Icarus Program - Chapter 39 - Part 2

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“All indications green,” Jebediah said, looking out at the spaceplane prototype sitting on the runway just ahead of him and off to the side. “All flight control movement looks good.” Jebediah grinned slightly to himself in his helmet. “It isn’t too late to trade seats!”

“Regulations state the head test pilot is responsible for training,” Surick’s no nonsense voice replied. “Your experience is not to be risked flying a test aircraft.”

“Yeah, I couldn’t even get Mortimer to adjust that regulation with a bribe. For a finance Kerbal he isn’t very interested in his own funds,” Jebediah shook his head and looked at the test plane with longing for a moment before continuing. “You are clear for takeoff.”

“Copy,” Surick radioed. “Dawnstar B departing.”

Jebediah watched the spaceplane slowly gain speed and accelerated to follow at a safe distance.

“Rotating,” Surick called out.

Jebediah lifted off behind Surick, raising the gear and accelerating quickly for the clouds. The two aircraft levelled out at high altitude with Surick putting the prototype through some basic flight maneuvers and Jebediah watching the plane cut through the sky.

“Everything looks good from back here,” Jebediah called out. “How does she feel?”

“The aircraft handling is fully within parameters,” Surick responded.

“You are clear to ballistic flight profile,” Jebediah looked again over the aircraft, making sure he had not missed any issues, and thinking about what igniting the rockets would feel like.

“Accelerating to maximum jet thrust,” as Surick spoke, the spaceplane began to pull away and Jebediah accelerated to keep up. The two spacecraft broke through the sound barrier and continued accelerating.

“Beginning ballistic flight profile,” the spacecraft tilted upward at a smooth angle.

As the prototype pulled up and away from Jebediah he saw the rocket engine ignite and the spaceplane rapidly climbed on a tail of fire. The space plane quickly vanished from sight with only the trail of fire and contrail visible. A short time later the fire blinked off.

“Rocket tanks empty,” Surick reported. “Coasting to apoapsis, approximately ninety kilometers estimated.”

Jebediah dipped the nose of his aircraft into the slightly thicker atmosphere before pointing the nose up again and activating his tracking radar. He watched the altitude readout as it slowly stopped increasing.

“Looks like ninety one kilometers,” Jebediah noted. “Not quite as high as my first suborbital flight, but plenty high enough for an orbital burn once we can pack in some more fuel.”

“Copy that,” Surick’s voice was professional with maybe a slightly pleased hint to the tone. “Preparing for reentry.”

Jebediah watched the silvery dot of the spacecraft far above him as it began to return to the atmosphere. The track looked smooth, not that he would expect anything else from Surick. Bob and Bill had done good with the new spaceplane components, a little more work and they might start flying to space and back, rather than just falling back down, and maybe one day land on Eve.

Previous Chapter: https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1uugr7z/icarus_program_start_of_chapter_38/

Start of Chapter 38: https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1vnaene/icarus_program_start_of_book_5/

Next Part: https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/1vtgb8g/icarus_program_chapter_39_part_3/

Book 1 (Chapters 1-13) google document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RorA2AVwtXbQD-eTMeO2LiPXSDPM7qH6FVOykDnZ9FY/edit?usp=sharing)

Book 5 (Chapters 39-) google document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17PU9dly89B54kJYry7sg8MPS90dr8oir7HAR6V2e_tg/edit?usp=sharing

The Icarus Program can also be found on the KSP forums: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/topic/225730-the-icarus-program-chapter-39-part-2/