Despite multiple attempts, the goal of returning a payload intact from orbit continues to elude us. However the loss of Kerbin III to such a simple issue of miscalculated electric charge consumption means that the craft itself should still perform as designed so with only minor changes Kerbin IV was rolled out of the VAB days later to attempt to succeed where all other iterations had failed.
Tag Archive: LF/O
Mar 27 2014
#008: Falling Forever and Ever
Kerbin III was commissioned after the failure to recover Kerbin II. As devastating as it was to lose the first craft to orbit Kerbin, the KSA staff were determined as ever to recover a payload from orbit and all signs pointed to Kerbin III being the one to pull it off.
Mar 25 2014
#007: Falling Forever – Moar Powa!
Although the loss of Kerbin I was a disappointment, it was also a lesson learned. Kerbin II was the next attempt to attain orbit, with a better ascent path and more battery power. Orbit was all but assured for this flight, the only challenge was to return the payload to Kerbin intact.
Mar 12 2014
#006: Falling Forever
After the success of the sub-orbital Kerbal rocket program it was time for the KSA to set its sights on orbit, starting with the Kerbin rocket program. Kerbin I was the first craft to be built to attain an orbital velocity, then return with samples and science data collected from space.
Mar 05 2014
#005: Chimps are for Wimps (Flight 3)
The third and final flight of Kerbal III aimed to push higher than ever to confirm engineer’s theories on rocket design so they could begin working on the first orbital rocket. Captain Bob was at the controls for this flight and was able to make good use of the experience Jeb and Bill could pass on to him based on their own previous flights.
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.
Feb 28 2014
#002: Recovery Test
After the successful rocket engine test showing that it was possible to send something up, the next thing that needed to be proven was the ability to bring something back down – intact. To that end the engineers set up a test much like the previous one with the addition of parachutes. They also wanted to try out a new engine design. A single engine worked well so four must be better right??
Feb 26 2014
#001: Rocket Test
For the first launch of the Kerbal Space Agency, the basic technology for firing a rocket needed to be tested. Could this device indeed create enough force to thrust this unwieldy payload into the sky without blowing up? No one really knew what to expect but everyone was hopeful things would go as planned so the program could continue to move forward.