Just watched documentary on Columbia...

[Renaissance0321]

Very sad. To think something so minor as a piece of foam hitting the wing could cause such a catastrophic failure. I also watched a bit on the Challenger explosion during launch. I've seen my rockets in KSP blow up the same way and I am now starting to feel bad :-( I know this game isn't supposed to be taken all that seriously but I've now implemented abort procedures on all my crafts. I've had some really close calls with Jeb but believe it or not he hasn't died yet.

The closest he came was when I had him bouncing around in a rover on Minmus when he crashed and the resulting explosion launched him into an escape trajectory out of the system. I panicked as launching a rescue would take several days to reach him. Luckily I put him into a stable orbit using his jet pack and eventually rescued him with his original lander. Granted he probably would have been out of oxygen as it took several hours.

I guess my question is, do you take this game seriously? Or do you play as the game as designed with goofy kerbal antics and exploding rockets?

[Klingon Admiral]

Most of my manned rockets are equipped with launch escape systems. Space planes, sadly, are not, which has lead to the tragic loss of quite a few kerbalnauts before I installed a parachute mod.

[bigdad84]

The majority of my manned launches include Launch Escape Systems, save for the my Space Shuttle and Dreamchaser like crafts.

[mythbusters844]

Yeah, I read the wikipedia page on it, and it was pretty depressing . I always put launch escape systems on my crafts, and ejection seats if I can.

[bigdad84]

Yeah, I read the wikipedia page on it, and it was pretty depressing . I always put launch escape systems on my crafts, and ejection seats if I can.

It is pretty sad, that if anything happened, there was basically no chance for survival. (ala Challlenger) I was quite surprised at NASA's decision on that.

[mellojoe]

Its amazing how many real-life lessons I've learned from playing this "game". Colombia, Challenger ... scary scary things. To see that these scientists put their lives on the line simply for the pursuit of knowledge is the most humbling of lessons. The first time I really took in the real-life WOW moment was when I pushed away from Kerbin to head toward my first Mun landing. Yes, we have "manuever nodes" and "orbit lines" to see what our burn is doing to our craft, but in the 1960's these guys were doing it for real, without a lot of computer assistance. Think of that first time, sitting in a cramped capsule, firing up the engines to push you away from Earth and into the black .... hoping the math is right and hoping you'll get close to that other floating rock out there. What if you miss? You could drift forever. Humbling indeed.

[FITorion]

GOOD NEWS!

One of the new parts in .23.5 (ARM) is a launch escape tower.

[NecroBones]

My escape system is F9.

But yeah, I remember both the Columbia and Challenger incidents quite well. Very, very sad. What's interesting is that during the whole Challenger investigation, it came out that some of the engineers in the shuttle program felt that the probability of catastrophic failure was about 1 in 200. Over the lifespan of the shuttle program, it proved worse than that, as there were two catastrophic losses in 135 flights.

[John Crichton]

Remember it vividly...very sad indeed. So much could have been done to prevent this, but wasn't because of bureaucracy and money constraints. Given the % of the total national budget NASA gets, the money argument is just so wrong, I feel like punching anyone who uses it in the face (and crotch).

[Woopert]

I was 4 when it happened (would be 5 in May that year), but I still don't remember it. It is really sad, it's usually sad news when people die (unless they're terrorists or something... different story). It's also shocking to believe this happened in 2003, just 11 years ago. We thing of ourselves as so advanced but anything can go wrong, especially with rocket science.

I've been taking KSP seriously since 0.21, after returning from my 3 month hiatus. I just like imagining what the Kerbals are experiencing. Zero deaths since then, although there has been quite a bit of quicksaving/reverting and backing up saves.

Edited March 27, 2014 by Woopert

[razark]

I was in fourth grade in '86, a stone's throw away from Johnson Space Center. My father was friends with Ellison Onizuka, and his daughter played on the same soccer team as my sister. Most of the people in the area had some connection to NASA, and it hit the area pretty hard. In 2003, I was living in East Texas. I had a class on Saturdays, so I was up early, getting ready when I heard the rumble. Didn't have any idea what it was at the time, but as soon as I checked the online news, I realized what it was. I turned on the TV, and they were showing footage of the debris trails in the sky.

Yeah, I put escape systems on all my vehicles. It just doesn't seem right not to.