Munar Refueling Chain - Weakest Link

[icekatze]

hi hi

Silence.  It wasn't only because the command center was nearly empty, late at night as it was, but a hushed silence fell over those who were present.  They had been watching the fuel gauges on the Surface-to-Orbit tanker, returning to the mining station after it's first delivery of liquid fuel to Mun Station One.  The first stage in a fueling station chain for interplanetary missions.

At length, assistant mission director Karlos Kerman turned to the flight controller.  "Did we touch down gently, or not?"

"Telemetry confirms a soft touch down.  19.24 units of liquid fuel remaining!"

And then, cheers.  It was a very close call.

((Nothing super fancy here, just a remarkably close brush with failure that I just had to share.  I tried to build a sufficient margin of error into my propellant tanks, but since I fly by the seat of my pants, it would seem I didn't quite give myself as comfortable a margin as I would have liked...))