DMSP-The beginning of a space program. [Final Chapter] Chapter 33-When the clock hits zero.

[DMSP]

48 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

I must tell ze press! I must- *thump* zzzzzzz.....

"Ok, now we start the memory removal sequence. Set to 7:00 PM Czech Time."

43 minutes ago, Kuzzter said:

"What do we do?" "We keep going." Now THAT'S a Gene Kerman line right there  

Yes it is! It was totally Gene who said it!

 

On another note, I really can't get enough of the Benzene Class Lifter. I really want more of it!

Oh yay, new page!

[DMSP]

Chapter 13-No More Benzene?

 

Muna-7 set out a few days after the Rene Target Spacecraft.

It launched on a Standardized Benzene lifter, which was still holding as most beautiful rocket.

Soon it was obvious that the spacecraft was coming short.

Muna-7's boosters dropped lower than expected, and the first stage didn't even propel the payload to space.

The second stage ignited a few seconds before starting to descend, and it began circulation and got the apoapsis to over 80,000 meters.

The third stage got Muna-7 to orbit. How Muna-6 made it is a weird question. Gra-Vity Kerman was sick that day so that may have played a role in the near disaster of launch.

Within the hour, Muna-7 was on its was to the Mun.

 

Up in Medium Kerbin Orbit, TriSat-1 propelled itself to High Kerbin Orbit.

Only a few minutes after circularizing, the satellite started to tumble.

It was out of energy.

Oops. Seems like we will need a repair mission...

 

Back at Muna-7, the Third Stage didn't even preform half as well as Muna-6's did.

It was ditched once it was empty, and Muna-7's internal rockets kicked in.

A nice landing site was chosen among the rocks, and Muna-7 settled down after about a day and a few minutes after leaving the KSC.

Muna-7 used new experiments to discover that Kerbin and the Mun had similar chemistry. The discovery of Ammonium Ions and Sulfuric Acid up there shocked scientists, but soon the scientific community settled down.

Successful mission, but it marked the end of the Benzene Lifter's short service life.

 

Val was more than capable of test flying. After recovering from Topspin-2, she decided to devote all of her time to experimental spaceplanes whilst Jeb was assigned to Flatspin-3.

The test of Experimental-1A was totally successful, being accelerated to glide speeds along the runway. Val parked it and moved on to Experimental-1B.

Yes...

Experimental-1B...

When later polls were taken, most thought this was Jeb's idea. Surprisingly, the mature Val was the one who made this deathtrap aircraft. Not that unexpected, the spacecraft broke up and Val ejected from the capsule.

No photos were taken of the ejection, but an eyewitness report said that the canopy blasted off, and Val tumbled out in a Plexiglas 'capsule'. Kerbals looked on in fright as Val tumbled across the runway, barely dodging the canopy that had fallen back.

Medical Crews scrambled, fearing the worst.

But Val broke through the already shattered capsule and dusted herself off.

 

Concluding that there was nothing wrong with her Mentally of Physically, Experimental-1C lifted off with Val, reaching 200 Meters before gliding to a soft landing by the runway.

Experimental-1C then had two tiny SRBS mounted to it, and lifted off, Val yelling in excitment.

Soon she ditched the empty boosters and began the glideback procedure.

She swooped in low near the VAB, and decided to land by the parking lot.

After loosing the nosecone, something immediately went wrong...

Luckily, the impact was only at about 9.4 m/s, so the historic Experimental-1A wasn't damaged at all.

But Experimental-1C ended up in the Pool. The whole thing was caught on tape by Jeb, who actually was snacking during the process.

Val climbed out of 1C, swam, and then walked across to 1A. She righted it by jumping on its right wings.

Then she used the Right-Left propulsion system and taxied to a new parking spot.

Maybe one of these would one day go to space. Only time will tell.

Edited March 6, 2016 by DMSP
Mistake

[DMSP]

Chapter 14-Towing and Crashing with a Safe Landing.

Interest in Val's flight program was increasing across Kerbin. It was quite an ambition, they said, To fly deathtraps into space.

Val thought the same, so she was sticking in the atmosphere for now. Her next goal was to develop a good glider that was also stable at high speeds.

So, the Experimental 2A was born.

"If I get back, drinks are on me, boys!" She told Jeb and Bob, both waiting to see what happens. Bob wanted to know if that thing could fly. Jeb wanted to see it do one of three things:

-Crash in a fiery explosion,

-Fly perfectly and do some tricks or...

-Smash into the tugplane.

Val did have second thoughts about stepping in, but she knew if she died that she wouldn't have to pay for those drinks.

Jeb fired up the engines. Bob watched the computer screens in the back. The engineering team lined up by the SPH.

Val's heart started beating really fast. She was noticing that Experimental-2A was extremely unstable on its gear.

Come on, she thought, Pull up!

Jeb lifted his craft into the air, and Val did the same.

But the gear on back tire 2 failed, and the aircraft lost balance and the cable snapped.

Jeb shot away, and Val braced for the end.

Luckily for her, once again, only the nosecone came off.

Jeb looped around and landed, asking when she would have the drinks ready.

 

Using a more updated version, Experimental-2A was hooked up to DMSP's Gull Seaplane.

"The slower takeoff speeds might help" Linus said. "But don't take off too fast or this thing will drop like a rock."

Bill and Bob watched from the side as Jeb started the Gull's engines.

"It's working!" Val screamed.

As Experimental-2A lifted off, ground crews cheered. Jeb couldn't see it, but he could feel Val piloting her own craft in the controls of his.

Only 2 minutes later, Jeb prepared the drop.

"See you on the ground!" He yelled. The wire swung loose from Experimental-2A and Jeb pulled away to give Val a good view of the landing strip.

Val began to notice that she wasn't gliding as well as she had wished for.

Eventually her downward velocity was greater than her forward velocity, and the plane started to drop.

Like a rock.

Val braced for impact for the third time in two weeks.

Val ejected at the last moment, her emergency chair puffing up and landing her about a hundred meters from the wreckage.

Val sighed and walked back to the Astronaut Complex, feeling ready to give up.

 

But giving her program one last chance before it vanished, Val worked hard and the Experimental-2B was rolled out the next week.

By far the best looking thing in the program, Val was slightly afraid to be flying it. If it crashed she would probably be fired.

She took a deep breath and sparked the jets.

Soon Experimental-2B was beginning to climb. It was incredibly stable and only needed light touches to stay steady.

Val leveled out at about 800 meters and began the acceleration process. She flipped a few switches in the cockpit, and hit the red button on the throttle stick.

Experimental-2B was soon past 250 m/s, and by the time the solid booster was empty, the aircraft speed record had been broken.

Val pitched around and prepared for landing, and this time, it was a soft one.

Passing the cheering crowds and ground crews, Val taxied back to the parking lot.

Val parked next to her other success, Experimental-1A, and called a close to the Experimental-2 program.

Then she hopped out and ran back to the astronaut complex.

Year 21: A Binary Odyssey was not to be missed!

Edited March 8, 2016 by DMSP

[Angelo Kerman]

Loving the lifting bodies, makes me wish the x24A or HL-10 was available in game..

[DMSP]

20 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

Loving the lifting bodies, makes me wish the x24A or HL-10 was available in game..

I've been wishing the exact same thing!

Also, thanks for always reading my chapters. It means a lot to know someone reads.

[Angelo Kerman]

Something like this:

Spoiler

Of course I have my hands full at the moment but maybe once my mods get to maintenance mode... 

Edit: I was inspired by your designs to create a lifting body in stock KSP:

Spoiler

Definitely looking forward to what you come up with.

 

Edited March 9, 2016 by Angel-125

[DMSP]

23 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Something like this:

  Hide contents

Of course I have my hands full at the moment but maybe once my mods get to maintenance mode... 

Edit: I was inspired by your designs to create a lifting body in stock KSP:

  Hide contents

Definitely looking forward to what you come up with.

 

That would be an awesome mod.

And it's quite an honor to inspire someone's craft! It looks good too!

Chapter 15 will unfortunately only be coming out next week (Got a science fair, hope my Physics project wins)!

DMSP Out for now.

[DMSP]

Chapter 15-Back to rockets!

Before Val's next step, Experimental-3 was rolled out of the SPH.

Val gave it a flight around the KSC, testing it's aerodynamic stability.

Without the miniaturized "kick" booster, Val noticed that the aircraft was a lot lighter. She pulled quite a few sharp turns and then proceeded to swing around and land at the airstrip, happy with what the flight showed her.

Val steadied out and landed uneventfully, the tires screeching on the runway and the smell of rubber spreading for a few hundred meters.

She then proceeded to taxi up to the Vehicle Assembly Building side door.

Experimental-3 was pulled inside, and Val's newest idea was kicked into progress.

 

Jeb and Val were talking to Bill inside the VAB.

"Val, I know this isn't like me, but I overrule you and you can't fly this mission." Jeb told them.

Bill looked curiously at Jeb.

"If you think Experimental-3-L is dangerous," He said, "Don't. I've put some of the best Kerbals on the job and I am supervising the lifter myself."

"Jeb, thanks for caring, but this is my idea. I'm flying it." Val replied.

Jeb shook his head at this.

"I still override you Val, sorry about that. I'm going on that mission."

 

Experimental-3-L had been put on a thrown together suborbital lifter.

It lifted off after being stress tested.

Val stood at the top of the VAB. She watched as her craft, carrying Jeb, lifted into the skies above Kerbin.

She muttered something about the KSC's systems before cursing under her breath.

It wasn't about not being the first spaceplane pilot, it was about risking Jeb's life. She turned her radio off mute, listing into Jeb's conversation with Mission Control.

"Experimental-3-L, you're rolling a little. Cancel that roll." Gene instructed him.

"On it." Jeb, sitting in the capsule, looked around at the fairing encasing his craft. He lightly touched the controls, taking the rocket out of its spin. Val didn't notice anything abnormal on the ground. She was looking at a line on her right arm when a yell from Jeb cut the relative silence.

"I'm losing her!" Jeb shouted. "She's flipping!"

Soon Experimental-3-L began to tumble. Jeb initiated the abort procedure, only to realize there was none for this flight.

Gene, Val, Mission Control and the rest of the KSC could only watch in horror as the rocket bent and snapped in half.

Jeb fired Stage 2, hoping it would clear him from the mess. When it did, he staged that too.

Having huge issues controlling Experimental-3-L, Jeb was about to give up and eject.

But he had a surge of motivation, and brought the damaged aircraft to a landing.

He taxied under his own power to the other historic aircraft.

After inspecting the damage, Jeb sat on the wing of his near-deathtrap and slept.

 

Taking the next step to establishing a better space program, SinkComm-2 was designed and attached to a "Black Sparrow".

3 days after Jeb's flight, the Sparrow took flight. It was the first spacecraft without a fairing in a while, and it didn't look bad at all.

The rocket's first stage, only meant to do a small portion of the work, flamed out at 8 kilometers up.

The second stage did most of the work, kicking SinkComm-2 into space.

The third stage did the rest, putting the spacecraft on a GKO intercept.

After waiting roughly 4 days for the right opportunity, SinkComm-2 circularized and entered orbit 2.863 Million Meters above the KSC.

 

Then after playtime, it was time to clean up the mess Jeb made.

Edited March 16, 2016 by DMSP
Mistake(s)

[Mister Dilsby]

I like the SInk-Comm/Black Sparrow, it looks very Gemini/Titan.

[RocketSquid]

Ah! Wait! New SRBs!?

[DMSP]

8 hours ago, Kuzzter said:

I like the SInk-Comm/Black Sparrow, it looks very Gemini/Titan.

Thanks! I was thinking for Black Arrow (see what I did there) but I guess it does look like the Gemini/Titan too.

 

7 hours ago, RocketSquid said:

Ah! Wait! New SRBs!?

Nope, just Stock Replacement Assets. It's actually really cool because it does not lag my game at all.

[DMSP]

Chapter 16-Overdue views.

Upgrades to the Black Sparrow rocket led to the Black Sparrow+, which was soon deemed fit to carry Muna-8 to the Mun.

Under the power of a RAPIER and two Angled SRBs, Muna-8 shot towards Munar Orbit.

The cargo shook around in its fairing, metal grinding under the huge forces. It would have been an awful sound, if anyone was there to hear it.

With such an advanced engine at hand, it was only necessary to reach for the stars.

The second stage busted its was to LKO, and then shot out on its way towards the Mun. Maybe Kerbals would one day do this.

The 4 and a half hours of flight were a bit of a bore for the ground crew, but they were encouraged to set a new record and stayed at their stations the entire flight. In 5 hours, the spacecraft was retro-boosting into Munar Orbit.

Mission Control experienced Blackout soon afterwards. Muna-8 entered orbit around the Mun, successfully completing a long overdue goal.

But the real highlight came when Muna-8 got transmissions back. The spacecraft turned its cameras towards the Mun's horizon.

And this was the view. This. This is why DMSP had been started. Kerbals. They wanted to see the stars.

The target was set. A Munar Flyby for the 50th launch anniversary would be one show for the world.

 

To achieve that target, a docking with the Rene Target spacecraft would need to occur.

Jeb's newest deathtrap creation was assembled in the Vehicle Assembly Building.

With no real idea on how a rendezvous worked, the engineers had strapped multiple Solid Rocket Boosters on the first stage to ensure Jeb could get out of the atmosphere and into space in time for the Rene Target Vehicle's swing-around.

Rolled out onto the pad early the next morning, Jeb strapped in and prepared for his toughest mission yet.

What seemed only like minutes later, the spacecraft was ready. Rene-vouse-1 began launch prodedures.

"Boosters, call out!" Gene yelled.

"Core is go!"

"Boosters 1-4 are ready!"

"5-10" are armed!"

"I just primed 11 and 12," Gene called out, "And we're go for liftoff."

Jeb started breathing heavily in the pod. He could sense disaster below him. His last launch hadn't gone great. He felt like this wouldn't be much better.

Linus said: "Launch window in 15 seconds, and you have 10 seconds to launch after that."

"Jeb are you ready?" Gene asked.

"Let's do this." He responded, hiding his fear under the Oxygen Tanks.

"On my Mark." Linus nodded.

After what seemed like an eternity...

"Mark!"

"Clamps released, we have a liftoff! Boosters Core, 1,2,11 and 12 are all active!"

10 seconds in, "1 and 2 released! All remaining boosters are now active!"

"Jeb, you're pulling 10 Gs. Roll at 90!"

Jeb held on to the light, not giving up to the blackness that was now tempting him. The auto systems pulling to many Gs, he took over manual control and began the Gravity Turn.

But it wasn't enough. After firing all of the second stage's fuel, and the Reentry Boosters, Jeb gave up, ditched the docking mechanism and turned for renentry.

Jeb sent a emergency Abort to Sea signal before being enveloped in Plasma. The ground crews knew exactly where he was coming down and had Val's Gnat deployed to pick him up.

Oh well. Gene slotted launch 47 for Rene-vouse 2.

 

A week after that failure, SinkComm-3, identical to SinkComm-2, lifted off.

It was a smooth ride up to orbit, and it took more than 9 days to get the orbital corrections correct, but eventually SC-3 was opposite to SC-2 and was boosted into GKO.

Radio Blackouts no more!

[Mister Dilsby]

Darn it, so close (and so sorry, out of replikes again). Usually moar boosters always works, 75% of the time. Although usually it's more of the same boosters  

[DMSP]

1 hour ago, Kuzzter said:

Darn it, so close (and so sorry, out of replikes again). Usually moar boosters always works, 75% of the time. Although usually it's more of the same boosters  

I know. About 400 m/s short.

No problem.

Yeah, next time I'll let the concept ideas go to Val. She probably has the highest chance of docking.

[Just Jim]

I had to do some catching up, and I have to say, this is really, really fun!  well done!

Edited March 16, 2016 by Just Jim

[DMSP]

2 hours ago, Just Jim said:

I had to do some catching up, and I have to say, this is really, really fun!  well done!

Thank you!

Same for Emiko station, Part 36 Please! (Author-Author, Fan-Fan!)

[max_creative]

I like the cupcake vtol. You cannot have a good non-cupcake vtol. Go cupcake! Go DMSP! 

[max_creative]

Idea: add MOAR BOOSTERS!!! (Works about 10% of the time for me )

[Bev7787]

Black Sparrow- Suspiciously sounds like Black Arrow...

[DMSP]

8 hours ago, max_creative said:

I like the cupcake vtol. You cannot have a good non-cupcake vtol. Go cupcake! Go DMSP! 

Yeah, it's one good craft! You will be seeing more @Cupcake... Landers here.

1 hour ago, Bev7787 said:

Black Sparrow- Suspiciously sounds like Black Arrow...

You didn't hear nothing!

[RocketSquid]

Where are the 0.625m SRBs from?

[DMSP]

3 hours ago, RocketSquid said:

Where are the 0.625m SRBs from?

They are from Phoenix Industries 0.625 Booster Pack.

 

[max_creative]

MOAR!!! I love explosions and work for OMB Demolition (well, it says that on all my prototypes and highly explosive craft, the rest say c7 aerospace division) and I would love to blow something up... ooo I could ignite the liquid fuel engines on my ssto in the parking lot! Just please, MOAR!

[DMSP]

5 hours ago, max_creative said:

MOAR!!! I love explosions and work for OMB Demolition (well, it says that on all my prototypes and highly explosive craft, the rest say c7 aerospace division) and I would love to blow something up... ooo I could ignite the liquid fuel engines on my ssto in the parking lot! Just please, MOAR!

Give it about four days, and Chapter 17 will be out.

[max_creative]

1 minute ago, DMSP said:

Give it about four days, and Chapter 17 will be out.

Yes!