BostLabs

Months later. Bill sits in the ready room preping for his flight of Beagle III. Bob is assisting. Bob looks out the window at the launch pad where Beagle III waits. "Do you really think that will fly?" Bill zips up his flight suit, "500 simulated flights successful. It will do the job." Bob picks up a suit glove and moves to assist Bill, "I see your flight plan calls for a landing at Jeb's crash site. What do you expect to find there?" Bob sighs, "Too much time has passed. Even if Jeb survived the impact he'd run out of air long before we even started building the new ship. No I don't expect to find him but I'm going to complete his mission." "I think he'd like that Bill. I'm KapCom today." "Good! Jeb had great confidnece in you Bob. I do as well. You'll do wonderfully." Bob turns his head to hide his tears. Bill understands completely and tries to do the same. "KapCom, this is Beagle III ready for launch." "Roger Beagle III, Guidance is concerned on the flight characteristics." "Understand KapCom. She'll fly." "All stations, this is Mission Control. Report Go-No Go for launch" "BOOSTER - Go! RETRO - Go! FIDO - Go! GUIDANCE - Go! SURGEON - Go! EECOM - Go! GNC - Go! TELMU - Go! CONTROL - Go! PROCEDURES - Go! INCO - Go! FAO - Go! NETWORK - Go! RECOVERY - Go! KAPCOM - ...Go!" "All stations, Mission Control shows Go for launch." "Beagle III, KapCom; you are go for launch." "Roger KapCom, Launch is GO! ...Lets lite the fire!" "KapCom; litting the fire in T-10,9,8,7,6,5,ignition sequence started,3,2,1...Lift Off!" "Go baby, Go, go, go!" Bob yells over the thunder.

Smeltly Kermin at Guidance takes a gulp of koffee as he looks at his console. His eyes flew wide open and he spits koffee all over Harly Kermin at FIDO. He then hits the alarm. 'WOOWOOWOOBeep!WOOWOOWOO WOOWOOWOOBeep!' "KapCom to Beagle II. Jeb, Guidance shows you coming in too hot and to high of an angle. Abort Jeb! Abort!" "I can't Bob, I used those circuits to get my self out of the mess from launch. I'm going in. My calculations say I can do it." "Jeb, we do not concure. Abort any way you can!" "KapCom, I'm recalculating.... Well crap!" "Jeb?" "Forgot to carry the 2 KapCom. Impact in 10 secs. Abort circuits are garbage now." "........ Oh Jeb!" "Tell Bill he was r'SQUAAAARRRRKKKKKKKKKKK!'ssssssssssssssssssssssss..." "Beagle II this is KapCom, come in." "sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss..." "Beagle II, come in." "sssssssssssssssssssssss..." Bob hangs his head while Bill sits dumbfounded. Mission Control is silent. Mission Reporter: Oh my god, I killed Jeb. Beagle Flight will continue.

"KapCom, this is Beagle II, you got new tidy whities yet?" "...'fumble, fumble,smuertlyfluff', Beagle II, KapCom is online. What did I miss?" "Muner insertion burn completed and on course." "What? I mean, KapCom; understood. Mission continues." Much later: "KapCom?" "fweep! 'swipe, swipe' Beep! 'splat!' gods he was a juicy one. Beagle II, KapCom here. Status check?" "Ready for Munar orbit, but I see a great landing spot." "KapCom; Jeb go for orbit." "Not enough fuel to orbit and land. Going for landing KapCom" Bob looks askance to Bill as Bill is furiously pounding calculations into his keyboard. Bill stares are the result and then shakes his head no at Bob. "Beagle II, Bob says no to landing." Bill waves printout sheets at Bob. "Calculations do not show a safe landing Jeb." "KapCom, my calculations show differently." Rumbling can be heard in the transmission. "Landing proceeding." "No, Jeb! No!" Bill exclaims.

"KapCom, Beagle II; we have a problem." "Holy crap Jeb! A booster has separated! Abort Jeb! Abort!" "I got it Bob." "Jeb! Your engines have stopped and another booster is off!" "Roger KapCom, stand-by" "Jeb you've got to abort!" "I'm busy Bob. Stand-by" Mission Reporter: Alas I have no pictures of this spectacle. Needless to say I was a bit busy. "Jeb there is parts falling all over the place!" "Stand-by..." Suddenly the remaining engines fire full throttle. "Jeb, Jeb, you are leveling out and no longer tumbling. Guidance shows you climbing again. You are off course but you'll make orbit" "Walk in the park KapCom. Mission continues." "Beagle II, KapCom; Be right back after I change my shorts."

Beagle Flight Jeb Kermen had made the historic flight of Beagle I around Kerbin and designs were submitted by several Kerbs for Beagle II, the Mun ship. Finalist came down to 3 designs. Jeb Kermen's, Bill Kermen's and a committee submitted design. The committee design was selected. However, once it was built it detonated on the pad before any Kerbinaut could board it. The committee selected name for the vessel was stuck from the books and was simply replaced with 'Boom!'. The selection process resumed and after much debate Jeb's design was selected. Beagle II now sits on the launch pad and is awaiting Jeb to board. In the ready room, Jeb is preparing for the flight with Bill assisting. "So Bob will be KapCom today." Bill said. Jeb looks up as he connects a glove "Excellent! He is a fine choice. You'll be there too right?" "Of course! Just because your design was chosen doesn't mean I wouldn't be there to support you." Bill replied. "But you know I still think my compact design is better." Jeb grinned, "Yeah I know you think that. But today mine flies, maybe yours will next time. Can you help me with my helmet?" "Sure!" Bill lowers the helmet over Jeb's head and snaps the neck seal in place. Bill raps his knuckles on the transparent face shield. "All good?" Jeb grins and gives a thumbs up. "All green and good to go!" Bill grasps Jeb's hand. "Good luck Jeb!" Jeb grins again and heads to the waiting van that will take him to the launch pad. A short time later: "Beep! Mission Control, this is Beagle II ready for launch." "Beep! Beagle II, Jeb this is KapCom. We read you but we have a minor technical issue here. Launch on stand-by." "Beep! Roger, Bob. How long a hold?" "Beep! Shouldn't be long. 'bang' beep! 'bang,bang' beep! 'bang,bang,bang!' BEEEEEE- 'WHAM!' "Ok Jeb, that took care of it. Launch clock proceeding. T-10 minutes and counting.' "That's great KapCom. I wonder how those bugs keep getting into the main Com system?" "I think we just need to keep the cookies out of mission control and the bugs will stop coming, Jeb." "Hah! No much chance of that happening Bob." As launch time approached a flurry of activity fired off. "All stations, this is Mission Control. Report Go-No Go for launch" "BOOSTER - Go! RETRO - Go! FIDO - Go! GUIDANCE - Go! SURGEON - Go! EECOM - Go! GNC - Go! TELMU - Go! CONTROL - Go! PROCEDURES - Go! INCO - Go! FAO - Go! NETWORK - Go! RECOVERY - Go! KAPCOM - Beep! 'WHAM!' - Go!" "All stations, Mission Control shows Go for launch." "Beagle II, KapCom; you are go for launch." "Roger KapCom, Launch is GO! Lets lite the fire!" "T-10,9,8,7,6,5,ignition sequence started,3,2,1...Lift Off!" "Go baby, GO!" Bill yelled over the roar of the mighty spacecraft. Higher and higher Beagle II rose, then something odd happened.

That shot is Bill in Beagle III. Beagle II came in too hard and took Jeb's life before I could catch it. I'll do a mission report on this mission later in mission reports. My launcher is odd to say the least.

I was beginning to wonder if I was going to make it down at this site. That is some landscape Squad. Love it.

Agreed! I played BF3 for quite a bit before I jumped feet first into KSP. I hated having to go into the Battlefield forums. A very nice place here.

Oh I had it all boxed up. I stored it with my parents while I was in the Marine Corps. During that time they moved from Oklahoma to Arizona. Lots of stuff was ditched for that move. My 'Space stuff' was part of it. I'm pretty sure Dad said something along the lines of 'why does he need all this crap for?'. And like my 60's comic book collection, it disappeared. LOL! Don't let this derail your story KSK. I await the next chapter eagerly.

Whew! Well I'm no rocket scientist but maybe the payload determines that? I mean if, and that is a big if, the payload is carrying something heavy, like a huge power source, it may need the more umph of the larger unit to get in proper obit. I pulled that out of my butt so it could be way out there. Interesting topic though.

I remember Apollo 17. I was sad that that was the last flight once I found out. I was expecting the next step, the next project, to being a base. As a 12 year old, I couldn't understand why we were stopping. So I started writing NASA due to a suggestion by my Mother. I can't even remember what I asked about. Sent the letter off, not really expecting much. But a while later I got a large envelope in the mail. In it was a nice letter and. A Glossy, 8x11 Photograph of a Mercury rocket BLASTING OFF THE PAD!!!!! Man I went on a letter writing stint big time. By the time the summer of 72 was over I had filled my room with photos, charts and maps (even the moon) that NASA gave me. Over the next few years I had photos of the Apollo/Soyuz program. Tons of Apollo photos from the Saturn V rockets, LEM and the rover. The shuttle program followed this. There was not an empty space on my wall. Sadly, I lost all of that over the years. But it was the best time of my young life! Edit: I still don't understand why we stopped. Lol!

Nice mission! Well done.

Although I wasn't having the issue that many reported I'm glad they issued a patch and quickly. Thumbs up Squad!

Yup they are there, waiting for a rescue that is sure to come. My choices were: Use the quick save I had taken just before the first screen shot and then try to return. Revert back to launch and try again. Or, as I'm planning to do, make a rescue mission (with new trainees. Oh joy!). I got them into that pickle, I'll get them out. I never leave a Kerbal behind. I may kill them trying to rescue them but I always make the attempt. Benie, I may go get the updated MJ, but not just yet. My manual skills need a lot of work it seems.

Whew 0.21 is pretty nice. But MJ doesn't seem to work well with it. Oh well, I'll just head to the Mun without it. What could go wrong with this plan? Hmm... Might be close. Bob looks concerned. I got this, I got this. Hey I landed.. sorta. We saw, we came, we'll probably stay. Need more fuel and more practice on landing. started my burn way to soon.

So far, so good. The new SAS takes a bit to get used to but I like it!

Got a lot of HD space. New install and keep .20 in its own folder. . I want to finish my space station that I've worked on last night.

"RESET THE CLOCK!" 14d8h35m till 0.22 is it ready yet thread. All joking aside. Can't wait to get home and start the download. Darn it RanZ! Now I. Got to rest the clock again.

Ahh.. Now I know why my station is doing the Twist. I thought Chubby Checker had snuck on board.

I think our (American) Astronauts were supposed to be steely eyed rocket men so they were selected by those qualities. Me? I'd be squealing like a school girl all the way up into orbit. I was a bit young to remember any of Project Mercury (the program ended in 63 and I was 3 at the time). I have faint memories of Project Gemini. I followed Project Apollo pretty well.

Nuts, can't view it on my iPad. I'll have to check it out at home.

Nice,very nice. All you needed was a Kerbal on EVA doing a backflip as the ship left space dock and it would have been perfect. Awaiting part 2.

Shepard is da man!

Wonderful story! I like the way you are developing your characters. I've subscribed so I won't miss any of the ongoing story. Looks as if there may be a race developing.

That is a nifty craft.