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Crossed Fingers - Space junk in the ocean


NotAgain

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Bonus update!

HMF - 22

Mission: Launch two new Geostationary communications satellites (and succeed this time).

Launch Vehicle: Prometheus III 122K

Orbiter: KSS Dauntless (OV-7)

Crew: Commander E1 Pepe Kerman, Orbiter Pilot P1 Duddas Kerman, Mission Specialist E1 Wensie Kerman and Mission Specialist S1 Ludvey Kerman

Agency/Launch Site: KSA(On Behalf of the Kerbal Space Exploration Council)/Kape Kanaveral

Today, we jam amongst the stars. And launch a couple of geostationary commsats.

Spoiler

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On this morning's flight, we have our four victims entirely willing participants, (from left to right) E1 Wensie Kerman (first Kerbal on the Mun, and tired of all the attention, also Mission Specialist), S1 Ludvey Kerman (Mission Specialist), P1 Duddas Kerman (Orbiter Pilot) and E1 Pepe Kerman (Commander). We're also carrying Serena X and XI (yes, again). The orbiter for today is the KSS Dauntless (OV-7).

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With its usual worrying enthusiasm, the Prometheus III 122K leaves the pad on the insane thrust of the twin SRBs, and our second attempt at launching these satellites begins.

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The twin Kerolox engines then ignite at T+32 seconds, and the boosters are jettisoned, later to be recovered by parachute from the sea.

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The rocket continues to rapidly gain speed, and crew fight against the G-Forces.

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We then ignite the reusable upper stage and head for orbit.

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The aforemention stage then goes "to hell with this, I'm going home", and promptly does so. (This one was also recovered successfully. The new method of actually burning all the remaining fuel in order to slow down to a speed where the stage won't disintegrate seems to work.)

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And we finally make orbit, and Ludvey takes a moment to exploit our copious supply of sick bags.

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We're now in orbit, and have opened the cargo bay. The next step is getting Pepe and Wensie out on EVA in case the satellites need a bit of help leaving the orbiter and deploying. Pepe appears to be upholding his tradition of bringing his guitar on every single mission.

In space, no one can hear you, uhhh, play the guitar?

 

*There's a star-kerb waiting in the sky/*

*He'd like to come and meet us/*

*But he thinks he'd blow our minds...*

Spoiler

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The whole 'Pepe doesn't go into space without a guitar' thing's been going on since we recruitied him, back in late Year 1, and he took the guitar up on Felsto - Fenris VII, which was his first flight. (Pictured)

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Wensie then steps outside too, and Ludvey releases the twin commsats, and, once Pepe and Wensie have confirmed that they're clear of the orbiter, Mission Control gives the remote deployment command, and, one at a time, Serena - X and XI unfurl their solar arrays and power up their main antennas.

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These satellites will make up 50% of a new Geostationary network, accesible to all space agencies, for any purpose. It's one of the new 'Kerbal Space Exploration Council's new programmes, like the multi-national LV-909 engine and the KSA/ENSA JOint Mapping Orbiter (JOMO) Minmus probe.

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I'm seriously impressed at the design of these satellites. They're capable of placing themselves in a Geostationary orbit from a 160km x 160km parking orbit on just their onboard engines and fuel supplies.

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So after a (finally) succesful mission, the crew return home, streaming through the atmosphere, leaving a trail of ionised air in their wake.

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Duddas has done this before, and has no problem guiding the orbiter down to the space centre.

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Where he safely lands Dauntless (this time, without parachutes!)

 

Edited by NotAgain
Victims
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Blue Anchor - Firedance XIII

Mission: Fly a crew out to our Mun base.

Launch Vehicle: Firedance IIIC

Crew: Commander E1 Nelrim Kerman and Mission Specialist S0 Tanicca Kerman

Agency/Launch Site: KSA/Kape Kanaveral

It's been several months since the KSA have been to the Mun. It's high time we went back.

Spoiler

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About two and a half years ago, we launched a Mun base for a contract, Beryl Foster Station. It's been sitting uncrewed on the Munar surface since then. We've been wondering about how we can keep a crew alive on the surface of another world for weeks at a time. Until now, the longest we've managed is two and a half days on Blue Anchor - Firedance XI. Greenwood 3 will be spending 50 days on the surface of Duna, and we don't know anything about running an off-world base.

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So we're sending up a crew to Beryl Foster Station in order to:

A) Find out some stuff about stranding two Kerbals in a tin can in 1/6 gravity for 80 days.

B) Actually make use of a very expensive station.

Our Kerbals for this little exercise are (from left to right) Mission Specialist S0 Tanicca Kerman and Commander E1 Nelrim Kerman.

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The FIredance IIIC lifts off without issues, as it's done every time before.

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I've never had a failure on ascent of a Firedance - IIIC. Today is no different. I'm sorry to disappoint you all.

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The hypergolic boosters seperate, and the next Munar landing pushes on.

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I suppose that I should discuss the crew a little bit. Nelrim's a relatively experienced Kerbonaut, having flown on several missions. Tannica, on the other hand, is brand new, a part of the new Kerbonaut class and has never flown to space before. The higher-ups are a little bit nervous about sending a total rookie to play around with expensive hardware and Plutonium on the Munar surface. Wernher is confident that she won't break anything, though, so he's vouching for her.

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Also, I've occasionally run into a bug with this engine that tweakscales it up way too far. I forgot to do the little work-around that counteracts it this time, so I'm left with an overly large Dnoces - S engine.

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Having set the 25 ton combined spacecraft on a trajectory to fly by the Mun, Nelrim and Tanicca ditch the fairing and start the transposition, docking and extraction maneouver.

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The S-IVB stage is then ditched on a trajectory to impact the Mun and the Blue Anchor Block III makes a small RCS burn to put it on a flyby course, and not slam into the Mun at 800+ m/s.

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About a day after lift off the Service Propulsion System ignites to place the spacecraft in orbit around the Mun. This shot also gives us a nice view of the Block III lander's landing lights, which are a new addition to the design. They shouldn't be necessary on this flight, but it's nice to know they're there.

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And now, we wait for four days until Beryl Foster Station is in the ideal position for a landing attempt.

 

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OrbLab 2 Node 1

Mission: Expand OrbLab 2 in such a way that I can finally make it worth the money we spent on it.

Launch Vehicle: Firestorm V

Agency/Launch Site: KSA/Kape Kanaveral

[Insert witty remark here]

Spoiler

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It has come to the attention of the administrators of the KSA that OrbLab 2 is seriously useless compared to its predecessor, OrbLab 1A. For this reason, we're launching a new docking node, in order for us to dock new and interesting modules to the station, and make it worth what it cost us to launch.

Actually, this is just an excuse to use the biggest SRB I've ever flown.

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The launcher we're using today is the KSA's new Firestorm V. The rocket consists of two stages, made up of a single huge FS - V Solid Rocket Boooster for the first stage that gets recovered by parachute after its mission for re-use.

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The second stage is an S-IVD, a little development project that the KSA has had on the back burner since early Year 5. It's a cyogenic stage, powered by a Dnoces - S engine, and it handles most of the ascent for the Firestorm V, as the first stage burns out at about 8 - 12km up.

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Operating as the third stage for this mission we have the ACUSS, which you'll be familiar with from the launch of Grace - IX. This varient, however, is the low orbit varient, and is designed to be re-usable. As such, it has a guidance unit, RTGs, parachutes, airbrakes, a heatshield and an RCS system.

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It was at this point that I realised that the only probe core on the vehicle was the ACUSS's one. Good luck to me trying to dock this to any station.

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I decided to release it anyway, and remotely pilot an entire space station in to pick it up. And then I realised that I couldn't get it to retract its docking ring. Mulch.

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Ah, well. I can send a crew up to fix the situation. For now, I'll de orbit the ACUSS, and hope it survives.

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Spoiler alert: it did.

 

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To: General Secretary of the Kommunist Party and Benevolent Tyrant of the Metarian Union, Irina Kerman.

From: Director Sergei Kerman, Metkosmos.

Re: The new R-5B and R-3A Launch Vehicles.

 

Good morning, General Secretary.

I'm sure that you're familiar with the new launch vehicles that my agency have been operating recently, namely the R-5B and R-3A (you certainly should, you signed the authorisation papers). Anyway, we're having some serious issues with them. I have practically every department of my agency (apart from finance) cursing them to high heaven for some reason or another. Even Yuliya from Public Relations is complaining! She says that they're uglier than a Lelreg's behind (whatever that is), and the she presented me with a letter from a two-year-old kerblet asking what she'd done with the "nice, old rockets". Honestly, I have to agree with the bloody kerblet. The new boosters are too big for the old umbilical towers, too powerful for their own good, are giving us trouble with the core stage engines, they're unwieldy in flight, and nowhere near as cost-effective as they're supposed to be. They are, also bloody ugly. Nasty, squat machines with no elegance to them.

I've written to you directly because I'm hoping that you'll listen to your old friend Sergei, and because I know you have the power to requisition the funds and raw materials to continue operating the R-5A and R-3 lifters from somewhere. Those boosters may have been more expensive than the new ones, but they were far more useful, not to mention controllable and sleek.

Your childhood friend,

Sergei.

 

 

To: Director Sergei Kerman, Metkosmos.

From: GenSec Irina Kerman.

Re: Your rocket troubles.

 

I can't begin to tell you how happy I was to hear from you old friend, I was beginning to think that you'd been quietly transfered to a salt mine. At least your letter gives me an excuse not to read about the latest conspiracy our lovely head of intelligence has come up with.

I can certainly get you the materials to re-enstate your old lifters, but not without an excuse. After I took power from old Vlad, the party have known that they have the power to destroy their leader if it suits them. I know that some of our more conservative friends can't bear the thought of me, a woman, in charge, and they're just waiting for an opportunity to bring me down. I won't make it easy for them, but if they suspect me of cronyism, everything will go to mulchville pretty quickly here, so I can't help you without an excuse.

Making up an excuse isn't a particular problem, but I know you, and whatever I tell you to do, you'll do. You're not the sort to quietly shelve a project. The only way I can get you the resources, though, is through a BIG project. I know that the DPK missions are still on the drawing board, but, if you want those rockets, I'll need you to throw caution to the wind, and put Metarian Kosmonauts on Duna before Greenwood 3's DAV lifts off from the surface of Duna. I know this is asking the world, but it'll keep both of our butts out of the salt mines.

Good luck, my friend. I hope to speak to you soon.

Irina.

Edited by NotAgain
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Blue Anchor - Firedance XIII landing and unpacking

Mission: Land at Beyrl Foster Station and deploy the verious bits of new equipment.

It's time for BFS Ex - 1 to land, Nelrim to get busy building rovers and RTG arrays, and Tannica to do pretty much nothing.

Spoiler

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After a four day stay in Munar orbit, spent waiting for the base to come around into the munar morning ('cause no-one likes night landings), Nelrim and Tannica are finally ready to descend to the munar surface (first time for both of them) and set up shop at Beryl Foster Station. They'll need to assemble the Munar Roving Vehicle (Mk2 model, as the Mk1 is a single-seater), and, most importantly, the Radioisotopic Thermoelectric Generator array, which will supply 1 EC/s of power for the station during the hours of darkness, plenty enough to tide over life support and lighting, and the other functions that the base can't support a crew without.

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And so, our intrepid crew begins their descent, rolling the inclination correction and de-orbit burns into one for the sake of simplicity and efficiency.

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Now decellerating, the lander approaches the area where Beryl Foster Station landed more than two years ago.

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Not far to go now...

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Nearly there, and we can now see the base.

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And touchdown! Blue Anchor - Firedance XIII has landed! We are on the [REDACTED FOR FAMILY FRIENDLINESS] Mun!

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Our two explorers clamber out and survey the beautiful desolation of the munar surface, and spot the base that'll be their home for the next 80 days.

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While Tannica takes it all in, Nelrim gets out his electric screwdriver and starts pulling parts out of the lockers on the lander's descent stage, and starts building the Munar Roving Vehicle.

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The two Kerbonauts then drive over to the base, getting their first good look at it. It's fairly simple, with a cupola, hab and airlock, and solar arrays for power. The eagle-eyedamongst you may have noticed that the jack that Nelrim built the rover on is still attached. He couldn't figure out how to get it off. (Certainly not the way he put it on, with an electric screwdriver!)

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Oh, wait, there was a button to do that all along.

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Now comes the naming ceremony for the area where the base sits.

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I decided to continue my trend of naming geographic features of other world after real life astronauts (for the KSA) and cosmonauts (for Metkosmos).

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Now Nelrim gets on with his other task: putting together the RTG array. Thanks to KIS/KAS, I don't have to fly it out attached to the base.

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And it's finished.

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And there we have it, folks, one largely functional Mun base. I'll send up a lab and a proper pressurized rover at some point in the future.

 

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HMF - 23

Mission: Collect Node 1 for OrbLab 2, which is adrift.

Launch Vehicle: Prometheus III 122K

Orbiter: KSS Lionheart (OV - 2)

Crew: E1 Bill Kerman (Commander), P1 Malin Kerman (Orbiter Pilot), S1 Elity Kerman (Mission Specialist), S1 Jaline Kerman (Mission Specialist)

Agency/Lanch Site: KSA/Kape Kanaveral

Today we launch a new crew up to OrbLab 2, and finally chase down that errant module.

Spoiler

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Ya know that docking node we sent up to OrbLab 2? well, you might remember that we couldn't achieve a hard dock, so it's still floating around up there. In order to retrieve it before it floats out of physics range of the station, the KSA administration team has decided to move Expedition 4's launch up to an earlier point, so here we have the crew, comprised of (from left to right) E1 Bill Kerman (Commander), P1 Malin Kerman (Orbiter Pilot), S1 Elity Kerman (Mission Specialist) and S1 Jaline Kerman (Mission Specialist). Their mission, should they choose to accept it (actually, let's be realistic. They don't have a choice), is to retrieve the escaped Node 1 and dock it to the station before doing 200 days of science.

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And the Prometheus III 122K lifter leaps from the launch pad at Kanaveral, carrying its gallent crew to their task of node-wrangling.

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The launch and orbital insertion were uneventful, and I'm sure the lot of you are familar with the sequence by now. The upper stage and boosters were recovered successfully, and the crew and orbiter arrived in their target orbit without incident.

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The rendezvous went fine, but that was the easy bit. Now Bill stepped outside and made his way to the drifting Node 1, more than a mile away. This is, in fact, the furthest we've ever had to go from the ship on an orbital EVA. Once he reached the module, Bill used the external manual controls (read: right-click menu) to retract the docking ring, allowing a hard docking to be made.

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After Bill made his way back to the Lionheart, and then Malin took remote command of OrbLab 2 and chased the module down, docked to it, and returned the finished product to its proper 140 x 140km equatorial orbit.

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She then relinquished control of the station back to its SAS system and returned to flying the orbiter, bringing it in to a smooth docking with OrbLab 2, and allowing the scientists to get on with their primary mission.

 

Also, Grace - XIII finally left Minmus for Duna:

Spoiler

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Edited by NotAgain
Sp&G
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Resupply Compilation 1

So, I said a few posts back that I would start putting all the more boring missions (like re-supplies, course corrections and rover driving) into one compilation every couple of weeks to give you more exciting missions. This is the first installment.

Spoiler

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We'll start with Hamal P - 2, a resupply mission to Besstrashnyy, and the first flight of the new R - 5B lifter (look at the 'telegram' post from a few days ago for my feelings on that). It proved to be difficult to control, overpowered and had a near-failure of the core stage engine. ON ITS FIRST MISSION.

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In spite of the problematic launch vehicle, the resupply ship made it to the space station. Also, I'm retiring the CADS docking port. It's just too dangerous to use. (It randomly spits ships out upon undocking, and has already broken one solar array.)

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We then undocked Hamal P - 1 (after emptying the remaining couple of days of supplies into the station) and de-orbited it.

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The expended resupply vessel then underwent a destructive re-entry.

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Or so we thought. I came back a few days later and found this in the tracking station. It would appear that the probe core from the ship survived re-entry and the crash of the remains into the water. Well, waste not, want not! This'll get put to good use on Hamal P - 4. (We'd best fish it out anyway, else we'll probably get nicked for littering. Space junk in the ocean, fancy that.)

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We also launched 3.6 tons of supplies up to OrbLab 2, as the crew up there only had the seven days that they brought up onboard the KSS Lionheart. To do this, we used an OAA (Orbital Access Alliance) Lithium Mk3 resupply ship. Lithium 9, to be precise, launched on a Boron 2.0 Launch Vehicle from Central Lakes Space Operations, the OAA's launch site.

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For some reason, the fairing ripped off both solar arrays. It's never done THAT before... But anyway, the ship made it to the station. All's well, ends well, eh? Eh?

 

Explorer - Matchstick 5

Mission: Go to space, and look out of the window.

Launch Vehicle: Matchstick 1A

Crew: S0 Moedith Kerman (Commander)

Agency/Lanch Site: ANSEB/Great Ez Kape

And here we are, the last flight of an Explorer - Matchstick 1, carrying Airenia's first spacefaring scientist, Moedith.

Spoiler

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This flight's been a long time coming, but I do have an excuse! We needed time to modify the capsule, and then realised that it had become too heavy for the existing lifter, so we had to extend the fuel tanks to give it the necessary delta - V to reach to desired trajectory. (Fortunately, we have thrust in abundance.)

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The modified Matchstick was released and thundered into the sky with S0 Moedith nestled in the relatively cramped little capsule.

Spoiler

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Tell me that last picture doesn't remind you of this.

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Onward and upwards the booster thundered.

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Until the booster was jettisoned, and the capsule's own propulsion system tto over for the final push.

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Ah, yes. The view from space. It doesn't get much better than that.

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And what goes up, must come down. With extreme violence and disturbing speed.

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Also, Moedith leaned out of the capsule to grab some low-atmosphere science, and lost her grip at about 7,000ft. Thank goodness for EVA parachutes.

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Good luck getting in without sinking that pod, Moedith.

 

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  • 9 months later...
2 hours ago, The Minmus Derp said:

Can you please Go Farther? and do Moar with this AWESOME THREAD?

Well, I'm currently on a three month cycle tour of Europe, and won't get back until October, but I do have some content I never uploaded. I switched to RSS because of a seriously unpleasant bug which reduced the thrust of all liquid fuelled rocket engines as I got higher in the atmosphere. 

Seeing as I've run into a problematic bug in RSS, I'll probably have to rebuild my GameData from scratch then, and might as well do that for this save too while I'm at it. 

I can't promise a permanent continuation of this thread, but I expect that uploading some more stuff once I'm home wouldn't be that great a hardship. 

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6 hours ago, NotAgain said:

Well, I'm currently on a three month cycle tour of Europe, and won't get back until October, but I do have some content I never uploaded. I switched to RSS because of a seriously unpleasant bug which reduced the thrust of all liquid fuelled rocket engines as I got higher in the atmosphere. 

Seeing as I've run into a problematic bug in RSS, I'll probably have to rebuild my GameData from scratch then, and might as well do that for this save too while I'm at it. 

I can't promise a permanent continuation of this thread, but I expect that uploading some more stuff once I'm home wouldn't be that great a hardship.

WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

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