Kerbin Orbital Engineering & Integration Group · Launch systems division
Era 9 · Primary crew workhorse · The quiet win
KOEING is the SLS family backbone of the Melody Space Center. From SLS 3C putting Valentina Kerman in orbit (MSC-001) to the R-SLS5+ flying Valentina herself to HESTIA (TENDING), nine eras of crewed operations trace through our vehicles. The Tower Launch Abort System we designed has saved every crew on every vehicle it has flown - its record stays perfect. When the OTS shuttle won the HESTIA crewing decision, we went quiet and built the R-SLS5+ without announcing it. When Unity was lost and Confidence went into maintenance, R-SLS5+ was already on a stand. KOEING now flies the primary crew workhorse. We still haven't spiked a football.
R-SLS2 started as a modified SLS 2 - same heritage stack, same operations muscle, room for three kerbals and an abort tower. R-SLS3+ refined it. R-SLS5+ extended it to four seats and lunar-plus range. Every generation buys down risk for the crew office and for NASA oversight. The restraint is deliberate: the programme's most reliable vehicles are the ones that changed the least.
KerbalX took SOLARCOM, the LSI cores, and the BelugaX heavy-lift lane. We took KerbalOrbit, the crew lane, the Mun landings, and the abort system standard. Tabloids need a narrative - we need docking interfaces that close and margins we can publish when Orbital Mechanics Quarterly asks nicely. When the OTS shuttle won the HESTIA crewing decision over our R-SLS3+, we built the R-SLS5+ and flew TENDING on it. KOEING was reportedly gracious. KOEING was already on a stand.
Payload-only workhorse. Launched KERBCOM, LSI modules, ORION payloads. Water landing recovery. Being replaced by the NASA-built OTS shuttle.
Crew-rated KerbalOrbit winner. Valentina Kerman's MSC-001 vehicle. Beat KerbalX Starship 2C. The flight that ended MSC's probe-only era.
Era 2. Three-kerbal crew. First EVA in MSC history (PERIAPSIS). Mach 3+ reentry. Basic Station docking failure (spec mismatch, not vehicle). First LAS integration.
Joint KOEING/KeedMartin. First joint vehicle in programme history. Mun-capable. Flew RESCUE-1 (RETRIEVAL) - all six stranded crew recovered. Zero losses maintained.
LAS-equipped, 3-kerbal rated. Multiple missions, zero anomalies. Flew the rescue mission. Flew ENCORE. Now backup to R-SLS5+.
Flagship. KOEING with KeedMartin. Fuel transfer hoses, winch, custom crew-compartment LAS. Two crewed flights, both nominal, both docked LSI 1. Most capable crewed vehicle the programme had built.
Successor to R-SLS3+. Lunar-plus rated, seats 4 (up from 3). Built quietly during the Confidence crewing decision. Flew TENDING clean under Val's own piloting. KOEING did not announce it; it appeared on a stand, rated.
The tower-mounted solid assembly that can peel the crew capsule off the stack during any in-atmosphere emergency debuted on R-SLS2 (MSC-002, Era 2). NASA mandated it for every future crewed vehicle. Since then the Tower LAS has aborted through a stuck fairing on LLSX-1, saved every crew on every vehicle it has flown, and never failed. It is the most reliable system in the programme.
| Mission | Vehicle | Notes | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
APHELION (MSC-001) | SLS 3C | First kerbal in orbit - Valentina Kerman | Complete |
PERIAPSIS (MSC-002) | R-SLS2 | First EVA, LAS validated, Mach 3+ reentry. Basic Station decommissioned. | Complete |
RENDEZVOUS (MSC-003) | R-SLS2 | First clean station docking. Jedidiah, Huddin, Katdorf to LSI 1. | Complete |
MARE (MunShot Phase 1) | L-SLS2+ | First crewed Mun orbital. KOEING delivers Mun orbit. | Complete |
TRANQUIL (MunShot Phase 2) | L-SLS3+ | First Mun landing. Huddin walks on another world. Val plants the flag. | Complete |
RETRIEVAL (RESCUE-1) | R-SLS2+ | All six stranded crew recovered. Heat shield holds at 94.3%. Zero losses. | Complete |
LLSX-1 (Abort) | LLSX + Tower LAS | Fairing jettison failure. Tower LAS aborts THROUGH the stuck fairing. All three crew safe. | Complete |
ENCORE | R-SLS3+ | KOEING volunteers unasked. ORION docking port damaged. Turns back cleanly. No spin. | Complete |
TENDING (HESTIA Crew Launch 1) | R-SLS5+ | Val piloted her own crew launch. First 4 aboard HESTIA. Centrifuge spun up. | Complete |
Beautifully designed: fuel transfer hoses, winch, custom crew-compartment LAS (rated on-pad, capable atmospheric, theoretical vacuum). Two crewed flights, both nominal, both docked LSI 1. The Herald called it “the most capable crewed vehicle this programme has ever built.” KerbTab had seventeen questions about the abort system and also loved it. Now idled after LSI 1 retired, but the design lives forward into everything we build next.
Built during the Confidence-favored crewing decision. KOEING did not announce the vehicle; it appeared on a stand, rated. Lunar-plus rated extended range, seats four (up from three), uncrewed testing cleared without a failure. Flew TENDING under Valentina's own piloting. When Unity's loss put Hull 2 out of service and Confidence went into maintenance, R-SLS5+ was already there. KOEING now flies the primary crew workhorse.
When the LSI 2 training crew needed retrieval and the first attempt (FALSE HORIZON) left a drifting LOS pod, nobody asked KOEING to do anything. KOEING launched an R-SLS3+ unasked. The plan: refuel via an old ORION Refueler in orbit. The ORION's docking port turned out to be damaged. Without the refuel, R-SLS3+ lacked delta-v for lunar and return. KOEING stood the vehicle down, deorbited, reentered cleanly. No drama. No pointing fingers. No spin.
“The door was locked, we came back safely, call us anytime.”— KOEING, as reported by KerbTab: “This is the classiest KOEING has ever looked.”
Orbital Mechanics Quarterly: “We would like to note that KOEING made no attempt to spin the outcome. That is not typical of contractor communications. It is welcome.”
Herschel Tomfry gave KOEING a star for the first time: “I have not, historically, given KOEING a star. I have given them one. I would like it noted.”
Deployable solar wings and battery banks delivered on SLS 2. Passive mount architecture stayed outside the Basic Station docking-spec fault tree. SLS 2 also delivered POTHOLE and FARVIEW-1 on the FSOM+SLS2 stack. Our third stage carried the first deep-field camera into solar orbit.
Second-generation lunar orbital station. Co-built with KeedMartin and NASA. Everything learned from LSI 1, rebuilt better: 12-kerbal habitation, science lab, hydroponics, telescope suite, minor ISRU refueling. Currently crewed with eight serving as HESTIA comms relay.
First permanent Mun base. Co-built modules: science lab, ISRU + mining, greenhouse, garage. 12 launches total (8 failures/aborts, 4 modules). Melody Kerman remotely assembled the four modules in lunar orbit from LSI 2, then remotely landed the whole base. Established, crewed, and later evacuated (TRANSMISSION). The reserved FOUNDATION patch, earned.
KOEING built the solid rocket boosters for OTS Hull 2 (Unity). The four-contractor stack - NASA integration, KerbalX main stack, KeedMartin Skunkworks afterburners, KOEING SRBs - was the most ambitious shuttle build attempted. OVERTURE ended in the largest explosion in programme history. The SRBs added stack imbalance the flight computer couldn't resolve. Read as integration failure, not hardware failure. Next Unity gets an integration test article first.
KeedMartin's FSOM (Final Stage Orbital Maneuver Engine) attaches between payload and our SLS2 third stage, adding a high-impulse burn capability beyond direct-injection limits. The FSOM+SLS2 stack has now flown twice: LSI-POTHOLE delivery and FARVIEW-1 solar orbit insertion. Both succeeded. Both were KOEING third stages under FSOM payloads.
FARVIEW-1 looked back at Kerbin on the way out. The probe that took these images flew on our stack. The anomalous point source FARVIEW-1 detected was later confirmed as Juno - a traversable wormhole. Our third stage carried the camera that found it.
What we are building toward
We do not announce things. But the stand has a vehicle on it, and the drawings on the wall are not abstract.
R-SLS5+ flew TENDING clean under Val's hands. It is the primary crew vehicle now. The production line is open. We are building more of them because the programme needs more than one. Lunar-plus rated, 4 seats, Tower LAS. No fanfare. Just more hulls.
The SLS family was built for Kerbin orbit and the Mun. HESTIA changed the envelope. If the programme needs a crew vehicle for Duna return, or a rescue architecture for interplanetary distances, the SLS family needs to grow again. The study is open. The question is simple: can we build an upper stage that crosses planetary distances and brings crew home? We built R-SLS2+ for Mun rescue. This is the same problem, further.
Tower LAS has a perfect record: every crewed KOEING vehicle that needed an abort got one, and every crew came home. The system was built for Kerbin ascent. HESTIA's transit and the Duna return profile introduce entry velocities the system has never seen. We are qualifying Tower LAS for interplanetary return. Quietly. As usual.
The KLS flagship flew twice and then idled when LSI 1 retired. It was the most capable crewed vehicle the programme had built, and then the programme moved past it. A successor, if it comes, would be designed around the R-SLS5+ architecture and the interplanetary envelope. It is not on the stand yet. It is on the wall.
Fiction note: This page shares continuity with the broader MSC setting on Kerbal Internet. KOEING, the SLS family, mission records, and the KerbalX rivalry match the vault canon. Details like Skyward Works, OMQ's thermal-margin subplot, and our fictional corporate voice are additive flavor for the Kerbal Internet setting, not real aerospace claims.