So, we have reached the point of testing crafts with live things on board!  Not Kerbals, yet.  I have two missions.  The first is a Mercury-Redstone carrying Ham the Chimp on a suborbital flight.  Also, Korabl-Sputnik 5 which will go into orbit and return with Zvezdochka the dog on board.  Both should return safely.  The Mercury needs to go first otherwise both will get accomplished by Sputnik 5. I was having a very strange problem where the craft was getting slower as it climbed.  I was finally able to pin it down to having RealChute installed.  I guess it is not really 1.1.3 okay.  The rockets worked as expected after it was removed. Both the Korabl and Mercury are ready to go.  The order does not matter since they require a specific crew to complete the contract (very cool) of the right animal.  I will launch the Korabl first to maintain the historical order. Excellent flight with the pooch!  Came in cool enough with a 20km periapsis for return. <Korabl Sputnik 5> So, I had a terrible time trying to do the Mercury suborbital.  I thought maybe the sims were the problem but it didn't work for 'real' either.  No matter how shallow I made the journey, I simply came down too hot and the parachute would come out but the craft would smash before it could work.  I tried an extreme shallow flight (max alt of just 75km and all the rest of fuel used to go horizontal).  I tried shifting the chute parameters to open earlier. Part of the problem was that I used the FASA Mercury craft in a previous game and it worked fine, so I was at a bit of a loss as to why this was happening.  I did remove RealChute (because it is not working in 1.1.3) but that did not seem to be the issue because it was the craft that was too hot. I realized the previous game had FAR (Ferram Aerospace Research) installed which alters the atmosphere values.  So, I added that to see.  Sure enough, that fixed it.  It seems you have to use FAR with the FASA craft, at least for now. <Mercury Redstone 2> I have the Vostok 1 mission on deck which is my first Kerballed flight!  However, before that I can send off Venera 1 (which uses Molniya probe) to Eve.  I ran the sims I have just enough dV at this time in my Venera setup to make the transfer, so here it goes! Venera 1 5297 dV.  Needs to get orbit an dtransfer (about 1500 needed for that).  The Eve flyby must be within 20,000 km.  I want to be closer (<400km) so I can get low and high science.  Just a camera and a few experiments on board.  Not a big science mission. I had done the flight manually before, but the roughness made me a bit short of dV.  I upgraded my MechJeb (which frankly is more realistic) so now I can make the tight tolerance. 45 dV in the tank as I begin the interplanetary jaunt.  I will achieve the mission, however, I will adjust to get closer to try and get more science.  Will there be enough? More than enough. I only need 5.1 to get to 300 km.  Should be a great flyby in 175 days! <Venera 1 Underway>