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< welcome back, ~jumblesale >
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it's an auspicious day at the space centre.

the sun rises on day 2 promising more rocket launches and more science. we've got 146,629 space credits in the bank and a fresh barrage of recently discovered parts to send hurtling into the atmosphere.

we start by accepting the two remaining available contracts: one to escape the atmosphere and another to orbit Kerbin. Kerbin's atmosphere stops at about 80km above the surface which is something we could reasonably achieve at this stage. with the limited parts available however, it's unlikely we'd be able to achieve a stable orbit just yet.

we have a few other contracts to set distance, altitude and speed records. if we aim to escape the atmosphere we'll definitely break 150m/s and our altitude will go way above 3.5km so we should be pretty well set to clear all of these off today.

over at the VAB the engineering department have just taken a fresh shipment of parts. most promising of these is the hammer solid fuel booster.

the hammer delivers more than twice the solid fuel of the flea and more thrust as well. a couple of these boosters should be enough to send a payload far above the limits of the atmosphere.

the final rocket ends up looking like this:

the Untitled Space Craft II consists of three stages:

1. the first stage is the Untitled Space Craft I from ysterday with its goo container, parachute, command module and flea booster. we'll use this at the very end once we've cleared the atmosphere to give the craft and extra push up into space. at the bottom you'll notice a grey ring attaching it to the second stage. this is a stack separator. fitted with a small explosive, it's designed to (safely) decouple the parts of the craft when activated. staging is how we can jettison spent parts of the craft and is totally fundamental to building rockets
2. the second stage is a hammer solid fuel booster. there are four fins attached to this stage - these will make the ascent stable. without some form of aerodynamics, the rocket is liable to squirl uncontrollably as the thick atmosphere of Kerbal buffets the craft.
3. the final stage is a second hammer booster. this will fire on the launchpad to give the craft its initial lift and will be the first thing to get separated. separating stages also has the advantage of dropping useless weight meaning this stage will do the most work and produce the least lift.

our pilot for this mission will be the inestimable ~alilja. a quick look at their page reveals that they too are a fan of the things which ~karlen says. they're also on the web ring which is definitely an ok thing to be a part of. godspeed, brave tilder.

~alilja climbs into the command capsule and seals the hatch. this is going to be a big day for kerbalkind - the first craft to get above the atmosphere. ~alilja will be the first to see the planet from space, the first to see the curve of the planet and the whole continent laid bare below with firmament above and about an inch of Kerlington brand metal-style sheet material in between.

since the stakes are so high it's really important to have a good system of pre-flight checks before any launch. last time we forgot to check the staging so that's definitely going at the top of the list.

1. check staging.

ok staging looks good! 5 4 3 2 1 BLASTOFF!

immediately we see the craft start to tilt towards the VAB. huh. turns out we forgot to enable SAS. SAS is an acronym but what is stands for is a mystery which none of us will never know the answer to. what we do know is that SAS provides a kind of "stability assist system". what that does is keep the rocket pointing the way you've set it. without SAS enabled, the craft will happily go veering off course. there are two ways to provide SAS: through a sufficiently advanced probe core (we have none of these) or through an experienced pilot (we have ~alilja).

the hammer burns out at around 20km and ~alilja hits the staging to separate the spent booster.

the next hammer kicks in immediately sending the previous stage hurtling back towards the space centre where it will harmlessly hit the ground and explode. the ground crew make a big thing of hiding under their desks when this happens but it's kind of ridiculous. no-one's been hit by any shrapnel yet.

the rocket continues its ascent smashing all kinds of records on the way up. the faster the craft is moving, the more air is colliding with it and the more drag is being generated which slows it down. as we get up to speeds of 1km / second, these forces build up and begin to overheat the fins on the craft.

it's not enough to halt the craft though. the final stage is separated and the flea booster kicks in. around this point we perform a gravity turn. this consists of moving the heading of the craft towards the horizon. this gives us a trajectory which levels out instead of heading straight up. it's the only way we'll ever get into orbit, but for a suborbital craft like this it's more useful to prevent stress on the craft when it inevitably comes hurtling back down.

the flea booster spent, the ship is left to the forces of gravity. its momentum continues its arcing path upwards. ~alilja performs the set of reports the science team on the ground have asked for. as the first kerbal in space, they're keen to learn from the experience.

weird. I guess it's cold out there. with no atmosphere , space tends to be a pretty chilly place. fortunately for ~alilja there's plenty of insulation on the command module.

speaking of which, there's a narrow viewing section on the command module allowing ~alilja to get a couple of polaroids of the planet as they pass over it. these will make great souvenirs back on the ground.

returning from beneath their desks, the ground crew beak out the protractors and begin to plot the course of the craft. it's looking like a pretty steep ascent with the apoapse at 263km. the apoapse is the highest point on the orbit. once the craft passes this it will begin its descent back down to Kerbin. for reference, the required hieght of an apoapse to break free of kerbin's sphere of influence and send the ship hurtling into the uncaring vastness of space would be roughly much much more than 263km.

as ~alilja passes the apoapse they open a communication channel with the ground crew. ~alilja's voice is distorted and distant. "it's lonely up here," Kerbin press would later recount them saying, "is my trajectory looking ok?"

the craft begins its descent and soon starts picking up speed. as it hits the upper reaches of the atmosphere it comes into contact with thicker and thicker strata of air. viewers on the ground can see the craft hurtling back down like the fire of the gods raining upon the planet. it's clear something's wrong.

~alilja comes back on the radio but can't be heard above static and the sound of the command module shaking itself apart. oh god.

oh god.

session disconnected (terminal lost)
bye!!