[1.8.x] Real Agencies Pack: a set of realistic space agencies for your contracts!

[Tonas1997]

Real Agencies

Introduction

This mod adds 100+ real-life agencies to the game, split between telecommunications satellite operators, space weather institutions, navigation satellite projects and actual space agencies. Simple as that. I decided to create this pack as a response to two personal issues - which you might have previously come across as well:

1- Contracts of the "launch satellite X" type are boring and nigh indistiguishable from eachother. Having to fly payloads for real-life agencies brings the whole "space program" shtick closer to reality and allows you to (kinda) roleplay as your favourite launch service provider - be it Arianespace, SpaceX, RocketLab...

2- Naming satellites and probes is hard. Instead of dabbling on the nickname of your 35th geostationary satellite for half an hour (which is the hardest part of the game ) you can just name it after the agency that contracted you! With this pack, you can now litter your skies with Intelsats-4Bs, Al-Yah 3s, AMOS-6, Thaicom Demo and so on.

Mod compatibility

There isn't a set of hard requirements to use the pack, but it was made with two mods in mind:

Contract Configurator - As of version 1.28.1* for KSP 1.8.x, CC supports randomized agencies for contracts (thanks, @nightingale!). AFAIK, this feature will carry over to future versions as well, so Real Agencies should be forward-compatible with any future CC releases. As for the contracts themselves, RealAgencies includes a config file for RP-1 which, while not being that historically accurate (ViaSat might ask you to launch your first satellite during the 50's!...), it should still add more flavour to the career mode; nevertheless, I'm open to suggestions to add more agencies and more realism to those contracts, even though I might not have much time to work on this mod for the near future. Even if you don't play with RP-1, you can still read the config file to learn how to implement randomized agencies for your own contracts.

Conformal Decals - What's the point of having a bunch of pretty logos if you can't slap them on your rocket?

Bad illumination aside, this launch included two GEO birds for RRSat and Iridium communications. ARE YOU FEELING THE IMMERSION???

The pack also includes compatibility with ConformalDecals. Each agency logo has two versions: either with a white or a transparent background, depending on your preference. You just need to use the "CDL-F Flag Decal" part and search through the flag menu. I've also included a couple of extra decals for ULA, Arianespace, SpaceX, Northrop Grumman and RocketLab.

Download

Github

Final notes

• The telecommunications agencies were based off Wikipedia's list of communication satellite companies. Please keep in mind that some of these might not even exist anymore, in which case I either added their parent company as an agency or just didn't add them to the pack. Agencies for which I couldn't find a high-res logo weren't included as well.
• As far as I know (and I searched this thoroughly) using corporation logos doesn't constitute trademark infringement, as I'm not profiting off this mod or adding any sort of agent mentalities that could imply anything about their operations or affect their public image. If anyone can provide me with more detailed information on this subject just leave a comment on this thread

An image of my colourful and logo-ridden Mission Control screen:

Spoiler

Agency list:

Spoiler

Telecommunications:
Horizons
RASCOM
Nilesat
NIGCOMSAT
Chinasat
ChinaStar
APT Satellite Holdings Limited
AsiaSat
CMMB Vision
Bangabandhu
SPARRSO
BCSC
Agrani
Antrix
DECU
PT Datakom
PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara
PT Telkom
Bank Rakyat Indonesia
Iranian Space Agency
RRsat
Station711
Spacecom
Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation
NTT DoCoMo
SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation
JSC KazSat
KT
MEASAT
SUPARCO
Pak Datacom Ltd
EshailSat
Arabsat
Singapore Telecommunications
NSSLGlobal Ltd
SupremeSAT
Chunghwa Telecom
Mu Space
Thaicom
Thuraya
Al Yah Satellite Communications
VNPT
Azercosmos
Bulgaria Sat
Eutelsat
Orange Business Services
Deutsche Telekom
Hellas Sat
Telespazio
Intelsat
SES S.A.
Fibersat
Astra
Telenor
Vizada
Russia Space Telecommunications Company
Gazprom Space Systems
Gonets
Hisdesat
Hispasat
Turksat
Avanti Communications
InmarSat
Pendrell Corporation
iSat LTD
Kepler
Ciel Space Group
Telesat
Mexsat
DirecTV
EchoStar
Globalstar
Iridium Communications
Ligado Networks
Orbcomm
Sirius XM Holdings
ViaSat
XTAR
MTN
PanAmSat
Verizon
SingTel Optus
Speedcast
INVAP
Satellogic
ARSAT
ABE
Star One
INPE

Navigation satellites:
Global Positioning System (GPS)
GLONASS
Galileo
BeiDou
Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS)

Weather satellites:
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT)
Japan Meteorological Agency
China Meteorological Administration

Exploration (AKA space agencies):
National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA)
European Space Agency (ESA)
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Roscosmos
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)

Have fun!

* for now I suggest using 1.28.1, as I got a report that suggests 1.28.2 could have problems with the agent parser (confirmed via testing).

Edited July 7, 2020 by Tonas1997
Clarity