Delta 11 was placed on the pad for the ambitious mission to land on the Mun. As the crew was going through the pre-flight checklist the talked about the selected landing site near the small rover to investigate this strange Mun arch. “I wonder what it is made of,” Bob said.
After final checks, the go was given and the massive rocket took off the pad in a loud roar. The first 10 seconds went without any error, then a thruster on the Delta was accidentally fired as a leftover of the pre-launch procedure and knocked the rocket off course.
These are the types of situations where you are happy with Valentina Kerman as a mission commander. She left rocket control to Jeb who was wrestling the beast as she radioed in the situation and plotted an abort. The stayed in nearly horizontal flight, and managed to reach 15km and exceeded Mach 2. The eject system refused to work as well, so Jeb initiated a series of staging events leading to the deployment of the main chutes and dropping into the waters some 50 km from KSC.
The Poseidon tracked their profile and picked them up a few hours later. Shaken but alive. The first botched flight in a long time. The Mun would have to wait a bit.
“They have not been overly creative with the patches,” Jeb grinned.
One week later Delta 12 blasted off with no problem, the software problem known as sticky fingers had been resolved. With a clean bill of health and being the only fully trained crew for this mission, the same Kerbals rode the rocket to orbit.
It was a good insert, albeit a bit lower than the usual 300 km. Jeb, Bob, and Val looked at each other when they had finally reached orbit and pulled the Eagle from the cargo fairing. “This time it is happening for real,” Bob said.
They would fly for about a day and after some alignment arrive at the Gateway. Jeb and Bob boarded the lander, leaving Val to dock with Gateway station and wait for their return. She was there because no one else would be better in performing a rescue in deep space as good as she.
Bob and Jeb descended to East Farside Crater. The window for the primary landing site was gone and the polar one was too risky since it nullified the Gateway station as a rescue option.
20 minutes after the descent, the Eagle would touchdown with 782 m/s left in the tanks. Making Bob the first Kerbal on the Mun. “We take the first step in the footsteps of the ancients, let this be a great journey to find our origins, starting today,” Bob said. “I would have said something else,” Jeb called out as he descended the ladder. “What then?” Bob replied. “Oh shit,” Jeb said as he slipped from the last sport.
The next few hours were filled with crater science and setting up the science station when they discovered they had brought a solar panel too few.
Jeb performed some geology science, well, meaning he bashed a stone with a hammer until something chipped off.
They took off when Gateway was overhead, confident that they would catch up. Back in orbit, they would need RCS to rendezvous with the station. Margins were tight on this vessel. “Or, it’s your flying,” Bob said.
After meeting up with Valentina they would exchange stories and rest. “I don’t like the fuel numbers,” Valentia said. “We can transfer some from the station reserve?” Jeb suggested. And so it was done. Delta 12 took 100 m/s from station reserve and started its return voyage.
Val made a near-perfect reentry correction and left 27 m/s in the tanks, but the precision was uncanny. “Delta 12 we have you on scope, are you out of the plasma yet?” Then a deafening boom shook the control room.
“Jeb here, KSC Valentina just buzzed the tower on a Mun reentry”, sounded the cheeky voice of Jebediah and the room exploded in laughter. “Well done team,” Gene said.
Bill was going over the data from the downlink. “We need to refuel the landers,” he said. It will take 161 Ox 131 LF 90 Mono per lander, but how do we get it there?
That would be something to worry about at a later time. Tonight they would celebrate and drool over the science returned from the Mun.
KSC Archives 