Year 22, Day 183(New Spaceplane Transported to White Mesa Facility!)

October 18, 2022 sayburstuff Year 22 Carson, CTS-2 Pioneer, Gene, White Mesa, X-5 Program

The new crew shuttle Pioneer is complete, and ready to transport west to White Mesa!

“I’m glad we finished revamping the Crew Shuttles when we did… with the disaster at Spacedock we’re going to need extra vehicles on hand!”

-Gene

The crew shuttle is un-fueled, and protective covers have been put over the front heat shield as well as the rear engines! Carson will be flying the mission solo to White Mesa, where the crew program is based!

“The X-5 is airborne! That Crew Shuttle really makes this plane perform sluggish!”

-Carson

Carson slowly brings the X-5 around and heads west, flying past the space center!

“Pretty view from up here!”

-Carson

“X-5 checking in – aircraft performance…. nominal… crew shuttle seems to be holding up well!”

-Carson

The X-5 reaches its maximum altitude, and begins the descent toward White Mesa!

“I’ve passed the terminator into night… switching on internal lighting!”

-Carson

Carson brings the aircraft around and lines up with the White Mesa runway… about 11km from the facility!

“I’m in the pipe, five by five! Setting her down!”

-Carson

The X-5 touches down and comes to a full stop! Soon the aircraft will taxi to a hangar, where the Crew Shuttle Pioneer will be separated, inspected and prepared to launch on a Nebula Rocket! Pioneer‘s twin, the original Adventure, is already stacked on a Nebula Rocket, and is being prepared for a launch!

Year 16, Day 366 (X-5 Exploration Mission!)

July 19, 2020July 19, 2020 sayburstuff Year 16 Glenica, Kerbin, Mitster, X-5 Program

Mission Control has been detecting some strange radio transmissions west of the Space Center – in the desert! Mitster and Kimmy jump at the opprotunity to do something besides watching rockets get built!

“Let’s fire up the X-5 and check it out!”
-Mitster

“Let’s go!”
-Kimmy

“OK… maximum thrust – afterburners… burning!”
-Mitster

“This is the fastest aircraft KSEA has – if anything can find out what’s causing that signal.. it’s the X-5!”
-Glenica

Indeed – in the early days of the Kerbal States, the X-5 was regularly used to explore every meter of Kerbin! Once there were several facilities all across Kerbin… but no one seems to talk with them much!

The X-5 accelerates to nearly 1000 m/s easily reaching the west coast….

And reaching the desert coast!

“There sure is a lot of sand out here! Oh wait! There’s something down there! We flew past it we were going so fast!”
-Glenica

“I’ll do a barrel roll!”
-Mitster

“Ahhhhhhhhh!”
-Glenica

“That’s what I saw! It looks like an airstrip! Let’s check it out!”
-Glenica

“I’m not sure this will be a smooth landing… hold on!”
-Mitster

The X-5 sets down! Not only is there an airstrip, but there appears to be a rocket launching pad as well!

“Nice work! We’ll get a team out there ASAP… maybe we can start using the facility!” It’ll need a good name though….
-Gene

Year 4, Day 350 (X-5 Research Mission 1)

June 11, 2017June 11, 2017 sayburstuff Year 4 Anomalies, Kerbin, Mitster, Orlas, X-5 Program

x5 research missions.png

A new research mission to study Kerbin is launched. The X-5 will be taken out by Mitster and Orlas – recently returned from Eve! A Gravity Sensor is installed in the cargo bay.

“Here we go! Reaching optimal altitude for the X-5… 9000km!”

-Mitster

The X-5 flies over X5RM01-A – and Orlas notices something!

Looks like we made a mapping error – woops! The X-5 has already explored this canyon, and the Monolith that’s down there!

-Orlas

We better keep moving anyway… that looks like it would be a tricky landing!

-Mitster

X5RM01-B isn’t very far away, and Mitster takes the X-5 down for a landing. Orlas hops out, and checks the scientific instruments… then the jet takes off again!

Hey – will you look at that! One of the ground stations for communications – cool!

-Orlas

Mitster takes the X-5 down to X5RM01-C!

Certainly there’s some staff at that communications station that could have done this survey? Ah well. The X-5 takes off… heading north!

Better turn on the cabin heaters… it’s getting chilly!

-Mitster

“Ok – this is the site where orbital sensors indicated a strange anomaly. I’m going out to check it out!”

-Orlas

Oh wow! Mitster, get out and check this out!

-Orlas

Orlas runs toward what looks like a crashed … saucer of some kind!

Mitster puts on the parking brake and climbs out….

Then runs to meet up with Orlas at the crashed saucer!

“Wow! They’ll never believe this back at KSC! We better take lots of pictures and samples!”

-Orlas

It’s starting to get pretty late… so Mitster and Orlas take off, and head back to KSC.

Thankfully, there’s justenough fuel to reach the Space Center!

Orlas and Mitster hop out of the X-5 and rush to tell the others about their exciting discoveries! The X-5 is brought in to be refurbished.

Year 3, Day 56 – Kerbin Exploration

March 1, 2017March 1, 2017 sayburstuff Year 3 Anomalies, Bill, CTS-1 Adventure, CTS-2 Endeavor, CTS-3 Intrepid, KSS Crew Shuttle, Mitster, X-5 Program

The newly launched Kerbin Surveyor begins scans of Kerbin – right away several anomalies are detected! The X-5 is sent to investigate! Mitster and Bill fly there…. quite fast!

Sadly… they can’t find anything at the site indicated!

“We’re gonna need some more precise readings if we hope to find anything here! It might help to put a sensor package on the X-5 itself! ”
-Bill

Mitster returns the X-5 to base for refurbishment and the crew for refreshments!

Meanwhile, construction begins on two new crew shuttles – the Endeavor and the Intrepid! Along with Adventure this will raise the number of crew shuttles to three!

Year 2, Day 422

February 11, 2017February 11, 2017 sayburstuff Year 2 Anomalies, Bob, Mitster, X-5 Program

The X-5 blasts off, carrying Mitster and Robart to the next anomaly detected by the overhead satellites.

“Huh – readings indicate it’s down in that mountainous valley – this landing will be tricky!”
-Mitster

“Whew! Close one!”
-Mitster

“Huh. Look at that!”
-Bob

The two head back to KSC to share their findings – some Kerbals want to build research centers around the planet to study these strange anomalies!

Year 2, Day 390 (Mountain Anomaly Mission)

February 5, 2017 sayburstuff Year 2 Anomalies, Robart, Val, X-4 Jetplane, X-5 Program

The X5 takes off, heading west to the mountains to investigate the anomaly that satellites detected… the previous attempt to explore this region ended in disaster, when the X4 crashed! Val pilots the X-5 past the X-4 crash site, attempting to approach from a different direction!

Success! Val sets the X-5 down in a relatively flat area, about 1000m from the Anomaly!

“The air sure is thin up here… better put on my helmet! ”
-Robart

Wow! It’s pretty up here!
-Robart

“I found it! Wow! What could these things be? What could they mean? ”
-Robart

The two explorers head back to the KSC to share their findings!

Year 2, Day 385 (Pyramid Exploration)

February 2, 2017February 2, 2017 sayburstuff Year 2 Anomalies, Mitster, Pyramids, Robart, X-5 Program

Mitster and Robart take off in the X-5, heading west!

The X-5 seems to perform best at an altitude of about 6,000-15,000 – so Mitster keeps it in that range on the flight west. Tje X-5 maintains speeds of around 850 m/s, and even reaches a new aircraft speed record of 920 m/s!

“Ok – coming up on the coordinates… wow! Look at that, you can see the structures from up here!”

-Robart

“Let’s do a pass, then circle around for a landing!”
-Mitster

Robart hops out, as Mitster watches from the cockpit.

screenshot698

Eventually the two scout the pyramid site – how strange! No doubt pre-ogre Kerbal Civilization built these ages ago! Robart is able to translate some of the strange writing, and ancient form of Kerbalese:

“My name is Tut-Un Jeb-Ahn, king of kings: Look on my works, ye MIghty, and despair!”
-Ancient Pyramid Inscription

Confused, the two take several pictures and some samples, before heading back.

“What an odd place – further study is certainly needed!”
-Robart

The X-5 returns to the Space Center, having performed it’s mission perfectly! Once back, the existing X-5 is refurbished, and construction starts on a second!

Year 2, Day 372 (First X-5 Flight)

January 30, 2017 sayburstuff Year 2 Mitster, X-5 Program

Mitster volunteers to be the first pilot to fly the X-5!

“Ok – taking off! WOW! This thing has quite a kick!”
-Mitster

Mitster takes off the runway, and banks toward the island airstrip.

“Weeeeeee!”
-Mitster

“I’ve spotted the runway. I’m gonna fly past it, and circle around for a landing! ”
-Mitster

As he flies by the island, Mitster opens the science bay and runs the automated studies.

“Ok… setting up for a landing! ”
-Mitster

Mitster lines up for the landing… looking good!

Success! The X-5 sets down.

Mitster hops out, and poses for the cameras!

Year 2, Day 358 (X-5 Announced)

January 29, 2017January 30, 2017 sayburstuff Year 2 Blueprints, X-5 Program

After a very long design and simulation phase, the final X-5 design is released! The new design will hopefully allow KSEA to explore the far reaches of Kerbin’s surface. The first flight will be a test flight to the airfield, then a longer mission to the rumored pyramids in the deserts, west of the Space Center!