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Inspired by @Cydonian Monk, I decided to do a mission report series of my own, on a heavily modded career savegame. Main mods: TAC-LS RemoteTech RealChutes Deadly Reentry Continued Engineering Tech Tree Karbonite Karbonite Plus SCANSat Full modlist Chapter I: Initium Chapter II: Where does all the money go? Chapter III: What's up there? Chapter IV: Genesis

I've been cheated ? In career mode I've made a probe which orbit around the sun, it's cool, with solar panels and 100% working and I've got a bunch of Science point (more than 20) but when I've click on "Space Center" over the Altimeter, I've got just got few Science Point.... so via Tracking Station I've been back to my probe, I've made more research and gathered more 8 science point! 77.9 was the early SP, 77.9 are the science point that I've found when I was get back to the Space Center. So ... what the hek please explain to me ?

I've landed successfully on both Mun and Minmus. Yay! Now, I want to get as much science as possible from the different surface biomes. What's the most efficient way? I could create a lander with a big gas tank that could "hop" from the first biome to a second and maybe even a third, letting me get 2 or 3 biomes per round trip. I could attempt an Apollo style orbiter / lander separation, and dock with the orbiter between each surface expedition. I could make a rover and, with luck, drive to 1 or 2 nearby biomes. Or I could skip all that and just head to Duna. What's the best way to progress in career mode? In particular, I think I'd measure efficiency in science per hour of play time. But am also interested in science per kerbin dollar.

Attention: This thread is now outdated. Kerbal Academy is now maintained by @Mark Kerbin - new thread here: Are you tired of your Kerbals not being able to reach the highest levels without planting a flag on Duna? Ever wondered how planting a flag on Minmus shows your engineers how to fix wheels? Enrol your Kerbonauts in the Kerbal Academy today! What does this do? Simply put, it's a series of contracts that will allow your Kerbonauts to advance their skillset, by actually doing the things that relate to their skill set. So, to give you an example, the Pilot training scheme will make your Pilots learn to change orbital inclination, how to do flyby's of various bodies. Scientists will have to go out and, you know, actually collect science. Only after they have demonstrated their skills in their field will experience be awarded. One thing to note: This is not a contract pack in the conventional sense of "do this and get paid". This will cost you funds. To be precise, you will have to pay (approximately) 100k (on normal - scales with difficulty level) for each level advanced using this pack. Why you ask? Well, most of these contracts can be completed without leaving the Kerbin system, and I felt there needed to be a trade-off. Besides, it's not like Funds are a problem in Career anyway. Available Missions: Known Issues/Workarounds Other Stuff This contract pack will disable the stock rescue missions by default, as they are a horribly cheaty way to get new kerbals perfectly valid player choice, if you like that sort of thing, and this pack already provides a way to recruit new kerbals cheaply. This mod includes version checking using MiniAVC. If you opt-in, it will use the internet to check whether there is a new version available. Data is only read from the internet and no personal information is sent. For a more comprehensive version checking experience, please download the KSP-AVC Plugin. In order for Engineers to advance through the program, vehicles must be marked properly. So a lander (with legs) should be marked as a lander (by clicking rename vessel in the flight scene), stuff with wheels should be a rover, and stations and bases should be marked as such. If you don't do this, you won't see any Engineering contracts offered. Licensing Versions of Kerbal Academy prior to 1.1.7 licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 Kerbal Academy 1.1.7 licensed under MIT Download Highly recommended you grab through CKAN (where available) However, if you insist on installing manually you will need: Contract Configurator Kerbal Academy Pack Acknowlegments @nightingale as ever for his tireless work on Contract Configurator (you rock!) My wife for creating the Kerbal Academy flag for me.

I have my first contract to put a satellite in orbit in this game, I've done it a bunch in other saves. The contract is for an equatorial orbit around Kerbin, inclination of zero. That means the ascending and descending nodes are undefined. On the contract notes when in space, it says "Longitude of Ascending Node: Undefined" (correct) and "Argument of Periapsis: Nan degrees." And the orbit isn't drawn on the HUD. Is this a known issue with 1.1.2.1260 ? My ap and pe are different (14km and 12km), and I don't know where to put them.

So i started playing career mode and i accepted this mission about placing a satellite in orbit. Everything was going like expected but when i finish with the circularization this happens. http://imgur.com/mZUWzOQ Yeah, the game suddenly ignores me and dont let me finish the mission :/ Any clues of what´s going on?

Hey kerbonouts, I thought it would be fun to start a career with the science, rep and reward slider set to 10 %. Turns Out, it's pretty darn difficult to turn a profit. There is not enough science on kerbin to unlock the necessary the tech nodes to land on minmus or the mun without stranding poor old jeb. and i don't get enough profit to upgrade my platform in order to launch bigger low tech vessels. I currently saved up 64k worth of funds (coming from 10k). Have any of you guys tried this kind of carreer? How did you get out "the low tech valley"?

I think they should add an optional upgrade to the space centre that allows you to add scientist and pilots to it. Could be called supply command or Virtual command center , but its function could be to have scientist 'compute' trajectories for planets/systems that have already been explored. The level of trajectory accuracy and compute time could be based on the buildings level and scientists level. The other component of this building could be the remote control of ships by pilots. I know in my career game i have multiple ships doing things. if pilots could be used to control ships based on trajectories by scientist this could free up players time for more building rockets and exploring. The player could assign the pilot a ship/probe w/e and then give the planet (orbited/explored) or ship that you want that pilot to dock with and then they do the rest. they can request trajectories off the scientist, may have to wait if there are not enough around. If the trajectory was off somewhat then they can course correct etc. of course comms will be needed, I haven't tried the new comms change but it sounds fun. My idea solves a number of issues: it frees the player up to do more funs things rather than fuel my super rocket that's in space(I do it in stages since career has limitations). gives scientist and pilots a purpose endgame gives the career mode more things to unlock and add to the experience Some of these ideas maybe in mods. I don't use mods for KSP so IDK. But it would be nice in the stock game.

The first video in my KSP 1.1 Career Series. In this part, we launch our first rocket and get to orbit.

I understand one of the common (and legitimate in my experience) criticisms of Career mode is that it's grindy - completing random contracts to put useless satellites into useless orbits, or extract 10,000 units of ore from Eve to deliver to Gilly, or build a base with 5,000 units of liquid fuel on Moho... in order to earn enough money to fund missions you actually want to do. I find this is primarily a problem towards the late game, where A. The solar system really opens up and enters "sandbox" mode. Early on your sources of funding (Make orbit, plant a flag on the moon, etc) often coincide with your personal missions, but later on you often want to do things completely different from the contracts offer. B. Your crew roster is large (especially gets out of hand when trying to build permanent colonies and bases) and hiring new crew is prohibitively expensive. C. Rockets and hardware for more ambitious missions become exponentially larger and astronomically expensive. Especially when using things like life support mods that force you to bring much more mass along for long duration missions. The first problem can be at least partially addressed with the various contract packs and mods like Strategia. The second can partially be offset by rescuing Kerbals from contracts. The last can be partially managed by developing reusable launchers. I personally have been tinkering with SpaceY in my latest career, however I am so far unconvinced that this SpaceX style RTLS reusability is particularly viable given the mass fractions of KSP rocketry. For reference, in real life Elon Musk has stated that a Falcon 9 first stage pricetag ranges in the tens of millions of $$$ (I don't remember the exact number but we'll say ca. $50mn), whilst the propellant for the entire stage only runs you about $200k. Thus, notwithstanding the inevitable expenses of recovery and refurbishment, you are recovering nearly all your losses by bringing the first stage back. Now, upfront I admit I'm a pretty terrible rocket designer, but in my career I developed a SpaceY booster capable of sending a 3-Kerbal capsule into LKO (basically an orbital shuttle). It consisted of a RTLS SpaceY 3.75m first stage, and an expendable stock 2.5m second stage. The cost of the first stage alone ended up coming out roughly 70,000 for the hardware, and 25,000 for fuel. And here's the rub: For 25,000 credits, it turns out I could easily have built a barebones 2.5m expendable first stage instead - two orange tanks and a mainsail - capable of imparting more delta-V to the payload. So with that, I solicit the brilliant KSP community for thoughts. Am I just a terrible designer? Is SpaceY not actually balanced with career practicality in mind? Or are there advantages to RTLS reusability that only begin to manifest at larger scales (5m)?

Hello all, I've kinda come up against a wall when it comes to precisely setting up a Remotetech 2 network. It's early on in Career Mode, and one of the juicy contracts is to set up a network with 4 sats, and another to Alt Map scan Kerbin (with network). I've upgraded the VAB, tracking Station and Launch pad once and I would've thought I would have access to node placement, but alas and alack, no. I've had quite a few hours put into KSP over the years, and you'd think I could successfully circularise and orbit from launch without using nodes. Nope. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. With node, I can time the burn to 1/2 the Dv burn duration either side of the burn and generally get it bang on the money. Without node placement, I'd wait for Ap. and start my burn there. I look over at my engineer and it says my Apoapsis is holding (give or take), until my Periapsis starts climbing out of negative territory. Then my Ap. starts climbing rapidly. A life spoiled by access to nodes I guess. I've done searches for this, but all search results come up with no reference to Remotetech 2 and the need to remain in contact with ground station. The RT2 contact in question requires each satellite to have an eccentricity of no more than 0.04. How do I achieve this without nodes? BTW, here's a small list of mods I'm running (don't laugh. There are some real crackers in that list I can't Kerbal without)...

I updated KSP to V1.1 and installed FAR, because I always used it in the past. So now I started a new carrer and I have a big problem there: I can't even get my first basic rocket safely back to the ground. It's just a capsule with the starter SRB underneath, three small wings and two goo containers for science. I reduced the SRBs power to get a 1.2 TWR on liftoff and have a nose chute attached at the only available attachment point. I can get up to about 8k meters with this setup. My chute opens at 5000 m, but is not able to slow my vessel down in the slightest. When it reaches 350 m/s in free fall, the chute burns up and I crash. I did not play without FAR yet in 1.1, so I don't know whats with vanilla behavior. But did someone else have this problems with FAR in 1.1? Any tips on how to get that rocket back to the ground in one piece?

Most of the time when I play KSP on career the furthest I go will be Duna before losing interest (due to being too grindy) and playing sandbox feels cheatsy to be making a rocket that can go to the mun or anywhere else without taking effort to first make small rockets, now I have downloaded Realism Overhaul and I need to make the decision: Should I choose Career or Sandbox (or even science mode: Kind of takes away the grindy parts of career mode)?

Greetings fellow space nerds! Since early alpha I've been an enthusiastic player of KSP. The game has thought me alot about the mechanics of spaceflight and motivated me to study the history of spaceflight. When career mode was added, at first I was quite exited about the prospect of playing the game like a real space program manager. However, I find myself exclusively playing sandbox mode these days again because I keep getting frustrated with the way career mode functions in KSP. Being the stickler for historical accuracy and realism that I am, I always found it rather odd that the KSP career begins with a manned mission. unmanned probes only come into the game after some research. While in reality of course, every destination in space has always first been visited by unmanned robotic probes, paving the way for manned exploration. Also, the fact that one needs to gather "science" by measuring the properties of the different regions of space and celestial bodies in order to develop rocket parts seems a bit absurt. One does not learn about the mechanics of liquid rocket engine turbo pumps by studying the craters of the moon. In the real world, knowledge about rocketry is gained by spending money on testing parts on the ground, and by flying (and occasionally blowing up) equipment. So, I've been finding myself RP-ing a career in sandbox mode. Would it not however be swell if we could imagine a more realistic career progression and mechanic then is currently implemented in the game? Mods like Better then starting manned partially tackle the issue, but technological progression is still based on "science" gained form studying space in stead of spending money on R&D. And yes, I know this is a game about little green men riding insane rockets into space, and less about an accurate representation of historical spaceflight. But hey, speculating about the mechanics of a game never hurts. What are everyone's thoughts?

Another space agency documentation. Major Goal: Unlock all Technologies and create meanwhile an solar exploiting Society. Always in thought of financial/possible aspects and secure travelling. Starts from the beginning, is well structured and documented (not every tiny Mission is posted here). Standard boundary conditions & mods (list available) to play realistically. Agency Structure: Kerbin Aeronautics and Space Administration - KASA division tag description Kerbal Exploration and Operations Directorate - KEO Space Launch Systems SLS lifter development Advanced Spacecraft Systems ASS spacecraft prototype developing & demonstrating Space Communication and Navigation SCaN communication systems Space Life and Physical Sciences Research SLPSR scientific research in support of manned space flight Launch Services LS support for other directorates & commercial sector Science Mission Directorate - SMD Research Technology RT technology development Kerbin Science KSCI research-observation related to Kerbin Planetary Science PSCI planets exploration Astrophysics ASTRO discover the universe Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate - ARMD Advanced Air Transport Technology AATT aircraft development Leading Edge Aero Research LEAR aircraft-concepts development - VTOL's - UAV's Airspace Technology Demonstrations ATD technology developing & demonstration Flight Demonstrations and Capabilities FDC support for other directorates & commercial sector Each Division supports Programs to receive an allocation of income and expenses. Programs consist of several Missions to achieve their goals. Programs and Missions will be partially skipped (apart major goals). As long as up to a status, as the current progress is achieved. ... to be continued (multiple mods are not updated so far)

This is my new as-stock-as-possible-without-driving-me-insane career mission report! ATM the only mods are Kerbal Engineer Redux and Kerbal Alarm Clock. Chapters: Chapter 1 (This post) Chapter 2 (The post just below this post) Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14, Illegitimately Acquired Cheese Chapter 15, The Cheesy Escape Chapter 16, Kommunications Emergency Chapter 1 That only took a hour to write * RMKK = Random Mission Kontroller Kerbal ** KSB = Kerbal Serial Bus, a Kerbal version of a USB (Universal Serial Bus) *** WFOPK = World's First Organization Phone Kontroller

Hello guys, I have updated to 1.1 the day it came out and waited for the mod devs to update their mods for 1.1 full release then I went to play in career mode. I was playing fine for the past 2 days but this morning, it said my career file was incompatible with this version of KSP... what do I do? I don't want to restart another one so is there any way I can fix this? I have a few mods installed and all of them except for kerbal engineer are up to date. Actually, Kerbal engineer is bugged because I downloaded the 1.1 update for it 3 times and installed it and when I launch the game it still says that I need to use 1.0.5 with this mode because I have an older version. Can I don anything to fix this? And will my career file be re-enabled in the game afterwards? If you need to tinker with it just tell me ad I'll attach it here. Thanks in advance, Cheers I have to mention that only my career file got "corrupted" and not my sandbox file which is really liquiding me off. It may be due to the 20 or so vessels in flight in career whereas I have none in-flight in Sandbox but still, this is making me lose the motivation to play KSP now...

After playing Career mode a lot with Quicksave/Quickload enabled, I decided to start from scratch without Quicksave/Quickload. What a change! In my experience, Quicksaving/loading makes you lazy; it makes the game more a trial/error experience than fully trying to account all the variables. And it also makes losing a Kerbal something much more emotional... like when I killed Jebediah in one of my first sub-orbital flights. What do you think? Have you given it a try this way?

It's HERE!!! I started playing KSP over a year ago and have been through 3 fresh start Careers. With the release of 1.1 I want to start again with all the new bells and whistles. However, I want to embark on as unique an experience as possible with mods. With the exception of MechJeb and Engineer Redux I have not done much with part or career mods. I am looking for some ideas to what would give me a completely new gameplay. In the past I have maxed out the tech tree just after landing and returning from Duna and TBH that's where the gameplay tapers off for me; when I feel a lack of "progress" towards some research goal. I have my eye on KSP Interstellar but would like some feedback before jumping in; does it enhance the game? should I max out the stock career before adding it? I'd like to hear ideas from people before I embark on yet another awesome journey into space!

I've been puzzled by this omission and wonder if there's a mod that adds it. We have Sandbox mode, where you have full access to everything. You have career mode, where both science and funds are limited. And there is science mode, where you start off with fully upgraded facilities and money is no object. Why isn't there a fourth option, where the whole tech tree is unlocked, but you start off with a shoestring budget, the most basic facilities, and no rep, and have to build economical rockets or increase re-use, to gradually upgrade facilities, build out your space infrastructure and start putting Kerbals further and further afield. Would reward smart vehicle design and use of SSTOs or just partially re-usable vehicles, rather than putting you in the position of say NASA at the start of the space race, with no tech but huge resources, it would be like a present day or near future scenario where a smaller nation that formerly had no space program decides to start exploration?

Hi I have been playing KSP for a while now, but never gone further than the Mun or Minmus. This is version 1.05 Moderate difficulty career mode. I had a short break from KSP before attempting this..... I think I was a bit rusty! Please feel free to comment on the Kerbaling as well as the Lets play style! Thanks for watching!

Contents 1. Meet Gilly Superstation 2. The trip to Eve (+1 Stowaway) 3. Reaching Gilly (and Traumatizing Bob) 4. Visiting Gilly (Orbital Drop Kerbals) 5. Bonus Missions (Scans, Flags and Rescues) 6. Back to Kerbin (with Explosions!) 7: Epilogue: Meet Excalbur (tiny resupply ship) 8: Epilogue 2 (Epilogue Harder) ------ Sequel Mission: Duna Ultrabase 1 ------ Just had to show this off... Have you noticed how, as you reach the higher tiers of career mode, your ships inevitably end up looking more and more awesome? This is my current career mode mission: the contract was to put a 12 Kerbal station carrying 6000 liquid fuel and a research lab into an orbit around Gilly. I call it the Gilly Superstation, because I'm not very good with names. That's it in the middle: the thing that looks like a cross between a station and a giant space shuttle. I'm not sure why I went for that cockpit, but I don't regret it for a moment. The whole mothership is going to be trying to achieve three other missions while it's there: * the little Xenon Probe at the very front will be aiming for a specific contract orbit, also around Gilly. * the winged return module will be bringing 5 of 7 Kerbals home after they've planted a flag on Gilly for experience. The other 2, both scientists, will be staying at Gilly Station 1 to continue their research. * The Gilly Superstation itself, after achieving the contract, will use some of that spare fuel to put itself into a polar orbit about Gilly and do a surface scan. Further down the track, once work out how mining bases work, Gilly Station 1 will be the primary refueling base for all Eve missions. I spent about 80% of my funds on this monster, so it had better work. It's got some odd phantom forces coming from the return module and trying to make it pitch gently, but it's quite stable so long as SAS is left on.

Hi guys, I've been playing KSP since 0.9 and I truly love it. One of the only games in my life I can say that about. Theres been a couple of occasions I've left the game for a while, but I've always came back with the same original excitement. When 1.1 PreRelease was released I came back after a few months (6-7) away and I'm in love all over again...except the contracts system STILL sucks sweaty balls. My main issue is that theres no depth, no substance. No POINT (other than science) to do missions. They don't feel like they're PART of my Space Program, more like little add-ons. What I want is the "Space Program" part of "Kerbal Space Program". There are some mods which attempt to address this and most do a decent job, but its still only surface deep. The closest mod to creating a true space program I feel is Strategia. This is a step towards making a realistic space program in game. At the moment the contracts seem totally random, unstructured events - and I'm sure thats because, they are! In real life, when Kennedy said the USA was going to the Moon, the NASA Space Program became ALL ABOUT the moon. Every thing they did was geared towards this goal (generally, I'm sure they did other things, although I'm not sure testing a parachute while splashed down was one of them). In Strategia, you get to CHOOSE a goal for your space program. For example, "Plant Flag on Mun" - this gives more incentive to land on the Mun, while penalising any other planets / moons you land on while this goal is active. This is kind of a start, not ideal but a start. What I suggest is implemented, and I don't think this would be too much work as its just a rejig of the current system: 1) We choose our Space Programs Goal (lets say landing on the Mun). From that point ALL contracts are geared towards that goal. Lifter tests, Kerbin Orbits in the proposed Lander etc. 2) We can have a few different categories of Space Program Goals - Exploration, Probing, Terrestrial for example - Exploration is our chosen goal to explore somewhere, The Mun for example (as in point 1). Probing is our goal to send a probe somewhere (maybe unlocking that location for a possible Exploration goal once complete) like Duna. Terrestrial goal would be getting data from and around Kerbin. 3) While science is great for unlocking the tech tree, I would like to see it linked to unlocking future goals also. For example, we can't choose Duna as an Exploration goal unless we have enough science from Kerbin, or the Mun etc. In practice this is how I see it working: Beginning of the game, we can only choose a Terrestrial Goal: Get to Orbit. This will give us contracts like, test Lifter, test Launches, Test Launch Escape System, Leave Atmosphere, Get to Orbit. GOAL COMPLETE. Now we're in space we can choose an Exploration Goal and a Probe Goal. Exploration Goal would be Land On Mun. Contracts then appear like, Build Lander, Test Lander in Kerbin Orbit, Fly By Mun, Orbit Mun, Land on Mun. At the same time our Probe goal is active which would be to build a probe to get to Duna with contracts such as Design Probe, Test Probe around Kerbin, Test Prove around Mun, Put Probe into Orbit around Duna. Im sure you get the idea, but overall id LOVE to see this or something similar implemented for Career mode because all it feels like now is a Grind for Science without any real targets. Yes we can create self imposed goals, but we can do that in Sandbox. Anyway, thanks for reading this far!

Decided to try my hand at recording my playthrough of 1.1. FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS: A TALE OF GENERAL GOVERNMENTAL COMPETENCE Chapter One: The Beginnings Chapter Two: Test Articles Chapter Three: Rockets Make Sound Chapter Four: The X-2 Program Chapter Five: A Satellite Chapter Six: Gone Suborbital Chapter Seven: Orbit Chapter Eight: Mun and Beyond Chapter Nine: Flight of the Genesis Chapter Ten: Artemis-2 and Rendezvous Too Chapter Eleven: Artemis-3 And The Effects Of Longterm Spaceflight On Kerbals Chapter Twelve: The Frontier Expands Chapter Thirteen: Docking And Spaceplanes Chapter Fourteen: Reconnaissance Operations Chapter Fifteen: A Tied Race Chapter Sixteen: Striking Back Chapter Seventeen: Jupiter Sets Chapter Eighteen: Munlab Chapter Nineteen: The Last Munshot Chapter Twenty: Saturn Station Chapter Twenty One: Saturn Station Pt. 2 Chapter Twenty Two: Minmus Dawn Chapter Twenty Three: End Of An Era Chapter Twenty Four: New Beginnings Chapter Twenty Five: Routine Operations ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ The yellow sun peeked over the hills, filling the city with the sickly light that accompanied the heavy rain of the night before. The city was coming awake now; it's cosmopolitan nightlife retreated away until the night began anew, and the day shifters of Kerbin began their morning commute as if they were endless ants under the spell of a hive mind. At the center of the city, surrounded by a courtyard and picket fence, was a large temple constructed of white marble. It was here where the national government made its greatest decisions, and it was here that Senator Samden Kerman found himself in that bleak morning, his coffee cold and no snacks nearby. Samden was a proud Kerbal. He'd served his country during two wars and was now serving it as a politician. But as the President of the Senate, he'd learned to despise the Senators of his country as much as he hated it's rivals, the Kommunists thousands of kilometers over the sea. Today was no different. As he sat upon his wooden throne, flanked by two Grand Judges and a array of security guards, he could not help but look with contempt at the line of Senators filing in. Sensing that all had arrived, the elderly Kerbal rose and began. "We call together this adjournment of the 102nd Senate Hearing upon the fiscal revi..." In the corner of his eye, Samden could see one of the newer Senators sleeping on his desk. Down came the gavel, each strike hitting the now-awakened Senator like a electric shock. With the whole Senate now attentive, Samden continued. "...review of the National Budget. A preliminary copy of this budget was forwarded..." The sounds of paper ruffling and panicked Kerbals looking into their briefcases, coats, and even shoes began, drowning Samden out. A dozen hands went up. He sat back down, resting his forehead on the desk and sighed. "Yes, Senator Bobcal?" "I don't have it." "Honorable Senator, check your office again, and do not return until you have your copy of the budget." "Understood, sir." A fifth of Senate got up and left, chattering as they went. The sounds of coats being put on and briefcases snapping shut echoed throughout the chamber for several minutes, until Samden found it appropriate to resume the meeting. "Now for those who actually read the bill-" Another fifth of the Senate rose to their feet, grabbed their coats, and left. Now reduced to a mere sixty Kerbals, it was at a minimum for conducting business. Any lower and anything done by it would be null and void, courtesy of the Constitution. Sam couldn't afford another session. The iron miners in his Province had been striking for a month already, and he, as the elected representative of the people, had to go home to address this issue. And he couldn't if he was tied down with affairs in the capital. "Alright, we'll vote now." A sigh of relief swept over the chamber. Taking a final count of the Senators assembled before him, the vote began. "All in favor of the bill, say aye and raise your right hand." Thirty-one Kerbals said "Aye" and raised their right hand. Taking a quick count, a scribe standing at the doorway signaled to Samden that their vote had been recorded. "All not in favor of the bill, say nay and raise your right hand." Twenty-five Kerbals said "Nay" and raised their right hand. "And I assume everyone else abstains?" "Correct, President. We abstain from voting.", piped up a plump Kerbal in the front row. Samden tried to ignore the fact the senator was stuffing his face with snacks. "Then we, the 102nd Senate, do hearby approve and endorse the National Budget Bill for the Year of 1951. Are there any objections?" The chamber was silent, save for the sound of snoring coming somewhere from back of the chamber. Goddammit, Samden thought. "This Senate is hereby dismissed." Down came the gavel, and tucked away into two sentences of the 200-page manuscript, the Space Program was born, a fact unknown to all but a very surprised government clerk a few weeks later. ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ The UPNS Duling had been underway with it's escort ships for several weeks now. A large state-of-the-art aircraft carrier, the vessel held a small city of crew: 1,381 Kerbals. It also held cargo - although a second convoy with the same destination held more - and four passengers. Four very special passengers, who, at the present, were undergoing a briefing, from none other than Agent Kirrim, a government Kerbal and the Aerospace Operations Head of the National Intelligence Agency. "Jebediah, Valentina, William, and Robert Kerman. You've all signed up as a part of the Project-S for Space testing group, am I correct?" "Yes, sir.", all four of them replied. Jebediah fidgeted slightly, trying to hide his impatience. He wasn't doing a good job. "If that is the case, the paperwork for your transfer is in good order. By tomorrow you should be notified by telegram of your updated security clearance. Gentlemen - and you too, Valentinia, no longer will answer to your respective branches..." Kirrim leaned forth on the table, letting his face block out the light. Be intimidating and imposing, he remembered. "..you'll serve the rocketry program. Report to your quarters and get some sleep, all of you. We make landfall tomorrow at 0400, and I'll stay with you for the next week to get your transfers in order. Do you understand?" "Yes, sir", all four replied again. "All of you are dismissed." After the four left, Kirrim turned off the lights and closed the door lightly. Making his way onto the deck into the warm tropical night, he looked up at the stars and light a cigar They'll be here all the same when I die. They'll be here completely the same when my children die, and they'll be here completely the same long after our species go extinct. Kirrim shook his head and watched as the glow of the ashes slowly faded. Then he went back into the ship, unaware that sixteen hundred light years away, the star astronomers called Corkin 1664 had just detonated in the brightest supernovae in Kerbal history. Not that it mattered. At that distance, it would be Kirrim's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren who saw the novae. ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

Hi all, I'm starting playing Kerbal Space Program now and I'm loving it! However, I'm failing miserably to achieve some of the contracts. So, that why I have the question: what is lost reverting a flight in career mode? Reputation? Money? Thanks, Davi