Came up with this faster than I expected. Any comments? Faabio? Any words before you step into the capsule, in the event that Comrade Chief Designer doesn't scrub the launch due to a lack of satisfaction with the capsule problems?
PLAN PAVYLYVYCH, FALL 1960
Budget is 48 MB; will get more money next year.
Hmm.
PHASE ONE:
1 MB for 1 team on Sputnik research.
4 MB for 2 teams on Booster Stage research.
5 MB for 5 teams on Vostok research
Net cost: 10 MB
Remaining budget: 38 MB
PHASE TWO:
Check Vostok reliability.
IF Vostok capsule reliability is greater than or equal to 72%, go to PHASE THREE PLAN A.
IF Vostok capsule reliability is less than 72%, go to PHASE THREE PLAN B.
PHASE THREE PLAN A:
If the Vostok is deemed reliable enough to trust to a suborbital flight this season, we proceed with the manned suborbital launch.
Purchase 2 A-Series rockets for unmanned Vostok I launch and
scheduled manned Vostok II launch
Purchase 2 Vostok capsules for Vostok I and II
Net cost: 12 MB
Remaining budget: 26 MB
Schedule an unmanned orbital flight of Vostok (Vostok III, I believe) for Spring 1961.
Schedule a
manned orbital flight of Vostok (Vostok IV, I believe) for Spring 1961, to follow the unmanned flight.
PRIMARY CREW will be IVAN IVANOV*
BACKUP CREW will be TITOV
Go to PHASE FOUR PLAN A.
*Make your little son proud, comrade! (This is the Ivan Ivan Ivan played by Scottish Ninja, presumably father to the IVAN IVANOV I know of the future.

)
PHASE THREE PLAN B:
If the Vostok is NOT deemed reliable enough to trust to a suborbital flight this season, we scrub the manned suborbital launch.
Scrub Vostok II, the manned mission with Comrade Faaabio as the primary and Comrade Nikov as the backup. My apologies to them, but I will not risk their lives on hardware with what I deem an inadequate probability of success. The mission is intrinsically quite dangerous, and there is a good chance of the launch failing even if the capsule is at the maximum R&D safety rating of 76%. But that chance gets significantly worse as a function of reliability, and if it is below 72%, the risk is simply too high to accept.
Purchase 1 A-Series rockets for unmanned Vostok I launch
Purchase 1 Vostok capsule for unmanned Vostok I launch
Net cost: 6 MB
Remaining budget: 32 MB
Schedule an unmanned orbital flight (Vostok III, I believe) for Spring 1961.
Schedule a
manned suborbital flight of Vostok (Vostok IV, I believe) for Spring 1961, to follow the unmanned flight.
PRIMARY CREW will be IVAN IVANOV
BACKUP CREW will be TITOV
Go to PHASE FOUR PLAN B.
PHASE FOUR PLAN A:
Perform unmanned Vostok I suborbital launch, on schedule.
If Vostok I is a success, proceed with manned Vostok II mission.
If Vostok I has a failure which does not cause a hit to systems reliability (I
think unmanned failures don't cause such hits, but I'm really not sure about that detail of the game), proceed with the manned Vostok II. "Comrade Faaabio, we fixed the problem that killed the [robot/monkey/Thanasian prisoner/whatever]. Your chances are no worse than they were before- better, even!"
If Vostok I has a failure which causes serious negative effects for the reliability rating of the A-Series rocket or the Vostok capsule (i.e. one of those systems takes a serious reliability hit), THEN scrub Vostok II.
If Vostok II is a success we will proceed with plans for an orbital Vostok IV launch in Spring 1961. If Vostok II is a failure, we will downgrade Vostok IV to a suborbital flight.
Good luck, Comrade Faaabio!
PHASE FOUR PLAN B:
Perform unmanned Vostok I suborbital launch, on schedule.