Meanwhile, another mission was undertaken, using a brand new spacecraft. The Beale 01 was the first of a line of interplanetary craft, targeting Eve and Duna and possibly beyond.
The main section
A Thor would take the first part to orbit. It was a heavily modified Gateway derived space station with enough supplies for a year. As well as a small science lab and a full science compliment.
Judith Kerman inspected the first segment after it had docked. The teams were not sure if they could get the drive section there without using fuel so they left the upper stage of the Thor attached in case they would need the fuel.
The drive section
Next up was the drive section. A brand new L201A Freya Block II would take the 40 tons drive to orbit.
Clean booster separation, rather than the juggle on the previous launch, it seemed that Freya was taking the 30-40 ton spot on the launch schedule. Orbital insertion left plenty of fuel for rendezvous.
This in itself was quite the juggle. The drive section had no control, hence the crew section undocked, docked with the drive section, then docked back to UKSS 01. Two drive sections were deorbited and the crew started running tests to bring the spacecraft up to speed.
The command section
The command section was powered by a Delta-A1 craft. It’s proven design was well capable of running a mission like this, it was also a known interior to this experienced crew. Commander Valentina, Chief Engineer Bill Kerman and Scientist Bob Kerman would be the first to travel to another planet.
Since KSC no longer had a Kerbal rated launcher in the 8-ton range they either had to waste a Thor or look to a commercial partner to take the payload to orbit. Turned out the Charon Heavy was the most affordable option.
The booster made a safe landing close to the desert facilities and would be repurposed for cargo launches.
They docked with the Beale 01 powered up the solar panels, laid out the course and after some final checks, they said goodbye to the station crew and thanked them for the good care of their spacecraft. They then laid in a course for eve and burned for the first mission to another planet.
It would take nearly 200 days to get there, but there would be enough science to be done on the way there.
The refill
One week later S007B Supply 05 started the chase and catch-up. It would bring additional supply and fuel for the long mission to Eve. The mission served two goals: it was the backup in case they got really hungry, but also meant they could practice the rendez-vous in solar orbit. This would be handy for the planned comet capture mission.
50 days into the mission the team did a status check-in and send in some images for promotional activities. So far the mission was doing great. Val had been running the numbers, the refill was no longer optional. Either they would capture it before Eve, or the mission would be reduced to a slingshot home.
After a little over a hundred days supply 05 caught up with them and docked just before releasing the Thor upper stage on a collision course with Eve. Docking was uneventful but tanks full of fuel and lots of food were not, the team was extremely pleased and decided to keep the supply attached for as long as possible.
Mission was go!
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