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Modlist Taking flight In the years prior to this moment, whereby a private entity attempted the launch of a liquid fueled rocket into orbit around Kerbin. Space had always been the dream of the masses, yet the playground of the very few governments who had the resources to haul massive chunks of cylindrical metal filled with explosives into space. The tempo of the space development dance had reversed. From sending Kerbals to the Mun, governments of Kerbin had went back to sending Kerbals into Low Kerbin Orbit. The plans to go onto Duna had stalled to a halt. Jebediah Kerman, a retired astronaut who had walked on the surface of the Mun, always dreaming of the day tourists and private citizens of Kerbin could walk the stars. Decided to take things into his own hands, initially he wished to purchase retired assets from the Viscian Military, these were too expensive however. He decided to build his own rockets. It had only been a matter of months since the first Chorus 1A Liquid Fuel Rocket Engine had rung out its first harmony. Now stood on the test stand, a fully fueled rocket, standing by for the launch timer to hit 0. It had been a long journey up to this point. Many minutes of testing and guidance simulations had been performed to check to the best of a Kerbal’s abilities that this would be a success. The Tempo of the Space Flight Technological Development Melody was about to get faster. After the first successful test ignition of the engine. The Chorus 1A Engine used a pintle style injection, similar to the Munar Landers of the Kerbin 5 era. The turbopump of the engine was used to allow for 3 axis control of the vehicle. The Engine recorded a peak thrust output of 170,600 Newtons at T+1 minute into the test the Chorus 1A Engine started testing a gimbal profile, the systems gimballed to 2 degrees, the turbopump exhaust A little while after the successful test ignition of the Chorus 1A (C1A), the engine was taken down and refurbished to be put upon the first launch attempt. Meanwhile the initial test of the Chorus 1A Vacuum engine (C1AV) was attached to the test stand, preparing for its first ignition. The engine ignited without a hitch, however in actual flight the C1AV would be pressure fed. The test recorded a thrust of 7,000 Newtons under 1 atmospheres of pressure. When the success of the engine testing regime had been verified and looked over, the tests moved onto qualifying the flight hardware the first and second stages flew through their qualification tests. But now it was time to see if the Melodia 1 Rocket would fly itself. The guidance algorithm had been programmed to follow a turn based upon the apoapsis of the rocket, pitching it over to a pre-designated minimum pitch angle as the rocket reached a predetermined apoapsis during the ascent. Upon the detection of flameout by the Chorus 1A Engine on the First Stage, then would command separation from it. Revealing the second stage’s Chorus 1AV Engine to the vacuum of space, or the upper atmosphere. At around 64,000 meters above sea level the fairing will deploy, revealing nothing to the vacuum of space as this is a test flight. Upon reaching a targeted altitude the second stage engine will shut down, and coast until reaching the apopapsis, relighting to perform an orbital insertion. At 5:28 Kerbal Time, the Melodia 1 Rocket took flight after a countdown which had began at 4:48. Throughout the flight the data coming from the vehicle looked nominal. As the vehicle began to pitch over the mission control center, composed of 8 Kerbals erupted into a multitude of high fives and cheering. Yet they knew they wouldn’t know if Melodia 1 had reached orbit for another 20 minutes. As the vehicle headed outside of the range of mission control silence echoed through the room, they knew the ringing of a telephone would inform them of a success or a failure, just they didn’t know what. It was 10 minutes into the flight, the vehicle should still be coasting towards a short insertion burn, little over 54 meters per second. The phone rang in the room, carefully Jebediah picked it up. He jumped with joy as the communications downlink center confirmed the Melodia 1 had reached Kerbin orbit. Yet however they were lucky, the fuel tanks had been run dry. This indicated that the maneuver for orbital insertion failed in some way. Additional guidance checks would need to be added in the next flight. But yet orbit had been achieved on the first attempt, the team celebrated through the day and night of the achievement of “getting half way to anywhere” Yet Jebediah knew he had to create an even bigger rocket to succeed in his goal of making space interesting again, he needed to inspire the world in an effective way to further his goal. Authors notes: