National Aeronautics & Space Administration · Kerbin
Era 9 · Program authority · Interplanetary departure achieved
NASA oversees the Melody Space Center portfolio across nine eras of programme history. HESTIA is in Duna orbit with eight kerbals aboard, 58-day transit, classified propulsion. LSI 2 orbits the Mun with a crew of eight, serving as HESTIA's comms relay. A permanent Mun base was established and evacuated. The programme has been to the Mun, confirmed a wormhole, and launched its first interplanetary vehicle. Thirty-plus kerbals have reached orbit. Zero have been lost. Still.
First Enduring Interplanetary Vehicle. Eight crew aboard, classified propulsion, 58-day transit to Duna. Launched across two crew flights (TENDING and MUSTER). VESTA science satellite docked. LSI 2 serves as deep-space comms relay. The programme's first crewed departure from Kerbin orbit.
Second-generation station in lunar orbit. 12-kerbal capacity, science lab, hydroponics, telescope suite, minor ISRU refueling. Current crew of eight serving as HESTIA comms relay. Hosts training sims for Duna candidates. Everything learned from LSI 1, rebuilt better.
First kerbal station. Six modules, all ports occupied. Served through Eras 3-7. Cost outpaced its science. Crew left on the attached SLS-2; Valentina flew an R-SLS2+ up to recover the rest. Deorbited into the ocean with full honors. Madvis Kerman recognized as longest-serving crew, named first Station Chief, given the rank of Commander.
With HESTIA in development, the Mun shifted from the achievement to the proving ground. LLSX, LRS, LES, and LOS all entered service. FOUNDATION base was established with four modules: science lab, ISRU, greenhouse, garage. After the REPOSE crisis and TRANSMISSION decommission, the base was evacuated. All routine Mun missions double as training for the interplanetary era.
Twin relays sit at solar distances. The network is operational. The wormhole designated Juno was confirmed by Passage 1 and traversed by Passage 2. NASA's long-range mission design remains need-to-know, fueling headlines and intercept math in the technical press.
“We are building infrastructure. What we build it for - that conversation is for another day.”— Administrator Wernhardt Clane, post-SOLARCOM 2
KerbalX's heaviest, most powerful payload delivery vehicle. Two stages, expendable first stage, fully reusable second stage. Payload bay three times OTS capacity. After three failures (HANDOFF, CASCADE, AEGIS), METEOR achieved full success with ocean recovery. Duna heavy lift and heavy Duna lander both now on the table.
SLS2 enters service. SLS3C wins the first crew competition. Valentina Kerman becomes the first kerbal in orbit. KERBCOM deploys.
Juno wormhole detected and classified. SOLARCOM deployed. Basic Station fails, decommissioned. LAS mandated. KeedMartin enters the programme.
LSI 1 launched, expands to six modules. First clean docking, first EVA. FARVIEW-1 images an anomalous point source. Crew rotation becomes procedure.
R-SLS2+ joint KOEING/KeedMartin, first Mun-capable upgrade. R-SLS3+ enters service. ORION-1 Mun lander lost. KX Mk2 booster tests. The tools for the Mun are forged.
First Mun orbit. First Mun landing - Huddin walks on another world. LLS enters testing. LLS-2 stranding, the Come Get Us call. Six crew rescued, zero lost.
Juno confirmed as a wormhole. Passage 1 and 2 probes launched. X-1 SSTO flies flawless. Clane announces four programme tracks publicly. The secret becomes everyone's knowledge.
KLS flagship unveiled, two crewed flights, two LSI dockings. X-1/X-2 SSTO propulsion failure, programme grounded. The big rocket works extremely well.
HESTIA revealed. Mun becomes the Duna training ground. LLSX, LRS, LES, ROV-1, LOS-1 all enter service. LSI 2 launched. FOUNDATION base landed. OTS shuttle programme begins. OTS-1 first runway landing.
The Turn. HESTIA launched, crewed, and departed Kerbin. Eight kerbals in Duna orbit, 58-day transit, classified propulsion. BelugaX heavy lift clears. She is away. Zero crew lost, still.
The OTS is NASA's first in-house vehicle in programme history. Built with MSC engineers, reusable winged orbiters glide-land at the MSC runway. Each hull carries a name. Intended replacement for the SLS2 in LKO payload delivery. The programme chose the shuttle to deliver its own interplanetary crew to HESTIA.
OTS Hull 1 · Post-MUSTER maintenance
Named for the moment the programme was in: after FOUNDATION, after surviving REPOSE. Four flights, four returns. Pilot Jedidiah Kerman on every flight. Maiden flight achieved the first runway landing in programme history. Flew the first HESTIA crew boarding (HEARTH), a mid-reentry probe deploy salvage (OFFERING), and the final HESTIA crew delivery (MUSTER).
OTS Hull 2 · Lost in OVERTURE · Rebuild held back
Named Unity because four contractors built her: NASA (integration), KerbalX (main stack + 17 rocket engines), KeedMartin Skunkworks (6 air-breathing afterburners, VAJE lineage), KOEING (SRBs). Uncrewed maiden flight ended in the largest explosion in programme history - an integration failure, not a hardware failure. Rebuilt fast (REPRISE), cleared the killing failure mode, but not yet crew-safe. Will fly again. Next Unity gets an integration test article first.
MSC-002 proved R-SLS2 could bring a crew home through docking failure, EVA, and Mach 3+ reentry. NASA then mandated KOEING's tower-style Launch Abort System for all future crewed atmospheric operations - including MunShot contenders. The Tower LAS has since aborted through a stuck fairing (LLSX-1) and saved every crew on every vehicle it has flown. Its record stays perfect.
From APHELION to AWAY, no kerbal has been lost. The programme has stranded crew beyond Kerbin orbit and gotten them home. It has crashed vehicles, lost landers, and watched its largest explosion from the ground. Every time, the crew came back. The OTS escape pod, the Tower LAS, and the R-SLS family have all contributed to a record that is not luck.
NASA Administrator
Speaks for the agency when relays go live and when stations fail. Confirmed Juno publicly in the State of the Programme Address. Retroactively renamed Era 8 as the Training Era, admitting the earlier Interplanetary label was aspirational. Oversaw the OTS shuttle programme, HESTIA's development, and the first interplanetary departure. Credited flight ops with proving no drama is an operational goal, not an accident of mood.
SLS family originator. R-SLS3+ is the current primary crew vehicle - multiple missions, zero anomalies, flew the rescue. KLS flagship co-developed with KeedMartin. R-SLS5+ debuted quietly as the successor: lunar-plus rated, seats four, uncrewed testing cleared without a failure. Built the SRBs for Unity. A defining programme partner even in the not-completing (ENCORE).
SOLARCOM, LSI 1, and LLS lineage operator. SH-4 placed the LSI 1 core. ORION Mk2 heavy lift for large payloads. LLS, LRS, and LES lunar vehicles. BelugaX heavy-lift class: three failures, then METEOR full success. Duna heavy lift and heavy Duna lander now on the table. Built Unity's main stack with 17 rocket engines.
VAJE engines fly on SH-4. Skunkworks division built X-1 SSTO (flawless, then grounded), Passage 1/2 wormhole probes, FARVIEW-1, VESTA, and HESTIA. Co-developed R-SLS2+ (first joint vehicle in programme history). Built LSI 2 with NASA. Six air-breathing afterburners for Unity. The programme's advanced projects and deep-space arm.
The OTS shuttle programme is NASA's first in-house vehicle. Confidence and Unity built with MSC engineers. NASA integrated Unity's four-contractor stack. The programme chose the shuttle over KOEING's R-SLS3+ to deliver its own interplanetary crew to HESTIA. From oversight to ownership.
| Effort | Lead | Status |
|---|---|---|
| KERBCOM - Kerbin satellite network | KOEING · SLS 2 | Complete |
| KerbalOrbit - first crewed orbital | KOEING · SLS 3C | Complete |
| SOLARCOM - deep relays | KerbalX · SH-3 | Complete |
| MunShot Phase 1 - first Mun orbit | KOEING · L-SLS2+ | Complete |
| MunShot Phase 2 - first Mun landing | KOEING · L-SLS3+ | Complete |
| LSI 1 - first station (retired) | KerbalX · SH-4 | Decommissioned |
| FOUNDATION - Mun base (evacuated) | KeedMartin · L-HABSCI-1 | Evacuated |
| LSI 2 - lunar station | KeedMartin + NASA | Crewed · lunar orbit |
| OTS - shuttle programme | NASA (in-house) | Active |
| HESTIA - interplanetary vehicle | Tri-party (KM/KO/KX) | In Duna orbit |
| BelugaX - heavy lift | KerbalX | Production cleared |
CLEARVIEW-1 / FARVIEW-1 - First solar orbit acquisition image. Transmitted via SOLARCOM. The anomalous point source visible at upper-right was later confirmed as Juno, a traversable wormhole. Passage 1 confirmed wormhole geometry. Passage 2 entered another stellar system and has not been heard from since. NASA publicly acknowledged Juno in the State of the Programme Address (Era 6).
Programme direction · Era 9 and beyond
The programme has one vehicle heading to another planet and one probe somewhere in another stellar system. What comes next is not a wish list. It is a sequence, and each step has a prerequisite that is either met, in progress, or blocked.
58-day transit. VESTA detaches and finds its orbit before the crew land. The propulsion classification lifts or it does not. Duna orbital insertion is the next major programme beat, and the first time a NASA-built vehicle arrives at another planet. Everything after this depends on what HESTIA finds.
ROV-1 is aboard HESTIA, Mun-tested and Duna-bound. The BelugaX production version opens heavy-lift and heavy-lander options. The crew will need to land, and the vehicle that puts them on the surface has not been selected yet. The Mun was the proving ground. Duna is the objective.
The 10-pod cryo/medbay is available and untested crewed. Val has deferred the decision: it will be made on the ground of the planet we have not landed on yet. Who is the first kerbal in cryo? What does the wake protocol look like? The answer shapes every future long-duration mission.
Confidence is in post-MUSTER maintenance. Unity 2 flew REPRISE clean but is held back for crew work. OTS-6 is next either way. The OTS program is NASA's first in-house vehicle line, and it is still finding its stride. Unity 3 with OVERTURE lessons applied, or Confidence remains the sole hull until BelugaX changes the calculus.
Passage 2 is through the Juno wormhole and silent in another stellar system. The Gateway Probe, reserved patch BRIDGE, is the long-term answer: a probe designed to establish contact or determine why contact is impossible. It has not been built. Interstellar is no longer theoretical. It is a scheduling problem.
The Mun has a base that was evacuated. LSI 2 is crewed in lunar orbit as HESTIA's comms relay. Duna is the active destination. Behind all of this is the question the programme has not answered yet: where does kerbalkind stay? A second Mun base, a Duna surface station, an orbital platform at another planet. The programme is moving from visits to presence. The infrastructure decisions are coming.
Fiction note: This site exists inside the Kerbal Internet setting. Names, contracts, and timelines match the broader MSC continuity. HESTIA's classified propulsion, the Aurora working file, and the BelugaX Duna-lift ambitions are deliberate story hooks - not claims about real spaceflight.