CatastrophicFailure

...and the thing I found most amazing was the lack of landing gear.

Like the Mullet said, pretty sure something there went to space. Heck, something there was probably transmogrified across the gulf between worlds and is now waiting on someone's desk to give them a nasty surprise and elicit a most undignified scream. Shhhhh, you'll give him ideas! . . . on second thought...

Noted, and appreciated, but as there's a very specific in-headcannon reason for those delightfully alien skies you've already created, I'll be keeping the Classic Edition™.

Year 5, Day 51... Well, after the disappointment of the last mission, today the crew is practically shaking with nervous energy! Apparently that's to be expected when sharing a space with a heavily medicated rhino. But also, UMO-1 has finally arrived at Tellumo! Speaking of large game animals, this planet has a disturbingly large sphere of influence... This time the transfer stage has served well, arriving in-system with a small surplus of RCS delta-V remaining. Unfortunately, we won't be able to use any of that until after the risky insertion sequence, so it's discarded, sure to burn up in the thick atmosphere. Entering the upper whisps of air, we deploy our secret weapon: the ballute! Hopefully this will give us the extra stability and drag we'll need to brake into a capture orbit without burning to a crisp. Getting warm... Getting very warm... Entry speed is an absolutely ridiculous 15km/s. The inflatable heat shield glows white-hot! And... we've done it! The probe has survived aerocapture into an elongated orbit! Tellumo is awfully.. shiny. The heat shield is still glowing... UMO-1 has lost a single solar panel during the maneuver, but the mission is cleared to proceed! Not that it could do much else at this point. The probe makes a second plunge into the atmosphere to further lower its apo...um... IT turns out the ballute wasn't much use after all. The entry vehicle is aerodynamically stable without it, and it doesn't seem to have contributed much braking, either. After this second pass, the mission modules separate once they have reached the dark side. Despite a thorough search, no cookies were found. The team is disheartened. The propulsion package the boosts itself into a stable orbit to serve as a relay, while the descent module makes its final plunge. It's subjected to a punishing 22G's before the chutes are finally opened... And here's where the problems arose. The relay passed out of range just after the backshell was separated... which didn't actually separate at all since the heatshield was creating more drag than the drogue chute attached to it. With the probe now out of control there was no way to jettison the heatshield (can someone seriously not figure out a way to just deflate this thing? Are needles that hard to bring into space?! Oh. They are. OK.), and the descent module begins spinning violently. This does, however, throw the backshell free. This just goes on... and on... the lander spinning madly around just barely meandering downward... Just keep spinning, just keep spinning, spinning spinning... STOP SINGING! WHO IS SINGING THAT!? DO NOT GET THAT SONG STUCK IN MY... PЏГЇИ. Well, anyways, the probe makes it down. Luckily, the batteries hold out until the relay makes another pass, then the team is able to deploy the solar panels and high-gain. The landing location is somewhat disappointing, as being on water (AND ON TOP OF A BIG FLARPING HEAT SHIELD!) limts our science returns somewhat. Yet science returns do start filing in. Being below the ring shadow has some... unpredictable effects on the solar arrays... But the sunsets here are really quite spectacular. Tellumian NIIIIIIIIIIIGHTS, like Tellumian DAAAAAAAAAAAYS, more often than not, are-- SHUT UP, VLAD!!!!! Ahem, yes, well, here see a picturesque passage of the shepherd moon buried deep in the rings, still illuminated by the weak sunlight. And here we see one of the frequent, if less spectacular, eclipses from the small space rock fast-tracking across the sky. This, shall be our next target to investigate!

This is becoming a disturbing trend, just now. Me, three. Makes since. I've never been the social sort.

I hope you got it pointing the right way before the insertion burn, unlike the original...

O.o You have many boosters, my friend.

Florida Man. Why am I not surprised? ( @Just Jim present company excepted, of course ) I'm sure a little necrosis of the tongue will just do wonders for his diction. Thufferin thuccotath!

Boy, Ah say, boy, that there is an Ekranoplan.

Doze reflections doe!

Anything beyond "it's a Dragon and it's going to land on Mars" is pure speculation at this point. If SpaceX can only do that much with it, it will still be a win. Anything it actually does on the surface beyond saying "I'm here! I made it!" is just icing.

Touché.

Yes! Yes! All new digitally enhanced effects! "Restored" lost footage! Irreversibly masticating fans' favorites scenes! Er, wait, I'm not George Lucas. ...or... am I?

Going off memory here, which I assure you is like a steel trap (rusted full of holes and illegal in 27 states), CRS-2 starts up in 2019. SpaceX probably got special dispensation to refly a Dragon so they can focus on D2 production. IIRC, the Dragon heat shields, or at least the one on the D2, is supposed to be good for several uses (it's meant to be lunar-capable, after all). It sounds like the modification is only on the second stage, right now.

Well, this is interesting...

Brilliant! But as soon as I tried, the chapter list flarped itself and I just had to rebuild the whole dang thing. (Not your doing, the forum shenanigans.) So un-un-derped chapters are now simply the unlinked ones. And I've figured out where to add a couple surprises already. but, like, later...

The mod in black fled across the desert, and the clickslinger followed.

O.o WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN THEEEEEEEEEEEEE GAEL HITS YOUR EYE LIKE A BIG PIZZA PIE, THAT'S AMORE! (Amore!) Someone please get that...

Mobile launcher, giggity. And a lot more elegant than the one I tried back in .25.

Oh, and as long as I'm here, as I'm also reading Stephen King's foreward to The Gunslinger, I think this is worth repeating: [sic] The writer's most insidious enemy is doubt.

Second this. I do all my writing on mobile things, usually during my downtime at work. It's very convenient, and a great way to occupy time that otherwise would just be sitting around, but I do have to watch those distractions. It's all too easy when you simply must know this one weird trick that makes Krakens hate him. OTOH, I'd never get anything done at home, because I could be Kerballing.

FWIW, I've found it helpful to go back and only put previous episodes in spoilers when posting a new one. Keeps the page load shenanigans down while still keeping stuff available for stragglers.

Doze nozzles doe!

Year 5, Day 5... We really need to keep a better lid on these New Year's parties. This is only a short update, as the latest mission did not go well, and we were all too busy scrambling to hit the shutter. The was the second launch of the NewShip, which doesn't make sense, since it's used now. For this rebuild the engineers stripped it down and turned it into a flying fuel tank with nothing else in the service bay to see just how much delta-V we can squeeze out of this thing. We knew we were pushing the limits, but, well... In other news, apparently Vlad is now the proud owner of a bull rhinoceros named Fluffy. Who suffers from multiple anxiety disorders and irritable bowel syndrome. I have advised the staff to remain upwind, avoid any sudden moves, and acquire more ketamine. And towels.

It occurs to me this is the first SpaceX launch that hasn't been delayed since the previous launch... am I right in that? Today was the day even back when NROL76 went up, right?