Toaster355

Whoops! Was really tired last night writing this and forgot about it today when I resumed writing. Thanks for catching my embarrassing mistake!

July 14th, 2015 Ares 16 | Crewed Lunar Landing ____________________ Payload: Crew Exploration Vehicle CEV-6 Altair ____________________ Crew: Commander Jebediah Kerman Pilot Valentina Kelly Science Specialist Bob Koch Mission Specialist Bill Kirk ____________________ The fourth Jupiter-246 ever built lifts off of historic launchpad LC-39A, carrying 4 brave explorers that will soon become the first to walk on the Moon since Apollo 20 in 1973. Altair and her EDS sojourn in low Earth orbit for a few orbits ahead of leaving for the Moon. Altair jettisons it's EDS in the wake of a successful TLI. ____________________ Altair approaches the Moon. _____________________ She slows into orbit, in the dark Lunar night. Altair's orbit around Luna is 60 x 60 km; 40 km higher than Aquila's. This higher orbit, which will be gradually lowered to ensure a safe and slow relative speed as the two spacecraft get close, gives Altair a much slower speed relative to it's target, so Aquila will catch up with the crew within a few hours of orbiting. This rendezvous orbit is higher than the target's, rather than lower than it which rendezvous in low Earth orbit is usually performed with, as it would be a waste of propellant to enter a low orbit around the Moon only to raise it again. ____________________ The 2 eagles approach each other, ahead of docking. A successful hard capture is executed. ____________________ Aquila, ready with the crew for the historic descent to the surface, prepares to undock from Altair. Now undocked, the crew descend in Aquila towards their landing site: Mare Nubium; the Sea of Clouds. ____________________ Aquila descends to the Lunar surface. Large boulders are scattered across the surface beneath the crew. Carrying much propellant to spare, Valentina flies the LSAM eastward to a much smoother spot. Moments before the historic touchdown. Bill: ""Aaaaand... contact! Valentina: "Alright, main engines off." Jebediah: "Control, Cloud base here." "The Aquila has landed." ____________________ The Commander of Ares 16 exits Aquila's airlock. Jebediah Kerman has served in the space program since the very beginning. Holding the title of a fantastic test pilot, the first Kerbal to leave the atmosphere and enter space, one of the first to leave low Earth orbit, the third and last to walk on the Moon, and the first to command a space shuttle flight made the crew choose him to be the first of them to step onto the surface. He presses a boot to the surface of the Moon. For the first time since 1973. "We Kerbals return to the Moon. This time, to stay." "And may we continue pushing further into space, in the name of science and exploration, for all Kerbalkind." ____________________ Upon speaking his historic words, the crew follows Jeb down the ladder. ____________________ An American flag is planted. ____________________ After 4 hours of science, exploring, and just taking it all in, the 4 brave Kerbonauts say goodbye and start up the ladder, back into Aquila. Ready for launch as Altair zooms past the surface right overhead, the LSAM's airlock detaches just before launch. ____________________ After less than one orbit, Aquila and Altair approach each other. Altair's soft capture ring is extended, prepared for the two spacecraft to unite for the final time. The spacecraft dock as Lunar night begins. ____________________ The crew, surface samples, and other supplies transferred back into Altair, Aquila prepares to detach. "Goodbye, Aquila. Thank you for allowing us to make history again." Altair departs LLO and heads back home. "Goodbye, Luna. May this not be the final time." ____________________ Drawing close to home, Altair ditches her service module and prepares for reentry. ____________________ ____________________ ____________________ Thank you for reading, everyone. If the forums do shut down, I want to thank you all again for supporting and enjoying this passion project of mine. But as I told @Mr. Kerbin: as long is there is still a forum, I will continue this labor of love as well!

Hey everyone, I'm sorry to announce that I cannot finish Ares 16 (no longer launch 2 of Ares 15) in time; it will be delayed until tomorrow. Thanks for being patient!

Thanks dude! As long as there's still a forum, I will keep working on this timeline Thank you too dude! It makes me really happy knowing you guys haven't forgotten about my me or threads and still enjoy them Have you heard of Blackrack's new mod Deferred Rendering? Give it a go! Oh, and here's my TUFX profile. Feel free to use it in your mission reports as well! Just remember to credit me.

Happy 55th Anniversary of Apollo 11s Historic Lunar Landing! ____________________ Hey, Kerbonauts! After 4 months of inactivity here on the dying forums, I recently played KSP again for the first time since March. I have never felt more refreshed and ready to continue the thread! ____________________ June 24th, 2015 Ares 15 (Launch 1) | Crewed Lunar Landing _______________ Payload: LSAM Aquila ____________________ The third Jupiter-246 ever built waits on historic launchpad LC-39B (39A in the image, whoops!), ahead of sending the very first Lunar Surface Access Module (LSAM), given the name Aquila by the crew, to a Low Lunar Orbit (LLO), where it will wait for them to arrive. Aquila and her EDS enter low Earth orbit. However, they do do not linger for long, as their orbit will decay and they are destined for the Moon. The TLI successful, Aquila's EDS detaches from her. ____________________ Aquila slows into a low circular orbit around the Moon, where she will wait for the crew to arrive in Orion. ____________________ Second Launch will come later tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

That orbital tug looks pretty familiar...

August 17th, 2014 Ares 8 | Kibo Exposed Facility _____________________ Bob: "See you soon, '8!" A Jupiter 130 heads into space with no Orion, instead carrying one of the final Freedom components; the Kibo Exposed Facility. The crew of Ares 8 eagerly wait to follow it into orbit in a couple hours. The protective fairing of Jupiter detaches from the vehicle, exposing the payload to the vacuum of space. Mounted to a modified Orion SM, KES carries another addition to the station; miniRAV, mounted to the very front of the stack. miniRAV will manipulate scientific payloads for the Kibo Science Facility. ____________________ After a couple rendezvous burns, the spacecraft slowly crawls towards the largest Kerbal-made object in space. Once parked by Kibo, RAV 2 swiftly leaves her spot on the station to attach to KES. Once attached, the Service Module is ditched. RAV 2 guides KES onto the grapple fixture on Kibo, where they will wait for the crew of Ares 9. _____________________ August 17th, 2014 Ares 9 _____________________ Commander Carbert Kline Pilot Neilbald Baker Mission Specialist Jesdas Dunn Payload Specialist Bob Koch _____________________ Bob: "Here we come, '8!" _____________________ After a couple hours and a few rendezvous burns, the crew of Ares 9 draws nears the massive orbital outpost. Jesdas: "Ground, we've got a good hard capture up here. Great to be back. I really wish Digee could've been here with us." _____________________ RAV 2 is fired back into life as it manipulates KES back to behind Kibo. Jesdas leaves the airlock and rushes to payload. She draws her electric drill and permanently attaches KES to the station. Many cables are attached as well for sharing power and such. _____________________ Jesdas returns to Freedom, where her and her crew head to bed, just as they pass behind the planet, concluding Ares 8 and their day. _____________________ Remember when I was apologizing for being inactive for only a week? Heh... I'm sorry if you all were underwhelmed. I have never been in less of a Kerbal mood these past couple months, and still might not be for more. However, no matter how much of a Kerbal mood I am in, I will NEVER abandon this thread. I will keep going until I accomplish my final goal... Thanks for Reading!

I am so sorry for the wait!!! Ares 8/9 will be finished and out tomorrow or Sunday

I'm sorry for overpromising and underdelivering a couple weeks ago The flights will be out soon, hopefully not in 2 weeks again! Also, a bit of an embarrassing question... Why the hell are my profile pictures so low-res once uploaded??? How do I fix this???

Dammit, Discord! Does this mean we have to replace every image we used Discord for in the past with Imgur?

That is really strange; I can't see the pics in my signature either, but I can see the Ares 8 + 9 teaser. I'll try re-uploading and replacing them all in a bit.

Ares 8 + 9 Soon THANK YOU FOR TOTM AGAIN! ____________________ Happy late Valentina day! I know, It's been almost 2 months since my last post here. I was just suffering from some massive burnout and the forums pooped the bed. However, I am attempting to heal from it and you can expect the next post within a week; and now you can look forward to 1440p screenshots going forward!

Yeah, that's true. Cheap HOTAS' don't have nearly as many buttons, let alone hat switches, for proper combat. However, and I'm not sure if you know this or not, but you can use the shift, ctrl, and alt keys to more than triple the keybinds you can have on your HOTAS! that way you can still keep your hands on your it most of the time, only reaching for the keyboard to press modifiers. As for the landing tips... I'm thinking we can get each others' Discords and fly together! It will be easier to help you out if we are both communicating in real time, and we can dogfight each other and stuff. But it's up to you I'm just toaster355.

Wait, are you not flying with a HOTAS? I do NOT recommend flying with a mouse and keyboard; even a 30 dollar stick or 70 dollar HOTAS will do the job infinitely better than a keyboard. For the keybinds not working, I'm not sure. Though I will add that the brakes on combat jets like Hornets are quite ineffective compared to many civilian planes, as they are only designed for landing on long military runways or trapping on carriers and you may not be used that.

Yeah, that is pretty strange. It didn't notify me either when Freedom was nominated in December or DIRECT this month. I only discovered that I was nominated in December when @Kerbalsaurus and @TwoCalories congratulated me in both of my threads (thank you again, guys!), and now when I looked at my DIRECT thread and saw "totm feb 2024" near the top.

Oh, sweet! I'm about to start learning the Strike Eagle. I'd love to help you though Nope, not a mistake, haha. As realistic as the manuals are, I don't think I've ever used them; I imagined they are a pain to search through, and you seem to have confimed that. Watching videos is just an easier way to learn the modules you fly (especially 60 second tutorials, gosh people that make those are saints) and that's what I've been doing for years.. Good job. we were indeed getting off topic but you made the right call.

Thank you again! I knew you would, haha. You would LOVE the DCS F/A-18C module if you're willing to learn it. Not sure if I'm gonna keep it though, as I'm still toying with a new profile picture.

Congrats to all you talented winners! And THANK YOU all so much again!!! Very glad you all still care about and enjoy my work here! I'm aware I've been gone for over a month now. But don't worry, I've almost finished healing from my intense burnout and I will make a comeback soon.

Yeah... I feel the exact same way. Just not really in a Kerbal mood (especially how dreadfully long the load times are and how horribly optimized the first game is compared to a sim like DCS (even Super Mario 64 even feels like it was more optimized than KSP), even with a pretty fast computer like mine), and the forums have decided die recently, which is a horrible combo for us mission reporters. Hopefully the Kerbal drive will eventually return. Happy 2024 though, everyone!

Yeah, it was a bit expensive to pay for the HOTAS, TrackIR, PC upgrades, and modules. But trust me, yes! There are many, many multiplayer servers and many different things to learn in each module. I've had a ton of fun learning and flying in the past year.

Happy 2024!!! ____________________ I hope you all had a great holiday season, I know I did! My birthday is today as well I've wanted to post this for a couple days now, but the forums have basically been having a stroke. I know it's been over a week since my last mission report here, I'm sorry for being so inactive. Due to issues with cooling my new i7-11700F processor (or an instability of some kind in my new system), KSP crashes within 10 minutes every time I boot the game. Quick missions take over half an hour to design/build, fly, take pretty screenshots, rendezvous, and return. Longer missions can take more than an entire hour and sometimes over 2! It's incredibly frustrating trying to do a mission when my PC crashes every 10 minutes, so there will unfortunately be no mission updates until I purchase an AIO or find a way around this issue with crashing. And once again, I'm sorry. Enjoy some random screenshots of other games I've been playing: Off topic questions and comments about anything here are encouraged! I like talking with you guys

No worries, just use the Saturn Mobile Launcher pad and tweak the exhaust hole to fit your launch vehicle.

Just put it in your Google Drive, then share it and make sure anybody with the link can see it, and put the link in a post here.

Right on! EVE Volumetrics are REALLY worth the money; if you have 5 USD to spare and have a decent computer, do not hesitate to head over to Blackrack's Patreon and get those clouds.

Sorry I didn't do this yesterday! Was busy with Christmas stuff; here is a rough recreation of my PFP: Merry Christmas!