Year 14, Day 278 (Intrepid Launches Discovery Crew to Orbit!)

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Intrepid blasts off from the Space Center, carrying Jeb, Bill, and Bob! Veteran KSEA pilot Edan is piloting!

The launch stage ejects, and Intrepid enters orbit!

“Almost there! Just a few more more manuevers and we’ll be at the Spaceport!”

-Edan

“We’re there! Switching to rear view… taking us in!”

-Edan

Edan pilots the Crew Shuttle closer and closer to the station! This isn’t the easiest task, as the craft actually pilots in reverse, as the docking bay is at the aft of the ship!

“Almost there… almost….”

-Edan

The connection is made! Intrepid arrives at Kerbin Spaceport! Jeb, Bill, and Bob gather their equipment and head out to the Spaceport! As they head to the Discovery docking hatch, Bill catches a look at the ship from the Crew Habitat Cupola!

“Wow! That’s one big ship!”

-Bill

Year 14, Day 272 (Laythe Spaceplane ‘Endurance’ Leaves Kerbin!)

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KSEA is relieved to announce that the Laythe Spaceplane ‘Endurance‘ transfer went much better than the first Laythe Spaceport! The interplanetary Spaceplane is headed (quite fast) to Laythe/Jool!

“The only thing left to do now is get a crew up to Discovery and send them to Jool too! It was just about as complicated when we first sent crews to Duna Spaceport. Hopefully this gets a bit less hectic!”

-Gene

Year 14, Day 270 (Second Attempt Launching Laythe Spaceport)

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The second attempt at launching a Laythe Spaceport is underway… this time on a Jool DS-2 Rocket! This absurd rocket straps several Jool Rockets together in an attempt to create a rocket with a lot of deltaV, and a lot of punch!

“I sure hope this works… we don’t have any more parts to build another one in time for the Jool transfer window!”

-Jeb

The launch stage exhausts it’s fuel and then ejects the protective fairing over the station!

With no time to spare, the transfer stage fires!

Laythe Spaceport flies away from Kerbin heading to a Jool/Laythe encounter!

Year 14, Day 270 (Laythe Spaceport Leaves Kerbin !)

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The Laythe Spaceport – lost in space!

Laythe Spaceport leaves Kerbin as planned… however the spacecraft seems to have some serious flaws.

“This thing just doesn’t have enough power to make the burn! We’re going to have to abort… it’s a good thing we were making a duplicate station for future missions… we’ll have to bring that thing out ASAP!”

-Gene

Indeed – plans for a future station had (thankfully) already been in the works, utilizing an even bigger launcher. KSEA scrambles to save the Laythe Spaceport mission!

Year 14 Day 267 (Explorer 5 Reaches Duna… and Keeps Going!)

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Critics of reusing Explorer 5 were correct! The spacecraft didn’t have enough deltaV to overcome the high speed approach of Duna. Perhaps KSEA should have known better!

“Hmmm. Well, we all make mistakes! Back to the drawing board! It would be nice to have a spacecraft that can reach Duna without being quite a DSV-class vehicle!”

-Gene

To that end, KSEA begins work retooling what would have been Explorer 7 to use the Explorer design but with a more re-usable layout in mind!

Year 14, Day 1 (Explorer 6 Leaves Laythe)

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Explorer 6’s mission at Jool’s tempting moon Laythe is complete – and it’s time to come home!

“It’s a shame we have to leave.. but don’t worry. We’ll be back! “

-Sean

As Explorer 6 drifts past Laythe for the last time, the crew prepares to return to cryogenic sleep for the long trip back to Kerbin!

“It’s a good thing we’re heading back to cryo-sleep… we just finished the last snack!”

–Mitster

“The sooner we go back into cryo-stasis the sooner we can get on the next Deep Space craft headed back… this time with a lander! By the time we’re back at Kerbin I bet Laythe Spaceport will be ready!“

-Glenica

Year 13, Day 402 (Explorer 5 Readied For Second Mission)

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As an experiment, KSEA decides to test the capabilities of the Explorer 5 spacecraft. Having returned from Duna, is it capable of entering Duna orbit again, and returning safely to Kerbin orbit? If so it would provide a much more cost effective means of transporting Kerbals to and from the red planet.

Explorer 5 docked at Kerbin Spaceport. Discovery can be seen docked in the background.

The new Discovery-class spacecraft design is certainly capable of the trip, however it is overkill to the extreme – DSV-2 Discovery could travel to Duna, return to Kerbin, and repeat the trip without ever needing to refuel!

Gillian, Shepely, and Seely (the current crew on Kerbin Spaceport) start work refuelling Explorer 5 for it’s next mission!

Year 14, Day 400 (Last Pathfinder 7 Probe Lands!)

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The third Pathfinder 7 probe heads down, after deploying from the Pathfinder 7 spacecraft. Since so many probes have missed their targets, a much larger landing zone, the northern polar region, is selected.

The heat shield glows bright as the probe decends through Eve’s thick atmosphere…

Finally, the parachute deploys and the heat shield seperates. The surface of Eve glows an eerie shade of green…

Finally – the little probe sets down on Eve! Sensors indicate a successful landing at the north pole of Eve!

“Finally a successful deployment of the mini-rover!Nice work everyone!”

-Gene

While the final Pathfinder 7 probe was a success, the general agreement at KSEA is to rework the planetary probes – the mini-rovers are simply too fragile and have limited scientific and power abilities!