The Icarus Program (Chapter 17, Part 4)

[Drethon]

Chapter 17 Part 4

    As the rescue rockets maneuvered to rendezvous with the stranded Kerbals, Bob noticed one more rocket moving to the pad.
    “Gene,” asked Bob curiously. “What is the rocket arriving at the pad now?”
    “Oh, just a little something I wanted to launch,” grinned Gene. “Our Minmus science return probe has enough range to go out and visit Kebol’s SOI. Let us see what is out there.”
    Bob’s eyes widened with excitement as realization dawned. “You mean... you’re launching a mission beyond Kerbin’s SOI?”
    Gene nodded. “That’s right.”
    “Awesome!” Bob exclaimed, with atypical enthusiasm.

    “Jeb,” said Gene. “Please launch our Kerbol science rocket.”
    “On it,” Jebediah had barely had time to catch his breath after the final stranded Kerbal had reentered Kerbin, but he was never too tired to fly a rocket. Exhausted or not, Jebediah sent the commands with practiced precision and the rocket roared off the pad.
    “Such a tiny little probe, and a big TWR,” Bill grinned as the rocket accelerated upward. “That thing has TWR of 3 just sitting there on the pad, climbing to 5… 6, 7.5 at burnout. Faster than a holiday firework!”
    “Jeb,” said Gene as Jebediah focused on the controls. “You know how you normally complete the gravity turn to get the highest orbital velocity at an apoapsis just above the atmosphere.”
    “Yeah?” asked Jebediah as he prepared to start to circularize the orbit.
    “We don’t need to orbit this probe,” said Gene with a small grin. “Just point the rocket prograde and keep the throttle firewalled.”
    Jeb paused to glance at Gene. “Full throttle all the way up?”
    “Yep,” grinned Gene.
    “We have plenty of thrust on this rocket,” said Bob with a smile of his own. “We just need to build up enough velocity relative to Kerbin.”
    Jebeidah turned back with a broad smile as he held the rocket on its course, throttled to full. “No holding back, this is my kind of launch!”
    “That rockets going up like it's got something to prove!” whistled Bill. “No hesitation, nearly orbital velocity and still breathing atmosphere!”
    “The rocket is glowing like a rocket on reentry,” Bob squinted at the screen. “The probe core would melt down if the atmosphere was not thinning.”

    A minute later and the rocket’s apoapsis was outside of Kerbin orbit, aimed squarely for Kerbol’s SOI.
    “Two minutes and forty five seconds,” Gene noted from the mission control clock. “And just twelve days before the probe leaves Kerbin orbit. So little time for such a large distance.”
    “That is how you go somewhere in a hurry,” Jebediah leaned back in his seat, satisfied with a job well done.

Edited 9 hours ago by Drethon