Cydonian Monk

Would basing it off of part mass work? Doesn't give you the class of the potato, exactly, but it does give something to work with. Edit: Ah, sorry. I see this is only a ModuleManager config now. Clever hack. Pretty sure you'd need a plugin to do what I was thinking.

Archimedes 1 - Mün Slingshot "And that's it boyos, final burn complete." Dudry closed and locked the cover for the main engine's arming switch as little bits of debris floated forward from the back of the cabin. "Next stop: Mün." "Too bad we don't get to land." "Look at it this way Barting. At least we'll be the first Kerbals to see the dark side of it." "Maybe" said Shepgee as he started working his way down the commander's checklist. "No guarantee there won't be another of you cast-aways already in orbit." "Awww, poor Sheps. All broke up still about your first jaunt in the jolly dark being the not so first?" Shepgee ignored Dudry's jab and kept working through the checklist. "Still, ya got to admit this is a better gig than flying around in those rattlin' death traps the crazies in the X-Project dream up." "Yeah, Shep, what happened to that bird of your's last week anyway? Came back with the black scorch along the nose." "Ah, nothing. Had a cool little camera package rigged up that couldn't handle the heat. Shame, too, took some real pretty shots of the sunset." "So what'd ya see up there anyway? Your the first to circumnavigate the planet while still in the atmosphere, ya know?" "Not much, really. It was dark half the time." Shepgee thought for a moment, stuck the checklist and its clipboard back to the velcro, and glanced out of the cabin window. "The stars seemed brighter somehow. And the plasma stream coming off the nose was, well, disconcerting. After a while you get used to it, at least until some small piece of the plane burns off and explodes." Barting unstrapped himself and floated up to the docking port to take a look around. "So you didn't see anything then? Shame, really." He braced against the inside of the cabin and gave the door's latch a hard twist, just to make sure it was still sealed. Shepgee went back to his checklist. "Well, I wouldn't say I saw nothing. The second sunset was interesting." He scribbled a few notes at the bottom of the form and stowed the clipboard. "And besides, the desert isn't completely empty. Lots of interesting little towns, like Puerto Kabat, there o nthe Eastern edge of the desert. The market and port in that town looked busy even from 30km up." Dudry floated up from the lower seat and gasped at the view of Kerbin. "Well would ya look at that? What a beaut. Sure does slink away in a hurry though." "Get used to it. We've got another day of slinking to do. Best get some rest, too." "I just don't understand why I have to be outside of the ship for it to count." Shepgee was fumbling around outside the capsule, trying to hurriedly take EVA reports and grab Gravioli readings. "I mean, it's so dark I can't even see the surface! How is another 'Hey, still pitch black' report going to help?" "Y'know Shep, if you're that broke up about it, I'd be giddy to float around out there and write about the dark of the Dark Side instead." Dudry poked at the main radio again. "We're still in the hole as far as the kiddies on Kerbin know. Until the sats come back around, who'd be the wiser but you and our boy Barting here?" Just then the hatch flung open and Shepgee shoved a stack of readings into the science compartment. "Ok. Your turn." Dudry wasted no time. The Archimedes 1 had a simple mission: Slingshot retrograde around the Mün and return to Kerbin. Of course the science team never passed up a chance to test a gizmo and sent along something new: The "Negative Ravioli ThingaMaGig" as Dudry called it. And for some reason its readings had to be removed, kerbally, from outside the ship. Otherwise the science-kerbs back on the ground didn't get as much data. And then the mission planners, still unsure what to do about cameras, decided they'd rather have EVA reports from the crews over selected parts of the Mün. In the dark. Shepgee hoped it all made sense in some geek's brain, because it certainly didn't in his. Dudry chirped in on the radio. "Whoa. Hey, you boyos might want to look out the window. You'll be the second and third lil' greenies to see a sunrise on the Mün's backside! What. A. View." Barting took the next EVA duty cycle, but by then the ship was drifting back above the useful reporting altitude. He was just about to climb back inside when Kerbin appeared over the Mün. He didn't bother to mention it to the other two, as the rotation of the ship made it impossible for them to see. Just a private little Kerbinrise. "Hey Sheps! Did you hear about the big dish the smart lil ones are building out in the Arakebo crater?" "Nope. Didn't see anything funny when I was flying over it either." Shepgee was back in the lower seat, letting the two junior kerbonauts enjoy the reentry. He'd certainly seen enough plasma as of late. Barting was busy working the reentry checklist. "Ok, we're coming up on 150km. Time to jettison the service module." He flipped up the toggles to arm the separators for the service module and the heatshield and counted down to 150k. "And, jettisoned." The stack decoupler shook the capsule, the first sound the crew had heard in two days. Jettisoning the service module also threw the capsule a bit off course, which the SAS quickly corrected. Barting still had his fingers on the switches. "So, Shepgee. You sure you didn't see anything of interest your last time through here?" Barting glanced down into the lower cabin, fingers dangling dangerously on the heatshield ejector. "Nothing, Barting. Maybe the recovery crews will take us over to look at this new dish of Dudry's." "Not my dish, oh cap'n my cap'n. And not really a dish, but a big smooth dent inside a big rocky dent." The cabin started to rattle as the ship bit into the atmosphere. Dudry glanced over nervously at Barting. The superheated air was already streaming bright red past the window, casting the kerbal in a menacing red glow. He motioned towards the panel, and Barting's lingering fingers. "You oughtta take those switches out to dinner first my boy." "Hmm?" Barting looked down at his hand and quickly pulled it back, chuckling nervously. "Guess I should watch where I stick em." He closed the cover over the heatshield ejector switch and "That would've made for funny story, huh? Go all the way to the Mün and burn up on reentry because I blew the heatshield off too early. Heh." Dudry shook his head. "Just don't go botherin' my parachutes, ok? Those fair silken maidens are on my board, over here." Dudry grinned and looked up through the navigation window, where he could watch the Mün setting behind Kerbin. "Maybe next time they'll let us land there." The recovery crew flew them straight back to KSC, ignoring requests to see the new dish at Arakebo station. "It's for Kerbals!" Gene wasn't sure what to make of it. Sure, Haloly had come up with some brilliant ideas since being rescued, but this one? Gene was thinking perhaps he'd been in space without oxygen for a bit too long. He picked up the scrap of paper Haloly had slid across his desk and stared at it for a bit. "It, uh.... It looks rather uncomfortable." "It'll be nicer on the inside! And made of cheese!" Gene thought about it for a moment, looked at the paper one last time, then handed it back to Haloly. "Ok. Get with the guys in engineering and see what you can come up with. And don't..." Gene was interrupted by a loud, rumbling boom, causing his entire office to shake. He looked up at Haloly, extended his hand and fingers, and counted down from four. Just as he reached one the door flew open and a flustered and out of breath kerbal burst in. "Gene, you better come quick. There's been an accident. Plane landed. Safe. Then exploded." Gene was already up and heading out of the door. "Who?"

Makes me wonder how much the Mün base I built in 0.23.5 would cost.... No doubt S.R. Hadden would have the funds, but would he be willing to toss it into the dusty regolith with no promise of return? Hmm. 400k for a reusable science lab isn't so bad. Though getting it to repay the investment is a different issue.

Excellent. I'll dig into those sometime this weekend. Thanks!

Indeed. Thanks for the compliments!

Awww Shucks is often used as a bashful version of "Thank You," at least in the rural parts where I'm from. Now I'm curious how Google translated it. Anyway - this makes me want to restart the SSTO cargo plane project I was working on back in 0.22 or 0.23. I could never get to a happy point where the payload capacity justified the effort. You seem to have that bit figured out. I may need to borrow some of this for inspiration.

Clever. Reminds me of an old (1996) game, Emperor of the Fading Suns. Civ/4X style in which you research "lost" technology as you progress. (On top of which you needed to pay to maintain your current tech base, and could lose technology yourself.) Curious to see how well Karbonite works out in the long-game. I wonder if DangIt! could force drillbits to break.... (Assuming they don't already....)

Nice! Pretty sure if I landed a tall, skinny craft like that I'd manage to knock it over on my first EVA. Probably by accident.

Just wanted to pop in and say I'm loving this work so far. I'm going to have to pick and choose for now (us OS-X peeps are still only 32-bit), but someday.... Keep it up!

Thanks! My advice is to just do what you feel comfortable with, and if you're not happy with what you've got, change it up. Plenty of room to experiment as none of us are in this to win Pulitzers. (I hope.)

The Rescue Missions Since the dawn of time Kerbals have looked to the stars and dreamt of space. Some were so impatient they would take any risk to get there, including large trampolines, balloons filled with lighter-than-air gasses, and even chairs strapped with forty-seven small rockets. So it was only natural several dozen kerbals would find themselves stranded in orbit with no way home. Even though it makes little to no sense. For the early rescue mission I used a fairly basic launch vehicle, the LV-1 Anaximander with an extra Solid Rocket Booster, tipped with a Home-Grown Rockets Radish capsule. This setup is more than capable of reaching the orbits these unlucky kerbonauts seem to get into. As I'm using the TAC life support mod, these rescues are rather urgent. (Though the crews won't start starving until they come into 2.5m range if an active ship, for RP purposes I assume they're already in trouble.) Luzhin 1 and the rescue of Hally was a special case. By this point the rescue missions were becoming more of an annoyance, spawning after every successful return from space. So I wanted to experiment a little, and see if holding a kerbal hostage in orbit would stop new rescues from spawning. The answer seems to be yes, kerbal EVA spawning is stopped when the contracts are still open, but more tests are required. Going forward I'm planning to use a smaller, automated rescue craft, stocked with a healthy dose of snacks and supplies. The first trial run of these was completed with the sixth rescue mission. These robotic missions have become so ordinary that I barely took any photos. Later rescues will likely be conducted from orbiting space stations, where the rescued kerbal will remain until the next crew rotation. Rescue missions have already become my primary means of recruiting kerbals, if a bit on the annoying side. Rescue 001 Crew: Milzer Mission: Rescue Haloly Kerman, stranded by Rockomax. Result: Success. Rescue 002 Crew: Dudry Mission: Rescue Lengee Kerman, stranded by Flooyd. Result: Success. Rescue 003 Crew: Shepgee Mission: Rescue Jorble Kerman, stranded by Winter Owl. (Poor Matt, gets blamed for the trouble even when it isn't him getting into the trouble.) Result: Success. Rescue 004 Crew: Milzer Mission: Rescue Barting Kerman, stranded by Zaltonic. Also tested early model of ION drive. Result: Rescue success. ION test inconclusive, but considered success. Luzhin 1 / Rescue 005 Crew: Meldo Mission: Rescue Hally Kerman, stranded by Staedler, and retain in orbit for up to 50 days. Result: Success. No further rescue missions spawned while crew was in orbit and contract still open. Rescue 006 Crew: None - Automated. Mission: Rescue Genekin Kerman, stranded by OMB. Result: Success. Test of automated recovery vessel proved satisfactory. An Experiment in Scouting Shepgee was completely engrossed in the latest book in the Special Agent Kirrim series when Gene knocked on his door. He shoved a napkin into the book to mark his place and tossed it off to the side. "Oh, hey Gene. What's up?" "Shepgee. Got a minute?" Gene closed Shepgee's office door behind him, leaning against it to make sure nobody accidentally walked in. "I know you've got your Archimedes 1 flight to prep for, but there's something that's been bothering me and I'd like you to take a look into it." "Ok, what?" "During your Euclid 1 flight the Rockomax rep said, somewhat offhand, that we're the 18th space agency. Except nobody else I talk to has ever heard anything about the previous 17. Nor can they give me a good answer as to how all these kerbals keep getting trapped in orbit." "How am I supposed to help with that? I'm not really much more than a glorified test pilot." "And that's exactly why I'm here." Gene walked away from the door, placing a folder full of papers on Shepgee's desk that Shepgee hadn't seen him carrying. "As a test pilot I can send you just about anywhere under the guise of a test flight. The boys in R&D are making progress on the X2 design, and I'd like to to take it," Gene opened the folder and pointed at a spot on a map "and fly it here." "The deserts and high plains? What's there?" "Well, we're not sure. So we've rigged a camera package to the front of the cockpit. The plan is to have you circumnavigate Kerbin at high altitude, which is the official test. When you're over the target area, just turn on the cameras. There has to be another launch site somewhere on that continent." -- Two kerbals stood in the shadows of the tower, watching Shepgee's X2 flight disappear over the ocean. The taller of the two took a toothpick from his mouth and looked at it quizically. "You left the heat shielding off of those cameras, right?" The other kerbal nodded an affirmative reply. "Good. Those cameras won't survive past 1500m/s or so. No reason to sabotage the plane itself if we can render it blind. Should buy us enough time." "What if he sees it himself?" The tall one tossed his toothpick to the ground and twisted it into dust with his boot. An old habit, no doubt. "Well, sometimes accidents happen on the way to the Mün."

I really, really like this idea, for the times when I want a more casual life-support. Especially the grumpy kerbals and costing the player rep. I could see this resulting in hilarity and frustration if combined with something like "Dang It!" The kerbal needs to EVA to fix a leaking fuel tank, but once outside: "Lemby Kerman cancels Fix Leak: Grumpy." And perhaps recently un-grumpy kerbals eat snacks at twice the rate?

Thanks! (... wanders off to subscribe to his own thread after realizing he hadn't yet done so...)

Awesome! I've watched a few of your rovering vids in the not-so-distant past, got you queued up now in the old "Watch Later" to watch the rest. Looking forward to it!

Long Duration Anxiety The Luzhin was an odd collection of parts that could have only come from the mind of an insane baboon. Wernher was a bit surprised Jeb hadn't painted his logo on every piece of it. "The next one'll be green, but I was kinda in a hurry," Jeb had chirped as he dropped off the partially assembled craft at KSC. "What is wrong with the white and the orange and the grey?" "Oh, nothing. Just seems too Home-Grown like that. Doesn't really scream 'Jebediah.' Well... except the orange parts." Wernher could only shake his head. The vehicle was no small compromise, and all just to keep Jeb happy. The new generation of spacecraft were too heavy for the existing launch vehicles, so the engineering team put out a call for lifters with a greater capacity. And, as expected, none of the designs used Jeb's "recycled" engines. So late one evening Jeb, Bill and Bob cooked up the LV-08 Luzhin. Jeb himself claimed to have tested it. Designed with the Tantares and similarly sized spacecraft in mind, the Luzhin uses three LV-T30s fed by three partially emptied (or only mostly filled) Home Grown Rockets aerodynamic fuel tanks. The core stage uses a down-rated LV-T45, limited to 70% thrust. As built, the design is capable of placing nearly 6 tonnes of dead weight into LKO, and more if the boosters are fully fueled. The core can be fed with fuel from the boosters for an added punch. All for much less than the cost of the competing designs. Of course launching the thing is a different story, and it made everyone at KSC more nervous than usual. Never before had a craft so heavy been sent into space, and never before had they willing strapped explosive charges to the side just to discard boosters. Gene already had his hand over the abort button. "You're sure this is a good idea?" "Gene, we have tested this very thing," Wernher said, trying to convince everyone. "They will work. It will work." He wasn't so sure himself and looked over to Jeb, who just shrugged back. "Ok." Gene tapped his microphone "Luzhin 1, you're go for launch. Begin the final count." Mission control was deathly silent through the countdown, the ignition, and even the ascent. Nobody trusted this crazy design of Jeb's. A few minutes into the flight and it was clear something was wrong. Wernher pulled Jeb aside. "Did you not say you had limited the thrust in the main engine? And set the fuel in the boosters to be less than the core?" "Yep." "Then why are the boosters still attached to the spacecraft? They should have burned out 45 seconds ago." Jeb shrugged. "I must've forgot to save the tweakables." Gene's finger started rubbing circles around the edges of the abort button. Finally, after what seemed an impossibly long five minutes, the boosters burned out and separated. Gene let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding and relaxed. He took his hand off the abort, locked it back in place, took a sip of coffee, and realized they had never set up an abort procedure in the first place. Jeb jumped up and shouted, eliciting stern looks from the normally stoic crowd. "Hey, I'm just glad it didn't explode like when I tested it." -- The Tantares spacecraft that made up the Luzhin 1 was itself a conglomerated mess. Two very new and very important systems were being tested: the new monopropellant-based Reaction Control System, and the Thunder Aerospace Corporations's Life Support System. Two additional life support scrubbers also made the ride, one for carbon-dioxide and the other for water. The poor Tantares looked like an impossible mess of wires and tubing from the outside, and wasn't much better on the inside. Meldo punched the microphone. "Cape, Luzhin 1." He had to try that a couple times to get a response out of CapCom. Seems they weren't used to the new continuous-contact communications system they'd built. "Meldo, old buddy old pal. What's up?" "Podoly?! Who let you run the board?" "A fair little lady named Bribery. So, have you scooped up Staedler's little lost lamb yet?" "Negative. I'm still about" Meldo looked over at the rendezvous clock, "five minutes out. No, I called to file a complaint about the CO2 scrubber the boys in R&D glued on this tug. Seems it's either configured for the old TAC system or it's shorted out. Not sure which, but it eats the batteries anytime I turn it on, which for some reason also shuts off the fuel cells." "Noted. Will you be bringing that part to us or should we send a mechanic?" "Ha ha. No, I have enough O2 for the duration. Just wanted to have you put a sticky note on the Electrical Officer's desk." "Will do. Anything else you need? Our pizza delivery service is temporarily out for lunch." "Nope, looks like the wayward ram is about to drift into radio distance. I should probably go snag this guy before the game decides to kill him off." "Like that ever happens." Same deal as all the rescues: Hally's suit was empty except for his EVA fuel. (Which is presumably breathable and edible in order to keep them alive.) Meldo used the Tantares' RCS to complete the rendezvous with Hally, then spun around so the orbital module's airlock door was facing him. Hally seemed to get the idea. A few minutes later and he was out of his EVA suit and sliding down into the main, rather cramped, crew cabin. "Quite a setup your brought just to rescue little old me. Got enough gizmos on this tug to give a watchmaker a headache." "What, they didn't tell you?" Hally shook his head. "Tell me what?" "You've been drafted. Welcome the KSA. This is the Bernoulli Program's Luzhin 1 long-duration spaceflight test. You get to spend another 52 days in orbit." Hally just stared silently at the instrument panel in front of him for several minutes. Finally he turned back to Meldo. "So, got any snacks?"

That does seem to do it, sorta. I also had to cancel or complete one of the Squad contracts I had accepted, and that opened the flood gates again. Time warp alone didn't seem to be enough. FWIW the "Fine Print" contracts seemed to have much the same behaviour when I was looking at that last week, but I didn't have time to give it the chance to do much otherwise. You and me both. I was kind of poking at it this past weekend, and today (using your system) was the first time anything ever bothered to spawn a contract with the test agency I set up. Either I'm just not well liked by the RNG, or the Squad contracts only spawn for the agencies they set up in the GameData/Squad/Agencies folder.

Question: Should the contracts you generate be suppressing the generation of stock contracts? No new "default" contracts have generated since I started playing with your contract system. Otherwise, no complaints yet.

Cool. I was going to suggest you release this separate from the science parts anyway, for those that just want the plugin. (Which is me when I'm in one of my stock-only saves.) Glad to see we're of a similar mind.

Is there a TAC config for this yet? (j/k) Awesomely awesome and pointless thing you've made here. Have a cookie. (Wait, can a banana really be pointless?)

I've toyed with DebRefund a bit, and for first stage it kinda makes sense to me. The point I'm at though I'd be spending more on chutes than I'd get from recovery. That will improve I think. The final stage I'm willing to sacrifice, what with deadly reentry and such. (Although, I guess one could put one of those large, deployable heat shields on them....) I'm definitely going to play with Station Science, just later on. Looks very interesting for late-game. Mining asteroids also sounds like another good idea, provided the payout is worth the cost of capture.

Nice. I'm also starting to run into the funds issue... and several of the testing contracts I'm getting just won't cover the cost it would take to do them. (And the others are in bothersome places.) It'd be nice if there were launch contracts. As in, dump these X parts i to a Y orbit and leave them there for Z days. (Maybe the 'Fine Print' mod adds something like that.... No idea.)

I think there's enough fantasy tech in KSP already.

Project Euclid Euclid represents the first kerb'd spaceflight operations of my "18th" Kerbal Space Agency. I had originally planned for 6 flights, but decided to cut the project to 4 after the repeated (and annoying) rescue missions allowed me to complete project goals early, albeit on non-Euclidean missions. The launch failure of the fourth mission resulted in the reintroduction of the fifth and final mission. The Euclid flights focused on testing equipment and science data from low and mid Kerbin orbit. Several variations of the LV-1 Anaximander Launch Vehicle were used for Project Euclid. My LV-1 is just your basic early-game simple 2-stage KSP launcher. I had already unlocked most of the early tech nodes during the Alpha rocketry program (which completed the 4 initial "altitude record" contracts), so every Euclid launch was able to use an LV-45 as the first stage engine. Euclids 1-3 used the LV-909 as the second stage engine, while the last two flights used the Rockomax 48-7S. Euclid 1 used a mixture of several smaller engines as its special orbital stage, while Euclids 2 and 3 used a Solid Rocket Booster to provide an extra kick at liftoff (needed to account for added experiment mass). The scientific and engineering operations of the Euclid flights are detailed below: Euclid 1 Crew: Shepgee Kerman Details: "First" orbital flight. Tested LV-1, LV-1R and 24-77 engines in orbital conditions. First tests of EVA systems. Recorded EVA observations of several equatorial Kerbin biomes. Euclid 2 Crew: Meldo Kerman Details: Third orbital flight. Placed into a polar orbit. Recorded EVA observations of the remaining Kerbin biomes. Tested PB-ION drive in orbital conditions. Euclid 3 Crew: Podoly Kerman Details: Fifth orbital flight. Conducted low-orbit Magnetometer and Radio and Plasma Wave experiments. Euclid 4 Crew: Haloly Kerman Details: First test of LV-1A Anaximander launch vehicle. Suffered structural failure during ascent, and failed to achieve orbit. Crew recovered safely. Euclid 5 Crew: Dudry Kerman Details: Ninth orbital flight, final mission of Project Euclid. Conducted high-orbit science and observations. Conducted high-orbit Radio and Plasma Wave experiment. And with that, Project Euclid draws to a close.

Very Nice. I love it when a (cobbled-together and rushed) plan comes together.

The Record Breakers "Alpha-X1, the range is clear. We're ready whenever you are." Gene's voice cracked and popped on the makeshift radio, eliciting a quick thump from Jebediah's fist. The radio squealed briefly in protest, then went back to the cracks and pops. "I copy you loud and crackly, Gene. Here goes nothing." Jeb tugged on his straps one last time and pushed the throttle forward. Did he really want to do this? Sure, he'd leased the new Kerbal Space Center for a week to run some equipmemt tests, but was this really a capsule he wanted to fly in? He took a deep breath, flicked the two ignition wires across each other, and immediately fell through his chair's very thin cushions as the craft leapt upwards. "We show good ignition and liftoff, Alpha-X1. You're clear to 6 kilometers." Jeb tried to respond, but the violent shaking of the craft only produced an unintelligible stutter. He watched the throttle lever shake its way out of its socket and stretched out his hand to catch it as it clanged off the side of his helmet. It took a few seconds of fumbling before it went back in, after which he throttled back. The vibrations in the capsule became slightly less murderous. Somehow the altimeter in this rusty old capsule still worked. He watched as the dials spun around - 4.0km. 4.2km. 4.5km. All he needed to do was skip just above 5 kilometers to break his own altitude record. He cut the throttle and watched the gauge. 4.8. 4.9. The needles spun slower as gravity and the thick air ate into his ascent. 5.0. 5.1 "Just a bit more" he whispered. 5.12. 5.13. 5.14... and back down. Small bits of debris briefly floated up from the floor. "Alhpa-X1 reporting in. You can update that record book and put a big five one four eight after my name. Headed back your way now." Jeb started pulling on random cords and wires, trying to remember which one he'd rigged for the parachute. Most of them were just useless tie-downs and cables to boxes he'd pulled out and never replaced. One caused the radio to squawk like a chicken. Another released some apparently useless bit of exterior paneling. Finally he pulled one labeled "snack release" and the chutes kicked open. He pushed the capsule's mirror out so he could see where he was. Would he hit the VAB? Maybe. He started swinging the capsule around under the parachute and pumping the throttle to move closer and closer to the VAB. He lost sight of it briefly when the chute fully unreefed, but was absolutely certain where he was going to land once the swinging stopped. He rode down on a low flame, trying to avoid dinging up a perfectly good rocket nozzle. A short thud, the chute cut, he zeroed the throttle, and was safely down. He tried to key the radio but had apparently fried it while fishing for the parachute. Oh well. He kicked open the hatch, jumped out, and... quickly grabbed the outside to keep from falling. He looked around, half expecting to see a welcoming committee (and disappointed to find nobody), then waddled his way down the stairs to the front of the VAB. Once there he took out the flag he'd been hiding in his suit, shoved it into a gap in the concrete roof, and claimed the VAB in the name of Courage AND Stupidity.... Except Jeb couldn't shake the thought that he'd done all of this before, almost exactly the same way. Something was strangely familiar.... Euclid 1 - First to Orbit? "Stage 2 Sep." The mission control announcer was busy reporting on the status of the Euclid 1 while everyone else was fixated on the Big Board's telemetry data. "Stage 3 ignition." Just a bit more and Shepgee Kerman would become the first Kerbal in orbit. "Aaaaand.... Stage 3 cutoff. We have a good orbit." Mission control erupted into a roar. Gene Kerman was busy celebrating with the rest of Mission Control when the representative from Rockomax tapped him on the shoulder. "Could I have a word with you Gene?" "Sure, Havlock. Shep's scheduled to test your 24-77s here in about ten minutes, once the Euclid 1 is above 88km." "That's not why I'm here." "Oh. So what's up?" "Haloly Kerman's up. In orbit, specifically." Havlock handed Gene a few sheets of paper, the top showing the orbital track and parameters of a very small object. "You can have your radar operator verify it if you like." Gene looked at the papers, looked up at Shepgee's orbital track, looked back at the papers. Until ten seconds ago Gene was certain Shepgee had been the first Kerbal in space. Now? The look on Gene's face said all Havlock needed to. "How?" "We had a small, accident, you might say. Our flight test team was trying something new, and poor Haloly here ended up in orbit. And now you see, this is why we're here." "No, I mean how?" Gene laughed a nervous, semi-casual laugh. "Havlock, we just launched the first Kerbal into space." Gene pointed at Mission Control's Big Board. "So how did this other guy, this, this..." Gene snapped his fingers, trying to recall the name. "Haloly." "... Haloly. How did this Haloly get into orbit first?" "You're not the only space agency on the planet, Gene. Not even the first." The Rockomax man pulled a small book out of his pocket and flipped through a few pages quickly. "Seems you're the eighteenth." Gene stared back at him for moment, scratched his head, and then wandered over to the radar desk. He handed the papers to Carl Kerman, Chief of Radio Astronomy and Telemetry Systems, then turned back to Havlock. "What condition is his ship in?" "He's not in a ship Gene. He had to bail out." "So let me get this straight. You launched without notifying us..." "Like I said, you're not the only shop in town." "... stranded a Kerbal in space with only his EVA suit, at least I'm assuming he has a suit on..." "Yes." "... and now you want us to go rescue him?" "There's Roots involved." "You better believe there are mister." Mission control again broke into open cheers and applause as Shepgee floated through his hatch on his first EVA. Gene pulled Havlock in closer to speak up over the roar. "Roots. Rep. And you're the one that gets to explain to Shepgee how he's not the first Kerbal in space." Rescue in 30 Minutes or Your Pizza is Free "Rescue 1, we show you five minutes out. Rendezvous will be in the blind. We'll pick you up again after the next orbit. Good luck." "Thanks Cape. Hope to have good news for you." Milzer switched off the microphone and turned on the small spotlight on the front of the craft. Not that it'd help much against the sunlight. Rescue 1 was the rush job of all rush jobs. The mission to recover Haloly Kerman was approved before Shepgee had even started his descent burn. An extra launch vehicle was easy to come by as several LV-01 Anaximanders had been prepped for the Euclid Program, but a two-kerbal capsule? It was only blind luck that the representative from Home Grown Rockets was at KSC to watch Shepgee's flight. (And pure coincidence that a demo Radish Capsule was with him as well.) Rescue 1 was prepped and ready to fly just an hour after Euclid 1 splashed down in the Western Ocean. Gene didn't even have time to tell Shepgee about how his record was broken before he set it. Rush job indeed. The capsule beeped and some numbers blinked across a small display. Telemetry and life support data from the EVA suit. Milzer grimaced at the numbers: "O2: 0, H2O: 0, Snacks: 0." Not a good sign. A short burn and the orbit was roughly matched with Haloly. Should be enough for him to float right by the capsule. Milzer keyed the microphone. "Rescue 1 calling Haloly Kerman. Please respond. Rescue 1 calling Haloly Kerman, please respond...." A seemingly lifeless body floated past the capsule, face frozen in some strange trance. Milzer sighed. "So, recovery." Milzer was already unpacking the tethers when Haloly flinched, fired up his jet pack and flew over to the ship. He tapped on the window, looked around inside the capsule, then pointed to the dead battery pack on the front of his suit and shook his head. Milzer grinned form ear to ear, waved back, put his helmet on and started venting the capsule. Haloly wriggled his way into the spacecraft, closed the hatch, and pulled his helmet off as soon as the atmosphere in the cabin was thick enough to hear. He took several deep breaths, looked over to Milzer and grinned. "Seems that leaving your helmet light on causes your suit's battery to drain." Haloly paused to take a sip of water and then started immediately into a story. "So there was this trip I took down to Kerbin City a few years ago on my bike. Nice little thing, good engine, fun to ride. Set some sort of land speed record with it once. Anyway, I'm stopped at this restaurant somewhere along the coast and this greasy-looking suit of a kerb walks up to me and say 'Hey son, how'd you like to ride a real rocket?'" Milzer couldn't get a word in edgewise the whole way back to Kerbin.