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

[Simon_Jester]

Son of a bitch.

I'll figure this out. Eventually. Later. Much later.

[PeZook]

Son of a bitch.

I'll figure this out. Eventually. Later. Much later.

Don't worry, comrade. Just wait and see what will happen to Murcans next year

[fnord]

Digaditch must have been demoted - from the great PVO Strany to the Red Army. At least he should get one last hurrah in before exile. When is Group 3 turning up?

[PeZook]

Whenever comrade chief designer deems fit to request additional cosmonauts

Some extra information and 1960s GRAPHS:




Photo recon states for both sides.




Director rankings and prestige summary.

Launch windows for next season remain open for the following planets:
- Mercury
- Venus
- Saturn

[Scottish Ninja]

Though the docking tests were not a complete success, UZE is still optimistic; we still got the +1 to capsule safety from both flights, and the +5 for both tests. I know I've had plenty of unmanned docking tests where I got neither.

[PeZook]

While we relive the glouries of the space race, and honor it with our silly stereotype and mockery ridden game, it would be good to reflect on the fact that, weather permitting,today we shall observe the end of a certain iconic era in manned spaceflight.

As I am writing this, Shuttle Atlantis is proceeding through her final countdown, at T-31 minutes.

[HMS Sophia]

That would put her at 8 minutes to launch right now. It's a sad day for space flight.

[PeZook]

Countdown resumes in one minute. T-9 minutes.

"Today we are completing a chapter in a journey that will never end. The crew of Atlantis is ready to launch." - Chris Ferguson, commander STS-135

[PeZook]

"On behalf of every KSC crew past and present, we salute the astronaut corp for your courage and contribution to our knowledge of the universe."

The access arm is retracted now.

[PeZook]

Liftoff!

[PeZook]

That picture got messed up, but bah,whatever.

Pressing to MECO...looks like they made a good stage roll!

[Shroom Man 777]

ZENOBIA WINS!

[Simon_Jester]

[throws bagel at Shroomy]

I wish I could be watching.

[PeZook]

Washingtoff, Murca
The Hill

The rustic room inside the White Dwelling was very, very quiet. Johnny von Braun knew this sort of silence very well. It was carefully designed for use by very powerful and very important people, to throw off the people who wanted to meet with them, and make them more pliable for negotiations.

Or just to fuck with them - especially if the person in question was called for the meeting. Urgently. By a very angry-sounding presidential aide.

Johnny glanced at his watch. What could the President possibly want? Huh. Stupid question - obviously, Johnny would be trying to explain how he was planning to counter Zenobia and its very solid lead in the space race. No surprise there, the Director had been doing that for months now, in front of a very diverse array of politicians.

President Joanson himself has finally arrived, in a very foul mood. Or not. It could've been an act. It probably was. Or not. The man was a born actor.



"Director, forgive me, but I must be quick about this. I have called you here for one reason: We're at the end of 1966. Three years remain until the end of the decade, and the late president Teddy's deadline for landing on the Moon."

Joanson looked at the Director. And it was a very, very serious look.

"I need an honest assessment from you, director. Can you meet the deadline? Can you do this?"

[Eternal_Freedom]

"Jeebus willing, we can. We'll need a shitload of funding and the luck of Lucifer himself, but we can do it."

[PeZook]

"Your reports do not look promising. Zenobians are ahead of us in most important measures. What is your plan of action, director? What is your idea for beating them and accomplishing president Teddy's vision?"

[Eternal_Freedom]

"Mr President, we have begun our minishuttle program, and the boosters necessary to launch them into space. With sufficient funding these can be man-rated in time. We also need funds to design and man-rate a super-heavy-lift rocket, and the lander. Once those three things are done, we can fly to the moon. The real bottleneck here sir is money, not time."

[PeZook]

"I have been told there are additional needs as well, such as remote reconeissance. What sort of funding do you think the space program will need for you to be absolutely confident about beating the deadline?"

[Eternal_Freedom]

"My President, I don't see us landing on the Moon without at least another 300 MB. It just can't be done for less. We'll need 120 MB alone to begin the rocket development."

Johnny shifted uncomfortably.

"To be confident of beating the deadline, the cost could be as much as 500 MB, to allow for the expansion of the astronaut program, advanced lunar module training, rapid development of the shuttle, the boosters, the lander, the docking module and the rocket itself, as well as continued Lunar reconasaince."

"Give me 500 MB sir, and I'll land two men on the moon before the decade is out. Garunteed."

[PeZook]

President Joanson nearly gasped, but pulled himself together at the last minute. He tapped his pen on the stack of papers related to the space program one of the aides brought in the meantime.

"I...see. Thank you, Director, I will take this information into consideration while making my budget request before Congress this year. You are dismissed."

[fnord]

Is Shroomanski putting the boot into Pavelovich, PeZook?

[Simon_Jester]

I'd like to think that Shroomanski is broadly satisfied with Pavylvych's work to date- progress has been steady and the Zenobians have considerably more to boast about in terms of their space program than the Murcans do- what with the Venus probe and the successful Voskhod 1 flight.

I, out of character, am privately worried by the fact that the Murcans' minishuttle will be ready to fly a year before mine at this rate, and this latest budgetary thing has come at a very bad time, but I feel the Zenobian space program is basically on track at this time even though I'm not sure when it'd get to the moon.

Also out of character, I'm quite busy and preoccupied this weekend and moving on into the week, so I really need more time to think over my response to the voskhod reliability/cost thing.

One question. Is it "-10% reliability on the next launch," or is it "10% reliability, permanently?" Because if it's just "on the next launch," then screw that, I'll just send up the unmanned flight precisely as scheduled. And of course write some explanatory text about the problem so PeZook's description of it gets addressed.

[fnord]

From my experience in head-to-head games with my sister and Das Midget, that sort of penalty persists until fixed.

[Simon_Jester]

I knew it couldn't be that simple. I'll need to think about this then.

What's annoying is the announcer says "next launch;" am I not supposed to take her at her word? Sigh.

[fnord]

... in ZENOBIA??