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The budget for this turn was decided in the last thread, it is as follows,
>21RP Improve Mk2 Capsule 17/18
>6RP Mk4a Rocket
>3RP Mk4b Rocket
>3RP Mk2 Capsule
>1RP RCS load into Capsule

This leaves 1 point unspent. You also have 2 luck points.

While the date of the launch fast approaches, you still have a few days as the rocket is completed and safety checked. How will you spend your time?

>Publish the photos from the last launch (Increases budget)
>See what Colonel Smith and the Computational staff are up to
>See what Professora Minerva and the Alchemists are up to
>Stargaze
>Study (Spend one RnD point to train yourself in Stamina, Piloting, Engineering, Combat, or Language)
>Something else?

Also, what will you wear? The Trendy dress is sadly not so trendy anymore.

>Frilly dress (Standard princess attire, no bonuses or penalties)
>A new Trendy dress (costs 1 RnD point to stay ahead of the latest fashions)
>RRC Dress uniform (Makes you look professional, at the cost of looking militaristic)

>>24448464
1RP will be spent for training Amelia 1 Engineering.
She is our best friend, and we should help her along in our race to the moon. It wouldn't do for her to be seen as just another 'pretty but dumb' socialite.

>Publish the photos from the last launch (Increases budget)
We must increase our budget for the upcoming Mk4c Rocket, which will be massive.

>what to wear
>RRC Dress uniform (Makes you look professional, at the cost of looking militaristic)
This is a historic launch; we MUST look our best and professional.

>>24448645
Photographic plates are sent to hafenstad to be published. By the time the photos are released, Cobham should be in orbit.

In the mean time you oversee the pre-launch checks as Amelia assists the computers as an apprentice, double checking the sums.

>>24448917
This is a historic launch.
Should we have the press attend?

>>24449156
If you chose to invite them, they could arrive just in time for the launch. It would be embarrassing if something went wrong, but then again you can't tolerate failure anyways with a manned launch.

>>24449263
Do it. Invite the press.
We're going to blow all of our Luck on this.

>>24449301
Any other invitations to send?

>>24449549
Our mother, and the members of the Appropriations Committee, so that they can see what we have been able to do with their funding.

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Although the new appropriations committee has not yet been drawn, the Queen and Lady Ethelstan are both able to come on the Maiale Volante, both remark how it has only been a few weeks since they were here last for your birthday party. And are surprised to see how serious things are now that the festivities are concluded.

Ms Kenaway also wishes you good luck via her radio-reflector balloon satellite. She tells you that she is planning on launching more, but that the last launch was delayed.

>>24450135
We are a princess, and so we know our duty. It is not in our upbringing to only be concerned with festivities when work is to be done.

We shall respond with thanks to Ms. Kenaway, and our well wishes to her and her people.

The time for the launch counts down, are there any last minute preparations to be made? Cohnam will be launching with Harker as Capcom.

>>24450593
Everyone should be watching this.
Are Prince Orion and Princess Maia watching?
What of our other Void Knights?

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>>24450629
Orion and his companions have established there own camp in the forest across the lagoon. They wish to watch the launch from up close, but security is reluctant to allow them into the Blockhouse.

>>24449301

>>24449713


Second these.

>>24450752

Surely an exception can be made? Everyone should know to not touch anything right before a launch, and if these people were a securit risk they'd have shown it.

Nobody gets close to the rocket if they have no business there, of course.

>>24448464

Uniform is appropriate on this one.

>>24450792
You allow half a dozen near-naked tattooed savages into the Blockhouse to observe the launch. They murmur and point at things, but obey Orion's order not to touch anything.

T Minus 60 seconds. The Colonel hands you the microphone and ignition key. Over the radio you can hear Cobham confirm that the rocket is fueled and the capsule is ready for launch!

>>24450929

Time to cross our fingers and hope everything goes well!

While there is no press, we should make sure someone is taking some pictures.

And see if anyone is put off by the islanders being there.

We're ready for the last poll!

Where's Cottonball?

>>24450980
Cottonball is with Amelia, observing from the Manor on the other side of the island along with your mother and the press. Only you, the Command staff, Prince Orion's Entourage, and a few security guards are in the blockhouse right now.

T-30 seconds

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>>24451050
>T-30 Seconds
Begin the countdown.

>>24451050

With a brief prayer we get ready to hit the switch!

A thought occurs, after messing in jest with chinchilla power: Would a handcrank weigh too much to power critical systems if everything else fails? At least it'd allow for receiving instructions on how to try to fix stuff.

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Rolled 9, 8 - 2 = 15

Ten,
Nine,
Eight,
Seven,
Six,
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One,
Ignition!

>>24451116

That was a lot more fire than the last time!

Rolled 3, 6 - 2 = 7

>>24451122
"Assent nominal! Rocket is approaching MaxQ, Lieutenant how are things on your end? If you can speak do so,"

"R-r-Roger, I-i-Im doing f-fine colonel! Main Engine cutoff in t-tten"

>>24451165
Check pilot vitals read outs, see if there is anything amiss.

>>24451122

Cobham should have some discretion about the number of orbits she's going to do, although they can't b that many with no provisions on board...

(We don't know about plasma sheaths and radio blackouts on reentry yet, do we?)

Rolled 7, 1 - 2 = 6

>>24451215
The main engines cut off and Cohbam has a chance to check her vital signs. "I'm all right your highness, this was nothing compared to the training. Discarding Lower stage and deploying antennas, insertion burn in T minus 35"

>>24451217
The plan is for a single orbit. And you expect to louse radio contact at several points when the spacecraft is over the horizon. The Navy and Ms Kenaway won't be able to provide 100% coverage.

The insertion burn finishes and Cobham uses the RCS to aim the antenna at the Avalon a hundred kilometers below her. You receive the following transmission from the Navy. "RRC PILOT REPORTS ALL SYSTEMS NORMAL, stop, COMMENTS ON THE APPEARANCE OF EARTH FROM SPACE, end message."

>>24451349

Wooot!

We quietly applaud, making sure threre's nothing wrong over here.

Hopefully someone is recording the historic words...

I suppose asking Mrs Cobham if she sees any gods out there would be gauche :)

>>24451349
Make sure that all of the tracking is done, and this proves that we have put a human into space.

>>24451410

It'd be interesting if Mrs Cobham can try to use Jakisan's satellite to bounce a message from somewhere where she wouldn't be received otherwise -- it's good science, and it reminds everyone in the world that this is a friendly rivalry.

Rolled 2, 7 = 9

>>24451410
Telemetry is being done independently by the Royal Midland Navy, The Royal Astrological Society, The Westrin academy of natural philosophy, and the Suthern Space Council. Anybody with a radio antenna can look up and tune into it's frequency.

>>24451439
Cobham tries bouncing signals off the Balloon Satellite.

And now I'm *almost* late to the party. Congratulations on your awesome launch, gentlemen!

Rolled 9, 1 = 10

>>24451510
That's a fail, (Engineering, TN 4) do you spend a Luck point or save it for the re-entry?

>>24451530
Save it for reentry. Looks like more engineering training is in her future!

>>24451530
TN 4? Yeah, not worth rerolling.

>>24451530
Let's make sure that the re-entry is successful; we can try neat tricks when we're better prepared.

>>24451530

It might have been a nice thing to do, but even a failed attempt is interesting scientifically.

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After more than 10 minutes of silence, Cobham reaches the other side of the world and regains line of sight to radio towers in the Western isles.

Incoming transmission from the Academy of science. "RRC CAPSULE SPOTTED AT (numbers), stop, PILOT REPORTS GOOD HEALTH. stop, CONGRATULATIONS TO PRINCESS TANNHAUSER, end of message."

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>>24451589
We're almost there. Now we just need to wait for de-orbit and successfully recovery before we can celebrate.

>>24451589
Excellent.

>>24451589

(What mapping proggie do you use for those?)

We're going to be tense until Mrs Cobham is home safe! So far so good but we're only halfway there...

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We've done it! We've certainly come a long way from the humble beginnings of the RRC.

>>24451666

We're not there yet :) However, if you can make it to orbit you're halfway to anywhere!

>>24451619
Hexographer.

>>24451589
Eventually Cobham's capsule crests the horizon, just off the gulf of Daud. With radio-contact re-established she calls the base. "It's amazing your highness! I wish I could show you!"

>>24451666
If anything bad happens during re-entry, I will murderize you personally.

>>24451683

We hope to take a look ourselves once there's room for passengers!

Cobham may reenter at her leisure, but should tell us when she's about to -- we need to work out an approximate way to get to where capsules will reenter.

If things go wrong can she do another orbit?

>>24451713
"Rodger your highness! Beginning translation maneuver" Dame Cobham activates the RCS retro-thrusters to lower the spacecraft's periapsis.

(If she fails, she'll become injured from oxygen deprivation, if she fails twice, she'll die)

Rolled 5, 6 - 2 = 9

Damnit, dice go in the email field.

>>24451780

(In playing the boardgame we found that it's the most common cause of spacederp death/injury, often due to poor vehicle planning when the parts work well)

Rolled 2, 1 - 2 = 1

>>24451784
"The capsule has begun re-entry your highness, Flames are appearing on the outside of the hu... *Static noises*

>>24451803
Great success.

>>24451784

>>24451803

Hopefully she'll land somewhere easy to get to!

We really must formalize a treaty about returning stranded Void Knights home....

Eeeek! What's going on!

>>24451803
Suddenly you louse radio contact with the capsule. You are still tracking it via radar (it's a very bright target right now) but there is no active signal from inside the capsule itself!

>>24451815

Start calculating a probable impact^Wlanding point and see if there is anyone who can get there quickly!!!!

>>24451815
Time to be worried greatly!

"Pathfinder one! Come in Pathfinder one! This is Tannhauser gate! Please report your status!" Sir Harker shouts into the radio as the Colonel has the Computers calculate her re-entry point. "Her re-entry seems normal, but we aren't getting any signal from her!"

Prince Orion asks you what is going on.

>>24451860
Must be some problem with the radio transmitter. Maybe it broke from the heat during re-entry!

>>24451860

"We have lost communications! It may be something simple like the antenna coming loose, or it might be bad. We don't know, so we're assuming it's bad for now, and getting ready to mount a rescue in case she came back alive but injured. She's literally inside of a shooting star right now."

>>24451900
"We shall go to rescue her!" Prince Orion gives some orders to his warriors who begin to head down to the beach to get there canoes.

>>24451929

... Wow. This guy is hardcore <3

Where is her calculated reentry point?

Actually, commandeering the Maiale Volante may be a reasonable thing to do if range allows it; she's faster than a ship and large enough to recover the capsule by simple means, and can carry a paramedic team.

Are there large flying boats that can be contracted for this? We should find an independent operator and let them know to be on standby, it'd probably look good for their business and they'd be less affected in their day to day operation than a proper airline. "Sorry, your delivery will be a day late because I had to go rescue a space traveler" can't be too bad.

>>24451954
The Navy has tracked down the landing point to within a couple of square KM. But you could always try to go out and search yourself.

However, as Orion and his warriors are leaving, the radio springs to life. "Tannhauser! Come in Tannhauser! This is pathfinder 1! do you read me? I repeat, do you read me?"

>>24452036
Loud and clear, pathfinder one! Report your status. Are you okay, Kateryn?

>>24452036

Call them back! ... also, they were going to ROW there? Ye gods these people are fierce.

"We read you! Are you safe?"

>>24452084
"yes! The radio stooped working, but it's back now that the Parachute is deployed. Everything is reading green on my end though, maybe it's your equipment?"

>>24452156

We should figure out what happened -- losing radio contact on reentry can be very dangerous.

(OOC I doubt we'll ever find a solution for this particular problem)

"Could be! We'll look into it."

We shall go tell Orion that there's no need for a rescue although he's welcome to come pick Mrs Cobham up.

... seriously, they were going to just up and row who knows how far? These people are fearless.

>>24452198
(IRL it's already been solved, the trick is to have a satellite above the re-entering object aiming down the plasma sheath and relaying it back)

And yes, the warriors appear to be rowing out to sea, it's too late to stop them now.

>>24452266
>And yes, the warriors appear to be rowing out to sea, it's too late to stop them now.

Send a PT boat after them explaining that all is well, and... well, actually, let's make sure all is well, first.

Where is Cobham splashing down? Do we have assets nearby?

Is helmet hair going to become popular for a while?

The Avalon is closing in on her location, She'll receive a medical checkup in transit.

Alright, Bedtime. Congratulations! Same time tomorrow, i'm tired.

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>>24452369

thank you!

Pic semirelated, I get thats probably not what Orion looks like, but still :)