Rescuing Jebediah Kerman Crusoe

[Space Peanut]

...Thought would be fun to make a mission report about my rescue of Jeb this morning. I'm not too great at this game and will be amusing for everybody to read about my struggle just getting to Minimus!

Jeb had been on Minimus EVA for close to a decade game time, since crash landing and his rocket falling over on top of to the crew hatch. He had been able to get out... but not back in!

Finally guilt got to the mission planners after years of waltzing around everywhere else in the Kerbol system it was decided to bring Jeb home. An intensive rocket design project was begun:

First failed design, an overweight capsule + probe core and failure to include RCS fuel. All contributed to Minimus Rescue I plummeting into Kerbin shortly after lift off...

Malger Kerman (an obsessive stalker of Jeb) stowed away on what was supposed to be a test flight of Minimus Rescue III. As soon as mission control realised the mission was aborted.

Malgar also attempted to stow away on Minimus Rescue IV but was caught on the pad and sent back to the astronaut quarters.

Minimus Rescue IV takes off. Note incredibly over-engineered design. This rocket could probably reach Duna!

Minimus Rescue IV reaches Kerbin orbit despite failure of the second stage asparagus (the engineers forgot to put back fuel lines after adding aerodynamic nose cones!).

Course to Minimus plotted and burn made (one of my secret sources inside KSC admitted that this is actually before the last photo. Was so much fuel left over after lift off and circularising orbit that KSC used it for the trans-minimus-injection too in the hope that nobody would notice!)

Minimus orbit insertion. Note deployed solar panels, nuke engine, probe core and battery pack on top of capsule.

Orbit achieved. Luckily it looks like Jeb (crash) landed from a pretty standard equatorial orbit or approach, this is going to make rescue a lot easier!

Landing planned. All seems so easy from this high up!

This picture appears to show stage seperation occuring at 2034m but of course nobody would be silly enough to try and make the majority of their landing run using a nuclear engine! Would they?

Landed on Minimus. 2.9km from "Minimus or Bust I" and Jeb Kerman!

We now switch back to Jeb who is shaking with excitement. Only 2.9km from escape from the moon he has come to hate so much!

Jeb leaps for joy as he begins his journey.

Finally the rescue craft is sighted in the distance!

Jeb climbs aboard.

Liftoff!

After an uneventful voyage. Kerbin is spotted again. Jeb is estatic!

Splashdown! Jeb is back home

[sal_vager]

Nice work Space peanut, rescue missions are fun, they can also be quite frequent

[Kieve]

Heh... I'd have left him there.

Seriously, his habit of climbing into everything that heads to the pad annoyed the heck out of me (until I sent him up in my Mun Orbiter station, where he will remain until the solar system has been thoroughly explored).

Nice work bring your intrepid adventurer home though!