Year 13, Day 385 (Pathfinder 7 Orbits Eve!)

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After its long journey, Pathfinder 7 arrives at Eve!

The engines fire to circularize the orbit…

…and the orbital transfer stage ejects! Then the spacecraft’s remaining fuel is used to change the inclination to provide a greater range of potential landing targets! An 80 degree inclination is finally reached.

It’s important to make sure the craft is in its final desired orbit before launching the probes… the downside to the radially mounted probes is that it makes the main engine quite unbalanced!

Despite having all this time to plan for where the three rovers will land, KSEA has only just begun picking out landing sites!

“I suppose we didn’t want to make all those maps until we were sure it would work! Now that we’re there… well, we’ll get right to work! The Wanderer Rover set down near the Explodium Sea and the Shallows… so probably not there!”
-Gene

Year 13, Day 158 (Intrepid Returns Crews to Kerbin from Kerbin Spaceport!)

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With the return of Explorer 5 and the test flight of Discovery the Kerbin Spaceport has gotten very crowded! Edan, Bill, Orlas, Glenica, and Sean all board CTS-3 Intrepid!

“Have a good flight – you soon!”
-Gene

Edan undocks from the Spaceport, and uses RCS thrusters to reach a safe distance from the station! Gilian, Shepely, and Seely remain on the station, conducting the vitally important scientific research that must certainly occur there.

“Come back soon! Bring more snacks! “
-Shepely

Intrepid fires its engines to de-orbit… then detaches the service pod that holds cargo (and provides for solar power!)

“Hold on everyone! Things are about to get pretty hot!”
-Edan

Intrepid soars through the atmosphere, occasionally usings its airbrake system to slow its decent.

Once past the mountains west of the Space Center, Edan makes the final manuevers to line up for a landing!

“Edan to Mission Control… Intrepid is in the pipe, five by five!”
-Edan

Intrepid touches down on the runway!

A perfect landing! The tired Kerbals exit the Crew Shuttle to rest up for their next mission – Intrepid is recovered and undergoes minor repairs and the standard recovery process to get it ready for its next flight!

Year 13, Day 130 (Explorer 6 Update!)

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Sean performs an EVA to verify the state of Explorer 6!

Everything looks fine out here! Explorer 6 seems to have held up just fine! The only major system we still need to worry about is the last stage, when we expose the LV-N Nerv engine!
-Sean

The mission specialist and chief scientist Glenica is next to head out!

What a view! It’s a shame we can’t stay longer!
-Glenica

Glenica’s continues her EVA, collecting various scientific data from Explorer 6’s extensive sensors.

That’s all of it! We should see if we have enough fuel to try transfering to the orbit of some of Jool’s other moons before we leave!
-Glenica

Year 13, Day 129 (Laythe Spaceport Design Announced!)

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Designs are (finally!) complete for the Laythe orbital refuelling and science station to be used by Discovery in its upcoming mission! Construction begins on the absolutely massive Jool Ultra-5 Rocket that will take the spaceport to orbit, and then carry it to Laythe.

The Ultra-5 should be a ridiculous sight, basically 5 Jool Rockets strapped together with an equally massive inter-planetary transfer stage at the top. When it launches, it will be the largest rocket ever launched.

Most of our engineers think our DSV type spacecraft are only going to get bigger – I won’t be surprised if this is the first of many of these massive rockets!
-Gene

Year 13, Day 128 (X-10 Laythe Spaceplane Launcher Construction)

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The X-10 Laythe Spaceplane is ready for testing on Kerbin (which will start soon.) Meanwhile construction begins on the Jool Rocket that will carry the X-10 into orbit, then to Laythe.

The only missing piece of the Laythe Landing project is the orbiting science station / refuelling depot for the crew once they arrive on Discovery. The Laythe Spaceport’s basic design will be heavily influenced by Duna Spaceport, with the main difference being the fuel type – the Duna Landers all use a standard LFO mix, while the X-10 uses a majority of liquid fuel, with LFO for orbital manuevering only.

There is also an ongoing debate on what to name the X-10 that will be sent to Laythe!

Year 13, Day 127 (Explorer 6 Enters Laythe Orbit!)

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After a journey lasting longer than 2 years, Explorer 6 finally arrives at Laythe! Automated systems thaw the crew – who slowly wake up!

“Wow, it’s been years? It barely felt like much of a nap!”
-Glenica

Explorer 6’s engines fire, and eventually circularize the orbit around Laythe!

“Mitster to Ground Control – I’m stepping through the hatch… “
-Mitster

“Oh wow! It’s beautiful!”
-Mitster

“Ground Control to Mitster – you’ve really made the grade!”
-Gene, Mission Control

Year 13, Day 110 (X-10 Laythe Spaceplane Announced!)

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KSEA announces the final draft of the X-10 Laythe Spaceplane! In development for longer than the engineers would like to admit, the X-10 is the most sophisticated (and complicated) spaceplane the space program has designed.

The mission that the spaceplane has been designed for is so unique that the KSEA Blueprint Division spent an inordinate amount of time detailing it so that everyone would remember what to do once the spacecraft finally arrived!

“Dibs! I can’t wait to land a spaceplane on a moon!”
-Jeb

The pilot program has seen an increase in applicants since the plans were released!

“We finally have a design for a spacecraft that can land on Laythe – we have a way to get crew to Jool and back… now we just need to design a spaceport for the crew to rest and refuel!”
-Bill