Space Leviathan Destroys Dragonfly 1 Eve Mission

[RedDwarfIV]

Exactly how the Dragonfly 1 managed to attain speeds sufficient to eject it from Kerbin orbit into a sundive trajectory is unknown, although some theorists believe it may have something to do with spacetime disturbance from the docking assembly - the Dragonfly was the first vessel to successfully implement this system in the Veto Aerospace program. This discrepancy was noted upon the launch of the Accelleron 2 Fuel Transfer Vehicle which itself suffered the loss of its ascent/orbit engine on liquid booster cut off. The Accelleron 1 had already been docked to the Dragonfly 1 for some time.

When approaching sundive perigee, both craft [Dragonfly 1 and Accelleron 1] broke up. Transmissions were recieved from Dragonfly, but Accelleron was only able to confirm that its pilot still lived by relaying that information through Dragonfly. Telemetry shows the Accelleron capsule was on a trajectory heading away from Dragonfly, and the Fuel Transfer Vehicle has not been heard from since.

The Dragonfly theoretically had both the thrust and delta-V to obtain an orbit that would not damage the spacecraft, but the crew refused to initiate a burn on account of the weight imbalance the FTV would cause. An investigation is underway into why it was not suggested to simply jettison the FTV.

[Znath]

I think you actually just flew too close to the sun is what happened.

Most ships start burning up or overheating easily as they get close to the innermost planet.

[RedDwarfIV]

I got that.

But it flew apart so violently that the RTV capsule's escape trajectory was in the exact opposite direction to the Dragonfly C&CV. I decided the effect was worthy of the name 'Space Leviathan', regardless of its cause.