Butterbar

CHAPTER FOUR: THE X-2 PROGRAM ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ Jebediah tightened his hand around the joystick of the capsule. Although he was alone on this flight, the Mk.1 capsule was still a little cramped, with nothing but a small square window for viewing the world beyond and a small panel in front of him coated with dozens of switches, dials, and gauges. Certainly not ideal for the claustrophobic or those who panicked easily. But Jebediah was not one of them. In his years of flying for the naval forces, he had always learned to memorize the function of every single control on the cockpit. It was how he survived when the margin of error was low. The sudden voice of a flight engineer broke through the silence of the capsule and interrupted his thoughts. "X-2A, do you copy?" "Roger that, ground control. How's your wife?" Jebediah thought he could hear some laughter in the background. He grinned. Today's gonna be a good day. "Doing mighty fine, I reckon. Check the fuel gauge on the rocket, will you? It's been giving weird readings all day." "Hoorah, understood, will do. Nope, doesn't look haywired to me. Tell someone to send some snacks over, I'm starving." More laughing in the background, this time louder. "You've got two minutes to engine ignition, so sit tig-" Jebediah didn't wait for him to finish. He turned off the radio and sat, looking at the world beyond from his window. Now the capsule was silent once more, save for the gentle humming of the reaction wheels behind him. The X-2 was not the most aesthetically pleasing of rockets. It was a small hypersonic glider with a first stage consisting of a LV-45T to boost it to speed; it had no second stage, but would instead land unpowered. And with a cruising altitude of 62KM, it would bring Kerbalkind to the very edge of space.. The countdown reached zero. Jebediah closed his eyes, letting the rumble of the engines engulf him. Then there was a flash of light, and the rumble became a roar as the main LV-45 ignited into full throttle and began to push itself off the pad. He felt a jerk backwards as the ship began to accelerate upwards. The X-2, for all it's stubby unpleasantness, shot through the sky like a dart. Inside, Jebediah was having the ride of his life. With the cabin wildly rattling around him, he could feel the rocket pitching leftwards to begin it's horizontal burn. He looked towards the speedometer. 603 m/s 604 m/s 605 m/s The X-2 flew on, fire beginning to lick at the sides of it's wings. Then Jebediah felt the pressure on his chest evaporate. There was a bang as the separator bolts worked behind him, and then silence once again filled the capsule. "Jebediah, we've got confirmed separation. The first stage is off, you've got to do the rest. It's all up to you now", came the voice of CAPCOM. "I got it. Don't worry." Pitching the glider downwards, Jebediah watched as Kerbin filled his capsule, it's blue light eerily glowing off his instrument panels. Following the flight profile that had been drilled into his mind, he began to turn left, performing the braking maneuvers that he had come to trust so much in the past days. Watching as the altitude meter dropped, he pitched upwards and released the main parachutes, allowing them to drag his capsule back. The cabin jerked once again, and he felt the glider drifting downwards. Four minutes and forty six seconds into the flight, the X-2 landed nose first into the grassland and skidded ten meters before coming to a rest. Kerbalkind had reached the edge of space, and Jebediah needed a new helmet. ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ REPORT TO THE KOMMISSIONAR OUR AGENTS IN THE UNITED PROVINCES HAVE INDICATED UNUSUAL AMOUNTS OF ACTIVITY NEAR THE KERMAN ROCKETRY RESEARCH CENTER RECENTLY. I BELIEVE IT IS IN OUR BEST INTEREST TO PURSUE SPACE RESEARCH SERIOUSLY OURSELVES. FAILURE TO DO SO WOULD LEAD TO THE UNITED PROVINCES AND THE CAPITALISM IT REPRESENTS TO TAKE THE MANTLE OF TECHNOLOGICAL AND INDUSTRIAL SUPREMACY IN THE EYES OF NATIONS THAT ARE OF STRATEGICAL IMPORTANCE. WE CANNOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN. AS WE SPEAK, THE UNITED PROVINCES "X-2" AIRCRAFT FLIES TO THE EDGE OF SPACE, FLAUNTING IT'S CAPABILITIES. ALTHOUGH MOST OF THE INFORMATION FOR THIS AIRCRAFT IS CLASSIFIED, I HAVE NO DOUBT THAT IT CAN BE WEAPONIZED AND SHOULD IT, BE INVISIBLE TO OUR RADAR AND OUTPACE OUR INTERCEPTORS. THIS BRINGS ME TO A SECOND POINT. THE AERONAUTICS RESEARCH COUNCIL ONLY OWNS TWO X-2 CRAFT. THE UNITED PROVINCIAL AIR FORCE HAS ORDERED ONE DOZEN. THESE CRAFT HAVE MUCH TO OFFER IN RECONNAISSANCE ABILITIES. THEY MAY BE EVEN FLYING ABOVE YOU AS YOU READ THIS. I STRONGLY URGE YOU TO CONSIDER FUNDING A ROCKETRY RESEARCH PROGRAM SERIOUSLY AS WELL AS DEVELOPING HIGH ALTITUDE AIRCRAFT. YOU WON'T REGRET IT. GLORY TO THE PROLETARIAT, MAJOR BORIS-IVAN DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE STUDIES, UNION AIR FORCE

CHAPTER THREE: Rockets make sound. ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ Two minutes before launch, Werner gave the signal through the intercom, and the crews scurried away from the pad, unhooking the umbilical fuel cord from the tank of the rocket. At the growing Mission Control center, he watched his controllers, two dozen of them and all in ties and shirtsleeves, work their way down the countdown procedures. Each component of the rocket had to be checked for functionality, and each had to be certain to succeed. The space program needed political support, and no matter how fun or exciting explosions were, they weren't really effective at garnering it. "Prometheus-1, engine check is green, we are go for engine ignition. Werner, any input?", called a engineer from the front of the room. A thick country accent permeated his words, much like the rural contractors that had built the research center. "Nein, continue ze countdown as normal", Wernher replied back. "Understood, boss." Wernher looked out of the rows of computers into the distance. From here, one could make out the thin outline of the Prometheus sounding rocket against the blue sky. Powered by BACC-solid booster first stage, an LV-T45 second stage with a effective LH/OX combination, the rocket was built for altitude. He could see the glint of sunlight off the metal tanks and the small stacks of steam rising from the nozzle of the SRB. On the top sat the scientific payload, a cylindrical Materials Bay with a stubby, round computer core that would be capable of making slight adjustments in-flight as needed, and lithium-ion batteries. Around the rocket was a pile of dirt that had been overturned and blackened from engine tests and previous rockets, and a small concrete bunker for the cameras and reporters - if they were brave enough. Funding was insecure, and until Wernher could prove to the government that the rocket program was a worthwhile venture, he would have to make-do with second-rate infrastructure. "We have thirty seconds to launch." The flat plains stretched out for several kilometers past the launchpad and control room and assembly building. Covered in a layer of glass, the land was flat, the boring flat that made the agricultural provinces the bane of every long distance driver for their lack of scenery. But for Wernher, it was perfect. Built on a peninsula near the Equator, the land could be developed into a surrounding city that would hold the greatest asset of all - the largest spaceport on Kerbin. A national treasure. The countdown reached it's final second, and the SRB's roared to life in a brilliant flash of light, drowning out Wernhers thoughts. Across the bay near the space center, a small crowd of picnickers watched in awe as the Prometheus awoke and began to soar to the heavens on a pillar of fire A T+ ten seconds, the rocket broke past the speed of sound at full throttle, it's boosters burning away furiously. Wernher held his breath, halfway anticipating the rocket to continue on it's mission profile, and halfway expecting it to flip. The Prometheus soldiered on skyward. At T+ thirty seconds, the explosive bolts in the TR-18 activated, pulling away the spent booster towards Kerbin. The rocket was now 11 kilometers high. A pause of two seconds came, and the second stage came to life, jolting the payload with sudden acceleration. A cheer arose in Mission Control. When the engines of the second stage finally cut, the rocket began it's cruise to a comfortable apogee of 51KM above the research center. There was another bang, as the last decoupler fired it's bolts and fell away. Onboard the payload, the scientific experiments activated, storing their telemetry in the round brain of the Prometheus. With no antenna, they couldn't be used until they were physically recovered - not that it mattered, anyway. The payload was built to return to Kerbin safely. At T+ 2 minutes, the craft reached apogee, and a flurry of activity erupted in the control room as the controllers began to check on every system, readying themselves for any possible emergency for the descent back to Kerbin. At T+ 3 minutes, the craft deployed it's drogue chutes. The distinctively yellow main parachutes were released ten seconds after, when Werner determined that the ship had slowed down enough for the chutes to survive. Now descending comfortably at 3m/s, the craft fell homewards to a waiting recovery team. It would then be loaded onto a truck, it's telemetry studied intensely in the laboratory, and the craft itself stowed away into an archive. Back at the research center, Wernher lazily watched the yellow dots of the descending chutes bobble in the wind. A tall, stern Kerbal with neatly combed black hair and a thin mustache, he had spent much of his early life in the rural villages of Gerenia. There, he had found happiness and solitude to study his rocketry. Then the Big War happened, and Werner found himself on the wrong side in the worst possible circumstances. But he had no doubt that he was presently in the right place at the right time. With the Prometheus-1 a success, the odds looked much better for Prometheus-2, and after that, the notion that Wells was wrong. Kerbalkind was going to reach the stars in his lifetime, whether that old man liked it or not.. ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ THE CAPITOL SUN TIMES ~ 1951, Month 11, Day 7 ~ "PROMETHEUS-2" ROCKET ENTERS SPACE WITH SCIENTIFIC PAYLOAD, A FIRST FOR KERBALKIND WRITTEN BY DOLING KERMAN ABOVE: KERBIN FROM SPACE, PHOTO CREDIT TO THE AERONAUTICS RESEARCH COUNCIL KERMAN ROCKETRY RESEARCH CENTER - BUILDING UPON THE SUCCESSES OF THE PROMETHEUS-1, THE PROMETHEUS-2, NAMED FOR THE ANCIENT PHYAGISAN GOD OF WISDOM, LAUNCHED ONTO A SPACEWARD TRAJECTORY TODAY, MARKING IT AS THE FIRST TIME THE "SPACE PROGRAM" HAS SUCCEEDED IN BREAKING THE ATMOSPHERE. THE ROCKET WAS UNMANNED AND DID NOT ACHIEVE ORBIT, BUT THE IMAGES OF IT'S OPEN MATERIALS BAY AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF KERBIN SERVED AS A ICONIC REMINDER OF OUR PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE - THAT WE, KERBALKIND, ARE TINY COMPARED TO THE REACHES OF SPACE. IN A PRESS CONFERENCE TODAY, WERNER VON KERMAN, CHAIRMAN AND DIRECTOR OF THE AERONAUTICS RESEARCH AGENCY/COUNCIL, STATED, "THE PROMETHEUS-2 MISSION MAY SEEM SIGNIFICANT NOW, BUT WE ARE PROGRESSING SLOWLY AND STEADILY TOWARDS PUTTING A KERBAL INTO ORBIT BY THE END OF 1955. THAT IS OUR GOAL." PRESIDENT KERMAN CONGRATULATED WERNER FOR HIS ACHIEVEMENTS TODAY, WITH THE GREEN HOUSE RELEASING A PRESS STATEMENT, "WE SUPPORT ADVANCEMENTS MADE IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY THAT WILL CONTRIBUTE TO THE GREATER KNOWLEDGE OF OUR SPECIES". WITH THE PRESIDENT SET TO GIVE AN ADDRESS AT THE MUSEUM OF FLIGHT AT GONDWANA AIR FORCE BASE NEXT MONTH AND INCREASING PUBLIC INTEREST IN SPACEFLIGHT, MANY SPECULATE ON WHETHER OR NOT THE GREEN HOUSE WILL MAKE AN OFFICIAL STANCE ON SPACEFLIGHT SOON, AND WHERE THEY WOULD TAKE SIDES IN THE GROWING POLITICAL BATTLE OVER THE FUTURE OF THE ARC AND GOVERNMENTAL EFFORTS TOWARDS SPACEFLIGHT. AFTER A BRIEF PHASE OF A PHENOMENON CALLED "REENTRY HEATING", THE PROMETHEUS-2 WAS RECOVERED BY THE CREW OF THE UPSNS DULING AND THE CRAFT TRANSPORTED TO THE RESEARCH CENTER. ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

CHAPTER TWO: Test Articles ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ~ THE CAPITOL SUN TIMES ~ ~ 1951, Month 3, Day 22 ~ GOVERNMENT UNVEILS NEW CAPSULE, CLAIMS IT CAN ACTUALLY GO TO SPACE WRITTEN BY DOLING KERMAN ABOVE: JEBEDIAH INSPECTS THE CAPSULE, A PLAUSIBLE SPACECRAFT? KERMAN ROCKETRY RESEARCH CENTER - A PHOTO RELEASED TODAY BY THE AERONAUTICS RESEARCH COUNCIL SHOWS NAVAL AVATIOR LIEUTENANT JEBEDIAH KERMAN INSPECTING A STRANGE CONIC CONTRAPTION NAMED "TEST ARTICLE ONE" ON THE EXPERIMENT TESTING PAD OF THE KRRC CENTER. A SPOKESPERSON FOR THE AERONAUTICS RESEARCH COUNCIL, DR. WERNER VON KERMAN, SAYS OF THE CAPSULE, "IT IS REVOLUTIONARY, ZE CAPSULE. IT REALLY IS. IT IS A CLOSED SYSTEM AND CAN WITHSTAND SUPERSONIC FLIGHT AS WELL AS A VACUMN. TRUST ME, WE'VE TESTED IT THERE". HOWEVER, OTHERS ARE MORE SKEPTICAL. "BULL EXCREMENT", EXCLAIMED PROFESSOR WELLS KERMAN OF KERMAN UNIVERSITY. "IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR BIOLOGICAL LIFE TO SURVIVE INSIDE A VACUMN, AND SPACE BEING A VACUMN, SPACEFLIGHT IS IMPOSSIBLE". AFTER A REPORTER POINTED OUT THAT MANY HAD THOUGHT FLIGHT WAS IMPOSSIBLE, WELLS COMMENTED, "WITH TODAY'S TECHNOLOGY, OF COURSE. I WILL MAKE YOU A BET RIGHT NOW. IF THAT CRACKPOT "DR." WERNER VON KERMAN, WHO NOT ONLY FOUGHT AGAINST US IN THE BIG WAR BUT IS NOW LEADING OUR GOVERNMENT ASTRAY WITH IDEAS OF FIGHTING LITTLE PURPLE KERBALS FROM DUNA, GETS ONE KERBAL INTO SPACE EVEN FOR A SECOND, NO MATER IF THE KERBAL SURVIVES, I WILL SHAVE MY GLORIOUS MUSTACHE AND THROW AWAY ALL MY SNACKS. I SWEAR." WHEN ASKED TO COMMENT ON HIS CRITICS, WERNER HAD ONLY A FEW WORDS TO SAY. "THE TECHNOLOGY WE HAVE TODAY WOULD'VE BEEN DEEMED IMPOSSIBLE TEN YEARS AGO. TODAY WE HAVE NUCLEAR POWER, FLIGHT, AND AUTOMOBILES. A CENTURY AGO ONLY DR.WELL'S "CRACKPOTS" WOULD HAVE IMAGINED SUCH THINGS. CRACKPOTS ARE SOMETIMES RIGHT, YOU KNOW". WERNER ADDED, "EXCEPT FOR THAT FUNNY-LOOKING KERBAL ON THE STREET CORNER CLAIMING THAT THE WORLD IS ABOUT TO END. DON'T LISTEN TO HIM. NO, REALLY, DON'T." ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ THE CAPITOL SUN TIMES ~ 1951, Month 4, Day 17 ~ TEST CAPSULE PERFORMS MAIDEN FLIGHT, ACTUALLY WORKS WRITTEN BY ELDING KERMAN VIEW OF THE TEST CAPSULE FROM A HELICOPTER AS IT PARACHUTES TO SAFETY KERMAN ROCKETRY RESEARCH CENTER - THE ROCKET FLIGHT TODAY WAS A STUNNING AND MUCH NEEDED SUCCESS FOR THE SPACE RESEARCH PROGRAM, WHICH HAS FACED HEAVY CRITICISM FROM MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AS WELL AS ACADEMIA DURING THE PAST MONTH FOR IT'S UNFEASIBILITY AND "OUTLANDISHNESS". HOWEVER, TODAY'S FLIGHT MIGHT BE THE NEEDED IMPETUS TO SILENCE THE CRIES OF OPPOSITION. FIRING IT'S ENGINES ON THE PAD, THE ROCKET ROSE TO A HEIGHT OF 3 KILOMETERS BEFORE EXECUTING A 45-DEGREE TURN AND HEADING FOR THE SEA, WHERE IT SPLASHED DOWN SAFELY AMID A FLEET OF WAITING WARSHIPS AND IT'S PILOT, LIEUTENANT JEBEDIAH KERMAN, PLUCKED FROM THE OCEAN. THE ROCKET WAS LATER TOWED BACK TO LAND WERE IT WILL BE STORED AND ANALYZED INSIDE THE CENTER. THE IDEA OF A WATER LANDING WITH PARACHUTES HAS EMERGED IN RECENT WEEKS AS A ALTERNATIVE TO A PROPELLED LANDING ON LAND. WATER WOULD CUSHION THE FORCE OF IMPACT, AND THE PARACHUTES WOULD SAVE MUCH WEIGHT AS WELL AS WELL AS SIMPLIFYING THE DESIGN BY MAGNITUDES. THE ROCKETRY PROGRAM HAS YET TO BREAK THE BARRIER OF SPACE, HOWEVER, AND MANY HAVE CRITICIZED IT AS THE "EPITOME OF WASTEFUL SPENDING", CALLING IT "A ROCKET TO NOWHERE". PROMINENT AMONG THESE CRITICS IS PROFESSOR WELLS KERMAN AT KERMAN UNIVERSITY, A ELDERLY SCIENTIST AND A PROPONENT OF FLIGHT SCIENCE. ON TODAY'S EVENTS AND HIS BET, ALL HE HAD TO SAY WAS "WE WILL NOT SEE KERBALKIND REACH SPACE IN OUR LIFETIME." WERNER VON KERMAN, DIRECTOR OF THE AERONAUTICS RESEARCH AGENCY, COULD NOT BE REACHED FOR COMMENT. HOWEVER, WITH THE KOMMUNISTS ALSO TESTING THEIR OWN ROCKET TECHNOLOGY, IT IS LIKELY THAT THEY WILL ATTEMPT TO GAIN AN EDGE, AND POSSIBLY SEND A KERBAL TO SPACE. ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

Decided to try my hand at recording my playthrough of 1.1. FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS: A TALE OF GENERAL GOVERNMENTAL COMPETENCE Chapter One: The Beginnings Chapter Two: Test Articles Chapter Three: Rockets Make Sound Chapter Four: The X-2 Program Chapter Five: A Satellite Chapter Six: Gone Suborbital Chapter Seven: Orbit Chapter Eight: Mun and Beyond Chapter Nine: Flight of the Genesis Chapter Ten: Artemis-2 and Rendezvous Too Chapter Eleven: Artemis-3 And The Effects Of Longterm Spaceflight On Kerbals Chapter Twelve: The Frontier Expands Chapter Thirteen: Docking And Spaceplanes Chapter Fourteen: Reconnaissance Operations Chapter Fifteen: A Tied Race Chapter Sixteen: Striking Back Chapter Seventeen: Jupiter Sets Chapter Eighteen: Munlab Chapter Nineteen: The Last Munshot Chapter Twenty: Saturn Station Chapter Twenty One: Saturn Station Pt. 2 Chapter Twenty Two: Minmus Dawn Chapter Twenty Three: End Of An Era Chapter Twenty Four: New Beginnings Chapter Twenty Five: Routine Operations ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ The yellow sun peeked over the hills, filling the city with the sickly light that accompanied the heavy rain of the night before. The city was coming awake now; it's cosmopolitan nightlife retreated away until the night began anew, and the day shifters of Kerbin began their morning commute as if they were endless ants under the spell of a hive mind. At the center of the city, surrounded by a courtyard and picket fence, was a large temple constructed of white marble. It was here where the national government made its greatest decisions, and it was here that Senator Samden Kerman found himself in that bleak morning, his coffee cold and no snacks nearby. Samden was a proud Kerbal. He'd served his country during two wars and was now serving it as a politician. But as the President of the Senate, he'd learned to despise the Senators of his country as much as he hated it's rivals, the Kommunists thousands of kilometers over the sea. Today was no different. As he sat upon his wooden throne, flanked by two Grand Judges and a array of security guards, he could not help but look with contempt at the line of Senators filing in. Sensing that all had arrived, the elderly Kerbal rose and began. "We call together this adjournment of the 102nd Senate Hearing upon the fiscal revi..." In the corner of his eye, Samden could see one of the newer Senators sleeping on his desk. Down came the gavel, each strike hitting the now-awakened Senator like a electric shock. With the whole Senate now attentive, Samden continued. "...review of the National Budget. A preliminary copy of this budget was forwarded..." The sounds of paper ruffling and panicked Kerbals looking into their briefcases, coats, and even shoes began, drowning Samden out. A dozen hands went up. He sat back down, resting his forehead on the desk and sighed. "Yes, Senator Bobcal?" "I don't have it." "Honorable Senator, check your office again, and do not return until you have your copy of the budget." "Understood, sir." A fifth of Senate got up and left, chattering as they went. The sounds of coats being put on and briefcases snapping shut echoed throughout the chamber for several minutes, until Samden found it appropriate to resume the meeting. "Now for those who actually read the bill-" Another fifth of the Senate rose to their feet, grabbed their coats, and left. Now reduced to a mere sixty Kerbals, it was at a minimum for conducting business. Any lower and anything done by it would be null and void, courtesy of the Constitution. Sam couldn't afford another session. The iron miners in his Province had been striking for a month already, and he, as the elected representative of the people, had to go home to address this issue. And he couldn't if he was tied down with affairs in the capital. "Alright, we'll vote now." A sigh of relief swept over the chamber. Taking a final count of the Senators assembled before him, the vote began. "All in favor of the bill, say aye and raise your right hand." Thirty-one Kerbals said "Aye" and raised their right hand. Taking a quick count, a scribe standing at the doorway signaled to Samden that their vote had been recorded. "All not in favor of the bill, say nay and raise your right hand." Twenty-five Kerbals said "Nay" and raised their right hand. "And I assume everyone else abstains?" "Correct, President. We abstain from voting.", piped up a plump Kerbal in the front row. Samden tried to ignore the fact the senator was stuffing his face with snacks. "Then we, the 102nd Senate, do hearby approve and endorse the National Budget Bill for the Year of 1951. Are there any objections?" The chamber was silent, save for the sound of snoring coming somewhere from back of the chamber. Goddammit, Samden thought. "This Senate is hereby dismissed." Down came the gavel, and tucked away into two sentences of the 200-page manuscript, the Space Program was born, a fact unknown to all but a very surprised government clerk a few weeks later. ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ The UPNS Duling had been underway with it's escort ships for several weeks now. A large state-of-the-art aircraft carrier, the vessel held a small city of crew: 1,381 Kerbals. It also held cargo - although a second convoy with the same destination held more - and four passengers. Four very special passengers, who, at the present, were undergoing a briefing, from none other than Agent Kirrim, a government Kerbal and the Aerospace Operations Head of the National Intelligence Agency. "Jebediah, Valentina, William, and Robert Kerman. You've all signed up as a part of the Project-S for Space testing group, am I correct?" "Yes, sir.", all four of them replied. Jebediah fidgeted slightly, trying to hide his impatience. He wasn't doing a good job. "If that is the case, the paperwork for your transfer is in good order. By tomorrow you should be notified by telegram of your updated security clearance. Gentlemen - and you too, Valentinia, no longer will answer to your respective branches..." Kirrim leaned forth on the table, letting his face block out the light. Be intimidating and imposing, he remembered. "..you'll serve the rocketry program. Report to your quarters and get some sleep, all of you. We make landfall tomorrow at 0400, and I'll stay with you for the next week to get your transfers in order. Do you understand?" "Yes, sir", all four replied again. "All of you are dismissed." After the four left, Kirrim turned off the lights and closed the door lightly. Making his way onto the deck into the warm tropical night, he looked up at the stars and light a cigar They'll be here all the same when I die. They'll be here completely the same when my children die, and they'll be here completely the same long after our species go extinct. Kirrim shook his head and watched as the glow of the ashes slowly faded. Then he went back into the ship, unaware that sixteen hundred light years away, the star astronomers called Corkin 1664 had just detonated in the brightest supernovae in Kerbal history. Not that it mattered. At that distance, it would be Kirrim's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren who saw the novae. ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

Steam stores all their games onto your computer. If you have a Mac, go to ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/common/ and you'll see a bunch of games that you can now use to play offline. If you have a PC, go to c:\program files\Steam\SteamApps\common\. You don't need Steam's permission to play. You can just as easily move these files out of that directory, and when you want to launch it again through Steam, it'll redownload it for you. Or you can play it offline from a different directory and never have Steam running at all.

And I bet that there's probably going to be more bugs found with more people testing, even if there's a bunch of those who "don't give a rat's ass" like you say. And the fact is, no matter how many people criticize this, the main heart of this argument is that the people who bought from the store aren't angry that they didn't get it, they're angry that someone else did and want to make sure that noone gets it in the future.

It's a shame that Squad is receiving so much backlash. Yes, their decision to release on Steam got the Store buyers the short end of the stick; but it's simply not feasible for them to do so. If they had the capability to release on the store, they would. But they decided that they would let some of their community play and test for bugs instead of letting noone, and now that's got a bunch of people angry because that didn't include them. A lot of people aren't angry that they didn't get the prerelease, they're angry that the Steam users got the prerelease and would rather that noone get it than some people get it and it not them.

It's out, I think. Check the SteamDB page, the latest release a minute ago says 1.1

Yes, yes, yes, and yes, because I apparently lack imagination in all aspects. Even in Sandbox I heavily restrain myself to progressing like a actual space program and don't do any manned missions or orbital missions in space immediately, because doing manned interplanetary flights off the bat (Even though I'm capable of doing so) just feels wrong and makes me burnout extremely fast. Since career forces me into that and rewards me with a point system, why should I bother to do Sandbox?

ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ 1.1 or RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ praise to the donger

ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ 1.1 or RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ 1.1 or RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ 1.1 or RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ 1.1 or RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ 1.1 or RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ is all I can say

I'm on HypeDrug you're on HypeDrug we're all on Hypedrug and high as a rocket on kerbol escape trajectory

what about wine? will it be fine pinot noir or no?

I've got my boarding pass to 1.1. Will there be snacks or no?

I'm always curious about this. Is KSP it's own little autonomous offshoot of Squad, or is Squad now a game company? If HarvestR is only employed by Squad, what happens if Squad decides to abandon KSP for whatever reason? Would the KSP team then form it's own company? Does HarvestR own Squad now or is he a exec (If anything, who runs Squad?)? What is the status of KSP inside Squad?

I play Career in all my saves, always either Normal or higher with no mods but visual (EVE, Planetshine, Scatterer, DOE) and informatory (Mechjeb). I'm not a very imaginative person, so I tend to burnout very fast when the game doesn't set goals and milestones for me in the form of contracts. Even in Sandbox, I follow my normal progression of small satellites, then orbital missions, then Munar probes, and so on. It just doesn't feel right to take control of a space program and head to Duna off the bat without any infrastructure or communication satellites.

Planetshine + my attempt at porting ReShade to Mac OSX using Wineskin. Since ReShade uses OpenGL, apparently it (somewhat) works.

Space Station III, the largest space station in Kerbin orbit as well as the main offworld center of operations for the space program celebrates it's first year anniversary today. The station is the primary tourist destination in space as well as a national symbol of technological superiority. Aldcal Kerman performs a maintenance EVA on the station. Visitors are not allowed to perform EVA's unless under trained guides and they must be tethered to the hatch should anything go wrong. Bringing cameras or anything detachable from the suit is not allowed.

Launched the Adrophite-2, a orbiter to the moon of Gilly. Seen here after completing it's Kerbin escape burn while still attached to the Probe Bus. The Moho Flyby Probe also made the stunning discovery that Moho has a texture glitch Moho was reached by aliens millions of years before Kerbalkind and these aliens unleashed upon Moho a swarm of perfectly white grey goo nanobots who consumed much of the planet before falling dormant. Oh well, I wasn't going to colonize Moho anyways. The third module was docked to the Munar Spacedock, which is the main orbital facility for all Munar operations. Capable of hosting a crew of 70 currently, the station represents the pinnacle of Kerbal efforts in Mun orbit. Which aren't much. At all.

Yes

The thing is I had the 64-bit workaround for two weeks before any issues had started to even show up. During that time I didn't install any mods but did upgrade from Maverick to Yosemite.

I have KSPRC, Mechjeb, Scatterer, Planetshine, and EVE as my main mods, as well as a x64 workaround. As a personal rule, I only use visual or informatory mods (dV stats for Mechjeb). How bad are the graphical glitches compared to Yosemite?

Does anyone here run KSP on OSX El Capitan? I'm experiencing constant freezes on OSX Yosemite when loading the launchpad (Each time forcing me to restart my laptop) and I'm wondering if upgrading would improve my experience. If this is not the correct forum, I apologize. It didn't look like that it fit in Tech Support or Gameplay Questions either.

One way I've gotten myself to maintain this sense of wonder is to install more and more graphical mods. I can't imagine playing KSP without EVE, and I also can't imagine playing without Scatterer or KSPRC. It's made me dependent on them for immersion and I sometimes regret it, but parachuting through lighting on Eve or driving through a dust storm on Duna or even just watching the clouds on Kerbin brings back a sense of wonder and exploration. But what I never really got into was the whole idea of making things efficient. I made a SSTO once for the hell of it, and I hated the whole experience for its teidousness and the fact that I would launch it once or twice for the novelty and immediately switch back to bigger rockets. When launching a rocket, I almost never look at the dV; to me, it's "I don't know how long this'll last but I'm sure to figure out". This leads to a inefficient space program but if others want to make theirs efficient, who am I to judge?

Don't think I wrote the second passage too well, so I'll probably rewrite it. However, I think it would be better to move the base to Duna and to begin with Bill meeting with his officers. This, instead of a solitary EVA, would establish him as the center of authority as well as placing him into a position where he is aware of the war but at the same time unable to intervene. It would also have the added effect of the Duna garrison watching their homeworld be destroyed, and open up the concept of how the Mun and Minmus colonies would react to the seat of government now being half a light hour away.