Project Stardust Test Flight - FAILURE

[Iapetus7342]

Yesterday at 23:40 GMT, the first flight of Phase 1 of the Kerbin Interstellar Program begun.

The launch was of the newly built Starlight NSW-propelled Deep Space Probe (SNDSP), specifically a test flight which entailed a high-velocity mission to The Mun and back within 3 days maximum. The vessel used the Rhea 2 HLV, which ran off of entirely liquid hydrogen and oxidizer, was just powerful enough to get the probe to a suborbital trajectory of 80km ASL, 10km higher than the atmosphere's edge.

The vessel launched at 23:50, and looked promising at first.

Liftoff went without a hitch, and the vessel reached a trajectory of 76km ASL, with the NSW engine taking over for the rest of ascent. By then, the engine had reached around 1300K. The radiators were switched on, and orbital insertion begun. The engine continued to heat up, with the radiators doing little to stop the oncoming shutdown.

By the time the vessel was well into it's insertion burn, the engine gave out and underwent an emergency shutdown due to surpassing 3000K, leaving the vessel on a 80 x -100km trajectory. The rest of the vessel burned up a few minutes later over the ocean, causing the leftover fuel to be scattered across the Origas ocean of Kerbin. 

The mission was quickly deemed a catastrophic failure, and personnel at the KSC quickly got to work on adding better radiators to the vessel for future flights. Currently, no injuries have been reported except a loss of many funds from the program's bank and minor injuries to our reputation.

[Vanamonde]

You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. 

[Kerbalsaurus]

No pictures?

[Iapetus7342]

Sorry, didn't take any. I was too focused on the mission to do that