Toaster355

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!

Christmas Special _____________________ December 23rd, 2013 Ares 7 | Apollo 8-Lunar Flyby ___________________ The Jupiter series of rockets were extremely affordable; saving on billions, compared to what would have been spent on vehicles in say the Constellation Program. All the money saved can go to other areas of the space program now; areas like the Jupiter Upper Stage, the Altair Lunar Lander, and a new launcher for the next vehicle in the Jupiter rocket family; The Jupiter-246. This new vehicle has a forth RM-69 (formerly known as a Space Shuttle Main Engine), and most significantly: a second stage; the Jupiter Upper Stage (JUS), raising the vehicle's height by nearly 50%, and increasing the payload capacity to over 100 tons to LEO, and 79 tons on a TLI with two launches (these are obviously much less in KSP, as nearly everything is smaller in-game). This new vehicle now allows Kerbalkind to send crew back to the Moon. So today, 4 brave Kerbonauts will ride in Orion, back to our celestial neighbor that has illuminated the night sky and inspired Kerbals to explore the the universe for thousands of years. "LIFTOFF of the maiden flight of the Jupiter-246!!!" "4 brave Kerbals, riding on a massive trail of fire, will fly back to our celestial neighbor for the first time since Apollo!!!" All 4 RM-69s have expended all of their propellant, and the vehicle has not yet reached orbital velocity due to the increased mass of the new vehicle. However, the JUS will give the vehicle the final push it needs to reach orbit. "Jupiter Upper Stage ignition." "JUS Shutdown. Jupiter is in a safe orbit!" The launch may be finished, but the mission has only just begun. The JUS lights up it's engines again for a short burn, to raise the perigee. The vehicle coasts for a couple orbits, verifying everything is ready for the Lunar journey. Another water tank was flown with Orion, for extra safety and to demonstrate the JUS's ability to send high-mass payloads beyond LEO. ____________________ It's been about a day (IRL it would have been over 2), and Orion is about halfway through its trip to Lunar orbit. The JUS, once far enough from the crew in Orion, lights its engines for the final time, putting it on a collision course with the Moon. Several hours after, the crew perform their midcourse corrections as well, and coast for the final hours as they approach the only natural satellite of Earth... Calbart: "Passin' behind it now. See you soon, Houston." Gene: "See you soon, Orion." The crew circularize behind the Moon, with their radios silent. There's practically no light behind the Moon. This darkness allows you to see the many, many, many stars of the Milky Way galaxy in the sky. Gene: Orion, this is Houston. Do you copy? Calbart: "Roger that Houston, we copy." Valentina: Holy smokes, we are the first living things to see an Earthrise since Apollo!" ____________________ Orion orbits the Moon 10 times, before the crew prepare to leave. "Service Module ignition in 3, 2, 1..." Bill: "Service module shutdown. Jebediah: "See you soon, Luna." ____________________ Earth fills the windows of Orion, as the mission nears it's end. Orion is a very robust capsule; because of the high payload capacity and spare mass of the Jupiter rockets compared to those of the Constellation Program, the capsule could have buffed life support, fuel, radiation protection, and general strength. This allows Orion to even land in lightning storms! ____________________ ____________________ ____________________ Merry Christmas to all you Kerbonauts out there!!! Search the skies tonight, and enjoy the big day tomorrow.

Thank you!!! And thank you again for such a fantastic mod!!! Strange, you're also experiencing the problem. I also don't actually mind it that much; I think it looks kinda cool with them both popping off? ____________________ Christmas special today!!! All I'll add is... I'm going to be recreating my profile picture.

They're stock! The stock Illuminator Mk2 tweakscaled as large as possible.

August 18th, 2013 Ares 6 | Freedom Crew ____________________ On my sister's 5th birthday (IRL when this mission takes place, not cannon obviously), the 6th Jupiter-130 ever built thunders into the very early morning sky of the Floridan coast. I am stupid and didn't switch from APAS to LIDS To save on a bit of money, an old APAS soft capture mechanism from the Shuttle era will be flown. It isn't unsafe in any way; just a bit older and heavier. Orion does not manifest any payload, any ATV on this flight, so another 20-ton tank of water is flown. This is for extra safety on early flights with crew, so the new technology can be perfected as they continue to fly. Circularization burn. The Jupiter-130 CCS, as it falls to it's inevitable demise in the protective atmosphere of Earth below. Rendezvous burns... ...Until Freedom is finally in view! Luna watches the crew as they very slowly and carefully approach the massive orbital structure, with their soft capture ring already extended and ready. Soft capture! After a hard capture and a couple hours of equalizing pressure, the crew can board the station. The snacks delivered by the last flight are transferred into the many pressurized modules. After just 2 months and 2 days docked, the crew prepare to return home aboard Orion 004, sent in June. De-orbit burn. Orion rides down the "neon tube," into the pacific ocean below. The forward heatshield (and the docking mechanism, somehow???) pop off, revealing the drogue parachutes underneath. ____________________ Thank you all for reading! I have a bit of a Christmas gift coming up...

Yep! Thanks for checking; everything's fine. Finally finished with school for the winter! I can hopefully now follow up on my promise of "more posts more often." I'm sorry if you felt lied to when I said that; I meant to say that would happen once school was finished. ____________________ Ares 6 Today or tomorrow!

Just like the first comment you made on my thread, haha. Excitement guaranteed indeed!

New mission on my Freedom thread! Do you want me to put ISS flights over on that thread or keep them here? Or do you want both? I want them on the Freedom thread because flights to the station feel like they belong there. And I have another question; should I revamp all previous mission posts over on that thread? As in, make them shorter and change them up to modern standards? For newcomers, I want it to be an enjoyable experience to read all the way from the beginning to the present without it dragging on and being too repetitive, which I feel is a big problem currently. It's up to you all!

THANK YOU ALL FOR TOTM!!! WOW! It's only been several months, and I was nominated for TOTM by all of you! Truly, thank you for nominating me and even just enjoying my work here! And since school is ending for me, I will be much less busy; you can expect more posts more often! ____________________ June 6th, 2013 Ares 5 | Uncrewed Freedom Docking Payload: Orion 004 ATV-1 ____________________ This mission will be a quick one; this Jupiter-130 is carrying the first Orion to dock with Freedom, and a surprise payload too; an ATV! An uncrewed Orion is sent to Freedom before any crew, so the crew always has two return vehicles in the event of one Orion experiencing issues. Huge cumulonimbus (? I don't know my meteorology...) cloud from Blackrack's EVE volumetrics. The LAS only served as an aerodynamic nose cap for Orion for this flight; it was not fueled or rigged for an abort. The purpose of the LAS is to only save the crew inside Orion, so it saves on a very little bit of effort and time to drain the fuel from it if Orion isn't carrying any crew. The payload is revealed! A modified, stripped-down ATV from the ESA (basically just a big bag full of snacks and life support) is riding on this flight. It will ride on every flight to Freedom that isn't carrying an upgrade module. This is a very early version, so it is almost guaranteed to be changed in the future. Orion circularizes with the ATV. Many small correction burns over the course of a couple days were performed, until the eventual rendezvous with Freedom. Hard capture! Orion doesn't stay for long, though. It will move itself to a PMA. (Did a sneaky flip before capturing; if multiple Orions are docked, they must be rotated by 90 degrees so their solar arrays dont hit each other.) Thank you all for reading, and once again, than you for TOTM!

Thanks a ton man!! And once again, I love the festive PFP

Thank you so much dude!!

WOAH! Thank you all so much for nominating my thread!!! Even though I make stupid typos everywhere and take a long time to finish things, you all still care about and enjoy my work here! Thank you to everyone that has supported my threads, especially you @Kerbalsaurus and @TwoCalories ! I'm gonna keep doing what I do, as long as you all still want it

B3313. This game... is terrifying. But somehow addictive too! It is the largest Super Mario 64 ROM hack ever made; it feels basically endless, no matter how much you've played. And I haven't heard of or played any other game in my life that captures the feeling of a dream any better than this. Here's some random screenshots:

Well done! 6.25 meter payload fairings, a new Jupiter flag on them, removed Worm logos, and SLS-style Tail Service Mast Umbilicals. You did miss a few small things though, like how the LAS now has an Orion flag on it instead of a NASA Wormball, the launcher has a third arm for access to the fairing, a Lightning Mast was added to the roof, and the "Sparkers" now spray upwards into the engines (also inspired by SLS), and maybe some other things I forgot. Also, here is a bit of a bonus for you all: I really wanted to completely change the SLS-style launcher into this more realistic one. The DIRECT team wanted to reuse as many Shuttle assets as they could. Not only the vehicle itself. So they wanted to modify the Shuttle Launcher Base and FSS Tower. However, I don't want to use this for a variety of reasons; almost none of the umbilicals from MLP were long enough to reach the rocket (even with the FSS as close to the launcher as possible, without clipping into anything), Orion had to be flipped 180° for the (very ugly and semi-unrealistic) crew arm to reach it, among other issues. Next mission tomorrow or on Tuesday!

February 7th, 2013 Ares 4 | Crewed Orion Flight Test ____________________ Many changes to the launcher and rocket have been made. I challenge you to find them all! Commander Jebediah Kerman leads his peers across the Orion Crew Access Arm, and into the capsule. They will not be headed to Freedom, as this is only an orbital test flight of them in Orion. Once aboard and settled in their seats, the OCAA is retracted. T-10:00:00 | "Sparkers" ignite. T:00:00:06 | The 3 SSMEs powering the vehicle are lit. T+00:00:00 | "Booster ignition and LIFTOFF of Ares 4! Godspeed Jeb, Val, Bill, and Bob!" And the tower has been cleared! Bill: "Roll program, Houston!" Gene: "Roger roll, Orion." "Max Q, Houston." Bill: "Good Solid Rocket Booster separation." Bill: "Launch Abort System is gone." Jupiter continues pushing into orbit for a couple more minutes before the core stage is shut down. Bill: "Good CCS shutdown. Releasing Orion now." 50 tons to Low Earth Orbit may seem a bit overkill for just servicing the ISS with Orion, right? Well, according to the DIRECT team, no. It is always better to have more performance than needed than less. This will give NASA the ability to launch high-volume cargo weighing over 20 tons along with crew, just like the Shuttle could. Orion can bring up very large quantities of food, life support, experiments, and other cargo without jeopardizing the safety of Kerbals for no extra cost. And if all were to go wrong on a launch, if Orion isn't manifesting any payload, a 20-ton water tank could act as a ballistic shield, absorbing most of the energy of a catastrophe. The crew circularize in Orion, in the shadow of their home planet. Life may seem cramped inside a capsule like Orion, but the crew are happy as there are only 4 of them and they will not stay in space for long. Jeb watches the surface zip by from his spacecraft. After about a day spent in space, the crew prepare themselves and Orion for the return home. "Flippin' over for Service Module jettison." Bill: "Goodbye Service Module." Bob: "Earth, here we come!" Orion hits the first traces of air at an angle, so it can land with precision in the pacific ocean. Bill: "Drogues are popped." Bill: "And the main chutes are out." Val: "What a ride. Love this thing already". Thank you all for being patient. The first post has received its third major update too. Happy holidays!

Yeah... good point. That would be a big letdown for many of you I'm sure. And that is true, I cannot find a proper timeline so it was always destined to mess some things up. Thanks for your feedback And I'm sorry for being so inactive, still suffering from a bit of burnout. However... I just upgraded to 32 gigs of RAM now, which has made loading times so, so much faster and easier on my PC. I have a new SSD on the way too, so KSP is and will be much more fun and bearable! You can realistically expect the next mission update in 2 to 3 days. EDIT: Nope! I got much more done yesterday than I expected, so you can expect it today or tomorrow! Rare occurrence were something related to spaceflight is early, haha. I want mission updates to be shorter. I know I've said this before, but this time I really mean it. After the next flight, mission updates will be just over/less than half and possibly almost a third as long as the one I'll soon post. DIRECT was so versatile and had so many missions planned, it's going to get repetitive real quick if I have the same "epic" launch sequence over, and over, and over again. I'll spare them for historic missions like the return to the Moon and flights to Near-Earth-Objects, Mars, and... ...some other missions I have planned for the far-ish future. Happy holidays!

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Can you... please be a bit more specific??? Maybe provide a log and an in-game screenshot? Maybe provide a screenshot of your gamedata folder too?