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"For all our failings, despite our limitations and fallibilities, we humans are capable of greatness. What new wonders undreamt of in our time, will we have wrought in another generation, and another? How far will our nomadic species have wandered, by the end of the next century, and the next millennium?" Chapter 1: An Accident, a Tragedy, a Triumph. It seems NASA is ready to start this evenings press briefing, here is a statement from Associate Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, James Webb It is with deep sorrow that I address you here this afternoon. As many of you know, at 9:55 this morning the Gemini VI-A spacecraft suffered an anomaly, and the space program experienced a national tragedy with the loss of the Gemini VI-A spacecraft and her crew. Two dedicated, well trained and experienced pilots were on board that spacecraft, and sadly neither survived. Approximately eight seconds into its flight, a dramatic loss of thrust was observed in the Titan booster-rocket. Following protocol, command pilot Walter Schirra pulled the ejection ring in an attempt to get himself, and his fellow crewmate Thomas Strafford safely out of the capsule. It is with a heavy heart that I say the protocol failed them both. We here at NASA have failed them both. All data reported indicates the startup sequence was performed normally and without error, and we are still looking at the potential causes of failure in the booster’s first stage. However, if this were the only problem, the astronauts would still be with us today; Something prevented their parachutes from deploying fully upon ejection, leading them to impact the ground roughly a mile from the launchpad. Recovery teams were sent immediately to begin the recovery of the astronauts, however without a parachute, a fall from that altitude is nearly certain to be a fatal one. I’m aware of the media broadcasting footage of the ejection, and I appreciate them cutting the cameras shortly after. We are not here to speculate, neither to the cause of the booster failure, nor the parachute failure. It will take all the data we have, extensive testing and investigation to draw any conclusion, and to provide a sense of closure to the families, and to the nation. A formal board looking into today's accident will be established this evening, and all subsequent reports as to the cause and our agency's findings will be published by this review board. Data collection has begun, as has the analysis of the conditions of the launch pad, ground support systems, and even the notes made by members of our pad staff and launch teams here at the cape. We will get to the bottom of this incident, so that nothing like it can ever happen again. We thank you for your patience, and we ask that you give the families the space and time needed for them to grieve. As Webb promised, the investigation into the causes of the Gemini 6A failure did begin that evening, however to the public it was known simply as The December 12th Committee. Their findings would shape NASA safety culture, launch schedules, and nearly all subsequent programs for decades to come. The weight of the entire space program, and by extension the space race, was resting on their shoulders. Changes to the Gemini would be somewhat hard to see, but that didn’t make them any less important; The improved safety offered was considered by many to be well worth the wait caused by retrofitting the remaining five Gemini spacecraft. While not the largest change, easily the most impactful was that of the nitrogen purge. Prior to liftoff, when the cabin’s pressure was at its highest, the capsule would be filled with a mixture of gaseous oxygen and nitrogen to prevent another violent fire. This atmospheric mixture would bleed out of the capsule as it ascended, being replaced with pure oxygen, albeit at a much lower and safer pressure. This yielded an equally safe, and well proven environment of pure oxygen held at a low pressure. Another hard to spot change would be the Astronaut Tethering Points (ATP) added to the base of the Gemini’s Docking Adapter. These points were mere metal hoops, meant to allow the astronaut to attach his carabiner to while wearing one of the two life support packs included in the Gemini Program. This would, if functional, allow the astronauts to separate themselves from the nose of the craft by up to 75 feet (23 meters) achieving unmatched distances and flexibility during EVA. Lastly, the capsules would see a complete overhaul in their launch abort capabilities, with their ejection seats traded for a more traditional couch-style seat. NASA would instead opt for a more traditional, thus proven system, the launch abort tower. The tower weighed more than the seats, however due to staging off of the spacecraft 15 seconds after second-stage ignition, this actually resulted in a trivial, yet measurable payload increase. However, the trading of the bulky launch abort seats did have further benefits. First and foremost was astronaut comfort, as the astronauts had substantially more legroom without the ejection mechanism. This legroom could, and would be utilized in upcoming flights to stow tools, house sample containers, and carry additional life support as needed. The final change would come to the Titan-II. The rocket would receive a small payload containment ring which the Gemini spacecraft would sit atop. This 10 inch tall ring would allow for small payloads to be mounted alongside the Gemini, for use in orbit. Umbilical cables connecting spacecraft to rocket would be routed through this ring, with stringers lining the insides. Ultimately, this modification would see minimal use, however it would be the first demonstration of a concept that had been around as long as man had dreamed of spaceflight. It would demonstrate the prospect of man riding alongside cargo into space. This capsule, with all of her substantial safety improvements was dubbed Gemini Block IB, and was given a new coat of paint, distinguishing her from her sisters. The changes resulting from the December 12th Committee would ripple outwards into other programs. Of these, the most impacted was NASA’s upcoming Project Apollo. North American had suggested a nitrox cabin environment in their original bid, but was shot down by NASA management who claimed “It wasn’t a problem, and it hadn’t caused issues on Mercury” words which would later come back to bite them, hard. Rather begrudgingly, NASA agreed to allow the redesign of the Apollo CSM and LM to allow for a mixed gas environment and a reduction in flammable materials, in both the spacecraft and the suits. The agency accepted that this meant yet another delay to Project Apollo, and that it likely meant the first manned flight couldn’t happen any sooner than the third quarter of 1967. Many at NASA’s manned spaceflight center objected to this decision; However ultimately it was considered less of a risk to schedules to wait for a redesign, than to push forward with a flawed one. And with that, Apollo Block IIA and III were born, and the Gemini program was on track for a return-to-flight in June of ‘66. The Committee had closed its final meeting, after 5 long months.

From Ground to Sky From: SixAndAHalfMen & UCTech Series Ended

A timeline of my canoniverse, up to 2,000 years before the present day. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE AS WE KERBALS HAVE COME TO KNOW IT: est. 8,900,000,000 cycles B.T: The universe is created. It takes another 500 million cycles (est.) to develop any sort of planets/galaxies, and Kerbal scientists are determined to find out why the hell it waited so long. Maybe it wanted a nap. est. 8,400,000,000 cycles B.T: First galaxies are formed, with boring proto-stars and planets. est. 5,200,000,000 cycles B.T: Supposed birthdate of the Kerm- the greatest deity of the Kerbpalooza. est. 3,700,000,000 cycles B.T: Kerbol forms in a secluded corner of the Meelky Wahy Galaxy. est. 3,150,000,000 cycles B.T: Kerbin is formed, one of six (sorry, Dres- seven!) planets orbiting Kerbol. est. 2,800,000,000 cycles B.T: A mysterious object only known as K-1627 (yep, the scientists love naming cool stuff after photocopiers- sigh) passes through the Kerbol system at a distance of 8,000 light-years. A space sucker of the worst kind, this sent a flurry of huge projectiles at the still-forming planets. What a meanie! est. 2,675,000,000 cycles B.T: A huge asteroid some 1,500 km across impacts Kerbin, sending it into a spin and blasting bits that would soon become the Mun into space. est. 2,200,000,000 cycles B.T: The first microbes begin to flourish in Duna's cold oceans. Laythe would soon be habitable a mere 40 million years later. est. 2,000,000,000 cycles B.T: Kerbin gains oceans, and early bacteria. est. 1,850,000,000 cycles B.T: Kerbin's atmosphere stabilizes, prompting a comfy surface temperature of 67 degrees Kanticular. (Author's note: this is oddly the same as degrees Celsius- huh?) A fragment of obsidio matter hits Tylo, blasting Bop and Pol into existence. est. 1,800,000,000 cycles B.T: Ike wanders into the party from way out in interstellar space, settles into a nice orbit around Duna. Eeloo isn't so lucky after encountering Joold being shot to the edge of the Kerbol system. est. 1,450,000,000 cycles B.T: Kerbin cools to a cushy 41 degrees Kanticular, prompting the first multicellular life to evolve. Ike is hit by and asteroid and moves to its current orbit of Duna over the next 100 million years. est. 1,300,000,000 cycles B.T: Duna begins to lose it's hospitable climate thanks to Ike siphoning off it's atmosphere- too close for comfort mayhaps? est. 1,000,000,000 cycles B.T: Laythe begins to develop bacterial life in its oceans. Duna is now at its present state. est. 920,000,000 cycles B.T: A 70 km across asteroid hits Eve, the biggest fragment enters orbit and becomes Gilly. est. 800,000,000 cycles B.T: Kerbin more or less enters its current climate- the Mun is hit by several tiny, metallic objects-possibly alien in nature. First aquatic life evolves in Kerbin's oceans- among them the far descendants of the Kerbals. est: 550,000,000 cycles B.T: Minmus is captured by Kerbin's gravity well and begins to orbit it. A strange sort of race called SQUAD lands on prehistoric Kerbin and leaves weird monoliths dotted across the Kerbol system. est: 475,000,000 cycles B.T: Believed departure time of the SQUAD. est. 380,000,000 cycles B.T: First land-walker animals on Kerbin. The ancestors of Kerbals gain basic intelligence- about one-thousandth of a modern Kerbal's brainpower. Only a million or so Kerbals are alive. est. 275,000,000 cycles B.T: Millions of land-walkers roam Kerbin. The prehistoric Kerbal ancestors declare it a fad. est. 110,000,000 cycles B.T: Kerbin goes through the Kuraconian Volcanism period. Kerbin's temperatures drop to 9 degrees Kanticular, slowly warming back up to 23 degrees over the next 700,000 years. Land-walkers all die off- Kerbals survive. est. 109,300,000 cycles B.T: Kerbals come out from their new underwater heatvent shelters, greatly more intelligent. est. 80,000,000 cycles B.T: The First Great Civilization is built underwater, in huge cities glittering with beauty and purpose. Kerbal population reaches 10 million. est. 45,500,000 cycles B.T: The First Great Civilization-ender event takes place over the next few million years. Modern Kerbal scientists believe that resource over-consumption and gradual climate change were the causes. est. 37,000,000 cycles B.T: First Kerbals step foot on land. They die. est. 36,900,000 cycles B.T: Ud Kerman manages to Not Die on land. His friends follow him, and they didn't die either! He becomes the long-forgotten hero of the Second Great Civilization. est. 32,500,000 cycles B.T: Most of the Kerbal race moves to land, bar a few outsiders, who remain in the ocean ruins. est. 18,000,000 cycles B.T: The Second Great Civilization is established. It took the land Kerbals roughly 14 million cycles to develop the Second Great Civilization- markedly better than the 30 million cycles it took for Kerbals to build the First Great Civilization. Large explosions occur in Kerbin's oceans- might explain why the ocean ruins and the ocean-dweller Kerbals were never found. est. 9,000,000 cycles B.T: The first little skirmishes occur on Kerbin- a grim foreshadowing of what is to come. est. 8,000,000 cycles B.T: Kerbals discover 'star-splitting' the first experiment ends with the city razed to the ground and high radiation levels in the air for the next 2,000,000 cycles. est. 7,200,000 cycles B.T: The first 'star-stone' weapons are created, so named because they 'look' like big stones, but when activated 'bring a star to the surface of Kerbin for a second.' est. 6,820,000 cycles B.T: Kerbal population reaches 50 million. est. 6,600,000 cycles B.T: The Second Great Civilization vanishes almost overnight- only a few hundred thousand Kerbals remain. Radiation levels ensure that modern civilization does not recover for another 2 million cycles. The disaster is still being investigated... est. 4,500,000 cycles B.T: The Kerbals are now their trademark hue of green, thanks to radiation. est. 3,000,000 cycles B.T: The Third Great Civilization rises after just one and a half million cycles. Kerbal population reaches 100 million. est. 2,600,000 cycles B.T: The Kerbal population reaches 500 million- the Third Great Civilization locks away the star-stone weapons and flourishes. est. 2,300,000 cycles B.T: The Kerbal population reaches a billion. est. 2,100,000 cycles B.T: The space program of the Third Great Civilization is believed to have been founded in this cycle- explaining the strange Munar satellite found by MunSurveyor One, and the conical ancient lander found by the Duna Insight rover. est. 1,150,000 cycles B.T: The Kerbal population reaches 5 billion, the modern-day Kerm religion is founded. est. 30,000 cycles B.T: Thetus, a 120 km wide comet, is knocked out of the Nova Kirbani system and hurtles towards Kerbol. est. 250 cycles B.T: The hubris retained by the Second Great Civilization returns somewhat: Thetus is found and the Kerbals are confident that they can blow it to bits. est. 5 cycles B.T: The mission to divert Thetus fails. A wave of fear grips The Third Great Civilization and mass suicide is common. The Kerm religion dwindles to just a few thousand followers. Shortly before, the highest Kerbal population ever is reached: 8.7 billion. THETUS IMPACT: 33,407 cycles before present Thetus's impact occurs into the sea, 600 kilometers off the coast of the modern-day Aquan Empire. Waves 3 kilometers high swamp coastal areas, while a wave of molten crust incinerates up to 300 miles inland, radiating from in every direction. Ejecta from the impact enters the atmosphere and causes a global night lasting hundreds of years. The Kerbal population dwindles from around 6 billion at time of impact, to 150,000 after 500 years. Civilization has never- and will probably never reach the glory of before the impact. The Kerm religion kept survivors determined, word spread and was passed down generations to ensure that the mistakes caused by previous civilizations would never be repeated. To this day, the Kerm religion is the most followed religion on Kerbin, with over 170 million believers out of a population of nearly 260 million. 500 cycles A.T: Civilization begins to recover. 11,000 cycles A.T: The Fourth Great Civilization is established. 16,000 cycles A.T: The Santi impact occurs, in a thankfully unpopulated area of Kerbin (in what is now the Third Great Desert). Santi's affliction, a plague brought from space by the Santi impactor, spreads by air across Kerbin. Over half the population is infected, and 20% die. 22,000 cycles A.T: Jool's Big Green spot is found. 28,600 cycles A.T: One of the 'star-stone' hider vaults is opened. Over the next thousand cycles, various Kerbal nation-states engineer their own versions of the weapons. 30,000 cycles A.T: The first 'star-power' plant is opened, proving that the reverse-engineered star-stone techology can be used for good as well as bad. 30,800 cycles A.T: The Star-stone Skirmishes occur this year, and kill an estimated 5 million kerbals between them. 31,143 cycles A.T: The Great Shifting occurs, killing another 20 million kerbals, raising the sea level 4 meters and causing huge earthquakes. 32,000 cycles A.T: Civilization recovers, this guide ends. If you need a newer timeline, why not check out the soon to be published 'Modern Kerbal History Handbook'?

Kerboin's Spur A KSP Fan Project Table of Contents Introduction Nations of Kerbin, as of the launch of the Füthor 1 The Füthor 1 More coming soon... Introduction It was merely nine years after the devastating Great War when kerbalkind finally began to explore beyond their homeworld of Kerbin. But - as with most of the explorations that occurred through our history - the launch of the Füthor 1 orbital satellite was not one done simply for curiousity's sake. It was an exploration to prove superiority and dominance. You see, the construction and launch of the Füthor was orchestrated by the Jerram Reich, a totalitarian dictatorship locked in a state of cold war with the two other superpowers of Kerbin at the time. It was the third attempt by the Reich to put a satellite in orbit, which would somehow prove itself "better" than both the United Communes of Somvard and the Federal States of Murcrar. But for being carried out by an extremely oppressive polity, the launch of the Füthor 1 was to become one of the most important events in all of kerbalkind's history. It would usher in the very first Space Race of countless Space Races. It would also upset quite a lot of other nations... - - - I don't really like this intro all that much - but hopefully, the rest of it will be better.

Okay I thought I posted about this before but I guess the kraken got it, so here it goes, apologies to KAC for stealing the screenshots from it's manual. What I propose is a new UI element called the timeline, a multi function tracking center and map view utility that combines functions of KAC, warp control, mission updates, and yes even multiplayer warp control. Now i'm not an expert UI guru, so i'm sure this whole idea could be made much cleaner with context sensitive displays and such, but essentially it should be handled like a video/audio editor track that you can 'scrub' and change the scale of on the fly to suit your needs. Okay the First image shows a fairly low time scale, You have time markers, you have the zero line (but you can scrub left or right to view different sections if you want) A mouseover (see Kerbal X) an icon will show it's time or more details. The actual timeline should have pretty basic icons to keep it from getting too cluttered. You can compare the icons on the timeline to the ones in the KAC window. On the far right you see an arrow, this could signify user created maneuver nodes or alarms that are off screen in the future. In this case the SOI and transfer window alarms. Maybe in the real UI you'd just mouse over the arrow and it would show the details in a text popup. One of my ideas for multiplayer timewarp would be to integrate it into the timeline, in addition to hotkeys (which could be treated like the game 'defcon' where the game runs at the fastest speed of the slowest player), you'd be able to que up warps (similar to KAC or mechjeb warp helper). In this example, the player (blue bar) qued up a warp 20 minutes from now to some point in the future, but the 2nd player (purple bar) wants to warp sooner (looks like around 12m30s) but the green bar represents the agreed upon overlap, so thats when it will warp. So maybe the purple player can go get a sandwich. ;P This Shows a longer timescale, Since the alarm clock is so close to zero at this time scale, there should be some advanced info on it, maybe it blinks red with a timer indicator under it, since at a 3 hour gradation you'd never be able to tell when a 3 minute timer would pop just by looking. Again mouseover shows more time detail. In this example our Transfer window is still way out, so it's got the right hand arrow indicating it's off the scale. In this example you qued up a warp 8 days from now till around 18 days, and since player 2 wants to warp to the foreseeable future (Boy are they mad at you!) You're entire warp is approved since it overlaps, note we won't necessarily track warp in the T minus part of the scale since it's pretty pointless, but I guess you could. Final picture shows the last idea. And this is we could have context buttons (see transfer window icon lower left) That would show non user-created info on the timeline. In this example we're dealing with year scale timelines, so our SOI transfer and alarm clock are Red flashing since they're happening sooner than the lowest gradient, and since the alarm is happening sooner, it's time is displayed, and once it pops, the SOI transfer time will show instead, possibly the alarm would blink since it's happening within 15 minutes, and the SOI would be less dire because it's still 1 day out. So this example shows something you could do with mission info (Launch, staging, part heating, destruction, failure, landing, eva) with the proper context button. But in this case we'll use Transfer window (but you could do SOI, whatever) So say you click the transfer window button, now it'll show a dot for each Transfer window upcoming from your current location, maybe a pop up key will show a different color for each body. But in this case we'll use muted green dot for every planet with an upcoming Transfer. In our example we clicked Duna, note that Eeloo is below it (the muted green dot under the bright green dot) because they're nearly the same time window. Since we selected Duna, in addition to showing it's nearest transfer, it now projects out the next 4 transfer windows (represented by bright dots that fade from green, to yellow, to red) So you can visualize the time scale of the Kerbin Duna transfer in context of your other markers, alarms, etc. In this example I further demonstrated the Warp overlap Mechanism, both players have layed out warp ques, but only the agreed upon areas are going to warp. I suppose the player could hit the warp hotkey when they are within player twos warp que and it'll just automatically add say 5 minutes of warp or whatever till they run out. If there is going to be 'surprise' warp, there should be some 10 second warning in which the other player can change their mind, so you can change your mind. Anyway So this is the Summary: Timeline, different time scales and positions selectable by player. KAC functionality built into it, place alarms by clicking on timeline, select context buttons to show all SOI, Transfer windows, closest approach, AP, PE, etc. Place an alarm just by clicking icon. Mission Timeline also shown on this with context button. Icons to represent evens, so Launch Icon, Stage Icon, Landing Icon, Recovery? Park failure icons. Mouse overs show details, Possibly multiplayer support with a muted or different color to optionally show the other players launches, disasters, etc. Also if there is life support, this would be a HUGE factor also, big indicators to show estimated life support range, warnings for specific flights. Easier Time warp, just click and drag on the timeline, it'll warp during that time segment. Maybe time warp hot keys just add an automatic time segment to the timeline, the longer the segment, the faster the warp Show upcoming Transfer windows, SOI changes, AP, PE, etc based on context menus. Anyway i'm done, what do you think?