Part 8: Mission: Orbiter-3

This was our secret weapon, what the engineers had labored over. A true guidance computer to help us overcome our steering difficulties.



It was named "Mechjeb", in memory of Jebediah Kerman. And it was going to take us places.



With pilot Hergun Kerman in the capsule, an ambitious orbit, high and circular, was planned. Hergun's primary purpose was not to fly it but monitor the equipment and only take control if the system lost all power.



Mechjeb was switched on and the engines activated. But almost immediately after taking off, they stopped.



Then they engaged again and began to initiate what appeared to be a turn. Hergun, upon feeling the turn begin, activated the RCS and commented "It's a little shaky, HQ. RCS engaged to steady it." Mechjeb was programmed to include the RCS in its maneuvers.



The turn continued, and it wasn't a wild flailing, but a careful, controlled, turn-albeit one that occurred at the wrong. "RCS working fine", was Hergun's response, followed by, after clarification that wasted precious seconds, "It's tilting a little."



The rocket's nose turned downward, and we knew right then that Hergun's fate was sealed.



Hergun himself apparently did not. While it began to tumble, his last words were "The engines are still going, so it isn't them."



Hergun's end came much more swiftly than Jebediah's. But it was an end nonetheless-there was very little left of the rocket afterwards. This made the analysis hard at first for what went wrong mechanically.



Then we found it on the Mechjeb logs in the base. The planned 250 km orbit (which may have simply stranded Hergun there and killed him that way) was messed up and replaced by a .250 km orbit. Thus Mechjeb thought it was already in space and beginning an "orbital burn".

Although the loss of the rocket was due to this error, Hergun's performance played a role in causing his death. There was at least a chance of survival had he switched off Mechjeb and followed the procedure of cycling through stages while keeping the nose upward before parachuting down in the capsule, but he cluelessly sat and let it kill him. Hergun also had no situational awareness, as the capsule window was small and it was exceedingly unlikely he looked through it at all.

We have learned to always abort immediately at low altitudes and to thoroughly check Mechjeb before activating it. But it remains a bitter lesson.