Shmauck

Currently, cameras are not an issue. I'm not showing my face on YT. Streaming from the Shadow would require an audio stream going through my upload so that is the next thing I am going to test. For recording, that's not an issue, because I am capturing video within Shadow via a local OBS. Then I download the files to my Mac and add voiceovers in postproduction.

Very interesting insights into the whole Apple and Gaming subject. I was probably mislead by the fact that the M1 Max comes with quite powerful GPU specs. This made me assume they have decided to be more committed to Gaming in the future. Update on my case: I confirm, not even KSP 1 is available on my GeForce Now instance as it seems. I connected GeForce Now to my Steam account and KSP would not appear. I opened a ticket. Am fiddling with a new Shadow PC now. Playing KSP will work for sure as the cloud machine grants full control over Windows. Have installed KSP 1 and have it running with my Steam Cloud save games without a problem. In regard of my recording/streaming plans, I will install OBS on the Shadow PC next.

Oh and by the way… MacOS does not seem to be completely off the list for KSP2 development so I trust I am only in need of a temporary solution. Granted, the wait time for KSP2 is already far higher than expected so any meaning of temporary may end up being several years…

Thank you all for your ideas. Those Linux solutions are far beyond where I am willing to go because I fear I may end up with a fully unusable computer afterwards I found another cloud gaming option called Shadow. They offer a full computer which can be remote-controlled with full access to Windows. That solution seems to take away the limitations which GeForce Now may have. I will look into both options and see how far I come with these. I will update this thread and report results. My last resort may still be to purchase a dedicated computer and for that setup I may be following the capture card route.

Another option could be cloud gaming. I have tried KSP1 on a Shadow cloud PC and that actually worked quite well. I may be looking into GeForce Now or Google Stadia until end of February. Either way, I really like the Elgato solution as I am using OBS for capturing anyway which is now available in an Apple Silicon version.

As suggested, I am taking this topic to a separate thread because it may be interesting for others. We have some level of certainty that Macs are not going to be supported during Early Access. This fact currently gives me a bit of a headache. I started a small YouTube channel with KSP tutorials in German two years ago. With KSP2 on the horizon, I purchased a very powerful (and thus very expensive) M1 Max MacBook Pro, hoping it would run KSP2 with ease. I was expecting the game to be released on Steam for both Windows and MacOS. I am feeling a bit stuck. I crave to have the EA version on day 1 and also wish to put new content on my YT channel from day one. But what do I do if I find out on February 24th that my computer won‘t run the game? Running a dual boot on an M1 with a Windows ARM in a separate boot seems to be somewhat tricky and probably nothing I want to try. Especially if I need to reboot after each take to edit the content within the MacOS environment. There are comments about Steam Play or Proton but I am not sure what that means. Is there any hope that I can run the game under MacOS when it is released on Steam? If not, I would even go as far as getting myself a mid-range Windows gaming PC if necessary but of course that is not my favorite option as it requires further investments. Can someone please provide more Information on M1 Mac compatibility via Steam Play? Thanks!

I actually bought a very powerful (and thus very expensive) M1 MacBook Pro, hoping it would run KSP2 with ease. Now I am feeling a bit stuck. I crave to have the EA version on day 1 with the prospect of putting new content on my YT channel but what if it doesn‘t run it at all? Running a dual boot on an M1 seems to be somewhat tricky and probably nothing I want to try. There are comments about Steam Play but I am not sure what that means. I would even go as far as getting myself a mid-range Windows gaming PC if necessary but of course that is not my favorite option. Can someone please provide more Information on M1 Mac compatibility via Steam Play? Thanks!

Ich glaube schon Seit ich vor einem Jahr meinen YouTube-Kanal gestartet habe, kommen da ein paar Deutsche KSP-Spieler auch regelmäßig vorbei. Ich habe mal überlegt, dafür einen Discord zu starten, aber ich weiß nicht, ob sich das schon lohnt. Wärst du interessiert?

Hallo zusammen! Die neuen Videos kommen jetzt immer einmal pro Woche am Samstag um 6:00 Uhr online. Liebe Grüße

OMG. I had no pilot in a command module. I am dumb. Never mind.

Probably I missed something but it seems that after KSP 1.11 (after EVA construction was added) I cannot see the science reports stored in a module like the Hitchhiker and the Mobile Processing Lab. When I am on EVA and carry e. g. 4 science reports I store them in the module. The Kerbal on EVA "sees" the reports when I right-click the module. I get a menu item in the PAM showing "Take Data (4)". So far so good. Then I switch to the module and the menu entry "Review stored data" is not shown. This is especially painful when I need to review the stored reports to line them up for processing in the lab. Is this a bug or is there a way to show the missing PAM entries? Best, Shmauck

Hallo zusammen! Nach etwas mehr als 1.200 Stunden KSP habe ich meinen ersten eigenen YouTube-Kanal mit einem Tutorial zum Karrieremodus gestartet. Vielleicht findet der eine oder andere Neueinsteiger darin ein paar nützliche Infos. Aktuell gibt es immer mittwochs und samstags um Mitternacht eine neue Folge. Schaut gerne mal vorbei: Shmauck‘s YouTube Kanal für KSP auf deutsch Liebe Grüße

Zählt mich dazu :)

Yesterday I fired up KSP for the first time since December. I had gotten very frustrated about the rotating base thing but I wanted to give the 1.9 version another try. The result is that my base is still rotating. I may be able to provide visual reference later today. I tried the following in version 1.9 yesterday: I reloaded a save in which my Minmus ISRU is standing still on Minmus surface. I have described the construction and deployment of the ISRU vehicle in depth in this post. I can see a bit of a motion in the vehicle after the usual loading jumps but the craft is not rotating. It has not rotated ever since I deployed it at timecode Y2 D306. It seems to be quivering or shaking very slightly though. The save I reloaded was taken at timecode Y3 D116 01:10, immediately after I landed the ISRU expansion module on the surface of Minmus, some few hundred meters away from the inital ISRU vehicle. Then I loaded another save from timecode Y3 D116 01:18. This was taken immediately after I had maneuvered the expansion module to a position where the docking ports attached between the initial ISRU vehicle and the expansion module. Here, the resulting combination superstructure of both subassemblies rotates at a speed of roughly 1 degree every 5-10 seconds. I reloaded that last save again and immediately undocked the maneuvering lander vehicle from the expansion module because I suspected that the probecore or the reactions wheels would be causing the problem. But the rotation went on. So I reloaded again and tried undocking the lander AND pulling all reaction wheel sliders to zero as well as resetting the damper settings on all landing struts back to auto. I succeeded on the first try. The base did not rotate. Then I tried to reproduce the same procedure with reloading the same savegame again. This time, the same steps did not solve the problem. I am not 100% sure if I really took the same steps in the same order and this is what I will retry tonight. Could it be that reaction wheel counter-movements or spring/damper settings are contributing to the rotation effect?

I feel I need help with this. For some reason my Minmus mining base is rotating since I upgraded to KSP 1.8. It used to be stable while deployed on Minmus. Ever since I landed it, it stood rock solid with the solar panels facing north and south to collect all the sunlight. Now it rotates. After I expanded the base by an additional module, it rotates by one degree every 4 seconds! I tried fiddling with the landing struts damper settings, resetting them to auto, hibernating the probe core, removing the engineer from the lander can, activating RCS, nothing worked. The base rotates. Was coriolis force added to the game or what???? UPDATE: I did additional tests on 1.9 yesterday. See last answer. ADDITIONAL INFO: I am running KSP on a Mac, unmodded but with Breaking Ground DLC installed.

Yeah, I would want it to be much like Minecraft. I always wanted to have a common KSP where I can play with my sons who live at their mother's place.

Looking at the specific question, I read it as "will there be a Linux version as well as the already announced Mac and Windows versions". As I am not running any windows systems I would definitely require a Mac version as well.

Dawning part one (Y3 D002) "MCV Dawn, you are go for launch." Wenbrecht Kerman relaxed his muscles willingly. He felt very tense in his excitement and he repeatedly found himself grabbing his armrests much tighter than necessary. "Roger, ground, I confirm go for launch." "T minus ten, nine, eight, ..." The only thing Wenbrecht saw outside the cockpit canopy of his Mk1 inline cockpit was the inside of a huge payload fairing. His tiny manned construction vehicle was mounted on top of a long thin structure called the Dawn fuel core and both parts were stowed in the protective fairing. His seat began to vibrate as the fuel pumps far below started to come to live. "Five... four... three..." Wenbrecht felt the chemical engines ignite. He closed his eyes. This was supposed to be his return to space after he had experienced a catastrophic incident more than one year ago with another agency. Since then, he had received treatment to slowly recover and overcome his panic attacks. He had spent endless hours in the simulators at SSC to achieve flight readiness again. And now he was assigned to an extended mission in LKO to work as a pilot operating the construction vehicle which would carry out the assembly of the Dawn space station. "Two... one... go!" The memories of his last real launch flooded Wenbrecht as soon as he felt g-forces grasping his body. The incident had begun immediately after his orbital rocket had lifted off the launch pad. One of the booster engines had started to lose thrust and the failure of the engine had led to a significant course deviation and then to an inability to reach orbit normally. His former ground crew had then decided to burn the first stage with just the main engine and to shut down and separate the boosters as quickly as possible. The faulty booster had exploded briefly afterwards causing damage to a fuel pump of the main engine. In the end, they managed to put him in orbit in one piece but with a damaged heat shield. That was the moment when they had called for help. All this appeared before Wenbrecht's eyes while his Dawn launcher ascended from SSC. "Clean liftoff and we're right on course, Wenbrecht." Gene spoke very calmly, knowing that the pilot would be under additional stress during this phase of the flight. The head of mission control had decided to be the capsule communicator himself as an additional sign of safety. "We've passed maximum dynamic pressure and are throttling up again into the gravity turn. It all looks very good." Soon Wenbrecht felt the first pair of boosters separate from his launcher and to his relief, no explosion occurred. He started to calm down when the acceleration lowered. His navball indicated that his trajectory was already below 45 degrees and his orbital speed increased over six hundred meters per second. After the second pair of boosters had separated he was very confident that he had overcome the worst part, safely and flawlessly. He pressed the talk button on his control stick. "Ground, I am okay now. Thank you all for your patience. It's great to be back in space and I didn't think I would say that someday." "Roger, Dawn MCV. Standby for payload fairing deploy. It's about time you see where we brought you", replied Gene with a smile. The shell around his cockpit broke up and Wenbrecht saw the giant ball of Kerbin hanging dark above his head. "Standby for main engine shutdown", came Genes voice out of his headphones. "Okay, we're almost there. Circularization burn in about two minutes, Wenbrecht. All systems nominal." The pilot turned his head. His eyes followed the struts to the central part of the Dawn fuel core. Everything looked stable and in perfect order. After the cicularization burn the ground crew confirmed a good orbit. Wenbrecht took control of the long thin vehicle and tried to roll, pitch and yaw on reaction wheels only to see how it responded. "The ship feels bulky and slow but I am sure it will work as it did in the simulator", radioed the pilot. "Roger, MCV, you should be seeing the station soon. We have some spare fuel in the launcher that we want to conserve so your first docking will be forward." Val came over the radio. "Ground, Dawn here, we can see the ship approaching." Wenbrecht confirmed the sighting and a little while later brought his ship to a halt close by the orbiting station. "Okay, ground, I am ready for the first docking", the pilot reported. Gene gave his go-ahead and Val confirmed the station was ready to receive the MCV and its fuel core subassembly. By then, Wenbrecht had completely overcome his anxiety of the launch phase. He was now a fully-focused pilot, having his hands on the controls and his eyes locked onto his target, the northern docking port of Dawn. He maneuvered his ship around the station and finally docked the front port of the MCV with the station. After he had confirmed good docking to mission control, all the excess fuel of his launcher was pumped into the original launcher stage of the Dawn station. With enough fuel for a controlled termination in Kerbins atmosphere left in its tanks, the launch stage was undocked from the station expansion. "Okay, now comes the hard part", Gene said after the launch stage was out of sight and on its way to its fiery death. Wenbrecht undocked the MCV and turned the remaining MCV and fuel core combo by 180 degrees. The detached launcher stage had freed the docking port which was supposed to make the final connection to the existing segment of Dawn. The pilot carefully reversed the subassembly into the northern port. Val assisted with visual clues to ensure a correct alignment of the expansion module. After the docking ports had engaged, the Dawn station had become more than three times as long as it had been. Val connected the systems of the fuel core expansion and the station and took the necessary steps to even out the air pressure between both. Then she opened the docking hatch. "I am feeling a little adventurous here, I go where no one has gone before", she giggled into her headset. "Reminds me of the day when I entered the Dawn station for the first time!" Val pulled her floating body forward through the long pipe towards the center module of the fuel core. She inspected the center module and the other pipe as well, then reported to mission control. "Looks like everything got here in great shape. Thank you for all this new space!" "Roger, Dawn, that's just the first step, there is more to come", Gene replied. "Wenbrecht, you can now release the struts and redock the MCV to join the Dawn crew. Take a bit of a rest, we are ready to send up the first fuel module."

Mine is here: The Duna orbiter (Y1 D157) Up until today it remains the only interplanetary mission I ever did. Poor Jeb is still circling Duna, together with scientists Meldon and Orburry. My career is currently at Y3 D085 and I will bring the three back to Kerbin during the next Duna-Kerbin transfer window. Also, I will launch a whole bunch of Duna missions during the Kerbin-Duna window later this year. I had a hard time creating a proper Duna encounter on this first trip and ended up with much less fuel due to endless course corrections on my way there. Overengineered as the craft was, I still have enough to return the ship safely. I still have about 200 days to go before I launch the next mission but as I'm in career mode I try to fill that time with other missions.

New Year (Y3 D001) “Welcome, my fellow space enthusiasts.” Administrator Shmauck’s voice filled the large void inside the VAB, amplified by speakers mounted on the first floor of the assembly structure. The entire staff of SSC was seated in long rows of chairs on the VAB floor, facing away from the giant main gate. Shmauck stood at a sleek desk in the middle of the first floor and smiled down at the crowd. Below him, a large banner had been attached to the platform which read “Happy New 3rd Year” in big letters. “Behind you on the launch pad is our first flight of the year. It marks the beginning of the exciting next steps of our mission into the Kerbol system. In this third year we shall greatly enhance and advance our capabilities and our facilities. Before I come to the future, let’s look at what we have achieved until this day.” Behind Shmauck a projection screen showed a timeline with milestones of the past two years. “We learned to fly into the atmosphere, then into space. We learned to dock vehicles in orbit and to assemble multiple vehicles to stations. We learned to put Kerbals on orbit and to perform EVAs and spacewalks. We flew to Mun and Minmus. We established permanent outposts on orbits around Kerbin, Mun and Minmus. We launched satellites and probes to these bodies and beyond. We deployed two bases on Minmus and established a productive mining operation there. And we sent a manned ship out to our neighbor planet of Duna.” He paused for a round of applause from the audience. “We learned, we researched, we designed and constructed. We made mistakes and learned from them. We flew and we landed, we rescued and grew, we recovered and reused. Our story is a great story of success and we can all be very proud!” The audience applauded again. “At this very moment we have three Kerbals orbiting Kerbin…” While the administrator spoke, the screen behind him changed and showed a live camera image from the Dawn station. Valentina, Reiritz and Urslev were happily floating in zero gravity and waved into the camera. “… three Kerbals orbiting Mun…” The picture changed again to show Danlan, Dave and Jonley. “… Three of us are orbiting Minmus…”, Norzenz, Bob and Norlen appeared, “… three of us are on the surface of Minmus…”, Bardine in her mining plant and Bill and Lendon aboard the Da Vinci base appeared, …and three Kerbals orbiting Duna!” The final sequence of Jebediah, Meldon and Orbury was obviously prerecorded and froze to a still picture at the end. “This year we will bring these three back home because they really miss us and we miss them.” All Kerbals in the VAB cheered and applauded. “And we are all facing an exciting future. During this year we will largely expand our ‘Dawn’ station in Kerbins orbit. We will establish permanent communication capabilities at Minmus. We will turn our orbital outpost there into the much larger ‘Rise’ station. We will develop, build and send a roving base to Duna and Ike. And we shall reach out to other worlds in our system. I don’t want to be too specific about that because our plans are in the making.” The crowd clapped hands again and Shmauck continued his presentation with an outlook of the financial situation and the budgets for the coming year. Xandra and Wolfheim sat side by side in the audience. They had been seeing each other for lunch and dinner on several occasions in the past weeks and both enjoyed the growing friendship between them. Xandra was attracted by Wolfheim’s humble intelligence and Wolfheim enjoyed her openness and her always positive attitude. She hinted over her shoulder with her thumb and leaned over to him. “We should get this thing into space rather than listen to boring budget details”, she whispered giggling. “I can’t wait”, he replied. Zeldous Kerman, the former stranded pilot, was seated between Kirwell and Ferbald, who had been rescued during the same Kerlumbia mission with her. After their rescue, all three had abandoned their former employers and had moved into a shared house close to SSC. While Kirwell had almost immediately been named as the second Kerlumbia pilot, Zeldous and Ferbald had started to train for an assignment to the roving base Shmauck had mentioned during his presentation. Kirwell whispered: “Nelely over there is a great guy. We rescued him from LKO and I spent six days with him in the shuttle. He is going to apply for a spot and he could fit nicely in your team.” Zeldous asked: “And the other one you picked up?” “Hadfel? I really can’t say much about him. We didn’t have much time to talk during our return”, Kirwell said. “… a continuing positive trend.” Administrator Shmauck was finishing his budget presentation and another round of applause helped everybody focus again. “With that I invite you all to have a glass of sparkling Kerpagne with me. I wish all of us a very happy, healthy and successful new year!” A band started to play music under the gate of the VAB while the administrator made his way down to the ground floor. The audience raised from their chairs and moved towards the long tables at both sides of the large building. The celebration lasted for another hour with Kerbals chatting, laughing and having the occasional sip of Kerpagne.

I just love the comic strip way of telling your story!

Fireworks (Y2 D420-Y3 D001) “Ground, Kerlumbia, we are in range. The mystery is solved. This piece of debris looks like a structural fuselage adapter.” The response came immediately. “Roger, Kerlumbia, we copy. Object HR8-Q9 is a fuselage adapter.” “We’ll move a bit closer before we release the claw tug.” Benten nodded in Kirwells direction. The copilot activated the shuttle’s RCS and grabbed his control stick to slowly move the ship towards the floating piece of equipment. Benten looked out the main cockpit window. “I have a bad feeling about this. It’s quite big. I wonder if it fits into the bay. Opening cargo bay doors.” The pilot reached for the payload bay levers. Kirwell eliminated all relative motion of the shuttle in reference to the object and deactivated the maneuver thrusters. Benten flipped a couple of switches on his console to reconfigure his controls to payload remote control. His main screen now showed the claw tug as it was docked inside the cargo bay of the shuttle. “Okay, let’s see what this thing can do”, he murmured when he pressed the undock button and activated the tug’s RCS system. The small tug came free and moved slowly towards the rear end of the bay. With very gentle control inputs Benten stopped the rearward movement and let the craft climb slowly out of the cargo bay. Once the tug had cleared the shuttle, Benten moved it forward until it came into their view outside the cockpit windows. “Ground, I am unleashing the beast now”, the pilot commented into his headset, then he activated the claw on the tug. The small ship retracted its front cover and revealed three large metal teeth which spread out at an angle. “Looks like we are ready to bite.” Kirwell had his hands on the shuttle controls and followed the action outside the windows closely, ready to react if needed. “I am”, he said, “you can go ahead.” Benten steered the tug in an angle towards the narrow end of the piece of fuselage. The main screen in front of him showed a camera view from inside the claw. His eyes frequently moved between the front window and the screen while Kirwell was reading the distance measurements for him from his instrument panel. “Ten meters at one per second… eight… six…”, Benten activated forward thrust, “… three at one point four… contact…” The claw mechanism activated itself due to the proximity of the object, the teeth closed and grabbed the hull. “Ground, we have a capture.” “Good job, Kerlumbia!” Genes response came promptly. “Can you provide us with visual clues about the actual size of the piece?” “Sure we can”, Benten replied, “I will maneuver the tug over the cargo bay so we can take a closer look.” A few minutes later the tug and its prey was parking close above the shuttle and it was very obvious that the combination of both would not fit inside the cargo bay. Gene communicated the next steps. “Okay, Kerlumbia, we will work something out. For the moment we want you to dock the tug to the shuttle nose port and report back. We have a mission update for you.” Benten and Kirwell exchanged looks, then Benten pressed the talk button. “Roger, ground, we can’t wait.” The two men proceeded as they were told. Benten aligned the tug’s rear docking port with Kerlumbia’s nose and Kirwell opened the shield. “Now our ship gets a real mouth”, he chuckled. When the claw tug was safely docked to the shuttle, Gene revealed the adjusted mission objectives to them. “I know how you feel about it, guys, but we have two more stranded astronauts to rescue. One of them is in a very practical spot between your current position and Dawn station. You’ll be passing by anyway so just pick up the poor soul.” Benten sighed. “And?`” “The other is on a highly inclined and eccentrical orbit around Kerbin. We did the maths down here. You managed to get to orbit very efficiently with lots of spare fuel. You won’t have problems to reach that other guy after your rendezvous with ‘Dawn’.” Benten nodded. “That second one sounds like fun, actually, as it involves more flying and higher orbits.” Gene sounded happy. “I knew you would like that, Benten. Proceed to the capsule of Nelely Kerman and then on to Dawn. We need to get that piece of fuselage stowed properly and the folks aboard the station will help you with that.” The rescue of Nelely Kerman went smoothly and four and a half hours later Kerlumbia arrived at the Dawn station with one additional crew member on board. Mission control linked the comms of the two crews together and Gene, Wernher and Wolfheim joined the conference from the SSC. Gene explained: “We have a solution which involves some construction work on the cargo bay doors. As the fuselage adapter will not fit inside the bay we will have to cut out a circular hole. Here’s a drawing.” He switched from camera to presentation mode and showed them what Wolfheim had rapidly scribbled. “That means we release the fuselage from the claw, re-grab it on its upside and let the narrow bit stick out upwards when we dock the tug in the bay?”, the shuttle pilot asked. “Exactly, Benten. And that shape needs to be cut from the cargo bay doors”, Wolfheim added and Benten laughed. “That’s so crazy that I actually like the idea!” Valentina raised her hand. “Are we sure that the shuttle’s structural integrity is not affected?” ”Yes, I checked that with Jett”, said Wolfheim and Gene added: “We will also have no problem during re-entry as the upper fuselage of the shuttle is not exposed to plasma. Aerodynamics will suffer a bit but Kerlumbia can cope with that. And after landing she will get a new set of doors.” Gene talked them through the planned EVA and explained the required procedures to perform the construction work. The fuselage adapter was released from the claw, re-grabbed and docked inside the bay. Valentina, Urslev, Benten and Kirwell went outside while Nelely remained in the shuttle and Reiritz remained aboard the Dawn station to watch over the operation. Another three hours later the team had completed the task and had re-entered their vehicles. The cargo bay doors had been closed to confirm the successful completion of the work and the hole was exactly where it was needed. The narrow part of the debris stuck out of the shuttle’s top side. Mission control congratulated the joint crews for their accomplishment. Benten and Kirwell docked the shuttle to the station and the crews finally got to meet without their EVA helmets. The astronauts spent some free hours it was time for the shuttle crew to prepare for the last leg of their trip. Kirwell undocked Kerlumbia and fired the nuclear engines to put them on an intercept trajectory with Hadfel Kermans capsule five and a half thousand kilometers above Kerbin. It took them five days and a couple of orbits to reach their rendezvous point and when they finally reached it, Hadfel was as impressed as Nelely was about the shuttle and the precision with which Benten flew it. Hadfel climbed out of his capsule and performed a very short spacewalk to enter Kerlumbia and fill the last seat in the cockpit. Benten then turned to his three companions. "Guys, it's time to hurry home. I had a little surprise on my mind and it seems our timing is just right. If all goes well, we will arrive at SSC for the new year's fireworks and I think we should add some flames to it." He smiled. "I plan to re-enter the atmosphere a little later than I normally would so we zoom across the night sky above SSC in a ball of fire." Kirwell laughed, but the newcomers looked somewhat concerned. "Will you be allowed to do that?", Hadfel wanted to know. "I guess not", Benten replied, "that's why I won't ask." Nelely shared Hadfels concerns. "Will we be facing negative consequences for such a stunt? I wanted to apply for a spot in your team after our landing." "You should not worry", Benten tried to calm them. "All responsibility is with me. I am the pilot and if I make a bad judgement on the re-entry angle then who would blame me for that?" They all smiled. Nine hours later the shuttle hit the upper atmosphere of Kerbin and Benten informed the ground crew about his "error". "I knew it. He hinted something like that", Wernher told Gene. "I remember. It may be spectacular though, so let's get the staff outside", Gene said smiling. In the end, most of the night shift watched a bright orange trail of fire high above the SSC campus to welcome the third year of Shmauck's space program.

Rendezvous (Y2 D408-D417) “Aren’t you Wolfheim?” The engineer turned his head to the woman behind him in the queue. Being approached by females always startled him. While he generally felt secure when being an engineer talking to colleagues or superiors he kept feeling somewhat insecure and uncomfortable with strangers in a more personal context. He blushed. “Oh, yes, I am.” She smiled. “Hi, I am Xandra, from mission control. I helped launching your new tanker.” Wolfheim avoided to look her straight into the eyes but couldn’t suppress a shy smile. “Well, thank you.” “No, thank you”, she replied and placed her tray on the canteen counter to pay for her meal. “I’m sure the new tanker will take away some of the tanker juggling we had to for the last couple of weeks. Just crazy! Would you join me for lunch?” This was almost too much for Wolfheim. He felt that he was blushing again and only managed to nod in reply. Xandra turned and moved to look for a free table and the engineer followed her. She walked up to a two-seated table by the window and sat down. “Enjoy”, she said after he had taken the seat opposite of her. She grabbed her fork. “You wouldn’t believe it”, she continued. “Organizing the fuel transports between Minmus, Kerbin and Mun means juggling the four transit stages between the worlds. ‘Kernoco’ goes from Mun to Kerbin and back to Mun. ‘Kervron’ goes from Minmus to Mun, then swings by Kerbin to go back to Minmus. ‘Kermobil’ brings fuel to ‘Dawn’ from Minmus, then goes back to Minmus. Aaah.” She started to eat and Wolfheim nodded. “Oh yeah. These stages were never intended to make numerous trips around the Kerbin system to carry fuel. When the whole idea of mining at Minmus came up they were just the immediate option to do it. The two ones at Mun don’t even have antennas to make the trip to Minmus. None of them has special tanks for liquid fuel so it’s inefficient to use them for that. They’re just an interim solution.” Xandra nodded, chewing on her lunch. “That’s over now, I suppose. We launched ‘Kerbonas’ ten days ago and she made her way to the ‘Dawn’ station. We checked out her engines and control systems while on orbit and she docked flawlessly. So tell me more about the new tanker. It’s a much bigger ship. What were your design goals?” Again she stated her questions with an open, natural smile on her face. She seemed so positive and full of friendliness. Wolfheim was surprised about Xandras interest in his work. But every time he saw her smile he started to feel warm and excited. So he tried to focus on the topic of her questions rather than on his feelings about her appearance. “Yeah… um… design goals were to carry a much larger amount of payload fuel much more efficiently”, he elaborated. “That’s why I fitted those nuclear engines which save the oxidizer. I also wanted the ship to have enough consumable fuel to make the trip down to Kerbin and back up to Minmus without refueling. That way, we only run on processed fuel and have the entire payload for other purposes. The third goal was to add crew capacity so we can use the tanker for crew rotations. And finally, we should also be able to use it as a tug to carry payloads out to Mun and Minmus because we’ll be expanding those stations.” “All goals met for ‘Kerbonas’, I suppose”, Xandra smiled. She could not hold back on asking further. “what is your next project?” “The expansion for the ‘Dawn’ station is already in assembly. It consists of a long central spine called the ‘Dawn fuel core’ and four large fuel tank assemblies very similar to the payload tanks on ‘Kerbonas’. In fact, it is the same concept for each of the four. All this will be going up early next year. The first launch will also carry a single-seated manned tug which we’ll use to maneuver the other subassemblies to their final locations on the station.” “Oh yes!”, Xandra exclaimed excitedly. “These launches are on our mission schedule already. Five launches for the ‘Dawn’ expansion! Much more fun and excitement than tanker juggling!” She giggled and Wolfheim was completely overwhelmed. While her smile was already very attractive to him, her giggling was just completely cute. He was stunned, unable to move a muscle. He just sat and stared like a little boy. She looked at her empty plate, then at his lunch. “Are you not eating, Wolfheim? Isn’t yours good?” The engineer had completely forgotten to eat, so thrilled was he about his company. He didn’t really know how to react. “Umm… Ah, I’ve been talking so much, I must have bored you with all my ramblings and I… I really forgot to eat because… I… talked.” “Awww”, she made, “I am sorry. I was so curious and so eager to hear all these things. Not boring at all! I just should have let you have your lunch! My bad!” She giggled again. “But I’ll have to run now. We’re docking ‘Kerbonas’ to the ‘Beta’ station tonight and we’ll start loading it with a first trip of your tanker truck!” She raised from her chair and Wolfheim felt a tiny little sting in his chest. “Thank you for your company, Wolfheim, I really enjoyed lunch with you. Why don’t you come over to mission control after your shift and watch me dock your tanker to the Minmus station?” Xandra waved goodbye with a smile and turned to leave the canteen without waiting for his response. Wolfheim followed her with his eyes and watched her leave without a word. He felt clumsy and sad but at the same time he smiled to himself. What a bundle of energy this cute Kerbalgirl was! And did she just invite him to come see her again? He tried to turn his attention to his lunch again but felt unable to eat, as excited as he was. He would definitely check mission control’s schedule to see when ‘Kerbonas’ would be docked and he would not miss that opportunity to see Xandra again.

Here: https://speyer.technik-museum.de/en/ The Technikmuseum Speyer about one hour south of Frankfurt, Germany has the OK-2M / OK-GLI prototype of the Buran orbiter which was used for atmospheric flight tests.

I am going to see Charlie M. Duke today, under the Buran.