Zedwardson

In stock KSP I just recall I sent a Kerbal into Helocentric orbit before I figured out how to make a orbit. I look at KRASH as "highest theoretical" launch... the spin was something that took a long time to work on, I am going to start a new save tonight and put the spin fins on the WAC portion and I bet I won't have the issues I had with the original design. the main differnece of the 130km and 170km lauch was I timed the spin better. The "Tutorial" is on the RP-1 webpage on "How to get a working sounding rocket" and mostly goes over the various tricks you can do so you get used to the very different structure of the game from stock.

Yep, the "Vee Mark I" is simply the tutorial rocket painted up in German paintjobs. I had the Tiny tim with some fins to spin it, and then its a WAC Corporal for boost. First launch I got to 115km, 2nd got to 170km, and third failed due to a main engine failure. (it can go over 200km, did that in KRASH) The really hard part of launching it is avoiding vapor lock. But going from the near-stock game to RP-1 is like a entire new game.

Started RP-1 game. I suck which is awesome.

Decided "just a few minutes" to make a Scout Rocket with the new 1.8 boosters, it actually not bad if you want to launch something smallish to HKO, it has a ton of fixed deltaV that you have to use. In sandbox I launched a small probe (manually) to Minmus. Stage-1 Kickback with the wings Stage-2 Thumper and two control wheels Stage-3 Shrimp Stage-4 Mite (and some small control wheels) Inside the faring is a small sat with some monopellent engines to finish the fine course corrections,

still early in my game, so using my cheap, inexpensive Altair rocket: Made a lifeboat of sorts to rescue some of the kerbals that keep finding themselves in orbit. On a cheap rocket they are actually quite profitable contracts. Made a tourism craft that can toss two tourist into orbit for 14,250 and land them without passing out. Which is also profitable. These contracts are going to allow me to pay for the science oriented Altair missions so I can unlock stuff. Upgraded the R&D so I can do soil samples, and need to get some cash to upgrade the VAB and to do science missions to earn unlocks. Right now I am saving up for the basic solar cells so I am not watching the batteries like a hawk. Trying to avoid the MUN for now till I have some bigger rockets then my current pea-shooters.

Today the KCSS had a press conference on future goals. Tourism and Rescue: Using the proven Altair rocket, the KCSS is building a rescue craft to rescue the increasing numbers of Kerbals who find themselves in LKO. Due to design limits, the craft will be quite spartan. On the more fancy side, the KCSS is also building a "Whitestar" tourism craft, which can be used to provide paying tourist Suborbital and orbital flight. And advertisements of "Fly with Jeb" have been seen. The whitestar also uses the proven Altair rocket and can take two toursts to orbit at a cost of 14,250 per flight. Project Orion: Project Orion is just on the drawing stages, and is the next step in Kerbal flight, and will provide the ability to land on Mun and Minimus. It will be able to hold three Kerbals, two of which will land on the moon. this is a long term project. Project Vega: While the Orion is a big budget program, of big rockets and big travels, a simpler system for LKO will be developed called Project Vega. The Vega will be used a cheaper option for flight to orbital stations and be used as lifeboats, the Vega will use as a core the lifeboat being developed to rescue kerbals in Orbit.

The next set of missions is Project Altair, which goal is to Orbit Kerbals and earn key science. The brand new Altair Rocket is ready to lift off on the new launchpad, Altair-1 is unique since it still has limited power (batteries not researched yet). Flight 1 goals is to reach orbit, then return with its science package, which will allow some key tech to be unlocked (and a large cash transfusion.) We have liftoff! This was a manually controlled flight, and thus, the launcher faced abuse from air pressure as Jeb tried to slow it down a bit. It held together. Beep beep beep, we are in orbit, of course, we almost have no power, so we will return without even do one complete orbit. Really not a bad job for my first manual launch to orbit in over a year. (Didn't take a photo of the landing, i Know, bad me) The extra coupler is due to a contract, need to hit water and fire it off, of course, Altair-1 and 2 landed on land.....) Altair-2, commanded by Val, who goal is to carry out a spacewalk and some science experiments (as Altair-2 now has some batteries due to the science gains of Altair-1, so will be able to transmit data without running out of power.) Liftoff again! Though this time MechJeb was able to handle the flight. as it shut down the engine for a long ride under nothing but the SRBs The key moment happens and the SRBs clear the rocket and we are on to orbit and not a nasty, dangerous abort. Getting to orbit is always nice, no matter how many times you do it. Then the long burn to get the orbit nice. Flushed with power, Altair-2 carries out various science duties while on the dark side. Then Val carries out the first Spacewalk while on the bright side (I forgot to take images as I was too busy EVAing. Landing was uneventful, except that Val put her craft on land (at least it flatlands). Altair-3 will do more science, and hopefully, land on the water so I can remove a pesky contract. Though it is happy, so far I have not lost any Kerbals and the science progress is continuing.

In my new set of Altair missions, with the goal of putting Kerbals in orbit, Jeb became the first Kerbal in orbit, felt nice since I didn't use Mechjeb on this flight and didn't even have batteries researched. Also earlier did quite a few suborbital flights, including for the first time knocking out a kerbal due to G-forces as one suborbital went high and came down fast.

Zulu is a series of five suborbital missions to learn basic science and develop basic technology required for spacetravel. In addition, the money earned allowed the spacepad to be upgraded. (I will be brief since these are very basic missions that was all about earning basic science and completing some contracts. Zulu-1 (Jeb commander) not much to stay other then massive G-force. Just a flea, some fins, and a Kerbal praying to Kerbal gods. Reached about 12,000 meters. Not much of a rocket, however this small rocket was able to reach suborbital distances. Zulu-2 reached 120km. Neilfred is unexpectedly the first Kerbal in space. He is sent off to sell Space bonds to other Kerbals. Zulu-3 was going to be the first suborbital flight, so instead the same rocket design from Zulu-2 was used, and it was used as a Kerbal'ed sounding rocket carrying out various science experiments. Testing out a new liquid fuel rocket, Nielfal feels lucky to be on the ground again. Getting over 250km in a ballistic trajectory, it was a close call on reentry as his craft almost burned up. Zulu-4 however earns tons of Science. Zulu-5 - bill takes a improved rocket for a almost orbital burn and touches down safely while getting several equipment contracts to be complete. The Zulu missions are complete, and Zulu-5 rocket is now known as a "Zulu" booster, even if it may not be used much anymore. Moneys earned is used to upgrade the launch pad, and the next goal is Kerbaled orbital flight. Though the power limits are a major shortfall that must be solved.

Okay, finally purchased Breaking Ground, and Decided to do a honest to goodness campaign mode narrative. (editor note: Feel the grind!) may pick up the making history mod after the next paycheck, But that mod mostly interests me in the Soviet parts, but I have a mod already for that. The French space program, which for many years is the third largest space program, doesn't get enough love, thus I named my program after the French Program. Mods are Tentares for some Soviet/Russian parts Mechjeb (modified to allow all services at the start) Kerbal alarm clock Final Frontier I am currently using 1.8 I am maxing out the Kerbalnaut center (I like to hire them) and will upgrade to the 7 contracts from the start, but otherwise will be upgrading the base vie earned cash. This will be a grind. But it will be a fun grind. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Sixth United Kerbal Republic (UKR) has established the Kerbal Center for Space Studies (KCSS). This will involve industrial, commercial, military, and scientific goals to explore, exploit, and Colonize Space. The Kerbonaut Corps right now consists of Original 7 Jeb - Pilot Bill - Engineer Bob - Scientist Valentina - Pilot Theolan - Engineer Neilfred - Pilot Neilfal - Scientist More will be added as they are needed and or I get a great name in the list.

Just as a note: I picked up the DLC Breaking Ground, and so I will be doing a completely new start. Thanks for reading this, and I will be starting a new narration shortly with the breaking ground and so on.

Someone told me that there was a game like Orbiter, but more intended for fun. So I tried it out. It my most played game right behind Crusader Kings II

I purchased Breaking ground. Which means I start ALL over. As I couldn't jimmy my save, and anyways it would be best for me to learn the parts as it unlocks and so on.

Get mission to rescue Kerbal. He is in a intercept with the Mun, and I not launched anything more then 150 km beyond the main planet. Thanks KSP.

Launching of Arcturus-3 (Note, this is using the 1.8.X upgrade) Using a modified B capsule (with the return of the sidewall decent system) the goal is to check to see if a lower altitude is workable and to test in orbit use of hte KerbKom-1 ComSat. Staging is uneventful though there is not much of a glide phase due to the very low orbit. Claudrin (Pilot) and Bill (Engineer and Commander) are on this flight. Turns out that the low orbit doesn't add any to the fuel reserve, and gives a much more quick and tough orbit. The comsats are working, so to test the ability of the craft, ground control asked for a immediate deorbit since the science package was useless in space. The aim was the spaceport, but the mountains look like more likely location. Shoot is opened quickly to avoid the hills Landing is rough, and there is some worried looks as the pod rolled. It also impacted at higher then desired speed, there was some worry that the mission would be lost. However it stopped rolling. On exit, the pod even rolled more, but survived, however a fair bit of observational and dirt samples where collected. The KDF (Kerbal defense forces) also liked the idea of a quick orbital run for observational missions. A mission to place a science and com sat in a specific order was given, so the faithful Loki launcher was rolled out. Takeoff was nominal, but ground control started noticing a wobble that kept getting more out of control. Control, we have a problem! Ionic Sat-1 launch is a contingency. payload lost. The Boffens insist that it was not the launcher, but the unusual layout of the Iconic sat. So the launch of KerbKom-2 was continued as scheduled. O dear, ... The Loki is grounded as a launcher.. A backup booster, (still unnamed) is used to launch KerbKom-3 into KerbCom-2 orbit, and launch the Ionic Sat replacement. Both Missions are seccessful. A oddball but useful com network is starting to form. A rescue mission was accepted by the KASC, and then we see that there is no hope for a rescue. In addition, some ugly planes are starting to be produced to test out various flight controls. Up next, two probes to Mun Orbit!

I run MechJeb, Final Frontiers, Kerbal Alarm Clock, and Tanteres for soviet/russian themed objects. The only issue I have is a minor mechJeb issue on pull down menus looking odd. I did have a scare that I thought staging was broke but I had opened the docking controls.

I have no problem with the flea as is. Also all these added boosters make me tempted to make a rocket like the "Scout" used by NASA and the Italian space agency.

A dumb question so I do not make a dumb mistake. I have a mission to build a base on the Mun with various minimum requirements: Do all these components need to be connected with each other to meet the contract, or do they just need to be landed in the same area?

Upgraded to 1.8 Developed my first working airplane, though I still might do the whole "Unleash parachutes and land under a canopy" -- Nothing special, kinda of a Mig-15 type that a pain to lift off but once it lifts off it flies well. Tested my mods - all seem to be functional, Mechjeb has some UI issues but nothing to get worked up about. Had two complete failures of sat launches: Has been ided as the fairing design in 1.8 causes a wobble that caused a failure at booster seperation/gravity turn that caused the entire rocket somersault. Developed a new com-sat launcher (still unnamed) and new fairing that put the com sat into the KEO style orbit as designed, so the new design will get the workout as I launch rockets. (I put it in a slightly higher then KEO so it will fall back a bit, then it will be lowered to KEO to take it station.

Just as a note: Mechjeb, Final Frontier, Alarm Clock, and Tentares seem to be working in 1.8 (at least for me). still finishing a mission to confirm final frontier

Didn't realize 1.8 was coming out so soon, might start a new fresh game for 1.8. Edit: All my mods are working fine (I am running near stock) so onward we go

Perhaps, I was going to call it the "X Program" or the "YZ Program" and just number various variations. Though for now I need to start doing the Mun missions I am signed up for.

I have a campaign that I am posting, and I might include some attemps (and failures) to make SSTOs (and spaceplanes in general) as part of the storyline. As I am really good At making rockets so I know I can keep that side of my program going, but it might be fun to see some abject failures.

tried to make a SSTO today, and failed. So I slapped on a bunch of solid rockets and actually got it suborbital and decided for now I am going to stick to rockets.

What is RP-1?