Part 6: Mission: Skybreaker-6 and Orbiter-1

While the fight over the "cheaper, efficient" solid and the "precise" liquid boosters for the crewed orbiter continued, we sent the unmodified Skybreaker, piloted by Bob Kerman, up on one last trip.



Bob Kerman was under orders to fire until he had no fuel left, and it showed in that the flight path took it farther away from Kerbin than the previous capsule. When he neared the top of the arc, then he would carry out the special mission.



That was to exit the capsule. Bob obeyed, but was none too happy about it. With little to do except hold on and prove that the suit worked (it did), he returned inside quickly.



Next up was Orbiter-1, the supposed economical version of an orbit-capable launcher. A Skybreaker with solids slapped on, its boosters worked fine at first, but ran out quickly. With the remaining fuel, pilot Orlong Kerman was unable to get the clunky stage into anything except a really high suborbital arc over Kerbin that took it from night into daylight.



Of course, he at least had a lot of fun trying to.



It amazes me how Kerbals can take the quite nasty g-forces they experience upon deceleration, and how it didn't spoil his happy mood.