Scientists had brought the level of technology down a few notches with their next mission, but had raised the bar of the challenge. Their task was to see if a probe can be launched, put into orbit and then return to Kerbin. Similar projects had been attempted before, but they just went straight up and then came straight back down. This time it had to go up, stay up and then come back down at a chosen time.
Dubbed Frontier III, the first mission was a failure in the end. The launch and orbit went well, but the probe did not survive re-entry. A spokeman said:
'After completing ten orbits it was time to bring Frontier III back down. It was cutting it a bit fine because the batteries were beginning to run low. And without battery power, the parachute won't be able to open. But the data we were gathering was crucial for future mission. After nearly six hours of space-flight, the probe began the re-entry sequence, but we were never able to re-establish a signal.'
An impression of Frontier III in orbit. Frontier IV was identical. Only the nose of the probe returned to Kerbin while the thrusters and main battery packs were destroyed in re-entry
It turned out that Frontier III was running on out-dated software that caused malfunctions during the deadly re-entry, and the probe was destroyed at around 30km. So the software was updated for the next attempt with Frontier IV. This time, the mission was a success and the probe splashed down safely in the ocean. The team at the KSP have done proud again as they move yet another step closer to Kerbal space-flight.
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