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

[LaCroix]

Would that be because Comrade Kerman is breathing, perchance?

Wider than he usually does...

[Simon_Jester]

Sigh. I need to game this out before I'm sure, but I just *will not have time* today, not until late. If anyone with a copy of the game can look at this, the basic questions are:

-For joint launch LM tests, are the "orbital insertion" and "hardware power-on" stages rolled against the reliability of the LM unmanned?

-For historical launch LM tests, what do the stages rolled prior to trans-lunar injection look like? I'd think it would just be "Launch, Orbital insertion, orbital activities, docking," instead of "launch, orbital insertion, power-on, launch, orbital insertion, orbital activities, docking."

[Simon_Jester]

Author's Note: Well, I worked out the odds, and here goes nothing...

Planetary Landing Facility
Baikonurek Cosmodrome
February 2, 1974

Syrgy Pavylyvych leaned on his cane, watching the engineerskis do a static test of the lunar lander. They'd shaken, they'd rattled, they'd seriously considered rolling it to emulate launch pressures. And now...

"Test battery one."

"Telltales... red."

"Engage backup relays."

"Not responding, I have no function."

"Not again!"

"Screw it, we need to run the rest of the test phase!"

"No, don't!"

One of the engineerskis marched up to the lander and gave it a carefully gauged knock. Vibrations belled as the thin wall flexed slightly.

"I have power! Batteries are green!"

---

"Out of twenty attempts, four failures. I am disappointed in you, comrade."

"Yes, comrade, but all but one were easily rectified..."

"A different failure each time, requiring human intervention- we're not going to be able to avoid the problems with the power system, I think."

"Easy enough to fix, though. Just reach in and..."

"Da, da. Percussive maintenance. But the lander is supposed to work by remote control, do you not remember? Doing it this way, useless, unless we put a man in for the launch and power-up stage... we're going to have to."

"Comrade Chief Designer?"

"This is ridiculous... I can't believe this. Exorbitant, I had hoped to avoid... But we can't be stopped by..." He sighed. "Call Comrade Mishingun. We're going to have to restart modifications to the N-1s, according to the drawings his teams have done. BUT!"

"...But?"

"I expect all of you to work around the clock to fix everything that can be fixed. We'll have to do the first test the old-fashioned way, after all...

---

Plan Pavylyvych Spring 1974

Greetings! Due to the diligence of the Planetary Landing staff, ably guided and monitored by commissarial staff, the Duet lander will be ready for its first test flight this coming year. While the spacetankski Potemkin makes his voyage into Earth orbit once more to test the lander, we will prove the superiority of Zenobian automation by sending the spacetankski Avrora on an unmanned flight to the moon and back, laying to rest all whispers and baseless rumors about ectoplasmoids and un-commienist ghostly phenomena.

Moreover, I have an announcement of great news for the rocket design teams- we are cleared to complete development of the N-1 rocket, hitherto expected to be possible only for the post-lunar program!

---

Budget: 117 megarubleoids

Sacrosanct Hardware Budget
For the upcoming planned lunar orbital with Duet...

1 N-1 Rocket: 0 MB (already ready already)
1 Booster Stage: 4 MB
1 Duet Lunar Module: 8 MB
1 Docking Module: 2 MB
1 Comrade Module-bis: 6 MB

Total: 20 MB
Total remaining unallocated budget: 97 MB

Hardware Purchase
We forgot the docking module for the earth orbit Duet test!

Purchase one Docking Module: 2 MB

Total remaining unallocated budget: 95 MB

Research and Development
4 teams' research on Duet: 8 MB
5 teams' research on N-1: 35 MB

Total remaining unallocated budget: 52 MB

Cosmonaut Management
Form compatible crews I and II around CAP 4 Cosmonaut pilots

Target goal is to have a total of four crews. If it is not possible to assemble sufficient compatible crews, let the flight psychologists report to Comrade Chief Designer Pavylyvych and Comrade Commissar Omeganski, who will come up with a roster that they are sure will work like good comrades together or else, compatibility be damned.

Schedule Missions

Schedule Unmanned Lunar Pass on Pad A:
Spacetankski Potemkin

[likely to be canceled unless N-1 research goes incredibly well]

Schedule Historical Lunar Module Test on Pad B/A:
Spacetankski Avrora
Lunar Module Granit

Primary crew is (NEW CREW A)
Backup crew is (NEW CREW B)

Preference goes to whichever new crew has the higher sum of (DO+LM) skills in the relevant mission specialists.

Mission Go/No-Go Status:
We are GO for unmanned lunar pass in Definitely Not Haunted spacetankski Avrora!
We are GO for Earth orbit lunar module test in spacetankski Potemkin and lunar lander Baikal!

[OmegaChief]

So the N1 will fly, good, very good, the 'Muricans no longer have exclusivity on the huge rockets, one gap closed.

I approve of the plan Comrade, I am sure the odds will pay off for us once again.

[Scottish Ninja]

MASA Administration
The Cape

“I don’t know why they’re bothering to build a space-themed rollercoaster in Orseado,” Unnamed MASA Engineer said, looking out at the smoke-blackened walls of the Unmanned Planetary Exploration Building, now overshadowed by the bulk of the VAB. “Honestly. Anyone who wants to ride on that thing can just take my job. Please.”

“It’s not that bad,” Lee Atwater said, “The last moon flight showed the world that we’ve got a good lead over the commienists; we still have an opportunity to capitalize on that. Congress isn’t about to fire you, you know.”

“That’s the problem. You try it. See how many white hairs you have in two years.”

“Hey, let’s be fair; I’m running ragged up and down the East Coast between here, Washingtoff, and Narrow Island. Which reminds me, here are the latest status reports from Grummang. No surprises, and no picnics. Got a drink?”

Engineer jerked a thumb towards the window as he reached for the binder that Atwater passed him. “Take a look for yourself. Which reminds me, I need your help on sneaking one hell of a lot of alcohol purchases into the budget before you leave.”

Atwater strode over to the window, the scene outside growing dark under gathering clouds. “I know, I know, but there’s gotta be something. Smoke?”

Engineer waved away the cigarette and opened the binder as Atwater lit up. “Ask my secretary, maybe, she might know where to find something. Hmm. See what you mean - systems integration is mostly done, but they haven’t been able to do anything else yet. Still want another year. Any chance they can give it to us by the end of this year?”

Atwater had his head stuck out of the door, saying something to Mira, who moments later brought in two shot glasses and an unlabeled bottle. “Knew I could count on you,” Engineer said, “Lay in a reserve, did you?”

She smiled innocently. “I make my own.”

“You have your own still?” Atwater said, “Goddamn, that is some fine patriotic rugged individualism right there. I knew there was something I liked about you.”

“Legally, it’s a rocket fuel plant, so take care, and don’t hit that bottle too hard.” She closed the door behind her.

Atwater poured himself a shot, considered it for a moment, handed the glass to Engineer, and poured another for himself. “So what was that you were saying?”

“I was saying -” Engineer gulped down the moonshine - “aargh - can you convince Grummang to get the lander operational by the end of the year?”

Atwater slammed back his own shot. “Tall order -” he winced - “I’ll light a fire under their asses, but I can’t guarantee it. Next year should be doable.”

“You can tell them that the whole race rests on them - that might get them moving.”

“Or drinking. You want to drive them as crazy as you are with stress? Let ‘em work.”

“What?” Lightning struck outside.

“Oh, Jeebus, I’m sorry, boss, it’s the booze talking. We’re all crazy, right?”

“Damn right we are. The Zenobians are still too far ahead in all the right places. We can’t go this year - we haven’t even decided on a landing site yet..” Engineer’s eyes darted towards the front of the office. His secretary wasn’t there anymore.

“We’ll still beat them - we take this year to catch up on them, and then we...”

---

Unnamed MASA Engineer opened his eyes to find himself slumped over his kitchen table with the worst of all possible cricks in his back. He groaned as he managed to get to his feet and straightened himself out, then looked around. The lights were off, the sun was shining through the window, the frying pan on the stove had what appeared to be a cold omelette in it, and it looked like he’d scrawled something on the draft budget that his face had spent the last... however long on top of.

He picked up the top sheet of paper; the note said, in his shaky handwriting, Atwater knows, and below that, written quite splendidly, though still his drunken hand, IN VINO VERITAS.

Engineer frowned.

---

Dr. Engineer's MASA Plan, Spring 1974

Budget: 130 MB

Hardware Purchase:

1x Titan II (12 MB)
2x Titan IIIC (32 MB)
1x Docking Module (3 MB)
1x Ranger Probe (5 MB)

Remaining Budget: 78 MB

Research and Development:

5x teams Eagle lander (10 MB)
5x teams Ranger probe (5 MB)
- "Replacement Rocket Fuel" (5 MB)
- "Replacement Rocket Fuel Plant" (5 MB)

Remaining Budget: 53 MB

Hardware Budget Allocation for Fall 1974:

34 MB (2x Ranger, 2x Titan II)

R&D Budget Allocation for Fall 1974:

10 MB for Eagle

Remaining Unallocated Budget for Fall 1974: 9 MB

Astronaut Management:

Form HAISE/LOOPY/SUITCASE into a crew. Objections are to be handled in the usual manner.

Mission Scheduling:

PAD A: Manned Docking Orbital (Orbit); HAISE/LOOPY/SUITCASE Prime, Crew II Backup (Almost certainly scrubbed unless the money comes up somehow)
PAD B: Lunar Probe Flyby
PAD C: Lunar Probe Flyby

Mission GO/NO-GO Status:
ALL MISSIONS ARE GO. MURCA FUCK YEAH!

[PeZook]

MISSIONS LAUNCH
HERMES XIII, MARCH 1974

There was little doubt about the viability of the Murcan docking program. It was robust and muscled, and their probes slid gently into crevices of the docking ports more often than they did not.

However, Zenobians were in the lead in this most manly of competitions. For Murca to remain behind in something so fundamentally masculine as penetration of docking modules, was a bigger shame than losing the rocket race. For while it was important to have the biggest rocket possible, if one could not use it properly, it was merely a hunk of meat with no practical purpose.

That was why docking missions, manned and unmanned, were planned for this season. And the season got off to a really good start, despite the unnerving feeling the flight controllers had of being watched. The flight did not go without several strange events. They were mostly dismissed as coincidences or hallucinations.



Nobody knew that it was but a taste of things to come.

***

LAPOT IX, APRIL 1974

Strange things have been happening at Baikonurek ever since the cosmodrome opened. There were rocket launches that nobody remembered happening, yet they brought flight data for use by engineers. People disappeared mysteriously from time to time, never to be heard from again. Some workers talked, in fearsome hushed voices, careful not to be overheard by the NKVDVROM that it was not in fact the comissars who dragged people away, but ghosts.

Ghosts of the people who died here, in pursuit of Zenobia's gloury. And there were many: not just the brave cosmonauts, the Ivanovs and Brzęczyszczykiewiczs and Klimuks, Heroes Of The Zenobian Onion all, but also many lesser workers and technicians, who perished in myriad explosions and failured and collapsed of exhaustion while working on some problem or another.

Of course the good comissar Omeganski fought such superstition with all possible zeal. His many patriotic speechifications and political courses and menacing stares did a poor job, though, as the rumors continued to spread.

And they persisted, even despite the Comissar's exorcism patriotification of the shuttle Avrora, now ready and resting on the launch pad, ready for its second voyage around the Moon.

The spacetanski's dark reputation, earned in not one but two high-speed crashes, was reinforced by a line of strange and mystifying mishaps that happened throughout her flight preparations. Technicians would have inexplicable accidents when they encased the spacecraft in its protective payload shroud. Some claimed to hear strange voices, or familiar voices of cosmonauts and their last words, spoken when capsules were breaking up in the higher atmosphere.

One particular technician, a boy from a small village somewhere in the far north, claimed to have outright seen cosmonaut Ivanov, wandering the vehicle assembly building, as if he was searching for something. He was hauled away immediately, of course, but the damage was done. It didn't help the launch was to be a night one.

Engineerskis in the flight control center were silent and wore traditional folk charms. Carefully hidden, of course: neither the comissariat nor the Chief Designer approved of superstition. The stench of garlic and onions was obvious, though: it even outsmelled the vast clouds of foul cigarette smoke that, as usual, filled the air inside the control bunkerski.



The rocket worked according to all physical laws, though, when Syrgy Pavylyvych turned the ignition key, and its mighty engines propelled the Proton and its absurd, Jeb Kerman-approved number of strap-on boosters, right to orbit.

The spacetanski operated excellently, as if it wasn't flown automatically at all. Only minor glitches and problems were reported by the flight controllers, and all seemed to correct themselves, with no intervention required.

The Avrora made two orbits, before the Proton's upper stage ignited and hurled it towards its destination - the Moon.

---

It was very dark inside the control bunker. The dimmed lights indicated the night shift was working: but when Syrgy Pavylyvych walked in, still wearing his nightrobe, the lights were suddenly turned to full intensity.

"Comrade Chief Designer, we have lost all telemetry some two hours ago... we were unable to resolve the problem..."

"Pardon me, comrade chief flight controller." Vasily Mishingun interrupted the portly, sweaty man who was briefing Syrgy on the issue. "To be accurate, we haven't actually lost telemetry. It just shows garbage."

"Show me." Syrgy cut all discussions. The group approached the main telemetry console, manned by a shivering engineerski, and glanced at the screen.

What was there should not be happening. The data was jumping around, moving between their proper places. Velocity would sometimes appear where horizontal deflection should show. Hull temperature was not there at all, replaced by a jumble of words that meant nothing, yet were somehow unnerving. Vertical deflection numbers were showing the shuttle was spinning violently.

"Have you checked the equipment? It looks like an instrumentation problem." Syrgy stated the obvious.

"I assure you, comrade, we had two separate technical teams check all the equipment here and in the backup control chamber, and they are all showing the exact same thing!"

"Then the problem lies within the tanski itself. Have the Avrora shut down the transmitters and restart them after thirty seconds!"

Mishingun tried to say that they tried that, too, but before he could, the lights went off along with power to the entire building.

But not the one console they stood around. The telescreen was still operating, though all the telemetry data was simply gone. In their place, a blinking cursor appeared in the upper right corner. It began to type out a message, letter by letter.

REPAIRS COMPLETE. ALL SYSTEMS OPERATING. MISSION CONTINUES.

"That's...not supposed to happen...", the Chief Designer sounded confused, unlike his staff, who looked absolutely terrified. The chief flight controller began eating an entire head of garlic.

The message persisted on the screen that wasn't supposed to be capable of displaying it for days. People rotated in and out of the control bunkers, but were unable to fire up the control equipment.

Despite the spacetankski not receiving any more guidance commands, ground tracking stations reported it performing corrective maneuvers as scheduled. Four days later, still not under control from the ground, the shuttle Avrora landed at Baikonurek. Only then did the ground equipment reactivate.

For the next two days, nobody dared approach the shuttle, and it was left where it came to a stop, on the runway. Despite not even NKVDVDROM personnel daring to approach the shp, all reports of movement in the cockpit were discounted as stress-induced hallucinations.

***

HERMES XIV, APRIL 1974

"That was weird."

"Relax. You were just seeing things."

"No, I'm pretty sure I was not."

The mission's EVA was a weird one. Ever since Freeman completed it, he claimed there was someone else out there with him, floating in space, alone, circling the Earth in an unending vigil. It all sounded very poetic, and also scary.

It came to the point that mission control was seriously considering scrapping the mission, and also giving the flight psychologist many a strange look, bug ultimately the affected astronaut wasn't very crazy about his experience, and it has been determined that the mission could proceed normally.

The rest of the flight crew didn't quite get over it, though, as nagging doubts and memories and stories told by the space program's old-timers gnawed at their minds. The space program did have a way of creating stories of mystery and wonder,after all. But they were just stories, were they not?

Despite their unease, the crew prepared their shuttle for the mission's next step: manned docking. The Agena target module was already in orbit, and the Pioneer was fast approaching. They already had the module in sight, in fact.

"This is Pioneer, we have a visual on the Agena. Let's begin the power-up procedure..."

"Say again Pioneer?", the message from ground control was crackly and barely readable.

"I said we have a visual on the Agena and we are ready to start the power-up procedure..."

"This doesn't make any sense, you docked two hours ago. We're glad you're talking again, though."

The shuttle's crew looked at each other in confusion. But just then, Chaffee pointed at something outside the cockpit windows, and they all froze in terror.

There was a shuttle docked to the Agena. It had the name Pioneer stenciled on the side and wings.

And three dead astronauts floated around its depressurized cockpit, staring out into space with their dead eyes. Forever entombed in orbit by the vacuum of space, forever doomed to watch the planet that created them and never able to return home.

Suddenly, one of the dead astronauts moved. He stared straight at the three, and pointed a finger at them.

And then the apparition was gone. It took a very long time indeed for the three astronauts of Hermes XIV to stop their hands from shaking and get on with the mission.

***

RANGER VIII, MAY 1974

All the photographs sent so far were useless.

Something must've knocked the lenses out of alignment, was the first thought at the Unmanned Exploration Lab, after they saw the prints sent by the Ranger: they were blurry and smudged and the white balance was off.

Then after that was discounted, they thought that perhaps the electron gun which exposed photographs on Earth based on signals sent from the probes was somehow faulty, but substituting another did not solve the problem. The nerds fiddled with settings on their equipment, they even took some of it apart and put it back together - but to no avail.

One night, a bored techician at the lab took the poorly exposed photos and noticed they were forming a pattern. He fiddled with the prints on the light table, setting them next to each other like pieces of a puzzle.

Twenty minutes later, he ran screaming out of the lab. They found him in the morning, mumbling to himself at the caffeteria. It took a while for the reason of his panic to be found.

The white smudges on photographs, fresh ones taken recently around the Moon, formed the face of Virgil Ohjesus, smiling in his Mercury flight helmet.

***

Lapot X, JUNE 1974

The Semyorka was a workhorse of the Zenobian spaceflight stable, launching hundreds of satellites of all kinds while heavier rockets usually hauled the weight of the manned program. From time to time, though, the venerable launcher would loft about lighter maned spacecraft, though it usually had to make use of an extra stage to do that.

It was a routine operation to prepare one for launch. But for some reason, engineerskis and technicians kept making mistakes and fouling up simple procedures, and even frequent comissarial interventions could not help. There was something about that summer, something ethereal and unseen, many have thought. From the lowliest technical worker to the highest management, everyone kept looking over their shoulders.

The culmination of these strange feelings came when Syrgy Pavylyvych accidentally received cadet Pyotr Klimuk's transfer papers from years before. It happened on the day of the planned orbital test of the lander Baikal[.i], and even though the Chief Designer was hardly a superstitious man, for a moment there he thought about cancelling the launch.

But reason prevailed: he simply sent the papers back with a scathing note for the archive staff, grabbed his cane and slowly made his way to the flight control bunkers.

Before he made it, though, a distant explosion rolled over the steppe, from the direction of the launch complexes. Syrgy found new strengths in him, as he raced to the bunker, leaving his cane behind, fearing the worst.

And while he found out that what happened was no the worst thing possible, as flight controllers were in the process of directing evacuation of the Potemkin, it was still quite bad indeed.





P.S. It is now midnight in Poland,and therefore...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

[Eternal_Freedom]

Jesu Christo that's some weird shit. And bad for the Zenobians losing the rocket, payload and pad. That's a 20 Mb hole in their budget or only able to fly two single or one joint mission for the rest of the game. OUCH. I wonder if this is the last game changer.

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

"Damnit OhJesus! Why can't you stay dead like I wanted you to!?" Johnny von Braun screamed at the copy of the lunar pictures the recon lab sent him. Several deep breaths later he looked back into Virgil's smiling face, and spoke the words he had not dare speak in over ten years.

"Go back to the shadows where you belong old friend. Your time is past, but you are remembered and honoured; your reputation secured for all time. Go now and haunt us no more."

And before the Director's eyes, Virgil's features seemed to smile and salute before fading to reveal deep Lunar maria and craters, exactly as they should have been.

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

That night, Director von Braun packed his briefcase and headed for home. Usually he went direct from office to car park, but this time he stopped at the memorial and lit a candle under Virgil OhJesus' picture.

"Promise kept, my friend."

[Simon_Jester]

Lovely Halloween episode. Also, SHITS!

EF, this doesn't impact our program TOO seriously. We've already got money in the kitty for pretty much all the R&D we're ever going to need, and pads are no longer the limiting factor on our program, since individual launches are now so expensive.

If we're going for the N-1 (and this illustrates one of the reasons why, since it was one of the 'joint launch only' stages that failed this time around), I don't think the lack of this pad will cripple us. The dent in our budget will be a pain, but I think we can survive that too, as long as the upcoming lunar orbital works... unless... um.

Oh wait, don't tell me, PeZook. The pad that exploded was the one that was slated to launch the N-1 next season. Now that would be a distinct kick in the shortski.


And one last question- lunar lander reliability during LM tests isn't affected by that same 3 to 9% penalty for lack of testing that impacts the actual landing, right? Because that would be a real catch-22, if the lander runs at -9% reliability during your first LM test, on account of your not having the LM test done...

Edit- another last question. Was A-Series reliability impacted? Because on the one hand, it went bang. On the other hand, nobody died.

[OmegaChief]

Yes, this was one of the major problem points with joint launches alright, all it takes is one rocket blowing up and you end up wasting the whole rest of the mission, ugh.

But still, we will persevere, even if the Commissar has to fly the haunted shuttle himself!

[Scottish Ninja]

Brilliant.

More tomorrow.

[Simon_Jester]

Yes, this was one of the major problem points with joint launches alright, all it takes is one rocket blowing up and you end up wasting the whole rest of the mission, ugh.

But still, we will persevere, even if the Commissar has to fly the haunted shuttle himself!

Actually, the problem with unmanned LM stages in a joint launch is much more serious, since our rockets are 96% reliable while we only wish our lunar modules were that reliable.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Now for some hypothetical musings, and some questions about the game itself:

If we had gone Jupiter/Nova as a moon landing method, we prusumably would not have needed the cocking skills at all, nor the lunar module tests or anything like that. Would we have needed a kicker stage as well?

[PeZook]

Now for some hypothetical musings, and some questions about the game itself:

If we had gone Jupiter/Nova as a moon landing method, we prusumably would not have needed the cocking skills at all, nor the lunar module tests or anything like that. Would we have needed a kicker stage as well?

No, Jupiter/Nova is the full package, it can do it all.

Oh wait, don't tell me, PeZook. The pad that exploded was the one that was slated to launch the N-1 next season. Now that would be a distinct kick in the shortski.

Uh, yes. Pad B was the one which exploderized, which kills your lunar orbital.

And one last question- lunar lander reliability during LM tests isn't affected by that same 3 to 9% penalty for lack of testing that impacts the actual landing, right? Because that would be a real catch-22, if the lander runs at -9% reliability during your first LM test, on account of your not having the LM test done...

No, actually the tests are not affected by the penalty.

Edit- another last question. Was A-Series reliability impacted? Because on the one hand, it went bang. On the other hand, nobody died.

No - the A-Series has not been degraded in reliability.

[Simon_Jester]

Of course, Jupiter/Nova would be ruinously expensive in its own way- each capsule costs as much as a Hermes shuttle, and you don't get to reuse them.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I have to wonder though - the more expensive rocket and capsule, the larger crew; would these balance out the costs of docking tests, docking modules, kicker programs, kicker R&D, LM R&D and tests.

No docking tests means Gemini program can be done much cheaper - you only need it for EVA and Endurance milestones not docking tests.

Hmmm....I would imagine that any of the approaches for a lunar landing would wind up costing the same in the long run, otherwise it wouldn't be fair.

[Simon_Jester]

Frankly, shuttles are a more expensive choice than Apollo/Soyuz or Lunar Gemini/Voskhod, as far as I can tell. We went for them for the sheer awesomeness.

If we hadn't, I'd probably have gone either "Apolloski" historical Soyuz, or Soyuz/Kicker-C, and I don't know what you'd have done.

[PeZook]

CHAPTER 10: THE CHROME AGE
Time is: Fall 1974

Launch windows: Mercury, Venus





MURCA
TEDDY SPACE CENTER

People were shaken up after Spring's strange happenings: these people did not, however, include Dr. Engineer, as none of what happened was a surprise for him.

He even had an explanation, a very convenient one that explained everything. So while The SPACE CENTER'S employees walked about in a state of shell-shock, Dr. Engineer found more menergies to use in his work.

Now he knew he wasn't just delusional. Oh no, he was not. THEY really existed, and were out to get him, and had to be stopped!

Code: Select all

Current funds: 53 megabucks

Astronauts in XMS-2 program:

Crew I:
OLDS - CAP 3, LM 0, EVA 0, DOCK 3, END 3 ; MOOD: 39 (Pilot)
GORDON - CAP 0, LM 1, EVA 2, DOCK 2, END 3 ; MOOD: 67 (LM Pilot/EVA specialist)
WILLIAMS - CAP 1, LM 3, EVA 1, DOCK 2, END 1 ; MOOD: 77 (Docking specialist) - will retire next year

Crew II:
MCCANDLESS - CAP 3, LM 0, EVA 0, DOCK 2, END 2 ; MOOD: 61 (Command pilot)
CUNNINGHAM - CAP 1, LM 2, EVA 1, DOCK 0, END 4 ; MOOD: 65 (LM Pilot/EVA Specialist)
ANDERS - CAP 0, LM 2, EVA 2, DOCK 2, END 1 ; MOOD: 36 (Docking specialist) - will retire next season

Crew III:
ENGLE - CAP 4, LM 3, EVA 0, DOCK 1, END 1 ; MOOD: 93 (Command pilot)
COLLINS - CAP 0, LM 3, EVA 4, DOCK 1, END 1 ; MOOD: 85 (LM Pilot/EVA Specialist)
BRAND - CAP 2, LM 1, EVA 0, DOCK 2, END 3 ; MOOD: 83 (Docking Specialist)

Crew IV:
MUSGRAVE - CAP 4, LM 2, EVA 1, DOCK 0, END 2 ; MOOD: 63 (Command pilot)
FREEMAN - CAP 2, LM 3, EVA 0, DOCK 1, END 1 ; MOOD: 68 (LM Pilot/EVA Specialist)
CHAFFEE - CAP 0, LM 1, EVA 2, DOCK 3, END 2 ; MOOD: 59 (Docking Specialist)

Crew V:
OVERMEYER - CAP 4, LM 1, EVA 0, DOCK 0, END 4 ; MOOD: 68
FULLERTON - CAP 2, LM 1, EVA 3, DOCK 1, END 1 ; MOOD: 73
EVANS - CAP 3, LM 0, EVA 1, DOCK 2, END 1 ; MOOD: 63

Crew VI (WARNING: INCOMPATIBLE CREW):
HAISE - CAP 4, LM 3, EVA 0, DOCK 0, END 2 ; MOOD: 33
LOOPY - CAP 4, LM 1, EVA 2, DOCK 3, END 2 ; MOOD: 23
SUITCASE - CAP 3, LM 2, EVA 2, DOCK 4, END 3 ; MOOD: 53- will retire next year

Unassigned astronauts:

BEAN - CAP 2, LM 2, EVA 1, DOCK 0, END 1 ; MOOD: 74
CRIPEN - CAP 3, LM 0, EVA 1, DOCK 4, END 3 ; MOOD: 70
HARTSFIELD - CAP 3, LM 2, EVA 2, DOCK 0, END 1 ; MOOD: 70
PETERSON- CAP 3, LM 2, EVA 0, DOCK 1, END 2 ; MOOD: 55
MCKAY - CAP 3, LM 2, EVA 1, DOCK 0, END 4 ; MOOD: 60
HENIZE - CAP 1, LM 2, EVA 0, DOCK 1, END 2 ; MOOD: 65

Other astronauts:
EISELE - retired spring 1974
BROWN - retired fall 1973
ROCKET - retired fall 1973
RAVENSBURG - retired fall 1973
MAY - retired spring 1973
CARR - physical washout, spring 1972
TRULY - physical washout, spring 1972
WEITZ - physical washout, spring 1972
SWIGERT - retired spring 1972, elected to Congress.
CONRAD - retired fall 1971
BARNESTI - retired spring 1971
REXMODEM - retired fall 1968
BORMAN - retired fall 1968
KNIGHT - retired fall 1967
FLASHHEART - retired fall 1967
MODEMJR - retired spring 1965
CUNTSER - retired fall 1965
KELLY - retired spring 1965
MCCAIN - retired fall 1963
HARDBEEF -  retired spring 1963
OHJESUS - DECEASED, MERCURY IX
JOHNSON - DECEASED, MERCURY XVI

Programs running: Explorer, Ranger, Mighty Strapons, Atlas, Titan, Mercury, XMS-2, EVA Suits, Kicker-B, Docking, SATURN V MURCA FUCK YEAH

Launch pads: 3

Scheduled missions: 
Launch Pad A, Manned orbital docking (ORBIT), XMS-2/??? ; Crew VI/Crew IV
Launch Pad B, Lunar probe flyby
Launch Pad C, Lunar probe flyby

PHOTO RECON LEVEL: 80%

***

ZENOBIA
BAIKONUREK

They finally did it.

The N-1 was converted into an ICBM, housing untold numbers of nuclear warheads. The Politburo was enthusiastic about the project, and thus it was made to happen.

For Syrvy Pavylyvych, that was bad news, because it meant that every N-1 launch from now would have to be carefully announced in advance, lest the entire space race ends very unpleasantly for both parties...and the rest of the world, too.

Code: Select all

Current funds: 50 megarubloids

Cosmonauts in Lapot program:

Crew I:
KARZANOVSKI - CAP 4, LM 1, EVA 0, DOCK 0, END 3 ; MOOD: 33
ATKOV - CAP 2, LM 1, EVA 3, DOCK 1, END 3 ; MOOD: 56
SEREBROV - CAP 3, LM 0, EVA 1, DOCK 4, END 3 ; MOOD: 51
Crew slightly incompatible: Karzanovski hates Atkov, but not vice versa.

Crew II:
SAVINYKH - CAP 4, LM 0, EVA 1, DOCK 1, END 2 ; MOOD: 67
ZAIKIN - CAP 2, LM 2, EVA 1, DOCK 1, END 3 ; MOOD: 70
MAKAROV - CAP 0, LM 2, EVA 1, DOCK 3, END 2 ; MOOD: 26

Crew III:
STREKALOV - CAP 4, LM 2, EVA 1, DOCK 2, END 1 ; MOOD: 71
YEBANOVY - CAP 2, LM 3, EVA 0, DOCK 1, END 2  ; MOOD: 46
GRECHKO - CAP 2, LM 1, EVA 0, DOCK 3, END 2  ; MOOD: 58

Crew IV:
JKERMAN - CAP 4, LM 0, EVA 0, DOCK 2, END 1 ; MOOD: 81
VOLISHIN - CAP 2, LM 2, EVA 3, DOCK 0, END 2 ; MOOD: 86
NEFARTNYI - CAP 2, LM 2, EVA 1, DOCK 3, END 2  ; MOOD: 49

Cosmonauts not assigned to programs:

KOVALYANOK - CAP 2, LM 1, EVA 3, DOCK 1, END 4  ; MOOD: 36 - will retire next season
IVANOV - CAP 3, LM 1, EVA 1, DOCK 2, END 3 ; MOOD: 46
JAEHN - CAP 2, LM 1, EVA 0, DOCK 1, END 4 ; MOOD: 66
ZYKOV - CAP 2, LM 1, EVA 1, DOCK 2, END 3 ; MOOD: 65
REMEK - CAP 1, LM 0, EVA 4, DOCK 2, END 3 ; MOOD: 65

Cosmonauts in Capsule training:
GURRAGCHAA - CAP 3, LM 0, EVA 2, DOCK 2, END 3 ; MOOD: 72
BELOUSOV - CAP 3, LM 1, EVA 1, DOCK 0, END 1 ; MOOD: 61

Cosmonauts in L.M. training:
LEBEDEV - CAP 2, LM 3, EVA 2, DOCK 0, END 4 ; MOOD: 72
BEREZOVOI - CAP 3, LM 3, EVA 2, DOCK 1, END 2 ; MOOD: 57

Other cosmonauts:
LAZAREV - was retired, spring 1974
ZHOLOBOV - was retired, spring 1974
BORISOV - Retired, spring 1972
FILLYERESKI - Retired, spring 1972
SOLOVYEV - Physical washout, Spring 1972
KLIMUK - Deceased, Zond 1, Fall 1971
BRZECZYSZCZ - Deceased, Zond 1, Fall 1971
RUKAVISHNIKOV - retired spring 1972
SMIRNOFF - retired spring 1972
IVANCHENKOV - retired fall 1971
LEBEDEV - retired fall 1971
MAMETOV - joined the Red Army in 1969. 
PETROV - imprisoned for re-education in Spring 1969
FAAABIO  - retired spring 1969
BEREGOVOY - retired spring 1969
YEBANOV - retired spring 1968
ALEXANDROV - washed out in training, fall 1967
DIGADITCH - left to join the Red Army, spring 1967
NIKOV - retired Fall 1966
DOSTAROVASKI - Forcibly retired, Fall 1964
TITOV - Retired Spring 1964
IVANOVICH - Grounded due to lung cancer
VLADIMIRENSKY  - Deceased, training accident
IVANOV - Deceased, VOSTOK VII

Programs running: Sputnik, Cosmos satellite, Lunar Probe,A-Series, Proton, Booster stage, Voskhod, EVA Suits, Docking module, Lapot, Kicker-B, N-1, Duet Lander

Launch pads: 3

Scheduled missions: 
Launch pad A, Unmanned lunar pass, Lapot/B-Proton
Launch pad B, BLOWN UP
Launch pad C, None
PHOTO RECON LEVEL: 99%

GM Notes:

Sorry for the update being so short, but I was in a hurry and this needed to go out

[fnord]

I had planned to do a little bit about Nikov clearly showing the impracticality of smoking while drinking vodka, but it got eaten so many times I gave up.

[Simon_Jester]

Valery Mishingun's eyes were wide. "Syrgy, what can possibly be the bright side of the pad explosion?"

"At least we have time to make sure we have the N-1 done properly..."

[fnord]

So with Dr U.M. Engineer having gone around the bendski, will we have a permanent engineer(ski) function collapse between U.M. Engineer and U.Z. Engineerski?

[FaxModem1]

Nice to know that the space race, which story wise was meant to make nuclear war LESS of a possibility, is just like real life, made it even more possible.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I can't believe you crazy Zenobians actually built the N-1 ICBM. I recallt he days when Scottish Ninja was talking about using the Vulkan for an ICBM with twenty Tsar Bomba warheads. youchies! You guys be crazy!

[OmegaChief]

Now it is the Muricans who are lagging behind in the size and destructive power of thier ICBMs, your Titan missles are no match for the Glorious Patriotic N1 batteries!

[Scottish Ninja]

Valery Mishingun's eyes were wide. "Syrgy, what can possibly be the bright side of the pad explosion?"

"At least we have time to make sure we have the N-1 done properly..."

"Syrgy Pavylyvych, unless the NKVDVDROM has informed you otherwise, I do not have an identical twin brother who is also a rocket designer," said Vasily Mishingun.

[Simon_Jester]

Spoiler

Hahahaha. Oops. Blame it on fever delirium; I've got a cold.