[Washington National Space Agency - The Republic of Washington's Ventures into Outer Space]

PRESIDENT OF WASHINGTON: Albert D. Rosellini (D)

CHIEF OF STAFF, WASHINGTON AIR NATIONAL GUARD: General Henry Sinclair

ADMINISTRATOR, WASHINGTON NATIONAL SPACE AGENCY: Michael John Malone

AIR NATIONAL GUARD LIAISON, WASHINGTON NATIONAL SPACE AGENCY: Brigadier General Thomas Baldwin

DIRECTOR, MANNED SPACEFLIGHT CENTER: David Heath

DIRECTOR, MCCHORD LAUNCH STATION: Alexander “Alex” Turner

---

Chapter 4: The M-2b

McChord Air National Guard Station, Tacoma, December 24th, 1960 | Program: M | Program Launches: 5 | Total Launches: 9

The first M-2b, fitted with a payload bay, was completed on Christmas Eve 1960 and finished being rolled out to Launch Complex 2-B on January 12th in the new year, 1961, at just after 10:41 p.m. local time. Due to low light conditions, the decision was made to launch at daybreak instead of launching immediately. As a result, the M-2b sat on the pad for almost 12 hours.

The ignition sequence started at 10:03:51 a.m. local time, and the launch vehicle rocketed into the sky at 10:03:54 a.m. on its way to the cosmos.

At T+00:01:18, after main engine cutoff, the rocket started tumbling. The Range Safety Officer determined that flight termination was not necessary at the time.

The M-2b achieved an altitude of 670,128 feet, pegged at 126.9 miles (or 204,255 meters). Range safety was ordered at 423,448¹ feet, 80² miles above the surface of the Earth, as the rocket was tumbling and would come down on the Tacoma metropolitan area if nothing had been done. Thankfully, catastrophe was again averted.

This time, the Army National Guard had a new task for WNSA: develop a two-stage ballistic missile. If successful, the Army Guard’s 10th Civil Support Team (WMD) would adopt it as the latest in a series of missiles designed to bolster Washington’s national security. The missile would not nearly have the range to act in an ordered preemptive or first strike against the Soviets, but it was still better than nothing.

The Wings Over Washington Exposition was also coming up. The exposition had been going on annually for just over ten years now, and every time, it had been held at McChord Air National Guard Station. Air Guard pilots would perform dazzling aerial displays and hold recruitment drives every year to boost their numbers; but WNSA had yet to participate. Finally, WNSA had acquired an old Beechcraft Bonanza, and could now participate in the expo — but the only problem was, they kind of couldn’t. You see, to participate, you need to meet two requirements: have a plane, and have a pilot. The Agency only met one of those requirements: they had a plane, but no pilot. So the Agency put out an ad for pilots:

Of all the twelve people who signed up, only one was selected: civilian pilot Wanda Adams. She was the most experienced astronaut candidate (ASCAN), having flown for over 800 hours already, over 620 of them in a Beechcraft Bonanza — not only had Washington gotten its first astronaut, but Washington had gotten its first female astronaut, straight up unheard of for the time. The plane that ASCAN Adams would fly would arrive straight from Beechcraft on February 18th, 1961, well in advance of the Wings Over Washington Exposition in July. The plane was specially modified to have a low-resolution, black-and-white camera on its belly for observation of the ground directly below the plane from the Mission Control Center, useful for search and rescue operations.

WASHINGTON AIR NATIONAL GUARD’S M-2 MISSILE BREAKS KARMAN LINE THREE TIMES

BOLD VISION FOR GUINEA PIG IN SPACE: WNSA ADMINISTRATOR SETS AMBITIOUS GOAL

TACOMA’S GREAT FIRE TESTS WNSA’S RESOLVE: ROCKET FUEL BLAZE SPARKS EMERGENCY RESPONSE

SAFETY OVERSIGHT QUESTIONED: PUBLIC OUTCRY AS ARMY GUARD RESOURCES STRETCHED THIN

SAFETY CONCERNS ARISE: CRITICS QUESTION THE RISKS OF REPEATED HIGH-ALTITUDE MISSILE FLIGHTS

Chapter 4 Appendix

¹ 129,067 meters

² 128,747.5 meters

[Washington National Space Agency - The Republic of Washington's Ventures into Outer Space]

PRESIDENT OF WASHINGTON: Albert D. Rosellini (D)

CHIEF OF STAFF, WASHINGTON AIR NATIONAL GUARD: General Henry Sinclair

ADMINISTRATOR, WASHINGTON NATIONAL SPACE AGENCY: Michael John Malone

AIR NATIONAL GUARD LIAISON, WASHINGTON NATIONAL SPACE AGENCY: Brigadier General Thomas Baldwin

DIRECTOR, MANNED SPACEFLIGHT CENTER: David Heath

DIRECTOR, MCCHORD LAUNCH STATION: Alexander “Alex” Turner

---

Chapter 3: The Kármán Line

McChord Air National Guard Station, Tacoma, January 17th, 1957 | Program: M | Program Launches: 4 | Total Launches: 8

In his first two weeks in office, newly elected President Albert Dean Rosellini, an Italian-Washingtonian, made several new changes to the Washington Air National Guard and the Washington National Space Agency. On the former point, he replaced General George S. Payne with General Henry Sinclair as the Chief of Staff, and appointed Brigadier General Thomas Baldwin as the Air Guard liaison to WNSA. He also pulled Richard Simons from office and appointed Irish immigrant Michael John Malone in his place. Malone was confirmed by a voice vote of the Senate on January 17th, 1957.

The first M-2 missile was rolled out to the pad on Malone’s first day in office as Administrator, January 17th, 1957.

At 9:17:25 a.m. (T+00:01:12), the M-2 missile had broken the speed record of 2,952¹ feet per second. The engine unfortunately failed with an apogee just short of the Karman line at 99 kilometers, with atmospheric drag reducing it to 98.57 kilometers after just a few short seconds. The missile fell back down to the ground, achieving a maximum ballistic speed of 3,730² feet per second before exploding at 78,937³ feet. The entire mission lasted 5 minutes and 22 seconds from engine ignition to explosion.

The second M-2 was completed on November 26th, 1957, almost two months after the launch of Sputnik 1, and less than one after the launch of Sputnik 2 and Laika. Nevertheless, the M-2 was completed on time and rolled out to the pad on December 20th, 1957. This M-2 would be the last to fly the RD-100, with the third M-2 missile flying the upgraded RD-101. Liftoff occurred at 9:20:16 a.m. local time. This time, after a 2-minute ascent, at c. 9:22 a.m., the rocket crossed the Kármán line.

Onboard instruments detected an apogee of 427,319.6⁴ feet, just 31,998⁵ feet short of reaching space “proper”. The M-2 also broke the previous speed record of 3,730⁶ feet per second: it reached 4,399.6⁷ feet per second on its ballistic descent before the rocket partially broke up at T+00:06:12, with the avionics core enduring a punishing 21.9 g. Launch control ordered flight safety termination at T+00:06:30, or 9:26:48 a.m. local time, at an altitude of 49,937⁸ feet.

Unfortunately for the nearby city of Tacoma, the debris from the flight safety termination started raining down near Downtown and sparked a seven-alarm fire — nine-alarm if you count the National Guard and McChord’s fire department — that took almost twelve full days to put out. National Guard troops had to be pulled from training duty at the large, remote Yakima Firing Center to assist the civil authorities. It was only through a mixture of pure, dumb luck and the assistance of the National Guard that the fire was put out. This event would come to be known as the Great Tacoma Fire. The fire also severely hampered the Union Pacific rail line from the Port of Tacoma to McChord Air National Guard Station, which the Washington National Space Agency relies on for the delivery of rocket supplies and fuel. During the fire, a fuel tanker filled with rocket fuel for the M-2, still connected to Union Pacific Big Boy engine 4000 while standing at the yard, had actually exploded, making the fire just that much worse. Engine 4000 would be written off as completely irreparable by Union Pacific. In its place, WNSA would come to rely on trucks and planes delivering supplies and the fuel for missiles until the branch line was repaired. A total of five people were killed and seventeen injured, mostly due to smoke inhalation.

The third M-2 missile, M-2-3, was completed on September 18th, 1958, and was rolled out to the pad by October 12th. The M-2-3 was equipped with a new automatic range safety termination system, and would automatically switch on its instruments once it reached outer space. The upgraded RD-101 engine ignited at 2:10:07 p.m. local time, October 12th, 1958.

Liftoff was achieved at 2:10:11 p.m. During the ascent, the rocket broke the speed record yet again by reaching 4,921.26⁹ feet per second. The rocket achieved an apogee of 131¹⁰ miles, officially advancing the Republic of Washington into the Space Race. During it’s descent, the M-2-3 continued monitoring temperature and pressure and transmitted telemetry until the Range Safety Officer ordered flight safety termination at T+00:07:23, just 155,590¹⁰ feet above the Tacoma metropolitan area. This time, debris rained down on a patchy forest and sparked a small forest fire that was quickly brought under control. No person on the ground was injured, but General Henry Sinclair was ready to pull the plug due to the repeated damage and injury on the ground.

Unfortunately, due to an administrative error, the contract to cross the Karman Line was not completed, and the next M-2, the M-2-4, would have to be launched instead of being shipped to Fairchild Air National Guard Station near Spokane as was originally intended. The M-2-4 was ordered and it would be completed on July 3rd, 1959 and rolled out on the 27th.

The M-2-4 suffered from loss of thrust 21 seconds after liftoff, but would still perform almost as well as the M-2-3, achieving an apogee of 107 miles, or 173 kilometers. Flight safety termination would be ordered much higher up this time, at 385,164¹¹ feet or nearly 73¹¹ miles above the surface of the Earth. No debris, damage, or fires were reported as a result of this latest mission. General Sinclair, ultimately, did not end up pulling the plug on Project M.

Administrator Malone would make a bold proposition to his department heads: put a guinea pig in space and return it alive. While Malone originally did not intend on using an actual guinea pig, a young 6-month-old pup would be purchased by the Agency. The guinea pig was popularly nicknamed “The Little Colonel”, but a nationwide student naming competition would be created to formally name the little, furry creature. The winning name was “Colonel Jack”, submitted by students of a junior high school in the State of Pierce town of Bonney Lake. Colonel Jack was honorarily commissioned in the Washington Air National Guard as a Colonel, due in part to his name.

AIR NATIONAL GUARD’S M-2 MISSILE BREAKS KARMAN LINE THREE TIMES

BOLD VISION FOR GUINEA PIG IN SPACE: WNSA ADMINISTRATOR SETS AMBITIOUS GOAL

TACOMA’S GREAT FIRE TESTS WNSA’S RESOLVE: ROCKET FUEL BLAZE SPARKS EMERGENCY RESPONSE

SAFETY OVERSIGHT QUESTIONED: PUBLIC OUTCRY AS ARMY GUARD RESOURCES STRETCHED THIN

SAFETY CONCERNS ARISE: CRITICS QUESTION THE RISKS OF REPEATED HIGH-ALTITUDE MISSILE FLIGHTS

Chapter 3 Appendix

¹ 900 meters per second

² 122 meters per second

³ 24,060 meters on the dot

⁴ 129,941.9 meters

⁵ 9,753.99 meters

⁶ 1,136.9 meters per second

⁷ 1,341 meters per second

⁸ 15,220.8 meters

⁹ 1,500 meters per second

¹⁰ More or less 210,824 meters, exact value not recorded

¹¹ 117,398 meters

This will be the third-to-last post to use the United States customary units/imperial measurements. It would have been the last, had I not already written up the next few chapters with imperial measurements while simultaneously making the boneheaded move of not saving the metric measurements. Oh well.

[Washington National Space Agency - The Republic of Washington's Ventures into Outer Space]

PRESIDENT OF WASHINGTON: Arthur B. Langlie (R)

CHIEF OF STAFF, WASHINGTON AIR NATIONAL GUARD: General George S. Payne

ADMINISTRATOR, WASHINGTON NATIONAL SPACE AGENCY: Richard Simons

AIR NATIONAL GUARD LIAISON, WASHINGTON NATIONAL SPACE AGENCY: Major General Wallace Seaver

DIRECTOR, MANNED SPACEFLIGHT CENTER: David Heath

DIRECTOR, MCCHORD LAUNCH STATION: Alexander “Alex” Turner

 

---

Chapter 2: The Air Guard's Missiles

McChord Air National Guard Station, Tacoma, May 16th, 1956 | Program: M | Program Launches: 1 | Total Launches: 4

As promised by Administrator Richard Simons, the agency would now be focusing on the M-1 missile, and they already had an interested client: the Air National Guard.

While now adapted for scientific use, eventually the M-1 would be the first Washingtonian ballistic missile. A short-range ballistic missile, specifically.

The M-1 was a direct descendant of the German V-2 rocket, a few of which the University of Washington had managed to acquire for study. The design used an engine from Boeing that allowed the missile to carry the W1A warhead with its reentry vehicle to a range of about 160 miles. M-1’s prime contractor was Boeing.

The M-1 was designed as a surface-to-surface missile for the Air Guard. Its name is a codename: ‘M’ for ‘Missile’, and ‘1’ as it is the first in its series.

The first M-1 was rolled to Launch Complex 2-A by April 14th, 1955, a newly constructed complex built to handle the M-1 series specifically, as Launch Complex 1 could only support the much smaller Tiny Delta sounding rocket.

At 7:26:35 a.m. local time, the M-1 took off bound for outer space. Or, it tried to. Unfortunately, due to an engineering error, fuel was not fed to the M-1’s engine and it was unable to take off. It was rolled back to the pad by July 20th, 1955, for engineers to take a look at what was going wrong. Engineers determined it was an avionics issue — the rocket could not be controlled with the avionics equipment it had installed. So engineers swapped out the Flight Guidance Computer (FDC), the Trajectory Computer (TC), and the Engine System Management Computer (ESMC). The modifications were completed by July 23rd, 1955, and it was rolled back to Launch Complex 2-A on October 22nd, 1955.

Then, at 7:15:17 a.m. local time, another error was discovered: fuel was not getting to the launch vehicle’s engine. So the M-1 was rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building, where work would not be completed until the new year.

After 34 days of round-the-clock modification, the M-1 was fixed and rolled out to the pad on May 16th, 1956.

At 7:17:59 a.m. local time, the engines ignited on the M-1 missile, and it decoupled from the ground clamps at 7:18:03 a.m. Twenty seconds later at 7:18:23 a.m., it broke the uncrewed speed record of 1,970¹ feet per second. At 7:19:20 a.m., the M-1 reached its maximum altitude of 100,203² feet, or 19² miles above the surface, before it began its descent. Range safety termination was ordered at 96,564³ feet, or 18 miles³ above the surface.

WNSA FACES SETBACKS WITH M-1 MISSILE, CHALLENGES IN REACHING UPPER ATMOSPHERE RAISE CONCERNS

ROSSELINI AND ANDERSON COMPETE FOR PRESIDENT: WASHINGTON GEARS UP FOR PIVOTAL ELECTION

CONTROVERSY ERUPTS AS WNSA UNVEILS M-2 MISSILE: DUAL-PURPOSE MISSION RAISES QUESTIONS ON PRIORITIES

AIR GUARD FACES SCRUTINY OVER MISSILE REPLACEMENT PLANS

AIR GUARD SEARCHES FOR MISSILE UPGRADES: STRATEGIC MODERNIZATION INITIATIVES BOLSTER NATIONAL SECURITY

WASHINGTON'S AVIATION PIONEER HAROLD ANDERSON HONORED IN SEATTLE CEREMONY

HANFORD SITE EXPANSION BOOSTS LOCAL ECONOMY

Chapter 2 Appendix

¹ 600 m/s

² Both numbers equal 30,541 meters (miles are rounded to the nearest 1)

³ Both numbers equal 29,432 meters (miles are rounded to the nearest 1)

[Washington National Space Agency - The Republic of Washington's Ventures into Outer Space]

This story takes place in an alternate timeline. One where the American Civil War never occurred, and the United States Supreme Court never heard Texas v. White in December 1868. This (if I'm correct) makes a state's secession legal. So I've decided to have my home state secede, thus creating an alternate timeline. Then, I had my newly independent state create it's own space agency. This is the imagining of what it might be like. And just to be clear: WASHINGTON STATE, not WASHINGTON, D.C.. I'm not here to argue about the politics of all of this, and I most certainly don't want a moderator involved in it. Questions and comments are open.

Note: The spoilers below contain some important notes that will be of interest to readers. Reading them is not mandatory, though. I have no control over that.

---

The Washington Air National Guard is the aerial service branch of the Republic of Washington’s military. It is, along with the Washington Army National Guard and the Washington Naval Militia, a component of the Washington National Guard. It was formed on August 6, 1924 as a state militia, becoming a dual state-federal reserve force in 1933 until 1937. As of 1951, they are headquartered at Camp Murray near Tacoma in the State of Pierce.

The Washington National Space Agency is an independent agency of the Washington federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. It was established by the Washington National Space Agency Act 1950 in the Washington Legislature. As of 1951, they are headquartered in Olympia in the State of Thurston with primary operations out of McChord Air National Guard Station in Tacoma, in the State of Pierce.

Some notes should be read before anyone starts reading or following the series. Some of them are lengthier than others. It is not required to read the notes, just heavily suggested.

Spoiler

Note #1: At the end of each post, there will be a series of SIX news headlines that will affect the policies, missions, and characteristics of the Washington Air National Guard and the Washington National Space Agency in future posts. Two will be for the Air Guard, two will be for WNSA, and two will be generalized goings-on around the Republic. The first headline of the first two categories will be critical, and the second headline of the first two categories will be supportive. The third category is "neutral", for lack of a better word.

Note #2: The story will be told mostly as mission reports, but any "background events" that severely influence the actions of WNSA or the Air National Guard will be dialogue-driven storylines. This includes discussions between the Joint Chiefs of Staff at Camp Murray, phone calls between the WNSA Administrator and the President, board meetings, Legislature hearings, and the like. These will not be too incredibly frequent, though, especially the more bureaucratic ones.

Note #2: The Washington Air National Guard will have less significant roles in most storylines, but will occasionally have its own storyline or play a major part in one. I am also aware it should more probably be called the “Washington Air Force” on the assumption Washington is now independent, but I think the “Washington Air National Guard” sounds cooler and it means essentially the same thing anyway, as far as operations are concerned.

Note #3: Background events are told with dialogue-driven stories, but launches and missions are not. These include discussions with the Joint Chiefs of Staff at Camp Murray, phone calls between the Administrator of the Washington National Space Agency and the President of Washington, and the Standing Committee on Aeronautics (later the Standing Committee on Air and Space) in the Washington House of Representatives.

Note #4: I understand that there are metric users on these forums, especially since Kerbal Space Program by default uses the International System of Units. I grew up and live in the United States, so I am most familiar with the United States customary units. During the main part of each post, I will be using the United States customary units when referring to size, length, distance, weight, mass, etc., but I will be kind and leave a footnote/appendix at the end of each post to translate all of that into the International System of Units, better known as the metric system or SI. Numbers that need to be translated in the text have a superscript after them that looks like this: ¹. To find a number that needs to be translated, refer to the superscript number in the main body of the text and compare it with the number next to the superscript number in the appendix.

The chapter begins here.

---

PRESIDENT OF WASHINGTON: Arthur B. Langlie (R)

CHIEF OF STAFF, WASHINGTON AIR NATIONAL GUARD: General George S. Payne

ADMINISTRATOR, WASHINGTON NATIONAL SPACE AGENCY: Richard Simons

AIR NATIONAL GUARD LIAISON, WASHINGTON NATIONAL SPACE AGENCY: Major General Wallace Seaver

DIRECTOR, MANNED SPACEFLIGHT CENTER: David Heath

DIRECTOR, MCCHORD LAUNCH STATION: Alexander “Alex” Turner

---

Spoiler

Table of Contents

• Prologue (this post)
• Chapter 1: Ad Astra (this post)
• Chapter 2: The Air Guard's Missiles
• Chapter 3: The Kármán Line
• Chapter 4: The M-2b

---

Prologue

 

Washington Capitol, Olympia, November 14th, 1950

Richard Simons strolled into the conference room and set down his briefcase on a vacant chair at the head of the table, and had his aide hand out the materials to the collective of Senators and Representatives sitting in the room, facing him expectantly. Outside the grand windows, it was raining persistently. Rain was extremely common in this part of North America during the non-summer months. Rather depressingly so. But summers were getting hotter and hotter, and wildfires more and more frequent and more and more severe.

“Well, Senators. Representatives. My name is Richard Simons, and I have an exciting proposal for you all: a space program!”

Everyone in the room promptly scoffed. Space programs? They had more important things to deal with, like national defense, and the economy. They had just seceded from one of the world's largest superpowers, after all, nevermind that it’s been thirteen years. Space wasn’t exactly on their minds. Two Senators straight up left the room.

“Gentlemen, the Soviets and the Americans have been playing around with suborbital flights for several years now. Ever since the end of the War, the United States has sent up not one, not two, and no, not three, but four rockets! None of them ever stayed up there, of course, but that doesn’t matter at the moment. We don’t even have the technology to put natural satellites in orbit yet, but it’s something we’re discussing.” Senator Michaels spoke up.

“You’re damn right we don’t, mister. We should be focusing on more important issues, Mr. Simons. National defense. The economy. Public utilities.”

“Please, Senator, we’ve gotten that taken care of. It’s been thirteen years.” Mr. Simons was, of course, referring to Washington’s secession from the United States on November 11, 1937.

“And three days. But these issues are still important to the public. They won’t like it if we waste funds that could better be spent elsewhere on a space program.”

“Do you even have a proposed launch center?” This time, it was Representative Russell MacDougal.

“We’ve narrowed it down to two possible locations: Camp Murray, and Camp Harmony.”

“Camp Harmony? That’s in Puyallup, Mr. Simons. Puyallup’s a town of ten thousand people in my district. People who want nothing to do with your waste of resources.”

“I know. When the Japanese were held at Camp Harmony during the War, it supported a population of 7,390 Americans of Japanese descent from across Western Washington and Alaska starting in May 1942. We’ll have barracks, with 50 square feet of space per individual and one small window, a single electrical socket, and a wood stove. These can support our staffers and astronauts. Several mess halls, laundry facilities, and latrines are also present at the Camp Harmony facility. A one-hundred-bed hospital was built in Area D, as well, and existing facilities from before Camp Harmony was established were used by the Army as administration offices and community centers. The place is chock full of workshops.”

“And what if something happens? An explosion, say?”

“That’s the tricky part. See, all the buildings at Camp Harmony are made of wood. It’s a fairgrounds and a concentration camp, both of which are temporary and meant to be taken down, so what better material to use than wood for that, am I right, gentlemen?”

“That doesn’t answer my question, Mr. Simons.”

“Ah, yes, I was getting to that. We’ll need one launchpad—”

“Launchpad?!”

“Yes, launchpad. Don’t worry, only a small one. For now. We won’t be able to do much beyond sounding rockets. Tiny little things. But as I was saying, we’d need a launchpad located fairly far away from the wooden buildings, at least until they are renovated, because any explosion would mean bad news.” Representative MacDougal grunted in dissatisfaction at the thought.

“Mmm… I don’t sense anything good coming of an explosion at Camp Harmony. But you said something about astronauts earlier, Mr. Simons, did you not?”

“Yes, I did. I must admit that’s more of a pipe dream at the moment, but those astronauts will need somewhere to sleep before missions, and Camp Harmony still has its buildings from the war.”

“Why not use Camp Murray? You know, the National Guard—”

“—I know what Camp Murray is, Representative. I mean, yes, it will provide essentially ‘free’ security because it’s already a National Guard station and it has sentries. But the truth is, Camp Murray is near an area too densely populated for our tastes.”

“What about the McChord Air National Guard Station? Puyallup can’t be the only option… Can it?”

“McChord does have a railroad line, that is an advantage, I must admit. McChord would also have this ‘free’ security given to us. But rockets would be flying over 12 miles of populated area. Rockets launched from Puyallup would only fly over 7 miles of populated area, and wouldn’t encounter any settlements beyond farming towns of 100 people at most, thinly spread, until Spokane, at which point it would be well high enough to not pose a significant danger. Not to Spokane, at least.7”

Representative MacDougal considered this a moment, then started quietly discussing with his peers.

“We’ll give you McChord. It has the railroad so you can order and ship supplies in. Besides, looking at this folder here,” MacDougal said, flipping through it to the AVIATION PROGRAM page, “you look like you want to deal with airplanes, too. McChord has a runway, Camp Harmony doesn’t.”

There was a long pause. Nobody said anything. Nobody moved.

“Take it or leave it, son. Final offer.”

“That’s true, Camp Harmony doesn’t have a runway...”

Another pause.

“McChord it is, then, Representative,” Simons said as he closed his folder.

Administrator Simons and Representative MacDougal stood up and each leaned over the table, giving each other a thorough handshake. The deal was done.

 

---

Chapter 1: Ad Astra

McChord Air National Guard Station, Tacoma, September 6th, 1951 | Program: Tiny Delta | Program Launches: 3 | Total Launches: 3

By February 9th, 1951, Launch Complex 1 had been completed at the Washington Air National Guard’s McChord Air National Guard Station, formerly belonging to the United States Army Air Corps before Washington’s 1937 secession. Launch Complex 1 was built only to support a rocket 16 feet1 in diameter and 32 feet2 in height.

The Tiny Delta was the first ever sounding rocket designed and developed in Washington, being an offshoot of the Delta program that was started by a partnership between the 10th Civil Support Team of the Washington Army National Guard and the University of Washington up in Seattle. The ultimate goal of the program was to develop a military ballistic missile, but the Military Department had permitted the Washington National Space Agency to use 10 Tiny Delta rockets per year, just as long as the Army Guard got to keep an extra 20 for their own use. The Washington National Space Agency agreed to this arrangement. It was not ideal, but it was better than nothing.

It was composed of two stages: a kick stage, composed of the Tiny Sergeant booster to get it up in the air, and the Tiny Delta missile itself was powered by a leftover Aerobee engine. As there weren’t many in Washington, and since neither the United States nor the Aerojet Corporation was going to provide them to Washington’s space program, the University of Washington was working on a similar engine to replace the Aerobee when the supply ran out, and it would. Fairly quickly, too.

The Tiny Delta booster lifted off from the pad with the Tiny Tim booster doing most of the work. Unfortunately, the Aerobee engine failed to ignite, causing it to reach less than 3,900 feet3 in altitude, crashing back down after just a 32-second flight.

Another Tiny Delta booster lifted off from the pad on January 23rd, 1952, and was much more successful. The Tiny Tim engine and the Aerobee engine ignited at the same time, and clean separation occurred at T+00:00:03. The Tiny Delta upper stage went on to achieve an altitude of about 20,500 feet4 before it started arcing back towards the southeast. Engine shutoff occurred at T+00:01:05, and power ran out at T+00:01:22.

Another Tiny Delta booster arrived at McChord by steam train on June 3rd, 1952. Liftoff occurred at 12:29:23 p.m. local time with the rocket tilted in a southerly direction.

After a roughly 1 minute, 30-second flight, the second Tiny Delta crashed into a patchy forest, sparking a blaze. East Pierce Fire and Rescue were called to the scene and swiftly put out the fire after eight hours of hard work. Nobody was injured in the crash and only an abandoned cabin was threatened by the fire, but was ultimately saved.

The Tiny Delta program was closed after lots of hard work by the engineers involved. Administrator Richard Simons announced that the agency would instead be focusing on the M-1 missile, and publicly announced the goal of reaching the upper atmosphere by 1956, and outer space by 1958. Administrator Simons also announced that the agency would begin working on aviation no later than 1959.

Chapter 1 Appendix

1 16 meters (rounded)

2 10 meters (rounded)

3 1,050 meters (rounded)

⁴ 6,250 meters (rounded)

[What strategy do you take in a career game?]

Somewhat fast-paced realism.

Yes, I've played RP-0 and enjoy it very much.

[[1.3.x] SETI, Unmanned before Manned [Patreon]]

11 hours ago, Spikos said:

But what if the author of the mod is dead or left his work forever. Is it fair to let the mod die, too? I mean I love Yemos work and it made my KSP experience so much better, but he is gone since a long time now. When you put so much time and love in a project like this, it is very rare that you just disappear without any comment. If I would know him in real life I would wonder if he is still alive.

The rules are clear for mods but I am not share if the creators of those rules ever thought about a situation like this.

It's doubtful the rule creators thought of a mod creator dying. I'm not sure what would happen in terms of copyright law in a situation like this, but in general copyright in the U.S. is valid for the lifetime of the author plus 75 years, I believe. There could be an exception, and in this case specifically I would imagine that somebody would be allowed to pick it up.

I would hope he simply got burned out without comment, but I'm not ruling out any possibilities here.

[[1.3.x] SETI, Unmanned before Manned [Patreon]]

On 11/25/2018 at 7:39 AM, Homer_S said:

Perhaps someone could "rewrite" it?

Homer

As already pointed out in this post, it's illegal to re-distribute it unless you're given written consent by the original author.

[Coltastican Space Agency]

Apologies for not maintaining this thread in a while. I was anxious to have my birthday, and in addition got a little burned out, and me and a friend were playing the DarkMultiPlayer mod and I totally forgot about this.

 

First of all, thanks @SBKerman for the reminder!

Second, you should expect a post in the next few days.

[[1.8.1] Kerbal Konstructs - 1.8.1.15 - 15.Dec.2019]

6 hours ago, tonimark said:

@Galileoit says no supported modules found! what does this mean or how to fix it

I've been having this issue too. Unfortunately, for me, it only displays if I have a Kerbal Konstructs addon added (such as KerbinSide). In addition, none of the buildings I place down actually save, and say if I save a building and then realize I made a mistake, I can't select it and edit again, nor can I view ANY of the statics placed on Kerbin. That list is just, well, blank.

• MODDED .log file:  https://www.dropbox.com/home?preview=output_log.txt

Due to the way Dropbox is working, I can only upload my modded .log file. I will try to get a stock .log file uploaded sometime soon.

For clarification's sake, I tested both Issue 1 and Issue 2 following the steps. I noticed it with my mods list and later tested it alone and it still occurred.

• Reproduction steps: (for issue 1)
  • Update to 1.4.4 with Making History expansion pack
  • Install KerbinSide Remastered, or any other mod that adds more statics for KK, in addition to KK.
  • Load game and create/load a new save
  • The additions will not exist, such as KerbinSide Remastered taxiways.
  • Push Ctrl + K
    • it won't work
  • If KerbinSide Remastered is installed, and no other statics mods, then it will only bring up a window that says "no supported modules found", similar to what tonimark has.
• Reproduction steps: (for issue 2)
  • Update to 1.4.4 with Making History expansion pack
  • Install ONLY Kerbal Konstructs
  • Place a static anywhere
  • Attempt to delete the static (it will not delete)
  • Enable colliders
    • You can now drive on it and such
  • Try to reselect it or view all/local instances
    • You can view it, and if colliders are enabled, drive on it and land on it, etc, but you cannot edit it again, because you cannot select it again
  • Save and quit
  • Reload the save file
  • Go to where you placed your static
    • It will not exist anymore, it was not saved

[Coltastican Space Agency]

Another update, not quite as long.

Kerbal 2

Spoiler

Theoler makes the loneliest walk to the rocket, before boarding it and lifting off for orbit.

Liftoff and ascent is nominal...

...and Theoler makes the orbit burn...

...and watches Kerbin rush by him below for two orbits, before making the de-orbit burn. This is his view.

Theoler successfully reenters, deploys the parachute, and jettisons the heatshield to bring the mission to a close.

4

Target Buoy

Spoiler

SETI contacted the agency and requested a target buoy be launched with a docking node.

It successfully makes orbit and awaits Theoler to dock with it.

Which, of course, he does after a few days of construction. You can see the new service module below the capsule. The service module still has plenty of fuel for another rendezvous maneuver.

After passing by the dark side, Theoler steps outside of the capsule to make the only scheduled EVA for the mission before returning.

Theoler Kerman: first kerbal to dock!

4

Eternity 1, first space station

Spoiler

Launched unkerbed, Eternity 1 has two docking nodes and a singular airlock that also, for now, serves as the crew module.

It successfully reaches the upper atmosphere, still looking good...

...and deploys itself!

After more construction, Theoler prepares to blast off yet again...

...and docks with the space station before the dark side. Theoler will be on the station for half a year, before the next crewmember relieves him, which will be part of the agencies new class of kerbonauts.

Theoler also preforms one of many scheduled EVAs.

5

Tourism

Spoiler

Millionaire Tito Kerman wishes to go to space, and space he shall go! Kendin piloted this mission, before he had to abort due to power problems. He then proceeded to relaunch, with solar panels, and fulfills Tito's itinerary, and returns back to Kerbin.

Mun Probes

Spoiler

Mun probes! Who doesn't love 'em? Harmony 1 lifted off, and made a flyby of the Mun, but was unable to communicate with Kerbin, and as a result, entered a keliocentric trajectory. Harmony 2 lifted off, with better antennas, and made the flyby and successfully transmitted data to Kerbin, but was also unable to return to Kerbin orbit and entered a keliocentric trajectory as well. They remain the only two kerbal-made objects to escape Kerbin's sphere of influence.

2

That's all summed up in about 2 hours of playtime.

Next time: station experiments, more mun probes, kerbin ops (and maybe a surprise)

[Coltastican Space Agency]

The first missions were conducted last time - this time, I have a lot more!

Project Patriot

Spoiler

The agency was still strapped for cash and needed quite the funds boost. 

Cosmos 1 was called upon, and engineers removed the plywood fins and replaced them with proper fins. The rocket was green-lit for takeoff, and it did so, designed to take lower atmospheric pressure data for a science agency.

Then Cosmos 2 was called upon and modified with the new-fangled parachute, to take upper atmospheric pressure data. After that, the contract gave us a net increase of nearly double our funds at the time.

But the probe predeploys its parachute at 10 kilometers...

...and was recovered by a helicopter team.

2

Project Explorer Reboot

Spoiler

The Explorer made its quickest ever ascent up the hills, and after Commander Theoler took a break for the engine to recharge, Flight Officer Kendin set a waypoint  using Waypoint Manager using a small computer provided for the expedition. This short expedition was to fulfill a request by the Field Research Team of the Science Department. After the expedition, the rover went around taking science data from the space center.

 

Project High Space

Spoiler

 

Cosmos 2 was modified, adding an RT-10 Hammer lower stage booster. Engineers were fairly confident that it could make it to the fabled "upper space", a point in space that appears in many religious and folk tales shared by kerbals far and wide.

 

However, the probe spun out of control around 30 seconds into the flight. The command center hurriedly changed its staging and decoupled from the booster and the probe parachuted to a safe landing, and was recovered by SPH employees who were on their lunch break at the time.

Appropriate employees were stuck in the dumpster, and another version lifted off with eight fins. This version had no aerodynamic issues and in fact, broke the 200-kilometer mark, but just barely.

A completely new version was made with new, more advanced fins that are able to be angled. The first stage consisted of an LV-T45 booster, and an FLT-800 fuel tank, which that alone made it to space, even with the upper stage and payload.

Once near apoapsis, the Flea solid fuel booster activated and propelled the rocket to nearly 300 kilometers. Entirely different readings were taken at the 250 kilometer mark, and as a result, an independent panel of scientists declared "upper space" to officially exist on Kerbin. Kerbals, many of whom religious, flocked to the space center to try to buy tickets for a ride to "upper space", however were broken-hearted when they were turned down based on the fact that nobody had crewed capsules yet. Despite having a parachute, the probe came in too quickly to be safely recovered and burned up in the upper atmosphere.

3

Project Diplomat

Spoiler

With enough science finally scrounged up from the couches gathered from the local area, administrators green-lit Project Diplomat, a program to get an artificial satellite into orbit around Kerbin.

Diplomat 1 lifted off from the pad...

...and immediately flipped out of control. (OOC: At this point, I had 3 grand left in the bank and the rocket cost nearly 30 grand, plus the payload, so I felt justified to enable the "revert to launch" difficulty cheat. It has since been disabled.)

Following a similar trajectory to Diplomat 1, Diplomat 2 took off, reached space, and...

...burned for orbit. Controllers were holding their breath during this entire burn, carefully monitoring fuel levels...

...until it successfully achieved a ~100x100 kilometer orbit, and automatically detached from the booster. The success brought money to the agency, which permitted the construction of Diplomat 3.

Now, Diplomat 3 was unique - it was the first probe ever to return from orbit. Controllers nominated to perform 2 orbits before returning. However, after 2 orbits, the probe was quickly approaching the pitch-black (literally!) dark side. After a few emergency meetings were held, and with the consent of administrators who happened to be present, it was elected to let the probe perform a half-orbit before reentering on the light side...

...and that it did! Heat data was monitored, and there was absolutely 0 sign of overheating...

...and successfully splashed down outside of connection range. It was quickly recovered and whisked away for study.

2

Project Kerbal

Spoiler

Whenever the engineers weren't needed in the Command Center, they were busy mucking about in their cold, dark corner of the VAB, making crewed capsules and testing them. One of them had the idea to stick one on a heat shield, stick a parachute on top, and attach a decoupler to the heat shield, and then put a booster with fins on the decoupler. The result? Kerbal 1. It's goal was to put the first kerbal in space.

And while for the most part, it worked...

...it only made it up to 50 kilometers. Flight Officer Theoler aborted the mission, having not much else he could've done, and returned to Kerbin with the heatshield attached. He then deployed the parachute, jettisoned the heat shield, and returned safely near the space center and was recovered by SPH employees once more.

3

Next time: First space station, Mun flybys and orbits, and kerbed orbits and return (not necessarily in that order).

[Coltastican Space Agency]

Coltastican Space Agency

Don't mind the stupid name. I thought it up at a restaurant and had no better ideas. If you need a slightly more backstory, check the About the Person Writing spoiler.

Oh, also, spoilers with anomalies on them (excluding the one at the space center) have a tag stating so. You'll know the tag if you see it.

 

Flight Log (Kerbed missions)

Spoiler

COLTASTICAN SPACE AGENCY FLIGHT LOG (KERBED MISSIONS)

* = First space mission

Mission            Rocket            Objective            Crew            Result

 

Operational Fleet (as of latest update)

Spoiler

Model            Class                        SIN            Name                        Status                        Notes

About the Person Writing

Spoiler

Hello! I see you've found me. I've made one attempt at a "mission report" before, but unfortunately got burned out in the early game, doing things that I could think up that would be considered "fun" for me. This time around, I'm going to take a couple of breaks in between updates/reports/whatever-you-call-them and come back every couple of days. So that's that! Now a little more about me and my game:

Well, I've been playing Kerbal Space Program since around 1.0.4, and had a blast doing so - I first played with the DarkMP multiplayer mod. The nice folks there helped me out a bit with orbital mechanics and all the complicated stuff that comes with picking up a jewel of a game like this. A few years later, on a live stream on my now-dead YouTube channel, I performed my first ever docking in Kerbin orbit building my first space station (without mechjeb, anyway). I have yet to actually complete a career mode, much less a modded one - I made about one million two hundred thousand funds/spacebucks/credits in one of my longest attempts and had ~15-20 objects in orbit, and a couple of probes landed on the Mun, something I haven't done before with RemoteTech.

Earlier this year, I also started up a sandbox save with my longest (in-game) time without going to space. It was ~100 Kerbin days before I sent up a mapping satellite - the reason for that was I was focusing on building a base on Kerbin and having fun doing so. Unfortunately, that save is no longer with us.

Now, a little bit about me (but not too much). My name is Colin, which is where the name "Coltastica" sprouted up. I felt with a name like that I had to tell you - but either way, I honestly don't care if you call me Colin or Unturned_Fighter, I'm used to either. I also happen to be autistic, specifically high functioning, which, fortunately (or unfortunately) leads to compliments on intelligence. I'm also quite the space fan, otherwise, I wouldn't be here. That's about all I'll say for privacy sake.

 

Oh, yes, I forgot - I'm NOT starting with the "Original Four." And for your sake, I bought the game AFTER Valentina was introduced - and I've always known them as "The Original Four," or refer to them using their actual names. I would like you to bear with me on that, too, if for whatever reason I feel a need to reference them sometime down the line.

2

Game Difficulty Settings 

Cosmos Program, first unkerbed missions

Spoiler

Engineers were fairly certain that they could get away with plywood fins instead of "proper" fins. Time will only tell. Anyway, after initial fueling and maintenance checks are completed, Mission Control green-lights the launch and it takes off into the skies, gathering valuable scientific data.

The plywood finds almost melted under the "extreme" temperatures encountered, and according to initial readings on the fins, were slowly cooling down during its doomed descent. Cosmos 1 reached an altitude of approximately 7 and a half kilometers before inevitably coming back down again. Wernher announced one of his new theories: "What goes up, must come down." Once we get into orbit, that theory will be heavily tested. The booster survived impact by some degree of black magic impact absorption. A record-breaking 8.4 science was gained from the flight, and the scientists immediately began work on a bigger, better booster.

With the doomed flight of Cosmos 1 completed, and still lacking parachutes, the engineers immediately started work on Cosmos 2 and it rolled out to the pad. With still unfulfilled contracts, Cosmos 2's mission was to reach the upper atmosphere and take readings while up there. The engineers are still uncertain whether or not it will reach space, but it will be a good milestone nonetheless. And with that, the launch is once again greenlighted, and the mission proceeds!

Cosmos 2 performs it's mission just fine, despite almost having the probe core burn up. Luckily, there was not only a SETI representative, but also a World Firsts Society representative, both of whom noted down the record of reaching the upper atmosphere. Cosmos 2 successfully transmits various readings it took from the upper atmosphere...

...and reaches Space! Both representatives once again note down the record - two records in one flight! With still somewhat barbaric computers some tracking difficulties on the agencies plate, engineers are unsure how high it reached, although estimations are anywhere from 160 kilometers to 250 kilometers. Engineers are, however, 100% certain that Cosmos 2 reached space. However, it was not designed to return alive, with still a lack of parachutes and  wizards from somewhere  throttlable rockets, Cosmos 2 impacted the ground near the space center. After these successful missions, the administrators cancel any further missions that may have been planned, at least for this program.

 

Project Explorer

Spoiler

In an effort to introduce the readers to the yet-unseen kerbonauts  explore Kerbin and gather scientific data from it, administrators invest in Project Explorer. Engineers immediately begin building The Explorer and drive it out of the hangar. Despite the newly found concept of headlights, tail lights, and brake lights, the engineers proceed without major problems.

From left to right: P0 Macbert, P0 Kendin, P0 Theoler. This short expedition is also their first ever mission with the agency, and is considered a training mission for them. All of them are pilots, (Red = pilots, gold = engineer, blue = science) as the space program has no need for scientists or engineers at this point.

All three kerbonauts board the Explorer and set off for the Grasslands biome to gather more science. Once the Explorer reaches the Shores biome, Macbert performs a short EVA to collect an EVA report and stuff the reports from the experiments on top into his quarters. The rover is also permitted to "recharge" before they begin the next jaunt into the hills.

Not quite in the hills biome, and with the engine struggling to get up the hill, the crew is forced to stop and let the Explorer recharge again. After it recharges, the rover sets off again to try to get into the Grasslands. The Explorer soon after enters the Grasslands biome. Once again, Macbert performs an EVA to collect data and get another report. After that, the Explorer attempts to return to the space center, but due to an error by Theoler, the rover flips and destroys all the science experiments. Thankfully, however, all the science is stored in the rover and not the experiments.

With the data collected, Project Explorer is placed on hold until more powerful wheels are invented, and I don't have to use hyperedit to recharge the rover solar panels are invented so we don't have to build Tesla recharging stations every 30 feet.

 

Next time: Tons more missions, lost of failures, first orbit, and first orbit and recovery (all unkerbed - only one kerbed test flight is completed, and i'm also excluding rover missions)

[Problems with Launching Vessels]

"Okay, it's not necessarily launching a vessel.

It started happening yesterday, requiring frequent restarts of the game (with which my mod list, it's about 15 minutes), and has gotten consistently worse to the point that at the end of day i can only change scenes twice before the entire game breaks down. If I'm in flight, I can't recover the vessel or go to the space center or even go to the main menu - not even quick save or load. If I'm on an EVA, I can have -5 flags... If it's at the space center, since it is a sandbox save, I can only access the astronaut complex, but as soon as I do all of my astronauts (thankfully unsaved) lose their experience. If I'm in an editor, I can do things like modify the vessel, scrap it, and load them, but I cannot save the vessel, launch, or quit. it just does nothing. The KSP.log and the console say: "[ERR 21:14:34.298] PartLoader: Encountered exception during compilation. System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at PartLoader.ReplaceTextures (UnityEngine.GameObject model, System.Collections.Generic.List`1 textureNames, System.Collections.Generic.List`1 newTextures) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0" but of course I shall provide the full log.

It's terrible. It's definately a mod conflict somewhere, and all of my mods are up to date save for Kerbal Engineer. I've verified the cache, rebooted, reinstalled even, started a completely fresh, blank new slate of a save and literally nothing has work. No possible solution I have found anywhere regarding this issue has worked.

 

• Mod List: https://imgur.com/a/qV4OQ4x
• Logs: https://www.dropbox.com/home/KSP stuff

[Horizons: a Journal from a Mission Controller]

I just wanted to let folks know that the thread is not dead - I am busy doing some play sessions for future chapters and writing the next said chapter - it should be ready in a day or two.

[Kerny Kerman's Journal (mission reports from a Kerbal's point of view) [Chapter 87: "Among the growing shadows."]]

Just out of curiosity, what mod are the towers from in New Kerbin City, Tulum Station, etc?

[Kerbin Elcano Exploration Project - Epilogue]

Nice!

Just one question, though - what mod are the slabs that Camp Saucer was sitting on from?

[Horizons: a Journal from a Mission Controller]

Entry 5

August 31, 1956

I walked into Gene’s office simply not knowing what to expect. Gene was only one of four kerbals who had wanted me in his office this early in the morning. The other kerbals waiting for me was Dr. Wernher von Kerman, our resident scientist, Dr. Henry, the chair of the Committee of Field Science, and then Walt Kerman, who was simply our Public Relations Department representative. No one really knows why he was a hazmat suit…

The rooms' walls were covered in wood paneling, with the far wall having various newspapers such as The Daylight Register and The Today’s Chronicle. Gene was always the type of kerbal to read the newspaper before his daily briefing, which is unique for a kerbal who sits upon a vast wealth of power.

The group of 4 kerbals, collectively known as the Group of 4, weren’t the only kerbals in the room. There was one from the Bureau of Naval Defense and another from the Civil Aerospace Defense Service. The kerbal from the BND was proudly wearing the Marine Commendation ribbon on his uniform, and it seemed he prized it well.

Dr. Henry was the first to speak to me. As he began to speak, the door behind me was locked, with two more Bureau of Naval Defense officers guarding it.

“So, Mark, if that’s what you prefer to be called. Before we begin our order of business, we all would like to congratulate you on your promotion to Flight Director-“

“Wait, what?” was my simple, only response. I was rather surprised, as I had always imagined Gene being the Flight Director. I was patiently awaiting a response from any of the kerbals in the room before me. Gene was the next to speak up.

“Were you not informed, Mark?”

“Nope. Nobody said so much as a whisper towards me about it.” I was still rather confused.

“Well, suffice to say I voluntarily stepped down from my position as Flight Director in order to focus more on running the agency. You were a valuable part of my team, and as such I intended to have you as my successor whenever I retired or stepped down.”

“Well, nobody told me anything. Now I do sincerely apologize Dr. Henry, please continue what you were saying.” Deep down, I was never informed of this change in my position, or that Gene intended to make me his successor, but it was all done and over with and I couldn’t change much unless I wanted to name someone my successor and step down. Dr. Henry continued where he left off.

“Yes, we would like to congratulate you on your promotion to Flight Director, Mark. Upon the recommendation of Gene Kerman and the Group of 4, you are hereby an official member of Sector J and the Group of 4 – now to be renamed the Group of 5. As Flight Director, you are now authorized to know everything at the space center, including classified projects.” The airman and sailor in the room didn’t so much as flinch since I entered the room. Dr. Henry passed along two folders towards my end of the table.

One of the folders was marked “Classified Projects” in bold, red letters. The other was marked “Your Responsibilities and Duties as a Flight Director” in bold, but black letters. Dr. Henry instructed me to open whichever folder I pleased. I then opened the folder containing my responsibilities and duties. Reading the only booklet in the folder, I know learned my responsibilities included:

• Overseeing flight operations
• Making sure my team is on task
• Taking responsibility for both my actions and my teams' actions
• And selecting a compatible team to ensure proper functionality.

I also learned that, excluding myself, the entire Mission Control Center was on leave until I get spare time to select members of my team. Upon asking Dr. Henry, he said to pick whenever you want. I elected to conduct the interviews on the 1^st of October.

The final pages of the booklet contained names of potential team members and their most compatible positions within the control center. I elected to leave out the Public Affairs Officer that I would have for my team, as I felt it was not necessary at this stage of space travel.

Dr. Henry then instructed me to open the Classified Projects folder at my leisure, but strictly when I was alone, and with that, ended the meeting. The door was unlocked, and we all filed out of the room followed by the guards. I suspected this wasn’t the last I would see of them.

Returning to my station with lunch, there was a very important looking kerbal standing at the entrance to my office. He had to be wearing at least 13 ribbons on his chest, one of which also happened to be the Marine Commendation ribbon. He introduced himself as Brigadier General Hayes. I unlocked my door and he followed me into my office – I took an educated guess that he might want the door locked and the blinds shut.

General Hayes announced he was working for Project Sandcastle. He shared with me sensitive information that essentially dimmed down to the government’s plans to put a kerbal on the Mun sometime in the future, and elaborated secondary goals that included putting the first kerbal in space, the first satellite in orbit around both Kerbin and the Mun, and then the first kerbal in orbit of both bodies as well. He said I was also considered the “flag officer of the space agency,” and was hereby promoted to Air Kadet of the Kerbin Military Defense Force Space Forces.

General Hayes, finished with his briefing, asked for the door to be unlocked as he had to return to a classified site, obviously not knowing I was now part of Sector J. Like the guards, I assumed this would not be my last encounter with him, but merely my first. As I am writing this entry, it is now getting later and later by the minute and I should close this entry for the night. I have a sneaking suspicion It will be a busy day for me.

[Horizons: a Journal from a Mission Controller]

Entry 4

August 30, 1956

                Yesterday, in order to get us a little bit of money, we built a craft to test a protective fairing and a wheel. Not much happened during that bit of testing, but we got the job done and a little bit of funds with it. The craft didn’t last long.

Anyway, I was assigned to the control room today for the flight. The plane used will be the Liberty 1, but since I am not technically a private pilot yet, I cannot test fly it so Jebediah will be flying it for the mission. The flight was an overwhelming success if not a little long – Jebediah found what he calls Southern Point but did not perform a landing due to fears that the ground is a little less than flat.

                Gene sternly told Jebediah that we will land there but failed to provide a date of when this might happen. The report said it had a beautiful view of the ocean right at the foot of a mountain with a relatively steep cliff going to the ocean – not the gentle, sandy beaches we have at the space center. Bill got a little excited when Gene said they would get around to building a few residences there for the astronauts, being the engineer and all.

                From what I hear, the next biggest challenge is flying supplies to the location, which with the size of the storage in the Liberty 1, will be next to impossible. The flights will be spendy, since not only will we have to deploy the 30 grand Freedom 1, we will have to purchase the inflatable materials which add to the cost of the deployment, guaranteed to go above our current budget by a longshot.

                Earlier in the day, Gene handed me a couple of reports from the government outlining our performance, giving us 12 and 9 grand per report. Gene expects that once we achieve orbit, our funding will be upped by a few notches to encourage us to push ever further with our new-found money. We’re beginning to rely less and less on contracts, but Gene says we should still take a few in between quarterly reports.

                In this mornings briefing folder, the VAB crews elected to include that Jebediah would begin his training this October, in preparation to become the first kerbal in space. As Flight Director of this particular mission, Gene said there would be less fault directed towards me since it is a manned mission. I’ve always appreciated Gene’s encouraging words, but things are only going to get stressful from here.

                In related news, the payload is absolutely amazing! Well, not the payload. The payload itself is actually quite ugly – a computer core, a flywheel to help turn the craft in space, and a radio antenna so we can talk to the satellite when we get line of sight. We have a few around the equator, but only for a fraction of the orbit will we have a direct connection to the satellite, and it doesn’t help that we might have to talk by phone to other tracking centers as the “supreme commander.”

                Wernher von Kerman, our chief scientist, payed a visit to me on my lunch break and ran down a few issues with my design for a new plane. It was much cheaper, and he commended me on that, but since I wasn’t directly observing the takeoff I only now learned that the plane had a tendency to tilt back onto its tail. The plane will be put out of service for a little while until both I and the engineering team can agree on how to fix it – I’m not a fan of the style of the tail anyway.

                Bob said he is getting a little antsy to get into space, and can’t wait to get to the Mun or Minmus. It’s only going to be stressful for the probes we inevitably send there first, but I share his excitement in seeing the first pictures from the far side of the Mun. Not only is this entry getting long, but it’s now 10:45 in the evening and I should probably be getting some sleep for tomorrow – Gene wants to see me in his office about an hour before Kerbolrise. I can only wonder for what he might want.

[Horizons: a Journal from a Mission Controller]

Entry 3

July 17, 1956

                Since the mission to find the local southernmost point hasn’t actually begun, I took a chance to swing by the engineers’ rec room on my morning break and dropped off the designs. The engineer in charge took a look at them, and to my amazement and confusion, starting laughing. After the fit was over, he simply looked at me and said “I didn’t expect this from a controller.” I take that as a “it’ll be put to trials as soon as possible.” I hope it gets a chance to fly the mission in a few days’ time.

                The House of Senators also recently passed legislation regarding the space agency. I’m not one to jump into politics, but I had to write this after I heard what the legislation was about. The legislation proposed sending kerbals into space, and as an agency owned and run by the government, we are required by law to listen to this legislation. Jebediah is in training sessions at Space City* to become the first kerbal in space, or so I hear. We won't be immediately rushing astronauts into space. We can only imagine how the USKR will respond.

                The Control Center is also going under a refit over the next couple of days to allow for manned missions of all sorts. It won’t be that big of an expansion, but most notably we get these new-fangled computers instead of having to write down important information all the time. I’m personally a little indifferent towards these computers. 

                I’ve been particularly observing a new little moonlet orbiting Kerbin. I don’t really call it anything, but I’ll be sure to take some of my reports to the Science Conference tomorrow. In the mean time, Gene called me to a mass conference in the large Briefing Room. Gene said that the Liberty 1 will be put to airspace patrols near the space center, and that I will be the first to fly it – he also said Jebediah and Valentina will get a chance at flying the Liberty 1 as well. I hope they like it just as much as I do.

 

*Space City is a reference to the Soviet/Russian Star City used to train their cosmonauts. If I remember correctly, it has the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center

[Horizons: a Journal from a Mission Controller]

Entry 2

July 16, 1956

                Gene informed me I was not, in fact, going to the new tracking facility. I would instead be focusing on some contracts to verify the functionality of some experimental parts. It’s not one of the most interesting things in the world, but it will give us some more money to operate with. That isn't the main focus of this entry, though.

                Before we start focusing on the part test contracts, Gene wants somebody to verify the southern point of the continent to potentially set up an “ship graveyard” dock. While I haven’t been there myself, I hear it’s beautiful. I don’t really have an interest, personally. I’ve never been much of a traveler.

                This will probably be the final deployment for a little while of the Freedom 1 before it gets sent to the Ship Graveyard itself. The problem is it’s too expensive to operate – I’ve been spending some of my off-time designing a few plane concepts that I’ll propose to some engineers in the aircraft hangar tomorrow. I just hope nobody raids my locker until then. I dub the new plane “Liberty 1.”

                Liberty 1 is not all that special of a design. If put into service, it can only fit one kerbal inside of it and has extremely limited storage capacity. The building materials will be relatively cheap and will include a “Continental” prop engine. Unlike the Freedom 1, it will have wings mounted to the roof instead of the cabin itself, which if the seaplane version is also put into service, will have two Continental engines mounted to the wings instead of one to the front of the cockpit. We’ll see how it plays out tomorrow.

[Horizons: a Journal from a Mission Controller]

Entry 1

June 29, 1956

Many of us at the Mission Control Center are becoming anxious for our first orbital launches. Gene and Bobak seem especially restless. With the recent speech by USKR leader Aaron Kerman, many of us are starting to doubt that it will be us - the Kerbal States - sending the first satellite into orbit. The administrators told us to not focus too hard on it, and as a result the Spaceplane Hangar teams have been a little more than busy over the past few months. In the tail end of 1955, we accomplished the first polar landing by plane, even though the crew was bound to the plane and didn't have enough fuel to get back. The KS Navy thankfully had a patrol ship in the area loading up on supplies in a village a bit further north. The plane was damaged beyond repair on the second landing in the local area, flipping on its roof. We've even tried to send a flight out to the North Pole, but simulations showed the mountains on the way are a little too high for the Freedom 1 to pass over.

Aside from that, we've already achieved suborbital flight. An engineer swung by earlier today and told us their readying Voyager III for launch again. Some say the Voyager series was a ripoff of the USKR's "Grestin" series, or the USKR stole the design from us - I personally think it's a coincidence of designs, but it's a little controversial around the space center. Back on topic, the launch will probe the outer space region with a magnetometer - which none of us really know what it does, which is why we have a scientist on staff during missions.

Some of the controllers are also being reassigned to a tracking facility in the East across the bay from the space center. They haven't released a list of names yet, but for some reason I heavily suspect I'm going there instead of staying for the action here at the space center. Gene told me not to worry so much - the team there will still get a chance to control satellites once they lose connection with the space center. It probably won't be the only tracking facility operating. To take my mind off of some of the stresses of working at a space center, I set up my telescope I got for Christmas last year. I haven't shared any discoveries with the science team, mainly due to the lack of anything they would find interesting up there that they haven't found first. Gene is encouraging me to keep a record of what I find in the sky and eventually report it to the science team. So far, I haven't found anything especially of interest.

 

(Out of the entry, OOC: This is my first fan work of literally any game, and I've been inspired to start one after reading Ussari, Alien Skies, Kerbin Elcano Exploration Project, and now Kerny Kerman's Journal. If any of the authors of those series happen to be reading this - thank you for your inspiration!)

[Feedback from a newcomer]

None of the contracts are written seriously. If you want seriously written contracts, get Contract Configurator and a couple of packs for it. The packs are also displayed on a thread, but as a "reply."

[Mobile Version of KSP]

It would not only destroy a phone, but a lot of the keys simply can't be put on the limited screens of a phone. Not taking into account anything else, they could probably get away with it on a tablet.

[Mission Status Overlay?]

Appreciated, thanks!

[Mission Status Overlay?]

Not really a request - more of a question, but here goes.

I've been noticing a few of the images the past couple of months that seem to have a dark, semi-transparent band on the bottom with mission name, time, actual date, situation, etc, as well as the mission/agency flag. Is this a mod, or a program, or something that's done manually?

 

p.s. if a passing moderator sees this is not in the correct location, please move it.

 

Here's an example

Image is taken from Pine's thread - only meant to be used as an example and I do not and will not claim to own or make this image.