I'm sorry Jeb but I'm going to have to bench you

[Rocket Farmer]

Message Received.....

Its not that we don't know you are talented and enjoy the missions. Nobody else smiles like you regardless of the situation or impending doom.

Its just that well, we are getting tired of rescuing you.

To date we have run over 50 manned missions to orbit and the Kerbal flag has been planted on 6 different planetoids. Of the 5 required rescue attempts you have been the Kerbal that has needed rescuing all 5 times.

1. It should have occurred to us that our first orbiter was likely to land on the far side of the planet. It was a really long ways to go get you though.

2. We also understand Bill and your early debacle and subsequent rescue from the Mun was somewhat beyond your control. We should have accounted for your inability to land within the fuel parameters as a possibility. This has lead to the development of many redundant systems which have proved useful numerous times.

3. We also understand your later career as a SSTO test pilot is a hazardous one and you have wracked up many firsts. We have an understanding of the stranding of you in space aboard the SSTO Firefly. As all previous SSTOs had been able to land with other pilots we will admit some skepticism about your inability to be able to land your first SSTO ride. We admit it was regrettable that it was also the 1st SSTO built (and last) without emergency ejection systems.

4. We must admit though to be dissatisfied that you convinced Billy-Bobbo that you should pilot down the rescue Intrepid Albatross. Billy-Bobbo had previously landed that unit 3 times flawlessly but you managed to get to try the emergency system after ripping the wings off 40km from the base.

5. But this latest debacle is painful. After recently returning to the base following our successful development and deployment (we are terming that a success) of a VTOL to rescue you from the carcass of the Intrepid Albatross we thought it good to get you back in a rocket seat (as its obvious SSTOs aren't for you). So we thought it a "good" idea to have you man the prototype Duna Science Base for its orbital checkout before putting on a full payload of scientists and heading out for Duna. Bill had already completed landing testing of the unit on Minmas with a team of scientists but this unit was to have greater transit range and enough return capable vessels to bring 8 intrepid explorers home in 2 separate detachable vessels. Basically this was a cakewalk mission.

We have read the mission report and most of mission control is still crying. Everything went smashingly until you needed to try 1 of the deorbiters. We still can not believe that you separated without the engines section and drifted 4.5 km from the main ship before you noticed. While your subsequent spacewalk across 4km of open space set several records it was very poorly received.

However it was your subsequent actions that are the discussion here. With a second deorbiter available we simply can't believe that at the end of your triumphant spacewalk you decided to land on 1 of the solar panels of the 2nd deorbiter. While we have a redundant solar panel for just such a contingency you also fixed that one by shearing it off as you maneuvered the 2nd orbiter away from the base. Again an immediate burn for Kerbal might have averted the impending issue and not running all the lights but you didn't even notice your poor flying until the battery was empty and you just needed to be lit up like a christmas tree. This lead to your even more monumental 5km spacewalk and your subsequent stranding in the now deorbiter-less prototype Duna Science Base.

As we haven't lost a Kerbal yet and our engineering team is determined to strangle you we have decided your new mission will be to crew the newly dubbed Kerbal Rendezvous Assembled Prototype Science Base. We realize as a prototype orbiter it doesn't have any science equipment aboard so you will probably get a little bored but given it has room for 21 Kerbals you should be just fine there indefinitely....

This wasn't a decision made lightly but frankly we are tired of rescuing you.

End of Message......

As mission control turns off the camera viewing the base so they can concentrate on more pressing matters last image sent is a forlorn Jeb staring out the Cupola window at Kerbal......

[GDJ]

Ouch. Poor Jeb.

At least the view is pretty nice.

[JakeGrey]

"Bob's right. We do need to unionise."

[The Jedi Master]

This is relevant.