After the successful removal of orbital debris earlier in the month, the final piece of orbital debris awaits removal by the KSA’s second new astronaut, Captain Wehrtop Kerman. This mission will serve him well to apply all the training and skills he acquired during his 6 months training as a kadet, including overcoming any unforeseen obstacles during execution. The debris being removed was part of the rocket that took Captain Bob into orbit where he was finally able to successfully rendezvous for the first time with another craft in space.
Tag Archive: flag
Oct 10 2014
#032: New Astronaut Training (Flight 1)
The KSA is looking to clean up two spent stages floating in space, and it has two astronauts fresh out of the Academy to prove their mettle on individual missions to de-orbit the debris. Capt Desson, by virtue of alphabetical order, is launching first atop a revised version of the craft Capt Bob used to perform the first-ever orbital rendezvous earlier this year. After a range clearance issue forces the launch later into the day, Desson carries out his mission, but not without problems.
Jul 04 2014
#025: Day-long Polar Orbit for Science
Now that the LKO communications network is finally completed and fully operational, a mission proposed weeks ago by Lead Scientist Wernher Von Kerman was finally approved – a near-polar orbit would be established for observations of the entire planet over the course of a day-long mission. Originally scheduled to launch on 6/30, the previous day a dish at the tracking station suffered a mechanical failure and needed to be replaced. After a day to replace the dish and a day to test/calibrate it, weather was the issue holding up the launch. There was a small chance, so Flight Director Lanalye ordered the rocket out to the pad the night before so it could be prepped in the morning. However a fuel line was not properly attached, blew loose overnight and moisture got into one of the large main engine tanks. In the time it took to dry, the weather worsened for the day and launch had to be cancelled. Finally, on 7/3, everything fell into place for the mission to receive a Go.
Jun 23 2014
#024: Servicing the ComSat Network
The Agency had originally planned to do this in two missions, but Lead Engineer Simon convinced Flight Director Lanalye in a marathon planning session that it could be done in one. Thus, Captain Bob was tasked with piloting the tallest rocket assembled to date into orbit high above Kerbin to service ComSat I, which needed larger-capacity batteries. He then had to lower his orbit to rendezvous with ComSat II, which had experienced problems during launch that caused it to lose all its solar panels. The ComSat Service Vehicle constructed for this mission was an improved model of the craft used for the Kerbin III de-orbit that allowed fuel transfer to restore Center of Mass within the RCS thruster ring for proper translation abilities Bob lacked in the previous mission. The Agency was all set to pull off yet another successful mission.
Jun 20 2014
Mk1 Lawn Dart – Entry #2
The Aerospace Group was able to put together a new Lawn Dart for a second test flight, this time the goal was to achieve flight from a horizontal take off using the runway. There was some debate about the aerodynamic efficiency in using trusses for the main gear, and at one point the team planned to have them jettison shortly after take off and just use the recovery chutes to land. Ultimately it was determined the drag would be negligible for this test flight and the final prototype was handed over to their second test pilot, Flight Officer Jermal Kerman, to attempt flight and recovery – via the landing gear if possible.
Jun 17 2014
Mk1 Lawn Dart – Entry #1
After the Aerospace Group was formed on April 30th, 2014, it immediately began working on a rocket-propelled aircraft prototype. Jet and propeller aircraft were already well-understood and well-used among kerbal society but to strap a rocket to wings and have it fly through the atmosphere? That was something new. First though, they had to spend the next month researching various other things besides rockets, such as the cockpit capsule that could withstand the demands of rocket flight and an ejection system that wouldn’t kill the pilot. They also had to recruit some brave test pilots and choose Kirk and Jermal Kerman, two of the most respected military jet pilots in the service. Finally, in the beginning of June they were ready for the first test flight.
Jun 11 2014
#023: Third Time’s the Charm
After failing to rendezvous and de-orbit the derelict Kerbin III spacecraft for a second time, the team at KSA has come up with an even better rendezvous technique they hope will allow for success on this mission. Additionally, the rocket being flown by Capt Bob has been slightly simplified to reduce the chance of any staging malfunctions interrupting the rendezvous attempt.
Mar 05 2014
#004: Chimps are for Wimps (Flight 2)
After the scare of the previous launch additional controls were put at the hands of the pilot to allow a small ability to steer the rocket during ascent. It was up to Captain Bill to test these new controls on the second kerbed sub-orbital flight – although he figured he’d also test out some other aspects on his own initiative…
Mar 04 2014
#003: Chimps Are For Wimps (Flight 1)
Wasting no time, the Kerbal Space Agency threw aside the notion of sending an animal for the first crewed rocket launch and instead picked the best of the best from its initial cadre of astronauts to “pilot” the first ever kerbed sub-orbital rocket flight. There was a good deal of argument by Commander Jeb and the other two astronauts over the fact that they were more passengers than controllers on these flights, ultimately the engineers caved and implemented some rudimentary controls with the promise of the next pod being more suited to pilots.