X-10 Laythe Spaceplane

Year 17, Day 138 (Laythe Spaceplane Rendezvouses With Laythe Spaceport!)

sayburstuff Year 17 , , , , , , ,

With Discovery now docked at Laythe Spaceport, the X-10 is remotely piloted to Rendezvous! With it’s transfer stage still attached the spacecraft is very unwieldy – but it’s important to use every bit of fuel – refills are hard to come by in the Jool system!

Endeavor arrives at the Spaceport!

“This is going to be a tricky docking… I better EVA over and do it manually!”
-Jeb

“OK – I have stepped outside the hatch… rocket packs on… heading toward the X-10!”
-Jeb

“Oh wow guys! Are you seeing this!?”
-Jeb

“…roger that Jeb – we see you!”
-Bill

“This thing is a lot bigger in person!“
-Jeb

Jeb detaches the X-10 from it’s transfer stage, and pilots it to the station! The inline docking port makes the procedure a little more challenging than normal!

“We read a solid connection – good job!”
-Bob

With that, all the components of the Laythe Mission are in place! The crew will start checking systems, and prepare for their first landing!

Year 17, Day 140 (Laythe Spaceplane, Laythe Spaceport Arrive at Laythe, Discovery Docks with Spaceport!

sayburstuff Year 17 , , , , , ,

The next spacecraft in the convoy heading to Laythe is the X-Laythe Spaceplane Endurance! It’s engines fire and the spacecraft is captured into a circular orbit of Laythe!

Later in the day, the Laythe Spaceport also finishes circularzing Laythe! The final orbit of the Spaceport is intended to be 60k, so the engines fire again to change the orbit!

Success! The Spaceport is put in a 60k orbit. The transfer stage (and the only engine on the station) will remain in place until it’s fuel is spent by the X-10!)

“Discovery – our boards show Laythe Spaceport is in it’s required orbit – you are clear to rendezvous!”
-Gene, at KSC

“Affirmative!”
-Jeb

Discovery performs multiple maunevers as it moves to rendevous with Laythe Spaceport!

After a few orbits, Jeb pilots Discovery to within 100m of Laythe Spaceport!

“It was a good idea putting those great-big RCS thrusters on these DSV’s… it feels just like I’m manuevering an Aurora Crew Vehicle!“
-Jeb

“Almost… almost… got it! Docking complete! Discovery is now docked with Laythe Spaceport!!
-Jeb

“Alright – we need to start getting ready for the X-10’s arrival! Power down nuclear reactor… switching power supply lines to Station Power…. tape put over all throttle controls, engines disabled!”
-Bill

Year 17, Day 137 (DSV-2 Discovery Arrives at Laythe!)

sayburstuff Year 17 , , , , , , ,

After a very long journey, Discovery finally arrives at Laythe! With a loud “ding!” the cryogenic systems finish thawing all three Kerbals: Jeb, Bill, and Bob! Mission Control has started the insertion sequence to capture into Jool’s orbit – and now the engines fire to transfer into a Laythe orbit!

“Wake up guys! The computer says we’re here!!”
-Jeb


“I’m awake… I’m awake!!”
-Bill

“Me too!”
-Bob

“Mission Control – Discovery Crew here – we’re doing good! Assuming control of DSV – firing thrusters to enter Laythe orbit! “
-Jeb

Success! Discovery has circularized it’s orbit around Laythe, a pleasant 60k altitude above the moon!

“It almost looks like Kerbin!”
-Bob

In mere days the Spaceport, and the X-10 Laythe Spaceplane will perform similar maneuvers to enter Laythe orbit!

Year 17, Day 124 (DSV-2 Discovery Nearing Jool!)

sayburstuff Year 17 , , , , , , , ,

The Deep Space Vehicle Discovery is finally nearing Jool – and it’s watery moon, Laythe!

Along with it are two other components of the Laythe Mission, the X-10 Laythe Spaceplane, Endurance, and the hub of the entire mission, the Laythe Spaceport!

Jeb, Bill, and Bob remain in Cryo-Stasis – remote systems show they’re doing fine! The convoy of spacecraft arrive at Jool’ SOI tomorrow, and will perform circularize it’s orbit in 11 days!

Once there, the crew will thaw out, and prepare for the landing segment of the mission – a dangerous endeavor, as they’re the only Kerbals in the area!

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

sayburstuff Year 14 , , , ,

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 13, Day 399 (Laythe Spaceplane Endurance Launches!)

sayburstuff Year 13 , , ,

The Laythe Spaceplane Launcher takes off from Cape Kerman!

The launcher is a variant of the Jool Rocket.

The solid rocket boosters eject!

The protective fairing ejects next, as the spacecraft continues its orbital circularization!

Safely in orbit, the deep space communication dish deploys, and LCV-1 Endurance waits for its orbital window!

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

sayburstuff Year 13 , , , ,

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)

sayburstuff Year 13 , ,

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 110 (X-10 Laythe Spaceplane Announced!)

sayburstuff Year 13 , , , , , , ,

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