Week 1: Satellite Practice

It's been a busy week, my first day on the job went...well smoother then I expected.  I arrived at my office to find a someone in a bomber jacket passed out in front of my door, wondering why anyone would let a bum into the offices I quickly roused him and told him he couldn't sleep here.  Turns out it was Jebediah Kerman, one of the lead pilots and engineers on the team.  We'd actually talked before, I designed the boxes for his rocket junkyard business before he joined KSP.  I'd never met him personally but what I heard through the phone disturbed me.  Now seeing him up close and personal I understand why I felt that way.

Jebediah, or Jeb as everyone around here calls him, is more then a few staples short of a box.  The kerman's unhinged.  As I walked into my office he started telling me about his plans for the recently designed Kerman I, the rocket system dubbed a one rocket 'feline holocaust' by the media.  Jeb wanted to try and launch trees into orbit to see the effect of vacuum on plant life.  I quickly learned the last director had given Jeb full control to do what he liked with the program and it was Jeb's half brained schemes that lead to the cat incidents.  I wanted to fire him on the spot, but the thing about firing emotionally charged individuals while they are in the middle of an episode is that it usually leads to homocide.  I simply smiled and nodded and told him "it's an interesting idea," but I would "have to get back to him."  He smiled that crazy smile and practically waltzed out the door.

Jebediah Kerman- Engineer, Entrepreneur, Thrill Seeker and Kerbalnaut

Now as you may have heard Jeb hasn't been fired.  That's because I discovered that, though he's the craziest crazy straw in the pack, he is the Kerbal who is keeping the whole operation running.  He is everywhere with everyone and is personally responsible for both building the rockets and training the kerbalnauts, along with William "Bill" and Robert "Bob" Kerman.  He even insists on showing off for new recruits during their training, here is some footage of him in the centrifuge.

I don't know when it stops, I haven't gotten to the end yet either.

He is a vital part of KSP and is irreplaceable; besides a ton of our equipment comes from his junkyard.  I've heard that Bob and Bill are more level headed so I figure that the three of them can make decisions together and that way the real zany ideas will be shot down.  So far it's worked well, I haven't heard the word "interplanetary pine tree" come out of Jeb's mouth in days.  They also have helped come up with our latest project, a line of satellites to test out the Kerman I's ability to deliver payloads into orbit.

The design was already done before I first came into work and all they needed was the go ahead and a name.  I let the dice roll and gave the launch my blessing and proudly named it the Box 1.  Then I saw the design and decided to name these things after seeing what they look like.

Box 1a Satellite

The day of the launch came and I proudly proclaimed that this was a turning point in KSP to the media.  It wasn't 10 seconds after that the damn thing blew up on the pad.  I'm missing patches of hair from where pits of it set my head aflame, I'm sure by now you have seen the pictures in the papers.  Another lesson was learned, don't talk about it until you think you can get it right. After some redesigns the next day we launched the thing with out a problem.

Most of the following pictures haven't been released to the press yet so you, my humble followers, will be the first public viewers of this material.  Most of the video footage is grainy and not really useable except for scientific study but we were able to pull some of the stills for your viewing pleasure. I promise we will try and give you some more and better photos in the future.

Kerman I Lift Off With Box 1a Satellite

2nd Stage Camera Shot of Payload

What We Think is Box 1a, Taken by the Telescope at Kerman Academy of Sciences

The only problem we had with the Box 1 was that it didn't do anything but play Norman Kerman's Kraken In The Sky to be used as a tracking signal, I swear its the last time I let Bill choose how to track these things.  A day later I helped with a redesign with some scientific instruments added to allow the nerds in the lab to learn more about Low Kerbin Orbit. I dubbed the second satellite Box 2 and we loaded it up on the last Kerman I we had constructed in the VAB.  This launch was much more...muted in terms of press but it's still giving us things our egg heads will be pouring over for weeks.  This time we were able to get some up close and personal shots of the thing in a totally intentional fly by, and nothing else, made by its cousin Box 1 on top of the on board cameras.

2nd Stage Camera Shot of Payload, Just Before the Release of the Box 2a Satellite

Box 2a Taken by the Passing Box 1a in a Near Collis...erm I Mean Planned Rendezvous.

 All and all it has been a busy week, historic in that the first satellites every made by a kerbal are now orbiting our green blue ball of a world and that I didn't have to launch a single cat or was fired.  I think I am getting the hang of this rocket science thing. especially the angle parts, its like box building but with more explosions.  Next week we will try and go for putting our first kerbal in space and returning him to kerbin, maybe in one peice.  I hear some big politician is going to make a big thing about it before the launch, hopefully we can get some more funds if he raises a big enough stick about it.  I will keep you guys informed about the whole endeavor.

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Writers Note: All the images are screen shots taken with fraps, future ones will use the in game screen shot creator and video using fraps.  The other images are from timmon26's KSP related images.  Check him out, he is a great artist.