CatastrophicFailure

Thermal Curtain Failure narrowly averted, they’d Best check the building for a mishevious spherical robot... someone please get that.... In regards to testing in less than a year, do they even have the facilities anywhere to actually build the thing? The Big F Rocket is, well, big... can their Falcon factory handle it?

Wait, isn’t there a 2-person demo flight in there before the four-person actual crew rotation?

Difficult proposition, given that reentry plasma does not play well with radio signals. Don’t think even the shuttle could do that.

A pox upon your calm logic and reason! I want the thing and I want it now! *garglbarglargl* A little real communication from SpaceX would be welcome at this point, they’ve been awfully mum about the whole thing. Are these delay issues things they were expecting or, like @KSK said, should we all just check back next week?

Apparently MechJeb's delta-v display does not play well with the Otter's water engine. Spams the log as long as I have the window open and eventually crashes the game, even if the engine's not activated. So I also had to do the whole launch and transfer with no display. I'm absolutely shocked the whole thing worked. I was thinking, "all those wings on the front of a long skinny rocket and no 'fuel guage' either? I'll be Hyperediting this sooner or later." Never had to resort to that. Then I flub the launch window and have to land at night. Dangit... I just know I had a "Wendy, I can fly!" gag in here somewhere, but flarped if I can find it now.

This is where good, deep characters come from. Good guys who struggle with their own dark side, bad guys who secretly long for redemption. Gooder-than-good guys often become unbelievable, badder-than-baddies easily become chichés. Now with ol’ Jeb, I seem to be the outlier. I killed the poor guy off before my story even started. Val has been my focus of the Fab Four, and she really began with the first time I saw her in the game menu. She just looked so... small. Like a kid trying to see over a countertop. I figured yeah, she’s gotta be a feisty one.

[Expletive]

Looks like the Falcon has Risen again, that’s promising. Window is 5-10pm local time, so that’s gonna put it at night. Wouldn’t they prefer to do something like this during the day? Although... I suppose if it lights it will be day, one way or another.

Just... just one very large one?

Interesting. I’m trying not to get too excited about Moon Express before it actually exists, but they’re the only entrant that seems to have a real business plan beyond winning the prize. Whether clients really turn up after is speculation, but the idea that they can get something to the surface of the moon on a rocket that small is incredible on its own.

What NASA payload is ahead of Moon Express?

Le pout. So, new static fire window starts at 7 am my time, in about 5 hours. I’ll be asleep. C’mon, guys, give me something worth waking up for! im sure the string of forum chatter-generated emails dinging away should be enough...

Careful, there. I'm sure you know what happened the last time someone tried to raise a Robin Reliant...

. . . ?

The “science” part is simple. It’s the “not exploding” part that’s tricky.

Life finds a way. occasionally, so do stubborn jarified brains...

Understatement of the year, right here... ...tho it’s been a short year... SpaceX has stated, in so many words, that the biggest lesson they’ve taken away from FH development is that no, it isn’t simple at all.

Interesting stuff I was not aware of, and possibly even relevant to this thread, via an unexpected Wiki page: Scaled Composites was purchased by Northrop Grumman back in 2007... Let that percolate, re: Zumba... Also, it seems Richard Branson is also interested in the point-to-point rocket market... sounds familiar... Phut. I think that’s my new favorite word. Phut. Heheh... uh... heheheh heheh. Phut.

Then someone throws a ‘68 Beetle in the mix and it gets really interesting...

2018: The Year of Much Delayed Testing.

Given that it’s a scrub for the whole day, and not just a delay till later in the window, it’s a significant enough isssue that they think it needs 24 hours or more. Hopefully we’ll have some official details later. That is a lot of fuel to be pumping into a thing for the first time.

Year 8, Day 75... Well, how bout this? Our little space program is actually launching a rocket! Arrr! Arrr! Arrr!

Bingo, that's exactly what I needed, thanx. I have also learned that I really need to learn how to take notes. Every teacher and professor since high school has echoed this My own note-taking system generally involves thinking about stuff over and over again and hoping some of it sticks. What ends up on the page is often quite different than the initial idea. It never ceases to impress (and occasionally annoy) me how authors can break up their story into dozens of different threads and have them all come out in the same place. Everyone's welcome here. The best way to learn about writing is just doing so, the rest is details.

What? Not a single click since Sunday??

Sigh. The cathartic knowledge that this unfortunate young lady has a lot of vomit and poo in her future is somewhat tempered by the fact that some poor schmuck will end up on the other end of her needle.