Kerbal Space Program Mission #1

Experimental Test Launch 1.
I have received some initial feedback and two votes in person that sending Josh’s Kerbal astronaut would be ‘funny’. Congratulations, Josh Kerman, you have been volunteered for the first official KSP mission!

Our local hero.

Day 2

Active project: Experimental Rocket Project

Next mission: Experimental Test Launch #1

Selected vehicle: Experimental Rocket I

Assigned crew: Josh Kerman

It's morning on Kerbin.

Now that this space program is up and running, our main menu at the Kerbal Space Center is tracking two new resources, Funds and Reputation. Funds are spent building ships and gained when its parts are recovered. Contracts are mission objectives generated by Mission Control, their difficulty and reward value based on our Reputation, and give us more Funds and Reputation when completed.

(Actually, these are now in effect because I updated KSP from v0.23 to v0.24 after the last mission, but it fits in quite nicely with our premise).

For the most part I wont be delving into this in detail as the main draw of this play-through will be planning our own missions. I will pick contracts that mesh with our planned missions and only bring it up when relevant. Right now, our main Contracts are to reach space and get into orbit, so let's get Josh strapped into the command module and roll our new rocket onto the launch pad!

Same plan as before, we're just going a lot higher this time. Five... Four... Three... Two... One...

Successful liftoff. I've instructed Josh to put a little more acceleration into the initial burn to reach 100 m/s quicker, which he doesn't seem to enjoy.

Josh was absent when we voted on this mission's crew.

He really doesn't seem to enjoy any of this.

Fuel finally cuts out at an altitude of about 45 kilometers, out in upper reaches of the planet's atmosphere.  Josh's trajectory, however, will carry him out to 131 km, well beyond the extent of the atmosphere.

And the papers want to know who shirts you wear.

Here's a projection of the rocket's flight path over planet Kerbin. Looks like this mission is a success!

We're getting some amazing images of the planet for the first time from space.  Josh Kerman, as the first of your kind to travel beyond the reach of your home planet, what's your reaction to such a phenomenal event?

In space nobody can hear you totally lose it.

...Perhaps we should switch back to the external cameras.

Our latest experimental rocket reaches its projected maximum altitude of 131,000 meters, before gravity brings it down again. On the way back an interesting effect of wind resistance is encountered: as the rocket plunges into the lower atmosphere, friction slows it down by several hundred meters per second, heating the vessel red-hot and igniting the surrounding air.

Remember National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation? Well think of the  rocket as the sled and the air as that hill and the snow and the pavement.

Currently our components can handle these kinds of temperatures without issue, but we still request that Josh waits until under terminal velocity before deploying the chute.

In retrospect, three more empty tanks increases the weight only a little bit. 

It's not a structural fault, it's a design feature.

Again, rocket engine collapses on impact.

But hey, the rest of the vessel again remains intact.  Josh Kerman lands just over the hills from the space center and lives to bask in the glory. Nice job, Josh.

After completing that mission and we've obtained a good amount of science from the astronaut's experience and the recovered components, giving us enough research value to develop some new parts. 

There include some new sizes fuel tanks, a slightly smaller but more maneuverable engine, some bigger and smaller solid engine boosters, a 'decoupler' and a science experiment component. I'll review these parts today while and present some new experimental rockets incorporating them tomorrow.

Once those rockets are in production, our next goal will be to utilize this new technology and take a stab at performing some orbital flight paths.

So, we don't have a rocket yet. But whatever it is, do we have a volunteer to pilot it into orbit?