Changing of the guard

July 19th, 1963; Baikonur Kosmodrone.

 

Today KSS were de-orbited, hitting the ocean south-west of Satish. The nearly 250 T station had been in operation for an unprecedented 1560 days, being manned by brave Kerbinian kerbonauts throughout this period.

The Kerbinian presence in space have not been broken though, and before the last crew of the KSS de-orbited the station and left it, KSS² were placed into operation and fully crewed. The second-last transport to leave KSS even passed by the fully crewed KSS² to deliver a few spare supplies before the very last transport left KSS and de-orbited it.

 

Four days ago, the laboratory module was added to KSS² and the particle accelerator from KSS was moved to KSS² by the old KSS tug, with the new tug taking over upon arrival and handling the docking of the module. The emergency escape pod have also been added to KSS², as this image captured by the old tug as it left for de-orbit shows.

KSS² after all components have arrived, including the spare transport in case of emergencies.

 

Three days ago KSS² was officially declared operational as the first crew arrived. on the station and the flight commander conducted a visual inspection of the exterior of the station – while the flight engineer conducted the systems check, and the scientist made a survey of the laboratories and instruments. Later supply missions will also be taking a number of extraneous elements back with them, but these will remain on the station until such time.

 

Station being inspected visually on the outside after bringing it operational.

Two days ago, one of the additional KSS Transports had a launch mishap. A booster on the trusty Proton-3 broke apart on separation. The crew aborted safely and launched yesterday on a back-up rocket that was ready on the pad.

Yesterday KSS² was fully crewed and operational, receiving a visit from a KSS crew returning to Earth passing by to drop off a few miscellaneous tools as well as have a look at the shiny new station.

KSS² fully crewed and operational.

The visiting crew were suitably impressed, especially with the new large docking connectors between the modules, which allowed much easier movement according to them (and the engineers who designed it).