I wanted to build an historical style Vostok capsule (which is what is used for the Kohrabl contracts) and using the parts form the Soviet mod (and a few from FASA) I created a pretty good one!  Vostok Base Historical.  Here is the problem, the costs of the parts are not play balanced at all, so the rocket costs are 10 times the value of the contract.  Even the sims are killer. So, I can use this (which I would like to) in which case I will need to go in and adjust my current cash periodically to compensate.  Going in and adjusting each part will take forever so that is not worth it.  To highlight how silly it got, the R2 fins were $50k a piece!  They upped the price to nearly $400k for the craft, plus, they did not work.  I needed to replace them with the Kerbal adjustable fins or the craft was unflyable in the sim. The other option is to either "Kerbalize" the launcher with stock parts or use FASA parts.  Since I am using the FASA parts for the American program, I would prefer to not do that. I have to say, when I ran the sim with the original parts, it was a very cool launch with the craft slowly going up and slow turning until I reach a roughly 130k circular orbit.  Return went well also. In the meanwhile, I may launch a couple more probes for contracts and work a bit on the Mercury craft since that is coming up as well. My sim test of the Mercury suborbital went perfectly.  A little concern about the parachute that even with the shielding on it it got a bit heated on re-entry.  I guess that is part of the risk! I actually don't have any active probe contracts so I am going to go ahead with my historical Vostok and adjust the money later (give myself a small profit for the launch).  Due to the size and cost, this has a 21 day construction period. Launch date: March 16, 1951 Korabl-Sputnik 1 Vostok Base Historical craft (4658 dV) Need to put it in orbit. Don't need to return but I will to test the craft further. Tough on the ascent as you have to work to maintain control, but it went off very smoothly in general.  Mission was a complete test success! <Korabl 1> So, I am a little bummed because the Korabl mission also satisfied the Mercury Redstone test and the Ranger 1 mission.  I will run a sim for Mercury Redstone just to feel good about that, I think.  I may still do the Ranger mission though. I also received the 2nd Sputnik mission to do. Venera-1 is also on the table, but it is quite a while for the window so I am not sure what to do with that. I have received the Ranger 2 mission but it does not appear that I have a specific Ranger 2 probe so since it is just an orbital mission, I will use the Korabl 2 mission to satisfy it.  I don't have a Venera probe either but I will still do that one separate. I picked up another contract from FASA for a Duna mission.  This will pay some money and get me some science in the future (it will fulfill Ranger as well) so I built a Mariner probe-based Duna flyby craft.  I may go into orbit when I get there, we will see. <Pre Duna> Launch date: March 18, 1951 Mariner 1 Duna Mariner Probe craft (6298 dV) This is a flyby (possibly orbit) science/contract mission to Duna. Launch requires a hard turn to 70 deg after 100.  After that, go to 150km and circ before heading to Duna. Duna High/Low Space at 140 km. The tuning adjustment occurs in 24 days (alarm was way off for some reason).  109 arrive at Duna. Great science in Kerbol orbit. <Duna Underway> Launch Date: March 20, 1951 Mercury Redstone 2 Mercury craft (3113 dV) Suborbital test of the Mercury capsule.  Monkey on board! Needed to adjust the decouplers, the top one was firing with the bottom one.  Bad.  Needs to fire 2nd. Something odd happened where the power almost completely drained.  Now it is recharging from the small panels I added.  Also, the craft cannot be controlled.  We're gonna have a sick monkey. Safe splashdown. <Mercury Redstone 2> On Mariner 1.  The probe camera is not a camera.  Bummed.  I did not put a camera on the probe because I intended to use that.  Well, it gets good science! Running a sim on the Vostok craft using the new Mechjeb features (ascent). The MJ worked great.  I encountered other issues.  The Engineering Redux board was blocking the door of the craft so I could not EVA.  I fixed that, added a tower, adjusted the boosters to fit better and added a vent so now it is even cooler for the mission! Because of the changes I saved it as #2 in case I messed it up. I have begun building out Korabl-Sputnik 2.  If I take off with an incline of 18 deg I can cover Poppy-1 as well which I will because I don't have a specific Poppy craft to make it fun. Launch Date: March 24, 1951 Korabl-Sputnik 2 Vostok Base Historical 2 craft (4654 dV) Launch at 18 deg incline to handle Poppy-1 as well. This is unkerballed 2nd capsule test flight. Hard to believe, but I forgot to put the parachute back when I changed craft core!!! Did not do well... -Mission Failure- <Korabl 2 Fail> Now, that screw-up notwithstanding, it was a solid flight that would have easily ended successfully and I did fly it.  It was only swapped because of a weird issue with the Engineer Redux mod (blocking the door internally).  The problem is that I now have the Mercury Atlas Test Flight contract and filling this again will fill that as well.  So, I am going to run the Atlas mission and that will fulfill this mission as well (Poppy is already fulfilled). Many Atlas sims run.  I ended up needing a reactor wheel buried in it and adding fins.  Even when I went straight up with a capped acceleration at 25, the craft would start to turn.  Vernier engines could not stop it.  Could be FAR.  Anyway, I needed to add the fins.  It's okay, they don't mar the look too badly and I was able to sim it into orbit. Another note is that the Atlas also seems to be overpriced for contract purposes. It is not as bad as the Vostok set, but you can't really make any money on doing contracts using an actual Atlas rocket.  Since that is a less interesting part of the game for me I will adjust the money after running a few of these missions. Sims looked good.  Ready to fly the Mercury Atlas 4 contract (with Korabl +) Launch date: March 25, 1951 Mercury Atlas 4 Mercury Atlas Core (4280 dV) This is a test of the Mercury orbital mission.  Need to drop the boosters at 30km. Unusual ascent profile for the Atlas: 5.3 km or 512 m/s to start turn.  Turn 50% to 10 deg. Orbit Altitude 150km. Should have been 10km!  I turned early and almost lost control. In orbit, solid at 150km.  Ready for return. 145 dV in retro package.  Need 105 for 20km periapsis return. Good splashdown and recovery. <Mercury Atlas 4> Sim test of Ranger core.  Should be fine.  Basic rocket and plenty of power. Wow.  Ascent profile needs to be 30km or 1000 m/s turn!  Way up there or it topples over.  It's fine, inefficient but there is plenty left. So, I have no ability to turn the probe!  I need to add just a little something... Limit accel to 20 until reaching 40km. Set turn to 5 deg. I think we are at good enough for a launch. Launch Date: March 26, 1951 Ranger 3 Ranger Core craft (5784 dV) Basic Mun flyby and then into heliocentric orbit (escape Kerbin).  I can get some science if I go below the 60km low space point. Leaving accel limit on until shutoff. That worked fine. Once it is just the probe, the reaction wheel is way overpowered.  This is not a good design.  I need a different design in the future for Rangers. Some science (not all I expected, it seems I already had the gieger data, and I am not sure what is up with the probe). <Ranger 3> Launch Date: March 28, 1951 Mercury Atlas 5 Mercury Atlas Core (4280 dV) Another orbital monkey test.  This will be a late afternoon/dusk launch! Take off.  Orbit.  Splash down. Perfect flight. <Mercury Atlas 5> I have both the Ranger 4 and Korabl-Sputnik 3 missions on tap.  Both are being built.  Both are different failure missions.  I don't like these since they result in failure and you sometimes don't fail right!  But, you need them to do the next ones, so... Launch Date: March 28, 1951 Ranger 4 Ranger Core craft (6067 dV) The solar panels were removed because the craft needs to run out of power on its way to Mun as part of the 'failure' contract. The mission went well.  The game got in a funky state where I could not eliminate a dialog box though so I had to exit and restart, but I hope my save was okay. <Ranger 4> Launch Date: March 31, 1951 Korabl Sputnik 3 Vostok Base Historical 2 craft (4676 dV) This needs to get into orbit and then crash on return.  Another failure mission. I achieved orbit but it did not register.  Everything was as it was supposed to so I will manually close the contract. <Korabl 3>