Queen Raidne + Kerbal Space Program

[Queen Raidne]

It's like Florence + The Machine... only with more explosions.

---

I started a new career mode on Kerbal Space Program today. I'll share it with you guys for no earthly reason. I've got some mods installed, and if you're really very curious, I could tell you what all of them are.

KSP in a sentence or less: You make rockets and fly them around in a Sol-like system, if you can even make it out of Kerbin's atmosphere.
Career Mode: Instead of using any part you'd like, you only have access to certain parts, and have to do "Science" to unlock new parts.

---

After getting the science from collecting a sample of the launchpad, I decided to make a proper rocket.

I present Rocket 1:

3 Stages. Booster, Liquid-fuelled main stage, and re-entry capsule.

Which managed to make it to orbit! Although it was an awkward North-South orbit rather than an East-West one.

[hider=Oh, and I got some Science.

Which I used on parts to get me even more Science.

With new parts available (I was especially excited about the new Science part [I also got some fins! Yay stability!]), I christened Rocket 2.

Rocket 2: Now even longer!

3.5 stages: Boosters (since they fire at the same time as the lifting rocket, I count that as 1/2 a stage), Lifting rocket, Orbital rocket, and Re-entry capsule.

Those fins did a great job of keeping the rocket upright midflight. I'm not being sarcastic at all.

But I made it to orbit again.

And did more Science

At this point, I was a little stuck. I didn't have the parts to easily get me near the Mun or Minmus (both moons of Kerbin), nor did I have the Science to get them. And I couldn't send another rocket into Kerbal orbit; I'd already mined all the science I could get from that. Then I had a brilliant idea. I'd send a robot probe outside of Kerbin's gravity well, and I only needed to point it straight up to do it.

May I present Kaputnik 1. I fully expect it to explode.

[mg=http://i.imgur.com/aM7Bz9t.png]
3.5 Stages: Six Boosters (1/2 stage), Lifting Rocket, Trans-Orbital Rocket, Extra Rocket Just in Case

The key to my plan was to launch at twilight. At twilight, I'd be rocketing away from Kerbin's direction of travel, and therefore I'd use minimum delta-v (that's a fancy term for thrust, more-or-less) to escape Kerbin's gravity well.

It surprisingly did not explode.

The orange one is Kaputnik 1's orbit. Light blue is Kerbin's orbit.

[Not pictured: The mad stacks of Science that I got.]

With new, giant boosters, I could finally get near the Mun. So I designed Rocket 3 to do just that.

And it was glorious.

3.5 stages: Boosters (1/2), Lifting rocket, Orbital rocket, and Re-entry capsule.

...even if I did accidentally launch it into an orbit tilted by an entire 8 degrees from the plane of the Mun's orbit. Whoops!

But I managed to do a Munar flyby!

And I managed to get back into Kerbin's atmosphere with the same burn!


Ooooh! Pretty.

My parachutes deployed perfectly when I got back to Kerbin. And my landing site was a mountain! I hadn't done Science on a mountain yet! The only problem was that mountains are notoriously steep.

And Rocket 3

...and then it exploded (well, okay, only the extremely valuable Science canister parts exploded, but Galaxy Quest references make up for it).

I did get *some* Science from it.

So I had to commission Rocket 4 to perform Rocket 3's job. Again.

There were many differences in design!

3.5 stages: Boosters (1/2), Lifting rocket, Orbital rocket, and Re-entry capsule. Not pictured: Differences in design from Rocket 3.

Rocket 4 did Rocket 3

In a desert! I haven't done Science in a desert yet!

And then the game wouldn't let me save, or get to the main menu, or quicksave (f5), or quick load (f9). So Rocket 4 may or may not get erased from all time.

With that cliffhanger, I leave you until my next update! Oh, and the first person to respond gets a rocket named after them.