Well, this is it!  The first Kerbal mission to space!  The craft is tested, the pilot is ready! Vostok 1 Valentina Kerman Launch into orbit and return safely. The goal is an 125 km orbit.  Going with a 15 deg 50% turn. First Kerbal in Space! Congratulations Valentina!!!!!! <Vostok 1> I now see the Freedom 7 contract for the first US kerballed mission.  Jeb will be the US pilot.  Also, some Kerbal Academy has shown up for Valentina.  That cannot use the Vostok craft (reuires a 45 deg incline) so I need to create a separate craft that uses Kerbal stock items to handle these missions. Freedom 7 (3224 dV) Jebediah Kerman Suborbital flight.  Safe return. I will handle this manually since MJ doesn't do these flights well. Great and clean flight. <Freedom 7> Created Pepper craft for the incline change Kerbal Academy mission. Hold to 20 m/s accel until solids drop. <Valentina Training> Vostok 2 (4798 dV) Tamphia Kerman This is a 6-hour orbital mission.  Make orbit, hang out and return.  The first longevity mission. 125km 15 deg orbit leaves 1062 dV once in orbit.  Plenty for a higher orbit or more. This mission requires solar panels for TAC life support otherwise Tamphia dies after the air sours when the power goes out.  I may also need to add battery but I can try it with just the panels. Slight adjustment due to new profile.  The orbit now leaves 1055 dV.  Very little change. 87.4 reentry burn required. Trajectories is a bit off.  It was accurate before.  I need to look if I have the settings off. <Vostok 2> Built my first Cact Eye scope.  Putting into a specific orbit and it will satisfy a couple contracts. Got the cope into orbit and completed the contracts. <OSO 1> The next mission is Mariner 1 to Eve.  I really over-designed the first rocket  (it probably could go to the outer system).  I cut back a bit after and now I think it is a better setup. A little unstable (because it is short and the wings are a little high up). Limit to 20 m/s until releasing the boosters 1:15 into the flight.  I can even do a faster transfer to Eve as well with the fuel I have. It will get there before Venera 1.  Go Mariner! <Mariner 2 Underway> Setting up the 3 Lo Res Scan Missions <Kerbin Lo Res> <Mun Lo Res> <Minmus Lo Res> Now, I can do the Telstar satellite and then go adjust Mariner on its Eve journey. The Telstar should be limited to 30 m.s until it reached 40km altitude.  It is a stubby craft but it works fine for small system probes since it also operated the 3 Lo Res Scan missions.  I should probably name this base craft and use it as a launcher. <Telstar 1> We are 8 days away from the Mariner 2 adjustment so I will go ahead and get that done. <Mariner 2 Adjust> Two geosynchronous missions were done, Syncom 2 and Syncom 3.  I used a weather satellite (it looked similar) and set them in orbit at an altitude of 2863 km (or near that).  Both missions succeeded, although I was not able to get either one above KSC because I misjudged the rotation! <Syncom 3> Next up is Vostok 6.  I may send Jeb because he has not actually made orbit yet and this is a 3 day duration mission. To make it go a bit quicker, I plan on a 250km orbit to have a faster warp available.  I need the solar panels on the Vostok craft (which I have) and I also need to make sure the base level supplies are good enough. 868 dV in 250km orbit.  Will re-entry be too hot?  Coming in at 20km periapsis, so shallow. Solid landing. <Vostok 6> Got most of the scan science.  Needed to adjust Minmus to get the whole surface.  Will revisit later. Voskhod sim test appeared to go smoothly.  It has a fuel cell for power and the food/water situation is fine for a day.  I went to 125km but I think I can go to 200km with return using the retro on top.  Maybe should test that?