jimmymcgoochie

I play career mode all the time, only use sandbox for mod debugging and have never even started a science game. Grinding through the early part of the game with limited resources (funds and facilities) at your disposal is part of the challenge and while slapping together a gigantic rocket will do the job just fine in sandbox or even science mode, on a low-budget career it's far more satisfying to do the same at minimal cost and also forces you to be more creative in your design process. Contracts are a bolt-on feature that isn't required in any way and which I only accept to either a) get free Kerbals (my interplanetary ships are big, current one has a crew of 60!) or b) if I'm going there anyway, or possibly c) if I was thinking of going there in future but the contracts made it more worthwhile, like a little while ago when I got three or four Moho contracts so threw some rovers in that direction and scraped up every last bit of science I could get from its surface without sending a Kerbal. Some contracts are stupid (test a Mammoth sub-orbital over Bop!?), some are useful to get hold of tech you haven't unlocked yet (I got one for the NERV and got some use out of it before unlocking the tech tree nodes) but almost all are rubbish because they're procedurally generated and add little or nothing to the 'story' of career mode, or what little of it there is considering it's so open-ended. A funds-less mode in KSP2 is basically science mode, or career-lite, which somewhat cheapens the whole thing (pun semi-intended). While a lot of the later game stuff will be about resource accumulation rather than outright buying stuff and career games lose their funding impetus when you can accumulate tens or hundreds of millions even with the gains turned down to 10% or skipping contracts altogether, I would choose to have funds included every time. KSP without funds would be like NASA or ESA throwing 20 rovers at Mars instead of one- sure you'd get a whole lotta science out of them, but it's not remotely realistic; nor is stapling a hundred of Curiosity/Perseverance's RTGs to the ISS and running it off those instead of the solar panels. Funding adds realism and game balance in a simple and easy way, the one game I've seen actually remove an in-game currency didn't work well at all, and it isn't even the cause of the problem; why would anyone want to remove it?

I wouldn't pay for that DLC, and I bought the two that already exist so it's not because I don't like DLCs, I just don't see the point. FMRS/Stage Recovery can capture dropped boosters and stages already, building a 'reusable' booster is also possible using pure stock components and some effort (there is even a stock rocket and a scenario you can play to do a sort-of reusable booster return flight), and the other stuff just sounds like parts clutter with limited utility. There is already a landing zone east of the KSC that you can use to land your boosters on, or just build an amphibious barge using the stock parts.

A list of mods you're using would be helpful, CKAN can provide them if you go to File > save installed mod list, you'll get a text file with your mods and their versions in it. Upload that and share it here too. Can you also share the log files not in a zipped folder?

Copy everything inside the mod's GameData folder and paste it into your KSP GameData folder. Also make sure you have all the dependencies installed- those are mods that are needed by other mods for those other mods to work properly- for SSPXr those are: ModuleManager, B9 Part Switch and Near Future Props, they come bundled with the download but make sure they're the right version for your version of KSP. If you're on KSP 1.9.1 then just use the newest versions of each and you should be fine, 1.8.1 should also be OK but anything 1.7.3 or older will need older versions which you need to track down individually.

StageRecovery and FMRS can both catch dropped stages outside of physics range as long as they have either a) enough parachutes to slow their descent (they need not be deployed or even armed, just attached to the stage somewhere) or b) enough fuel to at least simulate a powered landing. I use SR as it’s simple and plays nice with some other mods, and it is configurable to give more or less funds back depending on range from KSC, landing speed and can also be setup to ‘destroy’ stages that were going too fast without sufficient heat shielding. As for doing it by flying your boosters yourself, it’s possible without any mods at all, but a lot more difficult. You almost certainly won’t be doing any Space-X style double landings by yourself, although in KSP2 that might work with multiplayer depending on how it’s set up. It’s also a lot easier (and more realistic) to recover the booster then launch a ‘new’ one than it is to actually try and staple a new payload on top of the booster while it’s still parked in a field somewhere- even SpaceX have to collect the boosters up and give them a good checking over before integrating a new payload.

Yup, it's Moho- considerable orbital eccentricity plus a fairly high inclination plus it's orbiting faster than anything else means it requires the most delta-V to get into orbit even compared with much further targets like Eeloo. Of course, Moho gets the best solar panel power of all the planets, but a Moho day is longer than a Moho year so unless you're at the poles or constantly moving east, you'll still need lots of batteries. Jool requires lots of delta-V to brake straight into orbit, but you can aerobrake in its upper atmosphere to save fuel and/or use gravity assists from its moons to get where you want to go using less fuel. Of course, said moons can also throw you out of the solar system entirely if you get it wrong! Eeloo is far away, but low solar orbit speed and low gravity mean it's generally a lot easier to capture into orbit when you get there. Hardest to actually land on would probably be Tylo. While Eve's high gravity makes for a very high orbital velocity, it has an atmosphere to aerobrake and scrub off speed (with enough heat shields, that is!) whereas Tylo is almost Kerbin-sized, the orbital velocity is only slightly lower but you have to brake to the surface entirely on rocket power so it requires the most delta-V to land on. The hardest to get off of again is Eve, as only a few rocket engines will work at low altitude on Eve due to 4 atmospheres of pressure at sea level, and jets are useless as there's no oxygen in that air. Plus it has the highest surface gravity of any body in the solar system so you need even more thrust out of those engines when they're at their least efficient.

Fairings can be tricky and there are a lot of options for them that aren't immediately intuitive. To actually make a fairing, first place the part (you'll need a decoupler between the fairing and your payload e.g. satellite or the fairing will be stuck to it!). When you place a fairing it will automatically go into construct mode, all you need to do then is move your cursor around to drag the fairing wall into the shape you want and left click to place that section. There are limits to how wide you can make the fairing; I think the maximum radius is the same as the diameter of the part, so a 2.5m fairing can be up to 5m wide. When you want to close the fairing, just narrow it to a point and the 'place section' on screen should change to a blue 'close fairing'. You can also close the fairing by moving it into contact with a part, this can be useful if you're using a launch escape tower or just want the fairing to cover up an aerodynamically ugly section in the middle of your rocket. The two sliders on the fairing control the number of sides and the deploy force. Number of sides is more important with the 'clamshell deploy' mode ON, it simply determines how the fairing splits up when you deploy it. Deploy force should be kept high if you're deploying the fairing in atmosphere and/or at high acceleration as that will 'throw' the pieces away with more force and so reduce the chances of damaging your payload. 'Clamshell deploy' mode is off by default and will make your fairing deploy as solid sections like real fairings do, rather than just shattering into many pieces. It looks better and in some rare cases could help avoid pieces of the fairing damaging the payload, but I don't think the differences are particularly significant. If your payload has protruding parts at a specific symmetry (e.g. 3x), then you can set your fairing to match that symmetry or a multiple of it (either 3 or 6 sides) and line it up appropriately so that the fairing splits away from those protruding parts and reduces the chances of damage. Plus it looks waaaay better, which is more important. 'Interstage nodes' is a useful feature of fairings that lets you effectively stick multiple payloads in a single fairing by providing a column of attachment nodes rising up from the fairing part itself. These are particularly good when you want to deploy a satellite constellation using resonant orbits, haul many small satellites up in one larger rocket or just want a little bit more space between the base of the payload and the fairing part itself (e.g. if the payload is actually wider than the fairing part and a direct attachment would make the fairing ugly/impossible to build). 'Truss structure' is only relevant if you're using the interstage nodes, it will create a scaffold-like structure for each interstage node that has something attached to it. It looks like this in action: Each satellite is attached by its own decoupler and can be deployed one by one, but the whole thing can be launched on one rocket. (taken from here: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/164391-not-seeing-any-truss-structures/)

Landed a little QBE-based lander on Laythe. I was originally aiming at Vall but a) I came into Jool’s system retrograde (oops!) and didn’t have 10km/s delta-V to land on Vall and b) by some strange coincidence I got a slingshot from Vall that ended up at Laythe. Some crazy aerobraking later and it splashed down. And down. And down... Until the pressure got too much and it imploded but I got science from Vall and Laythe and some nice achievements for it too. Then I put a plane on Tylo. (Yes, I know that Tylo has no atmosphere- in stock; but in JNSQ it has 0.2 atm of oxygenless air which is just enough to fly with and is also helpfully thin enough that RCS thrusters and rockets operate with only minor penalties to ISP. Now all I need to do is wait a couple of years for the SCAN sats to show up and map the place out so I know where to find that sweet, sweet Science...) 2 more identical planes inbound for Laythe in the next few game ‘weeks’, hopefully those will float

I like the new Poodle better than the current 2-nozzle version, I'm quite happy to have that as the only version but with a compact variant to fit on 1.875m stacks as well- though that would start stepping on the Skiff's toes in a big way.

No. Given how delayed KSP2 already is, why would you want development effort to be diverted? I'll take a fully functioning KSP2 with the advertised features- colonies, multiplayer and interstellar gubbins- over a KSP2 which doesn't have those things working properly and has a half-baked Sol system in it, any day of the year. It's still called KERBAL Space Program.

If your question is ‘why use satellites instead of crewed ships with Kerbals aboard’, the answers are: lower cost, both of the probe (usually) and the propulsion gubbins needed to put it into orbit then fly it to where it’s going; reduced mass, which can help reduce costs and also gives you more delta-V with the same propulsion setup thus giving you more range and bigger margins; communications for future missions, if your satellite has relay dishes and you’re using the CommNet; completing contracts of varying descriptions; and most importantly, a probe can be discarded once it has completed its mission whereas it’s generally frowned upon to do the same when Kerbals are inside the craft. I somehow doubt that the Moon landings would have been as popular if Armstrong and Aldrin had been left on the moon once their mission had been completed, as is the case with the Surveyor landers that went before (and one of which was visited by Apollo 12, fun fact).

Nope. Kerbin et al are going nowhere, the stock planets at stock scale and stock positions are confirmed in KSP2. This was pointed out every other time someone suggested using the Sol system in KSP2, it isn’t happening so either stick with KSP or wait for the mod for KSP2. It’s called KERBAL Space Program after all! The drop out curve in KSP is fierce just trying to launch into Kerbin orbit, never mind landing on the Mun; scaling that up to real life scale would be drastically worse.

Anyone know how to switch off asteroid spawns entirely? I don’t want them but they keep showing up and deleting the config (except for the part that should delete all previous spawn patterns) seems to have made it worse somehow.

If you hit F3 immediately after it explodes, it will tell you exactly what happened.

Which video? There’s no link in your post.

They should be visible in the tracking station but only when you follow a specific craft (the orbits won’t show any changes otherwise) and will show up in map view both when planning a manoeuvre and when you’re just flying. There’s an option in the settings that can change the number of patches (if that’s the right term) and you can turn it up to 6 which is helpful for seeing the results of a series of nodes or travelling through several SOIs e.g. around Jool, but it may also come with a performance cost too so I suggest you keep it at 3 or 4. There’s another option to change the draw mode, experiment with that to find the one you like the most.

Just delete the entire TweakScale folder out of your GameData, everything still works fine and CKAN is none the wiser.

Strange, they run on LH2 for me. Do you have the Kerbal Atomics patches that dynamically change all LF-only engines to liquid hydrogen and/or the patch for the NERV to make it dual mode with LF and LH2? They should be in KerbalAtomics/patches, it might be a separate download on CKAN (KerbalAtomicsNTRmodsupport or something like that). I actually had to modify the nuclear engine from the OctoSat mod to use a tiny amount of electricity to prevent the KA LH2 patch affecting it as the OctoSat fuel tanks can’t handle LH2 and my attempts to make the tanks work just broke them entirely.

A couple of stranded Kerbal rescues, a couple of lost part recoveries, and then I took the Orion drive from Stockish Project Orion, modified the NFElectrical nuclear reprocessor to make Orion pulse units (the method in SPO is too long and requires too many parts for my liking, so I made my own supply chain that only requires ore as an input, turns it into uranium and then turns that into pulse units a.k.a. NUKES!) and put them together to make a test ship and parked it on the Mun to mine some ore and make some pulse units before thinking that maybe it would be a bit faster with some engineers on board... 23K delta-V from the Orion drive isn’t bad though and with 300+ tons of ship to punt around too, I might make a larger ship using it in future. And I put my first satellites around Dres and Edna (I’m using JNSQ, Edna is like a second Dres but with a Gilly-sequel moon) and very nearly overshot Dres due to feeble engines and a less than optimal transfer burn some time ago. And my Duna expedition is finally on its way back home, huzzah! All in all, a pretty productive day.

I think it’s a 4% chance that any asteroid will be ‘magic’, just use the cheat menu to ping a craft beside every asteroid you can find until you find one, although it may take a while (or require some save file editing) to get a set in different colours- I know you can get red, yellow, green, blue and purple at least and it may be an RGB thing and so configurable, if you can figure out how.

I suspect you may have an old version of MechJeb and your game has updated to v1.9.1, try installing the latest version and it might fix the problem. Screenshots would be helpful though, what sort of arrow is it?

If checking the files doesn't work, try this: Make a new save game in KSP (if your original was in career mode, a new career save etc.) - try to use the same settings that you're using in the current, broken save Go into KSP/saves to the folder with the same name as your old, currently broken save (e.g. if you called it Career 1, then it will be the Career 1 folder) Go into the backups folder and copy the most recent backup file (persistent date+time.sfs) Go to KSP/saves and then into the new save's folder (the one you made in step 1 e.g. Career 2) Paste the file you copied in step 3 into this folder In KSP, in the new save, click 'load save' then pick the file you just copy+pasted and see if the game will load it: if it does, problem solved; if not try an earlier backup save from the broken career. If none of those work, you may have to start from the beginning again.

Here's a few things that might help: Struts More struts Even more struts MOAR STRUTS!!!!! Autostruts - specifically from the boosters to the grandparent part, and from the nosecones on top of the boosters to the root part MOOOOAAAAAAR STRUUUUUUUUTS!!!!! Big, heavy boosters attached via a single small connection point will be unstable, to make them more stable you need struts to hold them in place, or you could try the ReCoupler mod which will let you attach them to several radial decouplers which might be a bit more stable. Whatever you're doing, the boosters will decouple away from the rocket's centre of mass so put the decoupler quite high on the core stage and then attach the boosters and move them down to the desired position to make them detach so that the pointy end gets pushed away from the core to avoid unwanted collisions and subsequent unplanned stage separation/explosions/loss of rocket; sepratrons help here too, though for a booster as big as the Clydesdale you might need a few of them per booster to push it away properly.

I completely forgot to call him ‘Neil’ or ‘Yuri’ or ‘Chuck’ Landon was the first name that came into my head; there may or may not be a sneaky edit done on that chapter in the near future DISCLAIMER: The author accepts no responsibility or liability for any respiratory failures or other medical emergencies resulting from reading this literary work.

Time to apply my own angle on Kerbal biology. I actually did a degree in molecular biology so while it's not something that actually happens IRL (as far as I know), the mechanism is entirely feasible; plus @KSK's marsupial thing makes this seem pretty tame . Chapter 7 - Progress Tina woke up, peered bleary-eyed at her alarm clock and immediately rolled over and fell asleep again. School was finished, exams completed and now all she had to do was wait for the results to be sent out in the next few days. She was usually up before dawn for an early morning run, currently followed three times a week by swimming lessons and the other four by gym sessions. She had scaled back a bit while studying for the exams only because she didn't want to tire herself out too much and because there were just not enough hours in the day to fit it all in. The Astronaut Program had very strict criteria for physical health and her size was a disadvantage (there were girls three years younger at school who were taller than her now!) so she was determined to do everything in her power to mitigate against it. But not today- today she was staying in bed and having a well-earned lie-in. She woke up again about half an hour later and felt hands wandering across her chest. She kept her eyes closed and pretended to still be asleep, and the hands kept up their clumsy, inexpert exploration. One found the neck of her pyjama top, slipped inside it and- “Ow!” She carefully removed the hands and looked at their owner reproachfully. “Your nails are really sharp.” The owner looked back at her blankly before responding by grabbing a fistful of her top with one hand and a fistful of hair with the other. “Aaagh! Not the hair, Sasha!” She tried to no avail to loosen the fist that was now pulling towards its owner's mouth. Why did babies have such ridiculously strong grip? Sasha found the whole thing immensely amusing, which meant that she flailed her arms around in the uncoordinated way that young babies move and pulled her hair even more. Tina did the only thing she could. “Muuuuuuuum! Heeeeeeelp!” Mum came to her rescue. “All you need to do is take your finger and run it down the back of her head, like this-” she demonstrated and Sasha's eyelids flickered as a dreamy smile spread over her face, while her hands relaxed and Tina could finally retrieve her hair. It didn't take long for those little hands to return to their original target and Mum laughed. “I think she's hungry.” “Well, so am I. Why don't you deal with her, and I'll deal with me.” “Did you hear that?” Mum pulled an exaggerated shocked face as she plucked Sasha up from the bed. “Grumpy Tina doesn't want to play with you. No she doesn't. No she-” “Can you please do that somewhere else? I don't need that image in my head.” “Does it make you uncomfortable?” “Yes!” “Why?” “Because...” There was a long silence, broken only by Sasha making little gulping noises. “Are you afraid of this?” “...no?” Mum sat down beside her. Dad stuck his head round the door, took one look at them and wisely decided to be somewhere else for a while. “Tina, there is nothing to be afraid of. This is what they're for.” “I know that, but...” “But the world out there is telling you they're only there to be boy magnets.” Tina's face turned scarlet. “Or maybe girl magnets. I'm not judging.” Scarlet turned to crimson and her toes seemed to curl up of their own volition. “It's a man's world, Tina. They're scared of them, so they try to make you scared of them, so they can leverage it to suit them, and if anyone dares to act outside those narrow boundaries they get labelled with all kinds of horrible names. Never be afraid of your own body; you have nothing at all to be ashamed of.” They sat in silence for a while as Tina's mind raced. The more she thought about it, the more she realised the truth of her mother's words. Strip away the societal pressures and preconceptions and there really wasn't anything to be afraid of, any more than there was a reason to be afraid of her kidneys or her tonsils. “Do you want to try it?” “What?” Mum flicked her eyes down to Sasha, then back to Tina. “That's not a thing!” “Actually, it is. It's pretty rare in the general population, about 7 per thousand I think, but it's hereditary. Aunt Linley did it when you were a baby.” “That's slightly disgusting, but also kind of... not sweet, but, um...” “I know what you mean.” Tina thought for a while. “Does it hurt?” “It's a little uncomfortable at first, but you get used to it.” “How do I know if I can do it?” “You just have to try it. You don't have to if you don't want to.” She thought for another little while. “OK. What do I need to do?” “Just put your left arm there, like it's in a sling- now why didn't I think of that before? Just put her in that old sling of yours and- yes, sorry. Now pull your top up with your other hand while I pass her over to you.” Sasha whimpered in protest at the interruption until she was safely in Tina's arms and instinctively latched on. Tina let out a little gasp of surprise- it felt strange, but somehow also felt right. Except for one thing which she took a few seconds to understand and then couldn't help laughing at. “She's warm! I don't know why, but I was expecting her to be cold.” “Why would she be cold? Try to relax or neither of you will be comfortable.” Sasha was making little grunting sounds, either from effort or displeasure, or both. “It feels like,” what did it feel like exactly? “Like when you really need a poo but it won't come out.” She nearly face-palmed at her own ineloquence, but her hands were full with Sasha so she couldn't. Mum rolled her eyes. “You've been spending too much time with your father.” “Is it supposed to feel like that? Am I doing it right?” “It might not work first time; you might not even be able to do it at all. We can stop if you want.” “No, I'm OK, give it a couple more minutes.” Another minute went by before something seemed to relax and that weird blocked sensation suddenly ended; Sasha stopped grumbling and seemed to relax too. “First time, you're a natural!” Mum smiled at her. “It took four days after you were born before you were feeding properly and three days for Sasha. Now just wait there a minute while I...” She was already out of the room before Tina could object. She noticed that Sasha was peering up at her with one eye and made a silly face at her; Sasha closed the eye disdainfully and loosed a staccato burst directly where Tina's left hand was supporting her along with a sound that could best be described as 'moist', or possibly 'squelchy'. “Mum, she needs changing!” “I'll be there in a minute!” was the shouted reply from downstairs. Sasha was looking at her again in a slightly unnerving way. Maybe talking to her would be better? “Hey there. This must be strange for you, you're thinking “Who are you? You're not my mummy, but you look a bit like her and you look kind of familiar too.”, and you're right. Well, I am Tina. Very nice to meet you Tina, I am Sasha. Nice to meet you too.” She put on a silly voice when speaking Sasha's part, which Sasha found amusing. “I wonder what's going on downstairs. Me too, why don't we go and see? Well, I thought about that, but I don't want to disturb you and make you start crying because then I'll look bad. Fair point, let's just stay put for now. Excellent suggestion!” She shimmied along the bed to reach her phone sitting on the bedside table and started trawling the internet for information on her newly-found ability. ...chemical signals released by babies triggers release of the hormone Prolactin in the mother which activates the biochemical blah blah blah- positively regulated by Postgesterone which is only present from the 22nd week of pregnancy, peaks immediately after birth and then remains high until the infant is weaned at around 8-12 munths. Pretty much what she had already heard in Kerbal Biology class. So if Postgesterone was only present after actually having a baby, then how... …in rare cases, a minor mutation in the Postgesterone receptor gene regulator (PGR2-rf) can result in low level signalling being produced spontaneously. Most common from onset of puberty to age 30 and thought to be prevalent at a rate of around 7 per million in the general population- so much for 7 per thousand!- close contact with a newborn induces Prolactin activity which will also increase Postgesterone production and results in sympathetic lactation or symp-lac- wait a second. She re-read the last couple of paragraphs and realised what they meant. “OK, Sasha, I'm going to move you to the other side because my left arm is going numb, and then we're going to go and have a little talk with Mummy. About what? About her little scheme to try and get me to deal with your crying little face in the middle of the night. That's a pretty good idea actually, I like it. Whose side are you on?” She got half way down the stairs just as Mum was about to head out the front door, coat and shoes on and car keys in her hand. “Dad stuck his hand through the greenhouse door, I'm taking him to hospital. I've called Aunt Linley, she's working an early shift so she'll be done by noon and come straight round to give you a hand if you need it.” “But-” “You'll be fine, Tina. You're a rocket scientist, I think you can deal with a baby for a couple of hours on your own.” Sasha made another moist, squelchy sound. “As I recall, you're pretty used to dealing with hazardous gases.” “But-” “Sorry, I really do have to go. Just call me if you need something. Lock the door behind me, bye.” Tina was left staring at the door as the car started and drove off. “But-” “I told you to go down earlier, but noooooo, you knew better. Don't you start!” The big bag of baby stuff was in one corner of the lounge; Tina rummaged through it to find the changing mat and put Sasha down on it to have both hands free. She peeled open the soiled nappy, trying very hard not to look at its contents, rolled it up and stuck it in a bag then tied the handles together in a double knot just to be safe. She dug through the bag to find the baby wipes and turned back to see a puddle spreading across the mat and trickling off onto the carpet. “No, Sasha! Not on the carpet!” She picked her up and immediately felt something squelch under her left hand. “Eeeewwww, it's up to your neck, Sasha! How did you even do that?” Sasha replied by burping a little glob of sick straight into her lap. “That's it. You're going for a bath.” She sniffed under her own arm. “Actually, we're both going for a bath.” She took Sasha back upstairs and took the baby bath seat out of the bath, then put Sasha in the bath seat and turned the taps on. While it was running, she went back downstairs and tried to clean up the mess quickly before it soaked into the carpet. A sound from upstairs made her almost literally fly back to the bathroom, taking the stairs three at a time, but it was just a bottle of shampoo that had slipped and fallen into the bath. She glowered at it as she put it back on the shelf under the shower and it immediately fell back into the bath again. This was clearly not going to be her day. She peeled Sasha's soiled top off and dumped it in the washing basket before stripping off her sicked-on pyjamas and adding them to the basket as well. The bath was shin-deep by this point and not too hot so she picked up the baby bath seat and put it in the bath; Sasha's face was almost comically shocked when she touched the water, but seconds later she was happily splashing her hands in the water with a big grin on her face. Then she burped another little sick glob into the water and Tina remembered what you were supposed to do with a baby after feeding them. Fortunately the sick glob stayed together in a lightly congealed lump so she scooped it out with a little plastic cup and dumped it in the toilet, then draped a towel over her shoulder, picked Sasha up and put her on her shoulder and started patting her on the back to get her to burp up the air she had swallowed. And then remembered why she had run the bath in the first place. “I bet if they went into Sex-Ed classes with some babies and said: 'Last week we told you how babies are made; this week you find out the things that babies make. Here are some babies, their lunch just went in the top end and their breakfast just came out the bottom end; deal with them.' they could end teenage pregnancies overnight.” Sasha demonstrated both of those things at the same time and seemed quite startled by it. Tina sighed, deployed the cup and dumped its contents in the toilet again. She put Sasha back into the bath seat and tried to wash the cup out in the sink with some soap before giving up and switching the shower on at low power and low heat. At first Sasha didn't really know what to make of it, but she quickly decided it was fine and went back to happily splashing around while Tina scrubbed her clean with a soft sponge. Once Sasha was clean, she turned her attention to herself and turned the shower up to a more reasonable temperature and pressure. Five minutes later she was (reasonably) clean, turned off the shower and grabbed a towel off the towel rail, completely forgetting that it was heated and burning her fingers before snatching them away with a yelp. She held them under the tap and ran cold water over them, grumbling the whole time. “This is your fault, Sasha.” Sasha looked up at her blankly. “If I didn't have to mess around dealing with you, I could have had a shower and be downstairs eating breakfast by now. I blame you.” Sasha thought for a moment, then responded with “Buh.” “Less of that language, young lady!” She pulled the plug out to drain the bath. Sasha squawked in protest as the water drained away. “You weren't even supposed to be having a bath until this evening, so stop complaining! And don't give me those big, sad eyes and that wobbly lip either, it won't work.” Sasha looked up at her with big, sad eyes, lower lip trembling slightly. You cold, heartless monster, they said, how could you do such a terrible thing to a poor little baby? “I told you, it won't work. No matter how cute you look... No.” It took another ten minutes to get them both dried and dressed, mostly because Sasha kept wriggling and squirming, pulling her arms and legs out of the little pink onesie as soon as Tina got them in before she eventually resorted to the trick Mum had shown her earlier, stroking the back of Sasha's head to make her go limp and then shoving all her limbs into place and fastening the buttons as fast as she could. “Right then, the plan is: breakfast, then a nice walk down to the park. The weather forecast said it should be nice and sunny today.” She looked out the window just as a huge bolt of lightning lit up the sky, almost immediately followed by a tremendous thunderclap that made both of them jump; rain and occasional hailstones were coming down almost sideways. “On the other hand, I never trusted the forecasts anyway.” Trying to eat breakfast and hold a baby at the same time was nearly impossible so she stuck Sasha in her little springy chair thing (was it called a baby bouncer, or was that the thing that hung under the door?) and sat that beside her while she ate. “Breakfast, check; walk in the park, cancelled. Ooh, I know what we'll do!” She found the baby carrier thingy that vaguely resembled a backpack, only it could also be worn on your front, and rather than being a bag it held a baby instead. A brief and one-sided struggle later Sasha's flailing limbs were inserted into the right holes and the straps were secured so she could see where they were going without any risk of falling out or straining her neck, which still wasn't strong enough to support the weight of her head for more than a minute or so. They headed upstairs to Tina's room and she switched on her computer, then loaded up Terrin Space Program. “Pay attention- stop eating your own fingers, you just had breakfast! This is Terrin Space Program, and it's essentially what I'm going to be doing in a few years but easier, because it's a game. Those weird little orange creatures with their weird little heads are Terrins, and they live on that nice planet there called Terr. Now if you just wait a little while for the save game to load up... And then we go to the Tracking Station... Tada! That's Terr, with its little Mun called Moen and the little Minmus called Minimun- very imaginative... They're about a third of the size of the real Kerbolar system to make the game a bit easier than real life. Over here, this pretty purple one is Venis, the little brown one there is Murcrey, that red one there is Mors and the big green one here is Joviter. Then there's Plootu, Seerees and that little thing there is Hayley and it's a comet, not a planet, so it has a pretty tail behind it, see?” [04:46] EssKayEss – Hey Tee, you're here early. “That's just someone else on the server saying hi.” [04:46] WeeTeeKay – Hey SKS. Finished that Joviter transfer yet? [04:46] EssKayEss – Almost XD those ion thrusters might be efficient, but they are slooooooow! [04:47] WeeTeeKay – I told you that would happen. NERF rockets are a much better bet for something that size plus they don't need those expensive RTGs to power them either. [04:47] EssKayEss – But they don't look nearly as cool. [04:47] WeeTeeKay – dgjf kgkjb sgbc dsf sfs [04:47] EssKayEss – I agree :p [04:47] WeeTeeKay – sorry, baby found the keyboard [04:47] EssKayEss – congrats! Is that why you've been away, too busy parenting? [04:47] WeeTeeKay – she's my sister! :\ Had exams “See? Everyone assumes you're my baby. Like that grumpy old man last week who started shouting at me in the street; I still can't believe you slept through that but woke yourself up when your stomach rumbled.” [04:47] EssKayEss – ah, sorry. congrats on becoming a sister then [04:47] WeeTeeKay – you almost salvaged that one :p [04:48] EssKayEss – So you're starting her early so she can fly the rockets while you're asleep? CHEATING!!! [04:48] WeeTeeKay – 5 weeks old and she could still fly better than @thelaykerbonaut [04:48] thelaykerbonaut – I heard that! [04:48] EssKayEss – better take a trip out to Plootu to get some ice for that buuurn! [04:48] EssKayEss – actually that buuurn would be enough to fly you all the way out to Plootu [04:48] EssKayEss – retrograde :p [04:48] WeeTeeKay – so TLK, where'd your Mors rover end up? [04:49] EssKayEss – the silence says it all [04:49] <private> EssKayEss – fifty funds says it was a 'kraken attack' [04:49] <private> WeeTeeKay – 'Mortian defence systems' [04:49] <private> EssKayEss – deal [04:49] thelaykerbonaut – Kraken broke the heat shield off the front [04:49] <private> EssKayEss – ka-ching! [04:49] thelaykerbonaut – but the fairing held up until the Mortian defence systems kicked in and the whole thing came apart, made some very nice explosions though [04:49] <private> WeeTeeKay – one all :p [04:50] <system> Challenge 'Minimun Speed Challenge' will begin in 10 minutes. [04:50] EssKayEss – Joviter here I come!!! [04:50] EssKayEss – four hour burn to brake into orbit!?!? :,( [04:50] <system> User 'thelaykerbonaut' has left [04:50] WeeTeeKay – maybe I should teach little Sasha the importance of clearing up space junk, and take down that Murcrey probe TLK stuck right in front of my space station [04:50] WeeTeeKay – it's going to hit it sooner or later and I have five crew on board, I have to protect them! [04:50] EssKayEss – DO IT! [04:50] WeeTeeKay – nah, I'll just shove it into another orbit. Although my station is a bit low on power and the solar panels on that probe look just about the right size to make up the deficit, plus it's just inside EVA range... [04:50] EssKayEss – do it do it do it do it do it [04:51] EssKayEss – just blame the Kraken :p Sasha was snoring loudly, her head drooping towards the desk. [04:51] WeeTeeKay – sorry, Sasha just fell asleep [04:51] WeeTeeKay – clearly she rates your conversation about as highly as I do, but she hasn't learnt to be polite about it yet :p [04:51] EssKayEss – :0 ouch [04:51] WeeTeeKay – if I come back and find pieces missing from that station again... >:( [04:51] EssKayEss – hey, I never took those magnetometers! [04:51] WeeTeeKay – then how do you know they were magnetometers? [04:51] EssKayEss – …oops [04:51] WeeTeeKay – HA! It WAS you! You owe me seven thousand funds! [04:51] EssKayEss – oh come on, they only cost 3000! [04:51] WeeTeeKay – I had to spend more funds to get the replacements up to the station. Seven thousand, or Landon. Your choice. [04:51] EssKayEss – but Landon's my favourite Terrinaut! [04:51] <system> User 'EssKayEss' transferred 7000 funds to your account [04:51] WeeTeeKay – I knew that would make you pay up :p see ya later [04:51] EssKayEss – see ya :) SKS and The Lay Kerbonaut were two of the biggest names in space-related internet videos, explaining rocket science and related concepts in a way that the everyday Kerb-in-the-street could understand. They were also both huge TSP fans and after discovering that Tina had launched a home-made rocket into space (which was technically true) SKS had invited her to a private server; initially sceptical of the dodgy email she hadn't responded, until he had name-checked her on a live stream and she knew it was genuine. It also turned out that TLK was a decidedly mediocre TSP player when he wasn't using it to demonstrate some obscure rocketry principle, which was a continuous source of amusement for everyone else on the TSP server; his habit of blaming every mishap on 'kraken attacks' a.k.a. game glitches, rather than poor construction and piloting, only made it funnier. She switched over to the game's modelling and development systems where a nearly finished DAGGER Mk5 was waiting for a final coat of paint and detailing work before it was ready to be unleashed on the unsuspecting Terrinauts. The game used parts at a 40% scale compared to real life, so the 0.625m DAGGER could have been scaled down to 0.25m, but she chose to go for 0.5m instead as it was closer to reality (and because it made the integrated fuel tanks have enough fuel to work for more than ten seconds) and had adjusted the thrust and weight accordingly. The Mk5 was pure fantasy, a hypersonic version with a ramjet ring around the outside and a variable geometry shock cone inlet for use on spaceplanes, which was slightly superfluous since orbital velocity on Terr was a mere 2400m/s and the plain old DAGGER Mk2 could fly itself into orbit and back again using the same configuration that had just crept over the Kérmán line at Darude. Or at least, it did when she switched on the 'infinite power' cheat because she forgot to put solar panels on it and the battery ran out. She kept that fact to herself though. The detailing was delicate, fiddly work and there was only so much she could do at a time before her eyes blurred and she had to stop. She considered looking in on the KSC forums, but there were a growing number of people popping up there to spout their nonsensical opinions and conspiracy theories at anyone who'd listen (and anyone who wouldn't) and she didn't want to wake Sasha up shouting at the screen. In the end, she decided to catch up on that story she had found online about how the entire Space Program was just a cover to save the world from marauding magic trees by planting them on Duna, or something like that- she still hadn't quite figured it all out yet- but there weren't any new chapters out since yesterday. Her phone let out a loud PING and Sasha stirred; a bit of shushing later she was asleep again and Tina switched the phone to silent mode before checking the message. For some absurd reason her heart did a little skip when she saw it was from Darryl. Hi Tina, did you see the news this morning? Level B and C Geography papers were misprinted, wrong title pages on them so they were used in the wrong exams, they're probably going to scrap the exams and go with predicted grades instead. -D Forget skipping- her heart was pounding now. No wonder that Geography exam had seemed so easy! And to make matters worse, her Geography teacher was a grumpy old woman with a strong dislike of all things space-related; she had given Tina a predicted grade 3 despite passing the two end-of-term assessments with grade 1s and getting the second highest score in the whole class for the essay work, which had been marked by another teacher and so wasn't biased. She already knew that English was going to be her biggest weakness, wasn't expecting any better than a 3 but would be more than happy to scrape a 2, and she was only sitting six exams total: a 3 in Geography would scupper her chances of getting into Rising Stars that year and push her into a much more competitive field the next year with all the other school leavers. What!? When did this happen??? How? I need that grade 1 from Geography and old Ms Gerselle hates me so gave me a predicted 3. She fired up a browser window (Kopernicus, obviously- no way was she handing over her entire life story to some faceless mega-corporation by using Kalium or WebNavigator) and spent ten minutes trying to chase down the source of this story with absolutely no luck at all. Where did you get this info? Can't find anything online at all. As soon as she saw the reply, she realised she'd been duped. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHA gotcha XD :p ;) -D What was that last one supposed to be, a cyklops? A- oh. That's just how Darryl ends his messages, he just did that in the last message right there on the screen. Palm, meet face. Today is a total write-off and it's not even 5 o'clock yet... I hate you. >:( The reply came back in seconds. Awww, you know that's not true ;) -D Sasha woke up again, as if she could sense her mood, and started whimpering. She took her out of the baby carrier and carried her through to their parents' bedroom and lay her down in her cot before lying down on the bed beside her. A little fist took hold of one of her fingers and soon she was snoring again in an endearingly cute way. The bed was surprisingly comfortable and rather than risk waking Sasha again she stayed put and watched her sleep, noticing that every so often the corners of Sasha's mouth would twitch up into a fleeting smile. It really was a very comfortable bed, she could feel her eyelids flickering shut... And blinked open a moment later. The cot was empty; no sign of Sasha apart from a crumpled bit on the little pillow. Instantly wide awake, she frantically (and illogically) searched under the cot's blankets, under the cot itself, nearly tore the bedsheets off the bed, but there was still no sign of Sasha. Now comprehensively panicking, she ran through to her own room and found the empty baby carrier, but no baby; in the bathroom, an empty baby bath but no baby; she tripped and almost fell down the stairs before bursting through the door to the lounge- “Well, look who just woke up,” said Aunt Linley, more to Sasha than to her. Tina collapsed onto the couch in relief. “When did you get here?” She asked, slightly out of breath and talking faster than usual. “About twenty minutes ago. I tried the bell but you didn't answer, so I used the spare key to the back door. You looked like you needed that nap so I just left you to sleep.” Twenty minutes? But she hadn't been asleep for more than- how could it be half six already!? “I think she's hungry. I didn't see anything in the fridge, do you have any formula milk for her?” “I don't think so. We don't need that though, give her here.” Linley didn't seem at all surprised. “How long have you been doing that?” “About two hours.” “Really? That's quick, when you were that size it took five days before I could do that.” “Well clearly she has good taste. Or maybe I do. Aaaaand now it's weird again. OW! How can your nails be that small but that sharp?” Sasha responded with another moist, squelchy sound. “If this goes up to your neck again I am NOT dealing with it.” She looked over to Linley. “Did Mum ever do this with you when you were a baby?” “She was three when I was born, so no. And don't you go complaining about the old 'fizzy nappy' either- there was one time you did one so bad your mum actually had to cut your hair because it had dried in.” Tina turned a shade greener and looked down warily at the little biological weapon in her arms. A couple of minutes later Sasha started squirming and crying for no obvious reason. “Just a bit of air stuck in her stomach, she'll be fine once you've winded her.” Tina put Sasha over her shoulder and started patting her back. “You might want this,” Linley suggested, holding out the vomit-catching blanket thingy (she really needed to find out what all these baby-related things were actually called!), but when Tina moved Sasha off her shoulder to put the blanket over it she immediately projectiled half of what she had just eaten all over her; some of it went down the neck of her top too, yuk! “Sasha! I liked that top!” “It'll wash out,” Linley reassured her. “Nobody ever said looking after a baby was glamorous, and what's a little vomit between family, eh?” Tina gladly handed Sasha over then went upstairs to get a fresh top, one that was old and she didn't like much in case Sasha decided to share any more bodily fluids. She peeled off the old one (carefully, to avoid smearing baby sick over her face), mopped up the rest with the towel she had used earlier then pulled the fresh top over her head with some difficulty as the elastic was old and didn't stretch as much as it should have. In the bitter struggle between Kerbal and T-shirt her phone came loose from her pocket and clattered to the floor. She noticed that she had four new emails since the last time she had checked and opened them. The first was from the exam board with her grades for Chemistry (1), Physics (1) and English (3); a good start. The second was also from the exam board and contained her grades for Maths (1) and Metalwork (level A, grade 1- the teacher had bumped her up to the level A class after finding out about her Science Fair project and she had risen to the challenge). The third was from the exam board too and had her grade for Geography... She could barely read the screen because her hands were shaking but eventually she held it still enough that she could see the grade. 1. A strange, high-pitched eeeeeeeeee sound started leaking out of her throat. The final email had come from the KSC's public outreach department and contained confirmations of both her acceptance into the Rising Stars program and award of the Kanopus scholarship covering the full entry fee. The eeeeeeeee became an EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE and she flew downstairs without even touching the ground just as the front door opened and her parents returned, Dad's left hand heavily bandaged. She tried to tell them what had happened but the only sound she could make was EEEEEEEEEEEEE so she handed them her phone so they could read the emails while she grabbed Sasha and cavorted round the room with her (still going EEEEEEEEEEEE) until Sasha's eyes were spinning in different directions and the adults were looking concerned. Finally she managed to string together a coherent sentence. More or less. “I'M GOING TO SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!!!!!” Chapter 8