Game freezes when loading existing game or making new game

[leclfish]

Recently when I have started KSP, it will load all the way to the main menu no problem, but then as soon as I try to either load a game or start a new one, it will revert back to the menu before the UI input box for selecting a load or selecting the settings for creating a new save, but all the text is grayed out (as though one of the options was selected and it's trying to load) but then never loads. I once let it sit for a few hours while it was on that screen just to be sure that it wasn't just loading slowly. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the game several times, as well as using the steam service to "validate integrity of game cache" a few times. I am unsure of what else I can try to do to fix this issue.