Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

[PeZook]

What missions do you want to schedule for spring 1960? Be precise, I am trying to set up a simulation here.

[doom3607]

The ones noted down as previously planned for the current fall that had to be pushed back because the goddamn pad blew up. Is that clear enough? Not sarcasm, I'm seriously asking.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I will schedule two unmanned Mercury/Atlas flights in Spring 1960, with two manned flights following in Fall 1960.

Crew lists were posted some time earlier, but I believe it was McCain/Kelly and Hardbeef/OhJesus.

I know you were addressing Doomy, but I'm putting this here to ensure it gets included.

Incidentally, how late can we scrub the manned flights?

[OmegaChief]

Pulling back the firing pin of his pistol the Commissar nods

Comrade von Evilstien, my decision is made, you will not be making the choice for the direction of the program this time, Comrade Pavylyvych will be acting head until I send my report to the superiors, you however will stay on as an Advisor, after you personally clear up Launch Pad B, I make myself clear da?

And Comrade Pavylyvych, prepare your plan, and do not fail, otherwise your places will switch again, we are clear da?

[fnord]

Comrade Cosmonaut Nikov is not worrying about the political shenanigans too much, just worrying about how to get shitfaced with monotonous regularity into advanced training.

[Hawkwings]

Cosmonaut Dostarovaski is wondering just how much training he missed out on, and whether he should head back to the classroom and simulators and graciously allow his fellow cosmonauts the glory of being the first corpse man in space.

[Simon_Jester]

Pulling back the firing pin of his pistol the Commissar nods

Comrade von Evilstien, my decision is made, you will not be making the choice for the direction of the program this time, Comrade Pavylyvych will be acting head until I send my report to the superiors, you however will stay on as an Advisor, after you personally clear up Launch Pad B, I make myself clear da?

And Comrade Pavylyvych, prepare your plan, and do not fail, otherwise your places will switch again, we are clear da?

Syrgy takes a deep breath.

"Thank you, Comrade Commissar. After so many setbacks and wastes of resources have befallen us, I cannot promise to beat the Murcans into orbit, not unless they experience more setbacks of their own. But the program will not fail; progress will be continuous, and I believe that we can regain the qualitative edge in good time. Here is my proposal for the second half of this year."

PLAN PAVYLYVYCH, FALL 1959:

For the love of Marx, cancel those manned launches!

Budget: 34 MB

5 Teams research on A-Series Rocket: 10 MB

5 Teams research on Vostok Capsule: 5 MB

Begin Booster Stage Program (long term R&D): 15 MB

Assign all cosmonauts to the Vostok program as one-man flight crews; obviously, none of the flight crews will be assigned missions this season. The manned spaceflight program will be delayed until such time as I can get R&D to the point where it wouldn't be more cost-effective to just send them up in coffins.

Total cost: 30 MB

Schedule no launches for Spring 1960; my earlier prediction that we could not get a manned capsule ready before 1961 without taking unconscionable risks seems borne out by our reliability problems. I still hold out some hope for Fall 1960, but that is the earliest I can expect a manned launch at this time.

The rest of our funds will be held in reserve- we don't have enough money to repair the pad this season, not without compromising critical development work. And there wouldn't be any point in doing so anyway, since there is no way in Hell that we should be doing any more launches in the upcoming season until we get the bugs hammered out of the rocket.

GAAAAH!

"As to future plans for the spring of 1960, I must consider the matter closely. I will have a plan for spring 1960 by tomorrow morning Moscow time*, but since I don't know how much of our budget will be left after these latest disasters, it will have to come in the form of a tentative plan."

*PeZook: I'll have something for you, but if there's a random event I can't predict or if our budget plummets compared to what it was last year, I don't know how to react to that in advance.

[Narkis]

Comrade Vladimirenski wonders when he will begin training for the motherland's glorious spaaaaaace program, and whether it was such a good idea to volunteer in the first place.

[doom3607]

Spoiler

I'm still confident the von Evilstein plan would have pulled through. If it worked for the Soviet Union, it'll work for me.

Also, I'm fairly sure the stuff we have is inherently inferior to the stuff the other guys have, so we can never have the quality edge. That true, PeZook?

[Narkis]

ooc: Depends on whether PeZook chose the basic or historical model for this LP. If basic, the only hardware difference is the name. Murcan and Zenobian hardware are otherwise exactly as hard. But if historical, then yes, Murcan stuff is more reliable and lighter, with rockets that can't lift as much weight, while our stuff is cheaper, heavier, more prone do dysfunction, and we have rockets that can carry more when they erect.

[Simon_Jester]

Spoiler

The differences are, however, marginal, and the quality of the space program is in large part independent of the hardware. It has a great deal to do with management, which to be blunt, Doomy, you were utterly fucking up. Given how the game works, if you'd tried to fly manned missions as carelessly as you flew unmanned missions, you'd have gone through our entire cosmonaut corps in short order and probably only gotten one, maybe if we were lucky two manned flights off.

Moreover, your plans look nothing like the historical Soviet plans; the Soviet didn't just fling as many rockets into the air as possible and vaguely hope that more of them made it up than exploded. They had individual designs plagued with trouble, like the N-1... but then, so did the Americans, with the Atlas. The Soviets had a significant advantage in heavy-lift boosters in the early 1960s, which effectively canceled out the American technological edge until the invention of the Saturn; their moon program foundered as much because of lack of funding and administrative problems as anything else.

Basically, you got too many of your ideas about how Russia works from video games, and not enough from the history books. While it is amusing to present them as the guys whose shoddy engineering kills half their cosmonauts, in practice being careless about rocket science is not a worthwhile way to go. Not in real life, and not in the game, where it's hard enough to get to the moon even if you aren't a reckless buffoon.

IN REAL LIFE, the Russian program was managed by Sergei Pavlovich Korolev up through the mid-sixties, and he was far more careful, less slipshod, and less gleefully indifferent to the destruction of payload after payload than you. He did unmanned tests, didn't launch systems before they were ready, and didn't treat his cosmonauts like vaguely annoying mayflies.

[Simon_Jester]

Slightly revised version of the plan, extended into Spring 1960:

(At some point, PeZook, the program will get complex enough, and the contingencies messy enough, that we can only run one turn per day. It sucks, but there's so many things that can go wrong and right once we're fiddling around with our heavy-lift rockets and such that I doubt we'll be able to plan ahead in detail two or three turns at a time. Especially since that cancels out our ability to react to random events)

PLAN PAVYLYVYCH, July 1959-July-1960:

Fall 1959: Budget: 34 MB

For the love of Marx, cancel those manned launches!

5 Teams research on A-Series Rocket: 10 MB

5 Teams research on Vostok Capsule: 5 MB

Begin Booster Stage Program (long term R&D): 15 MB

Assign all cosmonauts to the Vostok program as one-man flight crews; obviously, none of the flight crews will be assigned missions this season. The manned spaceflight program will be delayed until such time as I can get R&D to the point where it wouldn't be more cost-effective to just send them up in coffins.

Total cost: 30 MB

Schedule no launches for Spring 1960; my earlier prediction that we could not get a manned capsule ready before 1961 without taking unconscionable risks seems borne out by our reliability problems. I still hold out some hope for Fall 1960, but that is the earliest I can expect a manned launch at this time.

The rest of our funds will be held in reserve- we don't have enough money to repair the pad this season, not without compromising critical development work. And there wouldn't be any point in doing so anyway, since there is no way in Hell that we should be doing any more launches in the upcoming season until we get the bugs hammered out of the rocket.

GAAAAH!

Spring 1960: Budget: 4+?? MB

Roughly how much money will we be getting? I am going to assume a budget of 55 MB or so.

Unless A-Series rocket has reached max reliability, press ahead with A-Series rocket research. Maximum R&D is 85%; if reliability of rocket is approaching this figure, fund research to the following levels, as a function of reliability figure X:

Code: Select all

      X ≥ 85% -> 0 teams, 0 MB
85% > X > 80% -> 1 team,  2 MB
80% ≥ X > 76% -> 2 teams, 4 MB
76% ≥ X > 72% -> 3 teams, 6 MB
72% ≥ X > 68% -> 4 teams, 8 MB
68% ≥ X       -> 5 teams, 10MB

5 teams on Vostok capsule, 5 MB

Repair Pad B, 20 MB

Review reliability of rocket and capsule.

Schedule 1 unmanned suborbital Vostok launch for Fall 1960.

IF after this research both the A-Series rocket has reached 80% reliability AND and the Vostok capsule has reached 70% reliability,
THEN schedule a manned suborbital Vostok launch for Fall 1960. Select NIKOV as primary crew, TITOV as backup crew.
If the unmanned suborbital shot fails, we will simply scrub this launch.

OTHERWISE, IF the A-Series reliability is still less than 80% after the Spring 1960 research, and the Vostok reliability is still less than 70% after the Spring 1960 research, THEN schedule an unmanned orbital Vostok launch for Fall 1960.

That's all I can think of with real confidence at the moment. I would rather prefer to get a good look at the situation in Spring 1960 tomorrow and give you a final budget, but that should give us money for doing things in the fall and still proceed with the program at some reasonable pase.

[Simon_Jester]

Slightly revised version of the plan, extended into Spring 1960:

(At some point, PeZook, the program will get complex enough, and the contingencies messy enough, that we can only run one turn per day. It sucks, but there's so many things that can go wrong and right once we're fiddling around with our heavy-lift rockets and such that I doubt we'll be able to plan ahead in detail two or three turns at a time. Especially since that cancels out our ability to react to random events)

PLAN PAVYLYVYCH, July 1959-July-1960:

Fall 1959: Budget: 34 MB

For the love of Marx, cancel those manned launches!

5 Teams research on A-Series Rocket: 10 MB

5 Teams research on Vostok Capsule: 5 MB

Begin Booster Stage Program (long term R&D): 15 MB

Assign all cosmonauts to the Vostok program as one-man flight crews; obviously, none of the flight crews will be assigned missions this season. The manned spaceflight program will be delayed until such time as I can get R&D to the point where it wouldn't be more cost-effective to just send them up in coffins.

Total cost: 30 MB

Schedule no launches for Spring 1960; my earlier prediction that we could not get a manned capsule ready before 1961 without taking unconscionable risks seems borne out by our reliability problems. I still hold out some hope for Fall 1960, but that is the earliest I can expect a manned launch at this time.

The rest of our funds will be held in reserve- we don't have enough money to repair the pad this season, not without compromising critical development work. And there wouldn't be any point in doing so anyway, since there is no way in Hell that we should be doing any more launches in the upcoming season until we get the bugs hammered out of the rocket.

GAAAAH!

Spring 1960: Budget: 4+?? MB

Roughly how much money will we be getting? I am going to assume a budget of 55 MB or so.

Unless A-Series rocket has reached max reliability, press ahead with A-Series rocket research. Maximum R&D is 85%; if reliability of rocket is approaching this figure, fund research to the following levels, as a function of reliability figure X:

Code: Select all

      X ≥ 85% -> 0 teams, 0 MB
85% > X > 80% -> 1 team,  2 MB
80% ≥ X > 76% -> 2 teams, 4 MB
76% ≥ X > 72% -> 3 teams, 6 MB
72% ≥ X > 68% -> 4 teams, 8 MB
68% ≥ X       -> 5 teams, 10MB

5 teams on Vostok capsule, 5 MB

Repair Pad B, 20 MB

Review reliability of rocket and capsule.

Schedule 1 unmanned suborbital Vostok launch for Fall 1960.

IF after this research both the A-Series rocket has reached 80% reliability AND and the Vostok capsule has reached 70% reliability,
THEN schedule a manned suborbital Vostok launch for Fall 1960. Select NIKOV as primary crew, TITOV as backup crew.
If the unmanned suborbital shot fails, we will simply scrub this launch.

OTHERWISE, IF the A-Series reliability is still less than 80% after the Spring 1960 research, AND/OR the Vostok reliability is still less than 70% after the Spring 1960 research, THEN schedule an unmanned orbital Vostok launch for Fall 1960.

That's all I can think of with real confidence at the moment. I would rather prefer to get a good look at the situation in Spring 1960 tomorrow and give you a final budget, but that should give us money for doing things in the fall and still proceed with the program at some reasonable pase.

[doom3607]

OOC: But the cosmonauts are vaguely annoying mayflies! Or they ought to be, for the ridiculous confusion they try to inflict with their names!

Still OOC: And it's no fun being an Evil Overlord when you can be overruled... Can von Evilstein shoot himself or something? After, of course, hobbling Pavylyvych with a pickaxe?

[Vehrec]

Spoiler

A booster? This early in the game? You might as well paint "Earth orbit Rendezvous" on your forehead.

[fnord]

According to this 'ere BARIS fansite, specifically here, capsule skill is the paramount crew skill, for three reasons:

1 - Capsule stages are the most frequent in a given mission (suborbitals have 2, orbitals generally 5, and lunar attempts 10 or so)
2 - Chance of mission success is simply the product of all the reliability chances of each stage, and the appropriate crew skill directly boosts the reliability of the affected stage - so a Capsule 4 command pilot (such as Comrades Nikov and Karzanovski) adds +4% to the raw capsule reliability (I'm unsure if it maxes at 100% or something less).
3 - Capsule cockups have the greatest chance to kill someone

So for an orbital, non-EVA, flight that has managed to get 'er up without proceeding to crap itself, on a capsule with a base safety factor of 92%, in the following three scenarios:
1 - Comrade KARZANOVSKI, Capsule 4
Per-stage chance 96%, overall chance of unblemished success 81.5%, failure chance 18.5%

2 - Comrade IVANOV, Capsule 2
per-stage chance 94%, overall chance of unblemished success 73.4%, failure chance 26.6%

3 - Comrade FUKOFFYABICH, Capsule 0
per-stage chance 92%, overall chance of unblemished success 65.9%, failure chance 34.1%

Same capsule, same mooks, successfully in orbit, making a lunar flyby attempt (10 capsule stages)
1 - KARZANOVSKI - overall chance 66.5%, failure chance 33.5%
2 - IVANOV - overall chance 53.9%, failure chance 46.1%
3 - FUKOFFYABICH - overall chance 43.4%, failure chance 56.6%

[Simon_Jester]

Da, comrade Nikov, this motivates my great faith in your skills.



Oh, and Dr. von Evilstein?

Syrgy Pavylyvych leans close to you. His eyes narrow and an angry light dances in them. He hisses to you: "Herr Doktor, I have been to Zyberia. I spent several months in the Kylhima gold mines once upon a time. Do you really want to find out which of us is more dangerous with a pickaxe?"
Spoiler

A booster? This early in the game? You might as well paint "Earth orbit Rendezvous" on your forehead.

It's an option I'm very seriously considering.

Also, I can use boosted A-Series to do many of my orbital launches. Also because I had some money floating around and why not?

[fnord]

No problem, Comrade Operations Director Pavelovich, you give me a rocket 98%+, and a capsule 93%+ reliability, and I'll fly the bastard to the Moon and back. Add in a competent LM crew and good LM, and we might even beat the never-to-be-sufficiently-damned Murcans.

if not, well, send Comrade Fukoffyabich.

[Simon_Jester]

I am revising the slated astronaut roster for the proposed, HYPOTHETICAL, fall 1960 manned Vostok suborbital launch:


IF after this research both the A-Series rocket has reached 80% reliability AND and the Vostok capsule has reached 70% reliability,
THEN schedule a manned suborbital Vostok launch for Fall 1960.

TITOV is primary crew. DOSTAROVSKY is the new backup crew.
If the unmanned suborbital shot fails, we will simply scrub this launch.


OTHERWISE, IF the A-Series reliability is still less than 80% after the Spring 1960 research, AND/OR the Vostok reliability is still less than 70% after the Spring 1960 research, THEN schedule an unmanned orbital Vostok launch for Fall 1960.

[Simon_Jester]

REVISED PLAN PAVYLYVYCH, July 1959-July-1960:

Fall 1959: Budget: 34 MB

For the love of Marx, cancel those manned launches!

5 Teams research on A-Series Rocket: 10 MB

5 Teams research on Vostok Capsule: 5 MB

Begin Booster Stage Program (long term R&D): 15 MB

Assign all cosmonauts to the Vostok program as one-man flight crews; obviously, none of the flight crews will be assigned missions this season. The manned spaceflight program will be delayed until such time as I can get R&D to the point where it wouldn't be more cost-effective to just send them up in coffins.

Total cost: 30 MB

Schedule no launches for Spring 1960; my earlier prediction that we could not get a manned capsule ready before 1961 without taking unconscionable risks seems borne out by our reliability problems. I still hold out some hope for Fall 1960, but that is the earliest I can expect a manned launch at this time.

The rest of our funds will be held in reserve- we don't have enough money to repair the pad this season, not without compromising critical development work. And there wouldn't be any point in doing so anyway, since there is no way in Hell that we should be doing any more launches in the upcoming season until we get the bugs hammered out of the rocket.

GAAAAH!

Spring 1960: Budget: 4+?? MB

Roughly how much money will we be getting? I am going to assume a budget of 55 MB or so.

Unless A-Series rocket has reached max reliability, press ahead with A-Series rocket research. Maximum R&D is 85%; if reliability of rocket is approaching this figure, fund research to the following levels, as a function of reliability figure X:

Code: Select all

      X ≥ 85% -> 0 teams, 0 MB
85% > X > 80% -> 1 team,  2 MB
80% ≥ X > 76% -> 2 teams, 4 MB
76% ≥ X > 72% -> 3 teams, 6 MB
72% ≥ X > 68% -> 4 teams, 8 MB
68% ≥ X       -> 5 teams, 10MB

5 teams on Vostok capsule, 5 MB

Repair Pad B, 20 MB


Review reliability of rocket and capsule.

Schedule 1 unmanned suborbital Vostok launch for Fall 1960.

IF after this research both the A-Series rocket has reached 80% reliability AND and the Vostok capsule has reached 70% reliability,
THEN schedule a manned suborbital Vostok launch for Fall 1960.

TITOV is primary crew. DOSTAROVSKY is the new backup crew.
If the unmanned suborbital shot fails, we will simply scrub this launch.


OTHERWISE, IF the A-Series reliability is still less than 80% after the Spring 1960 research, and the Vostok reliability is still less than 70% after the Spring 1960 research, THEN schedule an unmanned orbital Vostok launch for Fall 1960.

That's all I can think of with real confidence at the moment. I would rather prefer to get a good look at the situation in Spring 1960 tomorrow and give you a final budget, but that should give us money for doing things in the fall and still proceed with the program at some reasonable pase.

[PeZook]

I am not demanding plans two turns ahead, I already wrote the game will be a lot slower now that the complexity is starting to rise, so we'll be doing one turn at a time, even if nothing much happens - because so much depends on reliability rating etc.

Just remember that in status updates, I am showing you program reports WITHOUT THE SEASON'S RESEARCH FACTORED IN.

As for Eternal Freedom's question, launches can be scrubbed at any time before you press the end turn button in the season they're supposed to happen in.

EDIT: I am also reminding everyone they need to manage their personnell. I will not correct for omissions now, so if you fail to assign astronauts to proper programs, you might find yourself unable to fly your desired missions.

Also, when saying "I schedule a manned/unmanned mission" it would do well to specify the TYPE. It will become crucially important in just a year, because there's so many mission types to fly. For now I assume you want one unmanned suborbital and one orbital, but I will also cease to correct for that.

Just a warning

[Simon_Jester]

If I give instructions in the form of conditional statements about reliability ratings for a turn, will you follow them, PeZook?

EDIT: In that case, simply run through my plan for Fall 1959, and I'll work out Spring 1960 in due time.

[PeZook]

If I give instructions in the form of conditional statements about reliability ratings for a turn, will you follow them, PeZook?

EDIT: In that case, simply run through my plan for Fall 1959, and I'll work out Spring 1960 in due time.

Yeah, if you go to the trouble of specifying those conditions, I will follow them

I'm just saying there's no need to, since I will be letting you decide on a per-season basis.

[Simon_Jester]

If I give instructions in the form of conditional statements about reliability ratings for a turn, will you follow them, PeZook?

EDIT: In that case, simply run through my plan for Fall 1959, and I'll work out Spring 1960 in due time.

Yeah, if you go to the trouble of specifying those conditions, I will follow them

I'm just saying there's no need to, since I will be letting you decide on a per-season basis.

I might make go/no-go decisions on the basis of what the reliability rating is after the R&D on a rocket, though.

Thank you.

[PeZook]

CHAPTER 4: OW! MY CAPSULES!
Time is: Spring 1960

MURCA

[/size]

THE CAPE

"Director! Oh Jeebus, Director, I'm so glad you're here!"

Johnny von Braun got out of the Geepers he was using to inspect the launch pads, where two Atlas rockets were being prepared for launch. Atop them sat two brand new Mercury capsules, being readied for the season's unmanned orbital launches. Ironhowler was decently pleased with their progress, but he said MASA had to have a significant success soon. Otherwise Congress might cut funding or close the program altogether, the President said. Well, at least he didn't angrily cuss Johnny out anymore, not once since people across Murca could tune in to listen to Bitchin' Rock and Roll being blared from orbit.

"What is it, Sam?", he asked his advisor

"What, didn't you hear? We have a defecator!"

"Mein Gott!", the Director shuddered, "Can the stains be gotten out?!"

"What? Oh! Right, hahaha. No, I misspoke. COLON just informed us they have a defector from the Zenobian side. He brought everything! Rocket plans! Reliability figures! Information on amusing and very dangerous political games within the Zenobian program! EVERYTHING!"

Mein Gott, the old fool finally made someone snap!, von Braun thought to himself with glee. Yes! Information from the other side would finally boost his people's morale! Murca would surely triumph now!

"Lead on, Sam!"

Before the duo could enter the administrative building, they were accosted by an astronaut - this...Fax Modem Jr. - in his flight suit and everything.

"REPORTING FOR DUTY SIR I AM READY TO FLY STOCKED COCKED AND LOCKED AND READY TO ROCK SIR!"

Von Braun frowned. What was it with this day? He just got the greatest news, and people kept interfering, "Wait, didn't you try escaping the hospital the last time?"

"YES SIR BUT NOW I HAVE ALL THE PROPER PAPERS SIR WHEN DO I FLY?"

"Stop speaking in all caps"

"Oh. Sorry, sir."

"Second, report to the astronaut facility. You'll be getting your Fall flight assignments soon."

"YES SIR!"

"I said cut it out!"

The astronaut was nowhere ot be seen, though. For someone who's lungs got almost burned out by rocket fuel, he sure ran fast.

Ah, such enthusiasm.

Wasting no more time, Johnny von Braun called a meeting in his office, to review the new information - and, of course, the copious progress reports on MASA's programs.

Code: Select all

Current funds: 78 megabucks

Current astronaut roster: 
MODEMJR - CAP 3, LM 0, EVA 2, DOCK 1, END 2
FLASHHEART - CAP 1, LM 0, EVA 4, DOCK 1, END 1
CUNTSER - CAP 3, LM 3, EVA 1, DOCK 0, END 1 
MCCAIN - CAP 4, LM 1, EVA 2, DOCK 0, END 1 
KELLY - CAP 3, LM 1, EVA 0, DOCK 2, END 2 
HARDBEEF - CAP 3, LM 0, EVA 0, DOCK 1, END 2
OHJESUS - CAP 4, LM 1, EVA 0, DOCK 1, END 1

Programs running: Explorer, Atlas, Mercury

Launch pads: 2

Scheduled missions: Launch Pad A, unmanned suborbital, Mercury/Atlas
                            Launch Pad B, unmanned earth orbital, Mercury/Atlas

MURCA

[/size]

BAIKONUREK

A dark and shadowy figure snuck around the development labs. It went straight for the file cabinets storing copies of the technical documentation.

Ja...one little prick, and that foul Zenobian will be out of mein hairren!, it thought.

The space agency's recent success had prompted the Politburo to vastly increase their funding. von Evilstein's backers in the Central Comittee have managed to convince the General Secretary that destruction of that launch pad was immaterial. But since the damned comissar used his political authority to place that damned Zenobian in charge, all of von Evilstein's genius would go to waste! The Murcans would have all the glory!

For the good of the space program, the Zenobian had to be removed.

A small and deft change in one of the significant figures later was all it took. Tomorrow, things would start to change for the better.

-------------------------------------

"Ready for test!", the technician exclaimed. Power was applied to the Vostok capsule's gyroscopes, which began to spin up. Suddenly, with a screech of metal and a rather loud bang, two out of three gyros failed explosively. Pieces of expensive machinery scattered all around the test setup, massacring not just themselves but also cockpit instrumentation of the prototypes.

"Cancel the test! Cancel the test!", yelled Syrgy Pavylyvych. What could have gone wrong? What could have gone wrong?!

Later on, investigation would reveal a rather basic arithmetic mistake in a crucial technical specification for the two gyros. A specification bearin Syrgy Pavylyvych's signature under it.

Code: Select all

Current funds: 92 megabucks

Current astronaut roster:
KARZANOVSKI - CAP 4, LM 0, EVA 0, DOCK 1, END 2 (VOSTOK/V)
IVANOV - CAP 4, LM 2, EVA 0, DOCK 1, END 1 (VOSTOK/IV)
FAAABIO  - CAP 2, LM 0, EVA 2, DOCK 0, END 3 (VOSTOK/I)
DOSTAROVASKI - CAP 2, LM 0, EVA 1, DOCK 1, END 3 (VOSTOK/III)
IVANOVICH - CAP 2, LM 1, EVA 3, DOCK 2, END 3 (VOSTOK/VI)
NIKOV - CAP 4, LM 0, EVA 2, DOCK 0, END 2 (VOSTOK/VII)
TITOV - CAP 3, LM 1, EVA 1, DOCK 0, END 1 (VOSTOK/II)

Programs running: Sputnik, A-Series, Vostok, Booster stage

Launch pads: 1

Scheduled missions: None

Notes: My oh my! Zenobian defecating traitors, sabotage of the vostok program! And what will the central comittee say about comrade Omeganski's decision? Tune in later for another exciting episode!

As you can see, Zenobia managed to catch up somewhat in reliability thanks to the freshly reeducated scientists being released by the Gulag, but one of them escaped and thus Murca will enjoy R&D bonuses. dr. von Evilstein's deft and undetectable sabotage has also set the Zenobian manned capsule program back to Murcan levels.

The race towards a manned launch is indeed going to be close!

Also, comrade Nikov is starting to get angry with the constant delays of the manned spaceflight program.