Space Race Season 2 - RP-1

[KerbalKore]

I am liking your rocket designs @Norcalplanner!

[Norcalplanner]

6 minutes ago, KerbalKore said:

I am liking your rocket designs @Norcalplanner!

Thank you kindly.  If only there was a way to easily indicate on the forum that one liked something... 

[Norcalplanner]

Multiple failures in 1961, and the year is only half done.  On the plus side, the new Furious Osprey lifter did well, successfully launching several Ambassador class interplanetary probes to various destinations...

[Ultimate Steve]

Sorry for the lack of responses, I'm rather busy right now and will read those later.

[KerballingSmasher]

@Norcalplanner ruh ro... still, this is finally active again!

[Norcalplanner]

Hopefully I'll get 1961 posted tonight. It took awhile to fly all the missions...

[Norcalplanner]

Kerbal Administration for Big Overpowered Orbital Machines - 1961

Ambassadors away...

Spoiler

This year saw the debut of the new Ambassador interplanetary probe, lofted on the new Furious Osprey rocket.

January 13, 1961 - The new rocket design is wheeled out to the pad and launched.  This initial launch occurred on the dark side of the planet to launch into the proper inclination, but we'll see the whole rocket in a bit.

The Ambassador 3, bound for Venus, is the first launch of this new design. (Ambassadors 1 and 2 were prototypes which were never built.)  The probe hopes to enter orbit around Venus and perform a Lo Res Scan of the surface.

Result - Successful launch.  Time will tell if the mission is completed.

 

March 19, 1961 - The Hermes 4A launches from south Texas, with Anatoly Epinger on board.  At this point we're just killing time and making some funds - Anatoly will retire soon, and the new class of astronauts are only training for Gemini.

Result - Success.

 

April 7, 1961 - The Ambassador 4, bound for Jupiter is launched.  This one occurred during the daytime, so the visual record is much better.

This new design features 5 LR89-NA6 engines on the first stage, along with 6 Castor 1-SL SRBs.  It's designed right up to the maximum capacity of the 350-ton pad.

This is the first major rocket to feature ROTanks, so we took advantage of the customization capabilities and borrowed the color palette from a classic 427 AC Cobra.

Result - Successful launch and ejection toward Jupiter.  We'll find out how well it does in a few years.

 

May 10, 1961 - The Ambassador 3 arrives at Venus and enters a polar orbit.  Unfortunately, it runs out of fuel before fully circularizing at the required altitude, so we can only scan a part of the planet each orbit.  

Result - Partial success.  Time will tell if we're able to scan enough of the planet to complete the contract.

 

June 25, 1961 - Anatoly continues to bide his time by launching aboard the Hermes 5A.  The photographer was nowhere to be found, however.

Result - Failure.  The X-405 upper stage failed to ignite, cutting the trip very short.

 

July 13, 1961 - The Commnet 1 rocket is launched, but the RD-0109 engine fails to ignite.  Someone is clearly screwing up in the quality control department.

Result - Failure.

 

July 31, 1961 - The Ambassador 5A (with additional science) is launched, bound for Vesta.  The ascent and injection burn go by the numbers.

Here you can see the LR-105-NA6-powered second stage.  Yes, I know I shouldn't be airlighting an LR-105.

Result - Looking good so far.

 

September 29, 1961 - Anatoly goes up for the last time on the Hermes 6B, which this time has some additional science gear mounted to the service module.  The launch is in a polar orbit to allow maximum science from all biomes with the new experiments.

Result - Success.  Anatoly subsequently retires on November 20, 1961.

 

October 13, 1961 - The Emissary 3 craft arrives at Mars, and enters into an elliptical orbit, completing the Mars orbit contract.  With a bit of fiddling, we also get a Deimos flyby for additional funds, science, and glory.

Result - Success.

 

October 19, 1961 - Commnet 2 is sent skyward, with a slightly revised design compared to the failed Commnet 1.  

It took a little while, but eventually the four satellites were arranged in a 5,000 km orbit that met the criteria for the 4-sat commnet constellation.  Unfortunately, the mission wouldn't complete, so I had to Alt-F12 it.

Result - Success.

 

November 23, 1961 - The Ambassador probe is refitted to turn it into a Moon lander that's larger with more science gear compared to the old Discovery class.  And it has real landing legs!

After staying in polar orbit for a few weeks to get maximum benefit from the new science gear, the Ambassador 7A probe eventually sets down in the Mare Tranquilitatis with a very inefficient vertical descent.

Result - Success.  The last unmanned moon landing mission is completed.

 

December 22, 1961 - It's decided to take the new biome scanner for a whirl, with a contract to scan Earth.  The result is the Sauron 2.

Using ROTanks and experimenting with the bottom shroud options in lieu of a boattail fairing.  This really looks like a converted missile.

The yellow exhaust plume testifies that we've now unlocked bipropellant hypergolic fuels.  Aerozine-50 and NTO FTW!

Result - Success.

 

Year in Review - There were 10 total flights this year, 3 manned and 7 unmanned.  One of each type was a failure during launch.  The new Ambassador series seems to work well, although I get a bit nervous with lighting 11 engines on the pad.  Interplanetary exploration continues to progress.  We're also closing in on Gemini, and should have the first flights with that new spacecraft next year.  Screenies showing the program's progress are below.

  

 

[KerbalKore]

I’ve heard of ROEngines and ROCapsules, but what’s ROTanks?

[Norcalplanner]

2 hours ago, KerbalKore said:

I’ve heard of ROEngines and ROCapsules, but what’s ROTanks?

Think of it as a cross between the procedural tanks in Real Fuels, and the procedural tanks in SSTU. As it relates to this rocket, it provides interesting greebles and allows custom colors.

[KerbalKore]

Greebles are always a plus

Edited October 2, 2019 by KerbalKore
Typo

[Ultimate Steve]

On 10/2/2019 at 1:03 PM, Norcalplanner said:

Think of it as a cross between the procedural tanks in Real Fuels, and the procedural tanks in SSTU. As it relates to this rocket, it provides interesting greebles and allows custom colors.

Hmm, I might have to get that.

[Ultimate Steve]

Notebook Space Program - 1960

Like SpaceX but in 1960

Spoiler

The first launch of the year was Opus 11, basically a copy of Opus 10. It launched on April 18.

This time, it successfully made it into orbit and began gathering science!

Unfortunately, erm, it couldn't complete the first solar powered satellite contract because its periapsis was not high enough, so the mission is classed as a partial failure. Not a complete failure, though, as its two goals were the contract and gathering lots of science.

Space is prrrreeettttyyyy though.

The solar panel contract deadline was fast approaching, so Opus 12 was built as a very stripped down vehicle using only the bare necessities to trim down build time. It launched on June 24.

This one successfully reached its target orbit despite an engine failure right before one of the stages separated! Forgot which engine but it's in my notes.

"Hey, you know how we're done with all the contract deadline stuff now?"

"Yes, Grigory?"

"Well I was just thinking. Maybe you could get around to rebuilding my rocket's engine? It's been been like 10 months."

"Ah okay. We don't have much going on right now so I guess we can fit that in."

"Sweet! Thank you!"

And so, on July 5, the Legend 12a spacecraft was launched with Grigory on board. He reached an apogee of 267.9495km (IDK why I recorded it that accurately). He was so happy to be in space that he didn't take any pictures!

The mission's goal was once more to test re-entry and try to extend Grigory's retirement date to accommodate crewed orbital missions.

Grigory thought back to something an engineer had said. Despite having recovered both the capsule and booster from previous missions, they couldn't re-attach them for an arbitrary reason, they would have to build a new booster or capsule.

And so, he made some edits to the landing procedure without telling anyone.

The trim was set.

Grigory still blacked out, but this was definitely one of the smoothest entries of the Legend-M program.

"Legend 12a to tower. Requesting permission to land at runway zero niner."

"Haha very funny. Deploy rear chutes now!"

"Deploying!"

"Alright. Eject!"

"No can do, sir. Deploying front chutes."

"Grigory? GRIGORY!"

The crowd watched in shock and anticipation as all four parachutes deployed. The Legend 12 gradually righted to a nose up configuration, and as gracefully as a hippo, landed vertically on Kerbin.

"Grigory, what did you do?" asked Alisa Yolkina.

"I landed a rocket. Now we're going to reuse it."

"What? That's madness! The engine isn't rated for more than one ignition!"

"Then we'll replace the igniters."

"What about the rated burn time?"

"I'll just hope I get lucky."

As crazy as Grigory's plan was, the administration rolled with it. Legend 12a was recovered. In the editor, the engine was detached and reattached, as were the parachutes, resetting the ignition counter but interestingly not the burn time. Refurb didn't take long, but re-integration and rollout did for some reason... Just under a month later, on August 4, Grigory was strapped into his vehicle for a third time, as the Legend 12b mission.

This time he remembered to take pictures. He reached a slightly lower altitude of 265km on this mission.

The engine very nearly ran out of one of the failure numbers (can't remember each one) before the fuel ran out.

Another relatively gentle passing out re-entry was performed.

It was pretty cloudy on the way down.

But Grigory landed safely on Earth once more, having been the first human to travel to space twice in a reusable spaceship.

Take that, SpaceX!

Due to how bad the engine is getting, a third flight of the vehicle is not planned, especially since we don't really have the need for it. In theory it could be done. We do still have those launch escape motors in there...

...But for now... That is the end of the highly eventful Legend program.

Ah, the memories...

One last launch happened this year, the Opus 13 on December 10, which was designed to complete the first navigational satellite contract.

Despite a performance loss near the end of the burn of the second stage, the rocket made it into orbit.

Okay here's where it gets weird... As you can see, the contract info display shows a very non successful mission, but the payload was definitely in the correct orbit. The problem is that it's not controllable, and the contract specified nothing about control. Behind the scenes we talked about it and agreed that the mission could be counted as a success.

Also, the satellite had an apogee of 3500km!

 

To sum up the year:

Two man-flights into space of the same rocket with the same astronaut. Several satellite launches, which were remarkably successful, surprisingly.

Launches: 5. Not bad by our standards, although definitely not competition level. 4 successes, 1 partial, 0 failures.

Still waiting on that next generation launch vehicle to be ready... We have specs now, though. The initial version will aim to bring 2.5 tons of payload into orbit and will be able to be used for satellites, crewed LEO missions, lunar probes, and interplanetary probes.

However, the tech for all of those crewed missions and probes doesn't really exist yet...

 

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT: Almost forgot, here is a tech tree pic:

 

 

Edited October 8, 2019 by Ultimate Steve

[Ultimate Steve]

Notebook Space Program - 1961

Farewell

Spoiler

The first launch of the year was on March 5, it was Opus 14. Its goal was to complete another satellite contract and in the process break the speed record of 9km/s. However, the first stage, I think, suffered an engine failure of some sort and the second stage tumbled.

Despite managing a recovery from that tumble, the second stage also managed to have an engine failure.

The final stage did make orbit, however, but the periapsis was inside the atmosphere at 84km and the mission was declared a failure.

At some point, Iosif Polushin retired from the NSP's astronaut corps. He was contractually obliged to continue appearing at events and such, but his active days as an astronaut were over. 10 years and just one suborbital spaceflight... Aww. I feel a bit bad for him now.

On June 18, Opus 15 was launched, designed to complete the mission that Opus 14 was supposed to complete.

And that, it certainly did, yielding an apogee of 8256km, our highest yet!

Shortly after the launch, it was announced that this would likely be the final launch of an Opus mission, and therefore the final planned use of any Legend or Pencil derived hardware.

That's two programs ending within a year of each other. The two most major programs we've had so far - Legend and Opus.

Funny. Opus was supposed to be nothing more than a stopgap, and yet it flew 15 times. The NSP is definitely not free from bureaucratic delays... Nevertheless, both programs brought major achievements and spectacular fireworks, and with no fatalities to boot.

*SALUTES*

 

On December 17, the final mission of the year occurred, the unscheduled Bansai M6.

"So you called me here for a Bansai flight?" asked Alisa.

"Yep, Egg. One last ride."

"Yeah... One last ride."

"I thought it would be detrimental to end on a negative note."

"I mean, Egg... This whole versus thing is silly. We've both done cool things."

"Like that time you broke the speed record?"

"And that time you broke it again and splashed a booster near that island?"

"And that time you literally flew to space twice in the space of a month on the same rocket?"

"And how you went to space first? This is what I'm talking about!"

"Yeah. In retrospect it was quite silly," replied Alisa.

"I hope we can still be good friends," replied Grigory.

"Are you kidding me? Of course we will!"

Grigory pulled the plane into a low, sharp turn leading to massive amounts of G-force.

"How can I not be friends with someone who also finds this fun?"

They laughed. Grigory flew around some more. They sat in silence.

"So, why are you leaving?" asked Alisa.

"Well... Don't get me wrong. It's been a good 10 years. I've accomplished many of my dreams. But I've seen the plans... Crewed orbit isn't even on the table yet. Legend production has shut down. What use is an astronaut in a organization that doesn't fly people to space?"

"So you're not confident in the schedule of the FF?"

"Ah, the FF. It was supposed to come in the late 50's, was it not? And here we are in '61, the first flight *might* happen next year. And what are the odds it will work first try? Just look at the safety record of Opus."

"True."

The two went on to inspect a piece of a crashed plane that had been oddly floating in the air for quite some time.

"I mean, don't get me wrong. I love this job. I love the people here. But I can't see myself staying here for another 10 years waiting for something to happen."

"True."

"So why are you leaving?"

"Part of the same reasons. One of my childhood dreams was to go to space... I have countless other dreams. It's time to pursue some more. I'm going to start a band. I'm going to create art. I'm going to build stuff."

"Well, Alisa Yolkina... I wish you the best of luck on your endeavors."

"As do I, Grigory Statnik."

The plane set down and stopped.

"It was an honor serving with someone as talented and enthusiastic as you, Egg."

"Likewise."

They hugged.

"You know, they don't need this plane for anything anymore..." said Alisa slyly.

 

 

The two pilots were set to retire less than a year later. The ceremony took place much earlier. Pomp and Circumstance played as the two astronauts walked across the stage of Kerlington College, having well earned their brand new degrees - Doctorates of Spaceflight Operations.

 

To sum up the year:

2 sat launches, one a failure, the other a success. Planned retirement of the Opus launch vehicle family, production of Legend cores halted. One airplane flight... The plane was later stolen. Nobody knows who did it, and honestly it's probably easier to let them get away with it, and it's also probably cheaper to build a new plane when we need one.

Launches: 3. 2 success, 0 partial, 1 failure.

FF is under construction in the VAB for a maiden flight in 1962.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[KerbalKore]

*salutes*

[Ultimate Steve]

Notebook Space Program - 1962-63

Finally, a Light Lift Launch Vehicle... THAT DOESN'T FREAKING WORK!!!!!

Spoiler

On April 2, 1962, the Notebook Space Program's latest rocket, the Fortissimo, ascended from the launch pad on its first mission, a test flight.

The first stage was powered by 2 RD-108s and the second or central stage was powered by 1 RD-108 (couldn't afford to unlock both the 108 and 107 but then I found out that once you unlock one in a family the prices for the others go down so I guess I could have). The next stage was powered by 5 AJ-10s and the final stage was powered by 1 AJ-10.

Despite its appearance, this is not a Delta-IV heavy. It is more of a 3/5 Soyuz. Capacity for this initial version is 2.5 tons to LEO.

The second stage is air started shortly before the first stage burns out. On this mission, this phase of the flight went perfectly.

The third stage, with its 5 AJ-10s, took over at this point.

Shortly into the burn (or at ignition, I can't remember), one of the AJ-10s failed. This was expected and was countered mostly with gimbal. I don't remember if the opposing engine was ever shut down but it might have been.

Everything was looking alright until the fourth stage separated.

Its single AJ-10 failed to ignite, and the whole stack fell back into the atmosphere, including the multi ton liquid ammonia test tank.

Despite the outcome of the mission, failure, it was a success in terms of data. If that last engine didn't fail, then the mission would have been successful. Engine outs on the lower stage don't really matter, so the only single mission failure point besides the RD-108s (which are actually pretty reliable by the looks of it?) is that last stage engine. What are the odds that the last stage engine doesn't ignite? According to trials, 1 in 3... But reliability will get better with time.

In the meantime before the next Fortissimo launch, seven AJ-10s were fired up on a test stand on the runway as Kari-2. All of the engines performed perfectly. The launch clamps were released near the end of their rated burn time and there were fireworks.

This happened on September 2.

The next mission of the NSP, and the final one of the year, was the launch of Statnik 1, a brand new space probe designed to impact the moon. It was named after the heroic astronaut Grigory Statnik.

The launch occurred on November 20.

Unfortunately, due to a control failure, the whole thing slipped sideways on ascent, disintegrating.

Shown here is the Statnik 1 probe, its most notable feature being its unwieldy array of solar panels which will only just barely keep the probe core running if pointed directly at the sun. I can't wait until we unlock more solar panels, that's like 36 if I remember correctly.

By any definition, the mission was a complete and utter failure.

 

There was only one launch in 1963 so I'm lumping it in with 1962.

Statnik 2, nearly identical to Statnik 1, was launched on May 27, 1963.

The flight originally succumbed to a really stupid failure. That plus the looming space program ending contract deadline and talking to some people led me to revert once.

There was an engine out on the second stage, but the burn was successful!

The burn of the final stage was also successful, and the probe was released to do its own job.

Its two stages of hydrazine thrusters slowly pushed it onto a trajectory that would take it near the moon. I'm pretty sure we still don't have patched conics in the map, so we had to guesstimate and correct later... Which is hard because these probe cores won't work beyond medium Earth orbit.

A few days later, the probe having been pointed in the expected course correction direction, it fired up its engines to get onto a collision course. The probe was now tumbling but its batteries lasted.

Statnik 2 beamed back lots of science and very pretty pictures before it crashed into the lunar surface.

 

Years in review:

3 launches of a new light launch vehicle plus a vehicle related test. Successful moon impactor.

Missions: 4. 2 success, 0 partial, 2 failures.

1964 should be pretty chaotic by our standards. Lots more fireworks to look forwards to!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 8, 2019 by Ultimate Steve

[KerbalKore]

Uhh... I’m assuming you meant RD-108 instead of RD-180?

[Ultimate Steve]

1 minute ago, KerbalKore said:

Uhh... I’m assuming you meant RD-108 instead of RD-180?

Ah, silly me. Yup, 108!

Edited October 8, 2019 by Ultimate Steve

[Norcalplanner]

Kerbal Administration for Big Overpowered Orbital Machines - 1962

Two heads are better than one...

Spoiler

This year was mainly about the new two-crew capsule, which is what we'll be using to go to the moon.  A few probes also arrived at various destinations.

January 18, 1962 - The year starts with the launch of the Sauron 3, tasked with completing a biome scan of the moon.  Everything went by the numbers.

Result - Success.

 

April 5, 1962 - The Emissary 5 arrives at Ceres, conducting a swift but close flyby which nets a lot of science, funds, and upgrade points.  Another flyby contract is complete.

Result - Success.

 

April 26, 1962 - The Pathfinder 4 is launched on board an updated lifter which now uses an H-1 engine.  This is a small probe with a docking port - think Agena target.

Result - Success. No mission or contract per se, but this will help the docking contract be completed in the near future.

 

April 27, 1962 - The Janus 1 craft is launched, marking the inaugural flight of the two-crew Gemini-ish capsule.  If everything goes to plan, we'll complete the 2-man orbital milestone, the first EVA, and first docking.

Looking good as the craft claws its way to orbit.  Teresa Campbell and Iosif Khabensky are the crew chosen for this first flight.

While the milestone and first EVA contracts were completed, the craft was hampered by power issues.  The phasing orbits took too long to get into a position for the docking, so the craft was deorbited after less than a day before it ran out of power.

Result - Partial success.  Docking will have to wait for a subsequent mission.

 

June 19, 1962 - The Ambassador 5A arrives at Vesta.  Similar to the probe which visited Ceres a few months prior, this is a close flyby (52 km Pe) with large rewards.

Result - Success.  We probably won't do too many more of these - we're getting close to having enough funds, science, and upgrade points to do manned lunar missions in a reasonable timeframe.

 

August 2, 1962 - The Janus 4A is launched with Ludmila Zhikova and Oleg Savasin on board.  They hope to complete the docking mission, and perhaps complete an endurance milestone.

This craft has much larger batteries, along with eight of the largest available solar panels.  Testing shows it should be good for a little more than two days in orbit.

It's a bit hard to see, but that's the small Pathfinder 4 probe docked to the front of the Janus 4A.  

After a little more than two days, the craft successfully deorbits.

Result - Success.  Docking and the two-day endurance milestone are both completed.

 

September 19, 1962 - The Janus 6B is launched, with Louis Greene and Sheila Thomas on board.  This upgraded version features newly-unlocked fuel cells and much greater endurance on orbit.  The crew is tasked with completing a "Manuevers and 2+ Crew" contract, along with some more endurance milestones.

In a mission which was both boring and impressive, the two brave astronauts complete the contract.  They also sequentially break both the three-day and seven-day endurance milestones after spending over ten days in orbit.  Ladies and gentlemen, we have a craft that will keep two astronauts alive for the duration of a round trip to the moon.

Result - Success.

 

October 23, 1962 - Taking advantage of a low-energy transfer window, the Mars Eagle 1 is launched.  This probe is tasked with landing on Mars and transmitting back science, and perhaps a low-energy landing on Phobos or Deimos on the way in.  This new design features our first hydrolox upper stage, using the first upgrade to the RL-10. (I've learned the hard way to avoid using the initial version of the RL-10.)  One of the Castor 1-SLs failed to ignite on the pad, but it didn't affect the rocket's ability to get to orbit and conduct the burn to Mars.

Result - Time will tell if we're successful.

 

December 8, 1962 - The Janus 7B is launched, with Teresa and Iosif aboard again.

They're tasked with competing another 2crew plus maneuvers contract, and also use some extra fuel to briefly accelerate to more than 9,000 m/s to achieve that milestone.  (They promptly turn around and slow down again, since this craft doesn't have lunar-rated heat shields.)

Result - Success.  After 9 days in orbit doing various things, they come back home.

 

Year in Review - There were 7 launches this year, 3 uncrewed and 4 crewed.  We also had some profitable interplanetary flyby missions completed, with a Jupiter flyby on tap for early next year.  All manned flights used the new two-person capsule, which finally arrived at a viable power and life support configuration.  With lunar rated heat shields now unlocked and a larger rocket under construction on the recently-completed 700-ton pad, we should be good for a crewed lunar flyby in the first quarter of next year, with other lunar missions to follow.  I'm still playing with the architecture, but we're definitely not going full Apollo - there will only be two astronauts on any of the lunar missions, with the one-person lander so we can do things on the cheap.  Screenshots of the program's progress are below.

 

 

[Ultimate Steve]

Notebook Space Program - 1964

The Light Lift Launch Vehicle still doesn't work... But at least the lighter one does. Also we almost lost.

Spoiler

1963 almost had another mission, missed it by just a few weeks. On January 16, 1964, the Statnik 3 vehicle was launched towards the moon in order to impact for another impact contract.

It was also going to complete a flyby contract, and if we were lucky, an orbiter contract which had been preemptively accepted because the design was right on the edge of being able to do it, although as the craft would be uncontrollable at those distances, it would be difficult.

It has been so long that I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure that this was an engine failure and not an ignition failure. Either way, we have *another* case of upper stage engine failure.

We were also very, very close to a Moon flyby with the remaining fuel, but we were like 100m/s short, so the mission was sadly a failure.

A few months later, on June 1, Statnik 4 was launched, pretty much identical to Statnik 3.

Unfortunately it suffered an engine out on the second stage (technically third but I like calling it second) which was countered by shutting down the opposite engine.

We successfully hit the moon, completing flyby and impact contracts!

Picture taken earlier. We were so close to orbiting, but due to control issues the periapsis remained at only negative six ish kilometers. Grr. We were so close.

...Actually, this is a bit concerning. The deadline for the lunar orbiter contract is coming up quickly. If we don't get it done then the space program is over.

On June 28, a weather satellite called Halo 1 was launched on board the brand new Forte rocket. As somewhat implied by the name, it is basically a single core version of Fortissimo with some stretched and shrunken tanks in places.

The pretty normal second stage. All the engines worked this time around, I do believe!

The Halo 1 satellite adjusting its orbit to meet the contract's specifications. The mission was a success!

A Fortississimo variant with 5 cores is being considered, but there are currently no missions in the near future that require it.

On August 30, the Kari 3 test was launched, testing some recently unlocked solid rocket motors intended for use as kick stages. One failed to ignite and the whole thing crashed a few dozen meters away from the launch site.

Note that I'm using the SPH as an extra build slot for small stuff because the next level VAB is sooo far out of my budget range right now and will be for a while.

 

On October 17, the Statnik 5 Lunar Orbiter probe was launched on board a Fortissimo. If this didn't reach lunar orbit, the space program was likely toast due to the rapidly approaching deadline.

Unfortunately... A few seconds after liftoff, one of the outboard engines suffered a failure and shut down.

The craft careened around before crashing near the launch pad.

At least the pad suffered no damage... But now we are about a month from the contract deadline and we don't have any way to get to the moon so I guess we're toast.

Pack your bags, everyone. The odds that a university based space program would get this far were very slim. It was fun while it lasted.

 

 

 

BUT WAIT

 

The engineers thought long and hard... In the end they came up with a very high risk design that could, if everything went right, orbit the moon, and be built in a month. It didn't even carry a kilogram of science equipment beyond the telemetry analysis, but it would satisfy the contract.

First off, a lot of money had to be used to rush the build. Second off, the payload was extremely tiny and couldn't be controlled due to lack of avionics, and had to be pre pointed before separation. Third off, it relied on some solid motors which had either never been flown before, or had been part of the ill fated Kari 3 test.

And fourth of all, it had to fit on a Forte. A Forte which had even been downsized and tooled to death to reduce the build time.

On November 15, Statnik 6 lifted off.

All five stage two engines ignited safely but due to the lower than usual staging altitude and the ullage motor firing delay, the stage flipped around. This was corrected in the first few seconds of the burn, though, but a few dozen precious meters per second of Delta-V were lost.

The third stage of the Forte Vehicle pushed the payload all the way to orbit. By now you can see what it looks like.

THE PLAN:

Once in orbit, separate the third stage.

Use the golden colored RCS/Avionics package to point in the right direction.

Spin up for stabilization. No avionics beyond this point.

Fire SRB really precisely.

Wait until at lunar perigee.

Fire retrorockets, which are set up to be in the right direction more or less so we don't have to turn.

Profit.

Several "simulations" later (talked about this behind the scenes, it was fine) the probe was adjusted to the right angle and fired its solid rocket motor. Fortunately, it worked.

The probe was now on a near perfect trajectory.

Once in the Lunar SOI, the retrorockets were fired. Either only two were needed or they were fired in pairs, I don't remember.

But either way...

A mere six hours before the contract deadline, Statnik 6 entered lunar orbit and transmitted its telemetry analysis.

Center, Statnik 6. Bottom right, Grigory Statnik and family.

Time to celebrate!

 

Year summary:

This year was about getting to Lunar orbit, and we were really, REALLY close to failing and being in a game over scenario. 3 launches of Fortissimo, 2 of Forte, and 1 other test launch.

Launches: 6. 3 successes. 0 partials (Statnik 4 was successful as orbiting was a stretch goal). 3 failures, 2 of Fortissimo.

That doesn't bode well for Fortissimo as a man rated vehicle. I'm going to count really quick... 4 failures versus 2 successes. Ouch. OUCH.

Next year will be about getting to Lunar orbit but with science experiments this time and maybe another big first. It is anticipated to be a much slower year than this year.

 

 

 

 

[KerbalKore]

That was a stressful read! Congrats on the success!

[KerballingSmasher]

Wow.

[Norcalplanner]

Kerbal Administration for Big Overpowered Orbital Machines - 1963

Almost there...

Spoiler

Three crewed launches this year.  That's it.  The big boys take awhile to build and roll out. 

March 5, 1963 - The Janus 8D is launched from Brownsville, although not without some controversy.  Someone forgot to tell the guys in lab coats to research the E-1 engine, so the craft went out to the pad with 0 du for the first stage engines.  After briefly considering rolling the craft back off the pad, it's decided to proceed with the launch on the theory that the worst that can happen is that some engines will fail and we'll earn some du that way.  The mission?  First crewed lunar flyby.

This design features a new 5m first stage with 4 of the E-1 engines.  Weight on the pad is just over 500 tons.

Large hydrolox engines (in this case the LR87-LH2) help send larger payloads to orbit.  The TLI stage is powered by two RL-10s.  Let's see if we can get a good trajectory...

That'll do - a classic Figure 8.

Louis Greene and Sheila Thomas both have short EVAs while low above the moon.

Burned some extra fuel to slow down a bit before hitting the atmosphere.  Reentry and landing were by the numbers, using a 60.5 km Pe target.

Result - Success.  Mission control subsequently accepted both the crewed lunar orbit mission, and the crewed lunar landing.  Here we go! [gulp]

 

March 21, 1963 - The Jupiter Ambassador Probe Flyby reaches Pe.  The probe had actually entered Jupiter's massive SOI more than two months prior, but it takes a long time to fall down that gravity well.

The sun isn't nearly so big or bright out here. Thankfully the solar panels provide just enough power if you keep the probe oriented correctly (using the Advanced tab in SmartASS).

Result - Success.  No Jovian moon flybys, though - the alignment simply didn't work out, despite a lot of fiddling.

 

July 16, 1963 - The Janus 11E is rolled out to the pad.  This upgraded version is built to the full capacity of the 700 ton pad, with a bolder mission - crewed lunar orbit.  This is the furthest I've ever tried to go in an RP-1 career.

This new design features an additional 2 E-1s acting as LFBs, with the second stage now equipped with two of the LR87-LH2s.  Initial results are promising.

Then this happened.  One of the two LR87s failed to ignite in the second stage.  With a 0.4 TWR and asymmetric thrust, the rocket starts to pinwheel.  The decision is made to burn for as long as possible to earn additional du.

No orbit today.  Both crew (I believe it was Iosif and Teresa) black out during reentry after experiencing 11 Gs.

Result - Failure.

 

August 24, 1963 - The backup craft, the Janus 12F, is launched from the pad with Oleg and Ludmila aboard.  This had some sort of incremental improvement - it might have been a few instances of Tank IV in upper stages.

Looking good during a dawn launch.

This one made it to orbit without incident.  Here it is making the TLI burn.

Gotta love them figure 8s.

The orbital insertion burn is handled by the new AJ-10 Advanced, which I believe is the first pressure fed engine with a vacuum Isp over 300.  Ludmila and Oleg both go for a walk in low lunar orbit.

After a day in orbit, they make the burn for home.

Finally caught the explosion of the detached service module in a picture.

And reentry was by the numbers.  

Result - Success.  Lunar orbital is in the rear view mirror.  It's almost time for the big Kahuna.

 

September 13, 1963 - The Mars Eagle 1 lander probe inserts into Martian orbit.

With plenty of delta V, it's decided to make brief stops at both Deimos and Phobos before attempting a landing on Mars.

Landing on both of these moons is more like docking.  Their gravity is so low, that it can take hours to fall from just a few km in altitude.

Aided by a little downward RCS, the Eagle 1 lands first on Deimos.  Note to self for future careers - accept the Deimos lander mission before launching the craft, since it has to be a new launch.

Getting to Phobos is fairly simply, although it's easy to mess up an encounter due to an RCS burn or a time warp which runs into floating point errors.  Yes, the gravity really is that low.  This final descent took 15 minutes at 4x physics warp because of the time warp issues.  That done, it was time to head for Mars.

With this design, shooting for a 20 km Pe and using RCS to keep a positive pitch of 10 degrees during descent worked well.

The chutes had enough time to open and slow the craft down to 10 m/s, which this probe core can handle.

Down in one piece and upright.  Science, funds, and rep come rushing in.

Result - Success.

 

Year in Review - There were only three launches, all manned.  One of them was a failure, but the two successes were big ones - first lunar flyby, and first lunar orbit.  We have a new, larger design currently being built for a lunar landing next year.  It looks like 1964 will be the end of the race for KABOOM.  Screenshots of the program's status (including the build queue and tech queue, but not the tech tree) are found below.

 

 

Edited October 14, 2019 by Norcalplanner
typos

[Ultimate Steve]

Wow, you're probably going to get to the moon before I orbit it!

[Ultimate Steve]

Notebook Space Program - 1965

I bet if we try hard enough, we can knock over the KABOOM flag with our impactors.

Spoiler

Alright, first order of business, get science experiments to lunar orbit like we were supposed to last year! This will allow us to unlock better interplanetary tech which will allow us to unlock manned tech. For this purpose, Statnik 7 was launched on May 29.

The second stage had an engine out, but it was the center engine and it was fairly easy to deal with.

The probe featured an SRB powered TLI stage with a jettisonable pointing module (shown behind). The outer 4 fired then detached, then the center one fired.

However, I can't remember exactly what went wrong any my notes aren't helpful... Statnik 7 crashed into the moon. I doubt it was a fuel deficiency, entering lunar orbit is super cheap. More likely it was a very low periapsis that was not noticed until near the surface, too late to correct it.

We did have an impactor contract I think so it's technically a partial failure. Given how terribly the Statnik program has been going, I'm going to count it as a partial success so we can at least have some celebration.

 

Just in case you haven't noticed, the reliability record of Fortissimo isn't exactly stellar. Fortunately, we've unlocked enough technology for an upgrade! The very first launch of Fortissimo Block 2 occurred on September 30.

 

The core and boosters featured upgraded RD-108s and also a reduced number of separation motors. The amount we had on there before was ridiculous, at least on initial versions. Not sure if that change happened before this or not.

The center engine failed. Fortunately, it was in the last few seconds of its burn.

The brand new stages 2 and 3 were not, however, powered by the utterly terrible AJ-10 any more. They were powered by the brand new RD-105 engine, one on each stage! They featured higher specific impulse and higher initial and final reliability stats than the AJ-10. Two of them would mean less failure points, but it would mean that a single failure dooms the mission.

Also, their gimbal authority is actually terrible.

Statnik 8 performing its TLI burn.

At long last, we FINALLY have a probe with science experiments in a polar Lunar orbit!

Erm... We ran out of fuel before we got to low lunar orbit though, so we will only be able to get science from some of the biomes.

Grr. Partial success again. At this point we likely will not try again, though, as  we can still get quite a bit of science from where we are.

 

The final launch of the year was Egg 1, launched on November 17. Its mission was to fly by Venus. That's right, we finally have the technology! Should all go well, this mission will give us enough or nearly enough science to research human capsules!

Unfortunately, we had a separation motor fail, sending the second stage into a tumble. We eventually recovered, in spite of the terrible gimbal, and thankfully the stage had enough margin to get the third stage and probe into orbit.

The burn was set up, it was inside our Delta-V budget.

The stages were separated, and the third stage was given the command to fire its engine!

Unfortunately, well... the stage didn't ignite and the probe was stranded in LEO.

The extremely disappointed engineers sadly commanded the probe to de-orbit with its RCS thrusters. The mission was declared a failure.

 

Summary:

Finally getting to a Lunar orbit with science equipment. Not a good lunar orbit, but there nonetheless. Debut of Fortissimo Block II, which is supposed to work better, but only sort of does. 

Launches: 3. 0 success. 2 partial (1 very iffy). 1 failure.

We've finally got a lunar orbiter that sort of succeeded and that's good enough for us for now. The next order of business will be trying to get build rate up with existing contracts while we wait for transfer windows to progress our science program. Anything other than Venus and Mars is out of range currently, because of antennas, solar panels, and rocket technology. We could probably send something to Jupiter with the hypothetical 5 core Fortississimo, but it would be dead on arrival and we likely wouldn't be able to talk to it. Also it would probably take an entire year to build.

In the near future (probably next few years) we would really like to get the VAB upgraded so we can build 2 things at once. Unfortunately it isn't really that easy to save money when build and research rates need that money badly. At least the other buildings are at the point where the VAB needs the upgrade more than they do.

In other news:

"I believe that this university should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of sending a man into orbit and returning him safely to Earth."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Norcalplanner]

Kerbal Administration for Big Overpowered Orbital Machines - 1964

Flags and footprints...

Spoiler

The end is in sight.

April 24, 1964 - The Janus Harrier 1, a new design built to the limit of the 1500 ton pad, is rolled out and sent aloft.  Side note - it takes 42 days and costs 57,000 funds to integrate and roll this rocket to the pad.

Featuring seven E-1s on a 7.5m core plus four additional E-1s as LFBs, the initial TWR is 1.3.  This design uses Tank IV extensively.

Looking good so far, although one of the E-1 boosters failed halfway through its burn.  Due to the size of the stages, we've incorporated separation motors for the first time.

The second stage, also 7.5m in diameter, features three of the newly-unlocked J-2s.  The LR-87s simply didn't have the reliability or power we were looking for.

The third stage features a single J-2.  You can see the separation motors doing their thing, pulling the second stage away cleanly.

Thankfully there's plenty of reserve delta V on tap.  The craft heads to the moon with 700 m/s of hydrolox power still available.  And thanks to 30 layers of MLI, most of the hydrolox fuel survives the trip.

Lunar orbital insertion.

Louis Green spacewalks over to the lander, enters it, and casts off.  The AJ-10 Advanced still has most of its fuel and is used for the majority of the descent.

On final approach.  This small stage is still mostly full... I wonder if we can land with it still attached?!?

Procellarum Base, the Harrier has landed. [cue happy dance in mission control]

What it's all about.  Front page photo for the newspapers of the world on April 27, 1964.  After a short stay and doing some science, it's decided to head back up to minimize risk.

Finally ditching what was supposed to be a descent stage.  The rendezvous and docking took place in the dark, and was therefore undocumented.

Raising the orbit to 600 km using the excess fuel in the Harrier after docking.  This led to a funny/nervewracking story, which sadly has no photographic documentation. 

After Louis grabbed all the science from the Harrier and spacewalked back to the Janus, the two craft undocked.  Janus did a small thruster burn to create some separation.  It was at this point that mission control noticed that there was only 600 m/s of delta V in the Janus instead of the expected 900 m/s.  600 is not enough to get home.  A quick evaluation of right click menus discovered that the Janus was low on NTO, as it was inadvertently burned by the Harrier during the orbital height increase burns.  Sheila did an emergency EVA to go back to the Harrier (which has no probe core and is therefore uncontrolled) almost a kilometer away.  After entering the lander and re-rendezvousing and docking, the requisite NTO is pumped over. 

Shaken but cautiously confident, the two craft undock again.  With enough delta V on tap, Louis opens the taps and heads for home.

Shortly after exiting the Moon's SOI, we experienced another interesting event.  TAC-LS fired off a message that the crew was low on water.  WATER?!?  What the.... We have fuel cells that are creating water - what happened? 

Turns out NTO wasn't the only thing that was using the wrong tank.  It was later determined that most of the water that had been generated by the fuel cells had been routed to the tanks in the lander, which was left behind in lunar orbit.  And with only the Janus itself using power, the demand on the fuel cells isn't enough to create the water needed.  A solution was found courtesy of Ship Manifest - dump a bunch of EC to force the fuel cells to fire up and generate some more water.  Things ended up being closer than they should have, but the crew survived.  Liquid hydrogen reserves went down to less than 20% of what they should have been, but everything worked in the end.

With all that off-camera drama, here's a nice shot of the Janus on final descent after burning a bit of fuel to slow down.

Reentry and landing was in the dark, so there are no good photographs.  However, we did get this lovely message after returning to the space center:

Result - Success.  May 3, 1964 is the date the crew returned to earth.

Year in Review - With the lunar mission done, KABOOM has crossed the finish line.  This has been a lot of fun.  Thanks go to everyone involved.  And after this, I think I'm done with RP-1 for a bit - this has used a lot of brain power that probably should have been spent elsewhere.  Final screenshots are below.