CKFN: Facility for Space Research, Danford's Office
Two Weeks Later

Danford leaned back in his desk, watching as the engineer standing in front of him drew the presentation to a close. The kerbal in question was lead engineer on the Space Programme's division working on the Aurora capsule, Caelus' successor.

Danford reflected on what he'd heard so far. It was really quite remarkable what the team had accomplished; in just over three months, they'd come up with a far more capable and technologically-advanced ship compared to Caelus. The engineer's face positively shone with pride at what they'd done as he pointed at a technical diagram of the capsule. Danford liked that, it really showed how dedicated his crew was towards the Programme.

The engineer concluded his speech. "So as you can see sir, Aurora has a completely redesigned thermal cooling system, which can and will prevent any incidents like the one with Caelus III on its Munar trip. Do you have any further questions?"

Danford did. "I noticed that the capsule appears to have two docking ports, one fore and one aft. Are those both going to be functional?"

"Yes sir, the capsule will indeed be able to connect to two spacecraft at once. In fact, we envisioned it as connecting both to the Munar lander as well as a Janus refuelling spacecraft."

"Ah excellent," Danford then glanced at some of the more detailed specifications for the spacecraft. "What's this I see? There's no liquid fuel carried on board?"

"This was a suggestion from one of the Propulsion Engineers; we wanted to make Aurora as safe as possible. So we did away with conventional liquid fuel and oxidizer, and designed the monopropellant in the RCS system to be used for main propulsion as well as fine position control. This will make for a ship which won't detonate if a tank is breached, as well as giving it exceptional long-term capabilities. The fuel will be just as viable two years from now as it is today. Of course, that does come at the cost of reduced delta-v once in orbit."

"That's not too big of a problem," Danford replied. "Aurora should mainly act as a command-and-control vessel for larger spacecraft or carry crew up to low orbit. I don't expect it will have to venture out into deep space on its own. Speaking of which, you mentioned Janus during your presentation. What's the news on the updated version of that vessel?"

"Ah yes, Janus is a very simple craft so it was trivial to simply widen the body to accommodate Aurora's ventral docking port, as well as fit more fuel as well as an engine on-board. In fact, we have an early version of that ship ready for launch, which can occur as soon as Jupiter I is ready."

"Fantastic. I just heard from Dilbrett that he's planning to launch the Jupiter I prototype within the week, if everything goes well."

"That is excellent news. I think this is everything you need to know about the capsule. I'll get an intern to give you a complete technical readout of our designs."

Danford leaned back in his chair. "That would be much appreciated, thank you. Now, speaking of launch dates, how long do you think the capsule will take to complete?"

The engineer deflated somewhat, losing his earlier good cheer. "Well, sir, that's something I wanted to talk to you about."

"Go ahead."

"The Vehicle Assembly Building is proving to be entirely unsuitable for our needs; the facilities simply aren't up to the task of the high-precision work necessary to assemble the capsule. We've tried to outsource as much as possible, but the most we can give you is a simple boilerplate, with only basic systems included."

"Hmm. So basically we can't get to the Mun without better tech?"

"Exactly, sir. There's just no way to build a spacecraft which is rugged enough to get to the Mun and stay there with our current equipment."

"I've been trying for months to get Bilcas to allocate more funds to the Space Program for precisely that reason, but he keeps refusing me. Maybe this news will pressure him into finally coming through for us."

"Hopefully, sir. In the meantime, what would you prefer my team focus on? We could assist Dilbrett's team with the Jupiter prototype, get it to the launchpad a few days ahead of schedule?"

"No, no, your time is better spent elsewhere. Continue working on Aurora, at the very least build the boilerplate, as we can launch that. Make sure your team is ready to begin building the capsule as soon as the required facilities become available. When you're through with that, focus on the Munar lander. We're going to want to put a kerbal on the surface, after all."

"Very good sir! I'll let my team know!"

A few days later, in the VAB, Danford paid a visit to Dilbrett's team. "How goes the Jupiter?" the Director called out.

A kerbal in the middle of welding a seam in a rocket engine, face covered by a mask, looked up. Upon seeing Danford, he shut off his torch and lifted the mask. Beneath was Dilbrett's face, smeared with grease. "Hey Danford! Everything's going well, thanks! It's good to see you! Want a coffee?"

Dilbrett pointed at a battered, ancient coffee machine which looked like it predated the Great War. Danford wouldn't have been surprised if it burned coal.

"Ah, I'll pass, thanks." He looked up at the body of the prototype Jupiter I, looming large overhead. "I see you're making good progress on the rocket. When's the expected launch date?"

"Shouldn't be much more than a few more days," Dilbrett said, somewhat preoccupied with working his thick welding gloves off his fingers. "The fuel tanks are complete, and once we finalize work on the main engine, she'll be ready to fly!"

Danford took note of the massive engine bell. "That certainly is a main engine. I think I could fit my car in there!"

"Ha! We've taken to calling it the 'Mainsail' around here, the thrust it'll output is comparable to one of the city-states' total power plants' outputs in a year!"

Danford chuckled. "So will this be the final version of Jupiter which will fly, Brett?"

"Not entirely. The rocket you see here is just the final prototype of the Jupiter I lifter. When we launch, it won't even have a second stage on board; it's just to test the engine and to make sure that all systems work properly. 2.5 metre rockets are no joke, after all."

Dilbrett's smile faded as his thoughts obviously turned to the USKK's ill-fated Uranus IX. Danford tried to take his mind off the situation by changing the subject.

"So, uh, I heard you guys were planning on making this recoverable?"

Evidently, this was the right thing to say, as the smile returned to the lead engineer's face. "We are! Of course, today's rocket won't be, but there are plans to outfit future rockets with the technology."

"So will it let you land the rocket stages safely?"

"Yes, the initial designs will add landing legs and parachutes to the Jupiter first stages. This should let the stage come back down, be refurbished, and reused on a future launch. This should bring costs down a great deal!"

"That's good to hear. Apparently we're going to need more advanced facilities in order to make it to the Mun with Aurora, so we're going to have to do some major cost-saving efforts around here. Recycling our rockets will be a great way to do that!"

"Cost-saving? You mean we won't be able to replace the coffee machine?"

The machine in question chose that moment to unleash a particularly nasty-sounding gurgle, and belched a cloud of thick, black smoke.

"Ah, well, we'll see about the coffee maker. I may be able to pass its replacement off under 'kerbal rights'."

"Excellent, that's good to hear! I'm beginning to suspect it may be possessed by some sort of demon."

"Really? You believe in that sort of thing? Why that's just-"

The coffee maker let out more smoke, this time emitting a noise which sounded a little too much like a roar.

"I-er-I'll look into it. Good luck on the rocket, Brett!" Danford beat a hasty retreat, making a note to get that coffee maker replaced-or at the very least exorcised-immediately.

Three days later, Danford grinned as he watched the Jupiter I rocket roll out to the launchpad. Completed at last, the ship shone in the morning sun. For a change, Mission Control wouldn't be monitoring this launch. No complicated payload stood atop this rocket, rather it was Instead, the engineers had the run of the launch controls. This would be as simple as one of the old sounding rocket launches they'd done a year or two ago. Rocket lifts off, rocket reaches highest point, rocket comes down. Simplicity itself.

A shout from the launchpad alerted him that fuelling had completed, and the rocket was nearly ready for takeoff. Soon enough, the ship's umbilical cables disconnected, and it leapt into the air.

Leapt was perhaps an understatement; the thrust of the main engine was designed to carry both an upper stage and a sizable payload, so its Thrust to Weight ratio was far greater than the rockets Danford had seen launched so far.

In the blink of an eye, it cleared the tower and was on its way to climbing higher than the mountains near the Space Facility. Soon, it was almost too small to see.

Danford looked over to the engineers manning a makeshift Mission Control; a tech kept a radio dish pointed at the rocket, receiving telemetry and performance data from the vehicle. This was displayed on a number of screens all connected together with some unholy tangle of wires. Two engineers monitored the data, and a printer was busily outputting the most important information onto a long strip of paper.

"How's the rocket looking?" the Director asked. One engineer looked up.

"She's performing very well, but the higher acceleration is playing all sorts of havoc with our aerodynamic results. She's barely made 5 klicks and already is at Mach 1!"

The other piped in, not looking up from his monitor. "We're getting a nasty temperature rise on the upper portions of the rocket, I don't think that nose cone's going to last much longer!"

As the tech said that, several numbers went into the red, and suddenly they cut out altogether.

"Well dang, there goes the transceiver, probably fried by the heat. If that's gone, we don't have any control over the ship anymore."

The kerbal pointed up to the sky, where the trail of smoke left by the rocket was now tilting to the left, as the rocket tipped over and began its long fall back to Kerbin. Fortunately, the Space Facility wasn't near any civilian-populated areas.

Danford was somewhat worried by this. "If you lose control authority when things get warm, isn't that bad?"

The second engineer chuckled. "Well yeah, if you wind up going over Mach 2 under 10 klicks, shock heating's going to cook your goose for sure. With an actual payload underneath, there's no way we'll reach those speeds that early into the flight."

The first tech showed Danford the long strip of output numbers. "Look at these thrust and temperature readings on the Mainsail itself! Gorgeous!"

Danford thought that the numbers looked rather like random values, but he smiled and mhmm'd at the kerbal. Still, if the engineer was happy, Danford was happy.

He walked away, adding elements to his mental checklist. Now that the launcher was well on its way to completion, all the Space Programme needed was to build Aurora, and design a Munar lander system. The Mun drew ever closer, and with the USKK out of the picture, his workers had the luxury of time and being able to double-check their work.

They were making excellent progress; he had no doubts that one day soon the CKFN would land a kerbal on the Mun.