Kerbal Space Program

[coopasonic]

Arrow is pointing to the Kerbal standing next to the asteroid for scale.

[jztemple2]

Video game character becomes real 'Kerbalnaut' on Boeing Starliner

In the spaceflight simulation game Kerbal Space Program, if the rocket you design does not reach its desired orbit or destination, you return to the (virtual) hangar to try to correct your problems and then launch again.

It seems only appropriate then that the first real-life flight of a Kerbal — the green humanoid aliens that populate the video game — should be on Boeing's second attempt and first success at docking its CST-100 Starliner crew spacecraft to the International Space Station.

Jebediah Kerman, or "Jeb" as he is better known to Kerbal Space Program fans, is one of four original "Kerbonauts" in the game and now the first to actually be launched into space — in the form of a plush toy. Jeb officially flew as the "zero-g indicator" for Boeing's Starliner Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2), which arrived at the space station on Friday (May 20), the day after launching on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral and two and half years after the first Starliner test flight was cut short by software issues.

[Isgrimnur]

Still a few bugs

The docking was delayed again after a problem with the mechanism Starliner uses to dock with the station forced controllers to retract the system and then extend it a second time to reset it.
...
On the way to the station, two of Starliner’s 12 main thrusters failed shortly after launch and the spacecraft’s temperature control system also malfunctioned.

Boeing blamed the thruster problem on a drop in pressure in the thruster chamber. But the company also said the capsule’s flight control system automatically fired a third thruster as a backup, which completed the burn.
...
[Mark Nappi, a Boeing vice president who oversees the Starliner program,] said it was not entirely clear what caused the problem with the drop in pressure and added that since the thrusters are located on the service module, which is discarded during the return flight, “we may never know what the real cause of this is.”
...
Boeing also said it was continuing to monitor problems with the thermal control system, which is designed to keep the capsule’s systems at the right temperature as it flies through the vacuum of space. Spokesman Steve Siceloff said during a live broadcast of the docking that the company had been able to overcome the problem by making “manual adjustments to the cooling system that would normally be automated.”

[jztemple2]

Still a few bugs

This is the advantage that SpaceX had in flying the unmanned Cargo Dragon to work out bugs like this. Those problems that Starliner just had will no doubt cause more delay in flying the first manned mission. And imagine what NASA has to look forward to with the first Orion mission, especially since the first mission will be six weeks long.

[jztemple2]

Hmm, I think the few posts probably should have been over in the Space thread . I'll add them there.

[Rumpy]

That's awesome. Life imitating Art imitating Life.

[jztemple2]

Kerbal Space Program 2 is coming to Early Access! ... but don't get excited yet, the date is February 24, 2023

Fourteen minute video, not a lot of gameplay however.

[LordMortis]

How soon until I can watch 80 more hours of Scott Manley, my first ever "Let's play" host?

[Hrdina]

How soon until I can watch 80 more hours of Scott Manley, my first ever "Let's play" host?

Probably pretty soon, given that his comment was at the very top of the comments list for this video.

I think he's branched out into enough other things that he may not have quite as much time to devote to KSP2 as he did to KSP, but I'm sure he'll be there.

Fly safe.
(or not)

[coopasonic]

I'll be buying this instantly,. but I will be trying not to play it through all of Early Access, but we'll see.

[jztemple2]

I'll be buying this instantly,. but I will be trying not to play it through all of Early Access, but we'll see.

I have mixed feelings about KSP2 in Early Access. I remember how I felt I had shot myself in the foot when I got Prison Architect and started playing back when it was just early in EA, but I don't remember that from when KSP was new and I got it back when you had to order directly from Squad. So I see what they have to say will be available on KSP2 early on. I've looked at their road map, but I don't want to start enjoying some major feature only to have them decide to dump it for something else.

[Apollo]

The last time I wanted an upcoming game this much was in '96 for Civ II. I put nearly 2,000 hours into the original but haven't played it since this game was announced in 2019. So, in other words, I CAN'T WAIT!!!