2/5/1955

That's coincidence. But all those names are related. You're correct on pretty much all counts - the Genesis series is my Lunar exploration series, Kador is early testing of crewed spacecraft, Domain is re-entry testing and Devoid is other satellites (largely scientific).

Yes, but I was more going for the spacecraft names.

I wonder, has anyone figured out my naming scheme yet?

Yeah. I don't have shielded fuel tanks available yet, and probably won't until 1962. That's when it might fly again.

X - 6 Flight 3 Mission: One last try at making the HIVREV work. Launch Vehicle: Aridia 2B Launch Site: LC - 2, Cape Canaveral Date: 2/3/1955

FLOOYD Dynamics - 1 Mission: Earn some money and test some tech. Launch Vehicle: Devoid 3 Launch Site: LC - 1, Cape Canaveral Date: 9/2/1955

Genesis - 5 impact Date: 4/1/1955 Kador - 4 Mission: Test out the reconfigured service/propulsion module. Launch Vehicle: Domain L Launch Site: LC - 1, Cape Canaveral Date: 14/1/1955

Genesis - 5 Mission: Photograph and impact the Moon. Launch Vehicle: Domain 2A Launch Site: LC - 3, Cape Canaveral Date: 31/12/1954 Another X - 5A flight Mission: Complete an 'X - Planes Supersonic' contract. Launch Site: Runway 09, Cape Canaveral Crew: P0 Valentina Kerman Date: 2/1/1955

@DatBoi, I also hope I don't end up in a looney house, but it's not particularly likely. My illnesses make me a danger to myself, not other people, so the NHS probably won't use up one of their precious beds in a secure mental health facility. Yes, my mental health does affect my normal life, but not in a way that stops me from playing Kerbal, In fact, KSP is one of the things keeping me alive a lot of the time. But, as a reassurance, let me tell you that I'm actually in 1960 in my save, so, even if I had to stop playing for some reason, I've got six years of material to continue uploading. Thanks for your concern, though. Have a sneak peek of things to come in this save.

Kador - 3 Mission: Test out the orbital maneouvering engines of the Kador crewed spacecraft prototype. Launch Site: LC - 1, Cape Canaveral Launch Vehicle: Domain L Date: 6/11/1954 X - 6 Flight 2 Mission: Try testing that little spaceplane again. Launch Vehicle: Aridia 2B Launch Site: LC - 2, Cape Canaveral Date: 6/11/1954

Genesis - 4 Lunar Fly-by Date: 12/10/1954

Wow. Good luck, I'll be watching this quite intently.

Hello again, everyone! Sorry I've been neglecting this (again), but I've been bounced around the NHS' mental health departments all week and haven't had much time to do anyhting about this. If my mental health continues to go down the toilet, then I may well have to back off from this, but, until that happens, if it happens, it should be business as usual. X - 3A Flight 9 Mission: Fly our last unflown Kerbonaut. Launch Site: LC - 1, Cape Canaveral Crew: S0 Maya Stimson (Commander) Date: 12/8/1954 Genesis - 4 Mission: Make a second Lunar fly-by, hopefully gathering data from different biomes this time. Launch Site: LC - 3, Cape Canaveral Launch Vehicle: Domain 2A Date: 8/10/1954 X - 6 Flight 1 Mission: Test out our new lifting re-entry prototype. Launch Site: LC - 2, Cape Canaveral Launch Vehicle: Aridia 2B Date: 11/10/1954

Does anyone have a link to a 1.1.3 compatible version, and its dependencies?

Kador - 2 Mission: Test out the RCS and service module of the proposed crewed orbital spacecraft. Launch SIte: LC - 1, Cape Canaveral Launch Vehicle: Domain L Date:11/8/1954 EDIT - 500 +rep! Thanks, everyone!

Oops.

Agreed. And that right-hand roll tendency is an absolute cow on landing.

Kerbal Space Agency Commission Investigating the loss of X - 3A Flight 8 Report: After four months of careful investigation, the investigative board has reached a set of conclusions on the cause of the in-flight breakup of X - 3A Flight 8, crewed by S0 Katherine Biggs. The accident occurred during the spaceplane's pull-up following re-entry at supersonic speeds, approximately mach 1.3. According to the flight data recorder recovered from the Atlantic Ocean, an unusually high lateral strain occurred a fraction of a second before the spaceplane disintegrated. The recorder was damaged during the high velocity break-up, as it was an off-the-shelf model designed for a small subsonic airliner, not purpose-built for the X - 3A in order to save money on the part of the Space Agency, but it indicates an unusual contol input just under a second before the break-up; a sharp rudder input to port. Looking into this, it quickly became apparant that we would need a cockpit voice recording. While the X - 3A doesn't carry a Cockpit Voice Recorder in order to save mass, Mission Control at Cape Canaveral does record radio conversations between Capcom and the spacecraft. After three days of digging through Mission Control's comfortingly extensive bank of records, we finally located the recording of the flight in question. What follows is an extract from the transcript: 05:54 - Biggs: Pulling up cleanly now Control, I have the Space Center in sight. 05:56 - MC: RADAR shows you drifting west, you'll want to think about correcting that. 05:59 - Biggs: Roger, Control, deflecting east. [At 06:01, we believe the unususal rudder input was made.] [At 06:02, a faint metallic screech is heard, rapidly followed by a loud crunch-BANG noise.] 06:02 - Biggs: Holy [REDACTED FOR FORUM CIVILITY], what wa- [STATIC] 06:04 - MC: What was that? 06:07 - MC: X - 3A, please respond. 06:09 - MC: X - 3A, please respond. 06:13 - MC: Katherine, please respond. 06:14 - MC: Flight, GNC, RADAR shows multiple objects on the X - 3A's trajectory. 06:19 - MC: Flight Director to All Stations, can anyone tell me what's going on? 06:21 - MC: Flight, Booster, telemetry shows a catastrophic structural failure on the spacecraft at 06:02. 06:26 - MC: [Flight Director speaking] Mulch. What's Katherine's status? 06:31 - MC: Flight, TELMU, I haven't got anything. Looks alot like Loss Of Crew, Fli- 06:32 - MC: WAIT! Flight, Surgeon, I have bio-monitor telemetry! Pulse is raised, blood pressure stable, she isn't in any kind of shape, but she's alive. Suit telemetry shows personal parachute deployment! From that data, we've come to the conclusion that S0 Biggs attempted to correct a trajectory error with her rudders while at supersonic speed (mach 1.3), seriously overstressing the airframe. Looking back at her training, Katherine did not undergo the full pilot's module for the X - 3A, which is reserved for Kerbonauts classified as Pilots. That module would have covered the limitations of the rudders, which seemed to already be evident to the designers, who added that specific module to the course. Katherine underwent the scientist's module, which largely concerned the in-flight experiments, and only included a rudimentary 'crash-course' on flying the spaceplane beyond corrections during re-entry and the landing procedures. Some blame must also be placed with the designers for leaving such a glaring issue with the design almost totally unflagged, but it must be considered that they are working within the limitations of current technology, and they did their best to reinforce the vertical stabilisers. Conclusions about causes: - Pilot error caused by insufficient training. - Severe design flaw within the vertical stabiliser mountings. Reccomendations: - Put all crew through a comprehensive pilot's course. - Install proper warnings signs about the use of the rudders in the cockpit of the surviving X - 3A airframe before resuming operational flights. Warn crews against using the rudders above Mach 0.7.

Am I the only one getting notes of 'Biggles'?

I'm with @insert_name on this. The X - 3B's boosters were too big, and sent it too high. I was aiming for a 160km, maybe 170km apogee, not 225km. Or perhaps we should have ignited the A4 on the pad, thus reducing the delta V. But all this is hypothetical. The failure is attributed to poor launcher design. Also, I've added crew and launch vehicle rosters to the first post.

Got to 225km up. Broke up on re-entry.

KSA PRESS RELEASE - 24/6/1954 Following on from our fantastic success last week with the Genesis - 3 lunar flyby and the continued success of the Domain orbital atmospheric re-entry test program, it has been decided amongst the KSA administrative team that we should, as a logical next step, place a significant quantity of our resources behind a new program, one with the aim of putting a Kerbal in Low Earth Orbit and returning them safely home by the end of the year 1957. This will be by no means be an easy project, but with the expertise we have gathered from our operation during the Domain and X - 3A programs, we are confidant about its feasibility. More details are to follow, but rest assured, great things are ahead of us. Kador - 1 Mission: Test out the RCS and service module of the proposed crewed orbital spacecraft. Launch SIte: LC - 1, Cape Canaveral Launch Vehicle: Domain L Date:12/7/1954 X - 3B Flight 1 Mission: Test out a new, truly sub-orbital, spaceplane. Launch Site: LC - 1 Date: 21/7/1954 Score 2 for me.

Welcome to the club.

I started at 13 with the Demo, moved on to 0.90 on my 15th birthday, upgraded to 1.0.4 when it came out and switched to RSS in October. I turned 18 a few months ago. And yes, I used the Demo for more than a year. I take "Try before you buy" to the extreme.