Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

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Simon_Jester
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by Simon_Jester »

Plan Pavylyvych, Spring 1963

As we enter the new year, most of you will begin to see growing emphasis on the more advanced rocket and capsule technology which will carry us through the mid-1960s! Most of our resources will be dedicated to the perfection of the "Voskhod-plus" capsule design* and the beginning of work on the extremely heavy lift Proton rocket. All your hard work will be rewarded with feats of commienist science and ingenuity which will far exceed any short-term gains that Murcan propagandists might presume to trumpet in the coming year.

Due to results of recent testing by Dr. Anton Vanko, the new Chief of Extravehicular Excursion Research, the experimental "piss on Murca from orbit" EVA suit program is placed on indefinite hold. Resumption of the program will most likely require new advances in suit design, and we are instead concentrating on a more general-purpose suit design suited for tasks such as labor in space.

*Author's note: since the Zenobian Vostok program has been such an embarrassment compared to the historical one, I imagine the Zenobian Voskhod as somewhat less of a crude upscaling of the Vostok design: they actually sit down and try to work out something that incorporates some of the progressive features that historically went into Soyuz, which the Zenobians will probably never develop in recognizable form. Something closer in performance to the historical Gemini capsule

Starting budget: 112 MB

Facilities
10 MB for reconstruction of Pad B
Remaining budget, 102 MB

Research and Development
60 MB: Begin Proton rocket development.
10 MB for 5 teams on Voskhod Capsule research.
2 MB for 1 team on Booster Stage research.
5 MB for 5 teams on EVA Suit research.

R&D budget: 77 MB
Remaining budget, 25 MB

Launch Scheduling
Schedule one satellite launch for Fall 1963.

[Voskhod is simply not going to be ready and man-rated before Spring 1964, let's be realistic-ish here, and I see no point in scheduling unmanned launches before I've hit Max R&D. And I am really paranoid and tired of rocket failures after the disasters of 1957-59 and the Derevnya Gadyukino fuckup. Also there is, statistically speaking, a small prestige payoff for my budget in the long run, even after risk of failure is factored in.]

Remaining budget: 13 MB
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by Mayabird »

FaxModem1 wrote:Rex noticed that Bob Johnson had wandered off, and decided to go look for the man. After all, anyone who didn't follow the rules was a potential friend in Rex's book.

He eventually found the man in the hangar. Bob's head tilted back, lost in thought.

"Penny for your thoughts?"
Don't tell him! Don't say anything stupid.

"Oh, uh, just...looking around. Thinking about space...as in elbow room. Where are the simulators and when can we sit in the real deal?"

I am so good.
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by ChaserGrey »

Mayabird wrote: Don't tell him! Don't say anything stupid.

"Oh, uh, just...looking around. Thinking about space...as in elbow room. Where are the simulators and when can we sit in the real deal?"

I am so good.
Brown strolled into the hangar, spotting the other two would-be 'nauts talking and looking at the birds there. He grinned as he walked over and stuck out a hand.

"Another Navy man, huh? Thank God. I thought I was the only civilized man in this outfit for a while there."
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by ChaserGrey »

OOC:

So, the stuff I just talked over with our glorious Director is more in the nature of long-term stuff. What I think we should do in the short term is get Mercury ready to roll again and try for an orbital and orbital EVA mission. Our EVA suits are better than their EVA suits right now, so that still lets us grab some prestige even if the Commie dogs get a man into orbit first.

After that, go with Titan/Ranger. Yeah, I know, not sexy, but the sooner we get our lunar recon started the better, and you can send Ranger on all kinds of planetary missions to grub for prestige points. If we can get those working it should keep the program going until we can get started on XMS-2.

By the way, what does XMS-2 stand for anyway?

*A small man comes in from the wings. ChaserGrey bends down, and the man whispers in his ear."

Oh. No kidding?

*whisperwhisper*

Well, I guess you can't argue with that. But won't that offend the Finns?

*whisperwhisper*

Right. Only if they find out. Carry on.
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by FaxModem1 »

Rex looked at the two, then rolled his eyes.

"Right, y'all are both Navy boys. Anyway, follow me to the simulator, we aren't supposed to use it, but hey, its not like that would be a problem for us, right?"

He led their little group to the simulator room, which was surprisingly empty. Opening the hatch on the fake module, he climbed inside.

"See? Easy as pie."

----

Fax, Drago, and a horde of former Zenobian scientist sat in a small empty room, each one with pieces of paper and pencils, writing like mad and working off each other. Mr. Grey now had a Zenobian think tank.
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by PeZook »

Okay...so von Braun told Sam Francisco to "go through with it".

Now, how do the Murcans go about bringing back a wanted man with several pretty serious crimes under his belt, a man that everybody at THE CAPE knows?

I await an amusing explanation. It would have to be really good, though.
Image
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.
- NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11

Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.

MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by PeZook »

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MURCA
THE CAPE

Building #14
Mercury Capsule Simulator


"Jeebus, people!", the astronaut sitting inside a hollowed out capsule yelled, "All the switches are fucked up! It's gonna take an hour to reset them!"

"What?", a technician asked and leaned inside the cramped spacecraft, "We checked everything out yesterday evening. That's impossible...oh, crap. You're right, fuck. Let me get the guys..."

A group of white-suited simulator techs helped Kelly get out of the simulator and disconnect his suit. Then they proceeded to walk through the checklists to make sure the device was set in its planned configuration for today's scenarios.

It wasn't just that the instrumentation panels didn't match the test scenarios: it was that they were completely out of whack, as if somebody got in here at night and played with various systems. The sim was pretty much a stripped-down capsule hooked up to external input and a computer mainframe ; All the systems were exactly like the ones on the actual piece of flying gear. Whoever snooped in here had also messed with the control consoles, forcing the technicians to reset them, replace magnetic log tapes, reload programs into computer memory and do a hundred other menial and time-consuming tasks.

The simulator room wasn't really very secure: it was inside Building #14, the Mercury Program Complex, which had its own security, so nobody thought it important to add an extra layer at the simulator.

This mixup today would cost the new primary crew plenty of time they could've spent going over emergency recovery scenarios, though. The Director of Flight Crew Operations was incredibly angry.

"Vat is it, boy?", Wehrner von Shapp asked his dog, Maximillian, "Oh, jawohl! Definitely! Go fetch me the entry logbook, boy! We'll see who snooped around ze building, ja?"

Code: Select all

Report on Mercury flight crew training delays.

Yesterday a serious breach of MASA protocol has been detected, as several astronauts from the trainee corps entered the Mercury Program Complex at night and used the primary capsule simulator without authorization, causing major delays in astronaut training for the upcoming Mercury XIV manned mission due to the need to reset the simulator. That forced us to move back the training schedule for both primary and backup crews, scrapping several important failure scenarios due to lack of time.

Herr director, it is our opinion that such juvenile and unprofessional behavior threatens not just our carefully constructed schedule, but also the very lives of the astronauts themselves. It must not be tolerated, lest we lose another Murcan in space to a tragic incident that could've been prevented by proper preparation.

I have attached to this report copies of the Mercury Program Complex entry logbook from last night. I urge you to take urgent administrative action.

 - Signed, Wehrner von Shapp, Director of Flight Crew Operations
Image
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.
- NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11

Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.

MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by FaxModem1 »

Spoiler
Well, time to give a crack at it then.
The Cape briefing Room

Image

Agent Dick Fisher of the FBI sat there, staring at the man he had been supposed to capture over a year ago. He was not happy.

"Why shouldn't I arrest you right now?"

"Well, there's the fact that no crime has been committed."

Fisher balked at that. "No crime has been committed. I have you down for harboring a fugitive."

"What fugitive?"

Dick's face turned red.

"That blasted commie Drago Ivanov. The one that's been the center of our increasingly bad relations with the Zenobians."

"He was never a fugitive."

"What?"

"He was never a fugitive."

"Yes he was. His request for asylum was denied and he needed to be deported."

"Funny, he was never told that, and neither was I. We were both on extended vacation. The paperwork shows that, and I hope you're aware of that, seeing as how I know you confiscated half the paperwork of the Cape."

"YOU STOLE AN AIRPLANE!"

"No we didn't. We rented it, there's a contract and everything."

In fact, they had stolen it, but the man dropped all charges once he received a crate of Cubic cigars. False paperwork was made and with a false date-stamp now sitting in the files in his office, the man had apologized to the Police for the misunderstanding.

"I don't care what you're saying, I have enough records and evidence to put you and your Zenobian bastard in jail for life, that's if the Secretary General doesn't want them."

There was a knock on the door. Another FBI agent, with shiny badge on his belt came in.

"WHAT?"

"Phone for you. Its Director Vacuum."

The color in Fisher's face vanished. He left the room and followed the man to a phone.

He heard the man's voice come through the line.

"Agent Fisher, I want you to drop this investigation right now."

"Sir, I have evidence, I have him in interrogation. We could get this guy."

"Fisher, all your evidence is worthless and has done nothing but waste the resources of the MASA organization."

Dick couldn't believe what he was hearing. "What are you talking about? I have photographs, wiretaps, police records, payrolls."

"All either incomplete or missing. I'm sorry to say, but I think you're losing your edge. I putting you into retirement, full honors and pension, but you have to drop the case now."

Dick Fisher knew he was being given an ultimatum, and his pension really was all that mattered. If everyone wanted to drop it. Fine, he would drop it. Officially anyway.

"Yes, sir." he said quietly.

"Good man. Head back to HQ and pack up your desk. We'll have a dinner arranged in your honor and everything." The phone line clicked.

Dick Fisher looked at the fellow agent who had taken him out of the room. "Release Modem, we got nothing."

----

FBI Headquarters

Image

Vacuum sat in his office, smoking a Cubic cigar. For better or worse, the Zenobian refugees and that pilot were connected to the mob, and Vacuum knew where his money came from. Better to let it die down and be forgotten than to have some idiot crusader open up everything and be a loose cannon. The FBI was his baby, and he kept it safe. He'd survived several president administrations, and he was going to continue to do so, no matter what.

He paged his secretary.

"Betty, draft the retirement paperwork for Dick Fisher. I want it done by the end of the day."

Organized crime was no business of the FBI. The FBI's purpose was to make sure that the Murcans stayed in power and that only the right type of people used the front of buses. He put the 'missing' evidence in his personal files. They were getting rather large, but he had dirt on everyone. EVERYONE.
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by PeZook »

Okay, what the fuck is this shit? I know the game is supposed to be silly, but that's not silly, not amusing, not cool in any way. It's essentially "the world does what Fax TELLS IT TO DO"

Seriously, Fax? Guy dropping charges on a STOLEN AIRPLANE because he got some cigars? The director of the everloving FBI ordering the investigation dropped because Fax has "connections" (what connections would those be?) to some Zenobian organized crime gangs? Suddenly Murca won't care Fax is rogue and is putting the President in a bad situation during the Cubic Missile Crisis because hey he was on vacation, really, he was!

That submarine just showing up, torpedoing a random Zenobian ship and nearly starting a nuclear war because hey they had to rescue Fax's lover was bad enough ; This is just terrible. What's next? Satan McNamara being on Fax's payroll? Or perhaps the mighty pair of destitute fugitives secretly rule Murca from their ranch in Mohico with their paper and pencils and a bunch of Zenobian scientists who were all smuggled to Mohico somehow?
Image
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.
- NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11

Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.

MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by Simon_Jester »

...I have great, great difficulty picturing J. Edgar Hoover, or his counterpart in any universe, not caring about organized crime.
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by PeZook »

This wasn't just some ordinary investigation, either. It was about an astronaut going rogue and putting the entire country in a messy situation with nuclear weapons (on hair triggers) involved.

This isn't the sort of thing countries just drop, even in a somewhat satirical setting.
Image
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.
- NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11

Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.

MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by Simon_Jester »

Yeah.

Fax, I really have to say, you have a very very bad habit of just arbitrarily declaring victory for yourself. It does not suit you well, and is a bad use to put your storytelling abilities to.
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by FaxModem1 »

Okay. I was going off of the Wikipedia page of J Edgar Hoover and his non-responses to Organized Crime. If you want, let's have Fax, Drago, and the rest caught and let the bureaucrats decide. Hmm, how to handle this properly, and not be stupid about it. I'm going to think this over.

EDIT: Not, not now.
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by FaxModem1 »

The Cape Holding Cell

Dick Fisher had caught them. He had caught them all. Through the use of getting a few Zenobian refugees through some tense interrogation using throw pillows and lemonade, they had talked. Drago, the rest of the Zenobian scientists, and now Fax were in a holding cell, awaiting how it would play out between the FBI, the Cape, the White Dwelling, and the international stage. Upon arrival at a local port near the Cape, Drago and the rest of the Zenobian hostages had been surrounded by several FBI agents. They had been handcuffed, searched and put into the back of a police van, where they were promptly transported to a small room in or near the Cape.

It was hot, the fact that the walls were metal meant several people were sweating under the sun and the smell of something roasting seemed to pervade the air.

Dick Fisher could now rest assured knowing his pension was safe.
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by PeZook »

Even if Edgar Vacuum does take massive bribes from organized crime, this doesn't mean he takes bribes from ZENOBIAN criminals, and it makes no sense that he would.

EDIT: The Cape probably has no holding cells :P
Image
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.
- NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11

Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.

MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

It does too. For the monkeys.
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by PeZook »

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MISSIONS LAUNCH
EXPLORER V, MAY 1963


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***

CHAPTER 6: THE FIRST CASUALTIES
Time is: Fall 1963

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MURCA
THE CAPE
"Director, this is James Notdrago. He is a well-known Anglian spaceflight researcher and engineer in the field of rocketry, and has moved to Murca specifically to aid our great, noble and most manly endeavors!", some guy was waxing poetic in von Braun's office, tearing him away from paperwork. The FBI was all over his ass, and it looked like there was going to be a Congressional investigation into Fax's Mohico escapade and the Director's role in it.

It wasn't that Johnny didn't care: He did, really. There was much to do, but all of it related to things other than some random Anglian engineers showing up all of a sudden. Like the planned launch, which would hopefully distract Congress from identity fraud and mismanagement.

"Fine, whatever. Go to Sam Francisco, he'll find your man some work."

"Director, I daresay this is an excellent opportunity..."

"Go. See. Sam. I'm busy."

The Anglian and his...manager? Promotor? Whoever he was, they both left the office.

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Code: Select all

Current funds: 23 megabucks

Current astronaut roster: 
MODEMJR - CAP 3, LM 0, EVA 2, DOCK 1, END 2 (Mercury/I) ; MOOD: 40
FLASHHEART - CAP 1, LM 0, EVA 4, DOCK 1, END 1 (Mercury/II) ; MOOD: 49
CUNTSER - CAP 3, LM 3, EVA 1, DOCK 0, END 1 (Mercury/III) ; MOOD: 52
KELLY - CAP 3, LM 1, EVA 0, DOCK 2, END 2 (Mercury/V) ; MOOD: 50

Astronauts in basic training:
REXMODEM - CAP 3, LM 3, EVA 3, DOCK 1, END 0
BARNESTI - CAP 2, LM 0, EVA 2, DOCK 2, END 4 
RAVENSBURG - CAP 3, LM 3, EVA 0, DOCK 0, END 2 
JOHNSON - CAP 2, LM 2, EVA 2, DOCK 0, END 4 
BROWN - CAP 4, LM 2, EVA 0, DOCK 1, END 2 
CONRAD - CAP 4, LM 1, EVA 1, DOCK 0, END 3 
BORMAN - CAP 2, LM 1, EVA 1, DOCK 0, END 3 
KNIGHT - CAP 2, LM 1, EVA 1, DOCK 0, END 1 
GIVENS - CAP 2, LM 0, EVA 0, DOCK 3, END 3 

Other astronauts:
MCCAIN - retired fall 1963
HARDBEEF -  retired spring 1963
OHJESUS - DECEASED, MERCURY IX

Programs running: Explorer, Atlas, Titan, Mercury, EVA Suits

Launch pads: 3

Scheduled missions: Launch Pad A, manned earth orbital, Mercury/Atlas, Kelly/Cunster
                            Launch Pad B,  orbital satellite, Explorer/Atlas
                            Launch Pad C, orbital satellite, Explorer/Atlas
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ZENOBIA
[/size]
BAIKONUREK
The news reached Syrgy as he was enjoying one of the rare moments when he was free of any duties. It was this time, between two serious changes in the test stand of an important Voshkhod subsystem, when he could finally just...take a walk around.

He savored it, but it was brutally ruined by his assistant. He caught up with Syrgy, looking worried and sullied.

"What is wrong, Vasily?"

Vasily Mishin sighed, "There was an accident, comrade Chief Designer."

"What?", Syrgy asked, feeling a sudden surge of dread, "What accident? Where?"

"At the training facilities. They say one of the new cosmonaut trainees is dead, but they won't say which one. I am sorry...that's all we know for now. They were practicing in the old centrifuge and...something...has happened. NKVDVDROM troops have surrounded the training complex and won't let anyone in or out. Moosecow is ordering we scrub all planned missions to avoid propaganda problems."

"They are what?!"

"Da. The man I talked with on the phone said another casualty, even amongst ground crews, would be too problemtic. We are to scrap the Sputnik launch."

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Code: Select all

Current funds: 25 megarubloids

Cosmonauts assigned to programs:
NIKOV - CAP 4, LM 0, EVA 2, DOCK 0, END 2 (VOSHKHOD/I/PILOT) ; MOOD: 35
FAAABIO  - CAP 2, LM 0, EVA 2, DOCK 0, END 3 (VOSHKHOD/I/SPECIALIST) ; MOOD: 72

TITOV - CAP 3, LM 1, EVA 1, DOCK 0, END 1 (VOSHKHOD/II/PILOT) ; MOOD: 24
DOSTAROVASKI - CAP 2, LM 0, EVA 1, DOCK 1, END 3 (VOSHKHOD/II/SPECIALIST) ; MOOD: 36

Cosmonauts not assigned to programs:
VLADIMIRENSKY  - CAP 2, LM 2, EVA 4, DOCK 2, END 3
BRZECZYSZCZ - CAP 3, LM 2, EVA 0, DOCK 3, END 3
YEBANOV - CAP 3, LM 2, EVA 4, DOCK 0, END 1
KARZANOVSKI - CAP 4, LM 1, EVA 0, DOCK 0, END 3
DIGADITCH - CAP 4, LM 1, EVA 2, DOCK 2, END 3
MAMETOV - CAP 2, LM 0, EVA 2, DOCK 2, END 2
PETROV - CAP 2, LM 1, EVA 0, DOCK 3, END 2
BELYAYEV - CAP 3, LM 0, EVA 2, DOCK 1, END 1
BEREGOVOY - CAP 2, LM 1, EVA 1, DOCK 3, END 0

Other cosmonauts:
IVANOVICH - GROUNDED BY MEDICAL PROBLEMS, WILL NEVER FLY AGAIN
IVANOV - DECEASED, VOSTOK VII

Programs running: Sputnik, Cosmos satellite, A-Series, Proton, Booster stage, Voshkhod, EVA Suits

Launch pads: 2

Scheduled missions: Launch pad A, Orbital satellite, Sputnik/A-Series ; SCRUBBED 
                            Launch pad B, None
GM Notes:

Another quirk of the game rears its ugly head. Zenobians have lost a cosmonaut due to a training accident, however it is a different man on each reload so I'll be a dick and won't tell you which one it is just yet.

However, the game says "All Manned launches have been cancelled", but due to a bug, it actually automatically scrubs all missions, so it got your Sputnik, too.

I rationalized it away. I also removed the Vostok from "programs running", since it's now officially cancelled and the list was getting kinda long.

Also, Murcans are in political trouble. Other news in a minute.

EDIT: Also, Murcans have made a budgeting boo-boo, and are one booster and explorer short for Fall 1963 launches, since one of their purchased boosters was used for Explorer V.

That booster and satellite will have to be bought in the fall.
Image
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.
- NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11

Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.

MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by PeZook »

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We interrupt this program to bring you urgent news.

President Teddy has just been shot by an unknown perpetrator while on a campaign visit in Dollahs. The President was hit at least once with a rifle or pistol, and is currently fighting for his life in the emergency room of a nearby hospital.

White Dwelling officials have not been available for comments. A police and FBI manhunt is in effect throughout the Dollahs area, as the authorities are attempting to seize the shooter.
Image
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.
- NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11

Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.

MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
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FaxModem1
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by FaxModem1 »

Spoiler
hey, the forum is back up.
Rex and Fox listened to the radio. Disbelief being the only thing they felt. The President, had been shot. What was this country coming to?



----

Fax sat in the chimp cage, trying to mind the droppings that were left there. Whoever chose this room as the cells hadn't decided to clean it up. He found that out the hard way when he woke up and his entire face was resting on some chimpanzee dung. Without access to a shower, or even being sprayed down, the best he could do was wipe it off with his shirt.

The smell was unbearable.
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PeZook
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by PeZook »

"Is there a reason why you didn't transport them to the nearest FBI office?", Dick Fisher asked incredulously. He knew his men were not always the brightest tools in the shed, but come on.

"Uh...they were dem azzdronot boys, right? So we all though they, you know, they belonged with the other azzdronots..."

"Jeebus, where do they make people like you?", Fisher scowled at the agent and his fake Braskan drawl, "Just load them onto vans and get them down to the Miami office without fucking it up."

To Fax's relief, he was taken out of the chimpanzee cage he inexplicably and pointlessly found himself in, to great surprise of the research and caretaking staff, the night before.

OOC: Because just...Ugh. No.
Image
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.
- NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11

Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.

MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
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PeZook
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by PeZook »

NEWS UPDATE
We have just received word that a leaflet had been found near the site of the shooting.

Image

The glaring spelling errors (Cuba instead of Cubic, Poland instead of Pollackistan, etc) would indicate, according to spokesman for the Dollahs Police department, that the leaflet was made by a domestic terrorist group, possibly the Sovereign Citizens.
Image
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.
- NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11

Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.

MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
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FaxModem1
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by FaxModem1 »

Spoiler
Who are the Sovereign Citizens?
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fnord
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by fnord »

OOC - Sorry, PeZook, no image for me.

IC - Nikov was beginning to understand a cartoon he had seen back in the Salvation War, Part Deux - "Patience, hell, I'm gonna kill something". He was assigned as command pilot of the prime Voshkod crew to launch next, ably assisted by the faaabulous FAAABIO, and now this - all launches scrubbed this season.

Not quite mad enough to shit bricks, as he had been upon being informed of this decision, Nikolai had given the heavy bag a very good workout in the gym, bruised knuckles and sore, overstretched arm and leg muscles a small price to pay to burn off his frustration.

Days passed, and with it, the temporary boost to his mood. He decided to go buttonhole Sergei Pavelovich and press for something, ANYTHING, next season - such as an orbital shot - even after having to put up with the literally rocket-propelled shit-eating grin on FAABIO's face.

He might even go far as push for "hang the risk and launch" - after all, he, Nikov, comes back either a hero or dead and thus NOT SITTING AROUND DOING ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOTHING.
A mad person thinks there's a gateway to hell in his basement. A mad genius builds one and turns it on. - CaptainChewbacca
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PeZook
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by PeZook »

OOC: Just google "Kennedy wanted for treason leaflet"
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JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.
- NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11

Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.

MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
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Re: Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

Post by Simon_Jester »

OOC:

Fnord? I am honestly tempted to schedule a Spring 1964 Voskhod orbital, believe it or not. But the reliability of that capsule really really bugs me; sending up something with a reliability rate of 81% (the best I can achieve in Spring 1964 before launching you) gives me about a 40% chance of bringing the cosmonauts back with no failures. Some failures are recoverable- what happened to Ohjesus would've been recoverable, for instance, were it not for moderately bad luck on the recovery roll. But if I blow two launches in a row, I'm pretty sure I might as well write off the whole space program, so 40% really doesn't make me happy. If I can get another round of tests in Fall 1964 before launch, I'll be doing better, more like a 50% of a failure-free launch. Approximately.

Historically, Fall 1964 was the season they launched Voskhod 1, so I wouldn't feel too bad proceeding on that basis...

And this is driving me crazy too.

IC:

Syrgy mutters to himself "Always, my little eagles are so bold."

"My friend, the situation frustrates me too. I can very well understand a bout of le cafard*. But I will not rush another launch; we've had enough of that. At the moment I'm planning around a launch in the winter of 1964, after we've had time to test the capsule a few times. If you can't wait... well, I would hate to see you go, comrade."

*"Le cafard" is a term used by the Stench Foreign Legion to describe a state of extreme boredom and depression in soldiers, so named because the troopers would take to shooting cockroaches (cafard) with their rifles simply so they'd have something to do.
This space dedicated to Vasily Arkhipov
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