| Launches | Debris | Failures |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | 0 | 1 |
Hermes is our first crewed space craft. It will attempt to place a Kerbal in orbit and return them safely to Kerbin.
Hermes TV
Uncrewed launch of the entire Etoh-Hermes craft. While the flight was nominal, the capsule was destroyed when the parachutes failed to deploy as programmed.
Hermes LJ1
Launched on a booster dubbed by the ground crew as “lil Jeb” (actually an RT-10 aka Hammer solid fuel booster) this short flight was to re-test the parachute system and verify the LES which was now of prime concern following Jeb’s A1 areoplane crash and the previous launches parachute failure.
Hermes TV2 (Hermes 1)
Second launch of Etoh-Hermes craft, this time piloted by Valentina Kerman. Successfully reached the Kerman line and returned the pilot safely to a splashdown in the East Ocean.
Hermes 2
Third launch of Etob-Hermes craft, first to officially reach space. Piloted by Jebediah Kerman, who took manual control seconds after launch and guided the rocket on a steeper trajectory then programmed. Because of this it did reach space but subjected Jebediah to dangerously high G forces during its steep reentry. He survived unharmed and jubilant by all accounts of the recovery crew.
Hermes 3
Hermes 3 was slated to be the first orbital flight for a Kerbal, however a slight error in trajectory resulted in a sub-orbital flight as the spacecraft did not reach the velocity required to achieve orbit. It did however prove to be a success as an engineering test as all the systems performed as intended.
Hermes 4
Hermes 4 achieved orbit and remained there for 3 trips around Kerbin. Pilot Bob Kermin, confined to the tiny capsule, provided descriptive and telemetry feedback of the trip. “The view”, he said “is tremendous!”
Hermes 5
Hermes 5 traveled even further from mother Kerbin as Valentina Kermin not only set an altitude record of 120km but a duration record of 6 orbits. During her stay she also became the first kerbal to take a “Space Walk” exiting her capsule to recover precious scientific data from the capsule’s nose cone and providing important experience in EVA work.
Hermes 6
Hermes 6 achieved even higher altitudes with an apoapsis of over 400km above Kerbin. Further EVA practice was performed by Jebediah and more data from scientific experiments were collected. With a record-setting duration of 3 days even more ground work has been laid for future exploration.
Hermes 7
The 7th and final launch of the Hermes program was piloted by rookie Sally Kerman who arrived in an nearly perfect orbit high above Kerbin. Once there, it was realized that this would bring the capsule within a few kilometers of the old ATMOS II satellite.
Sally was asked if she’d like to volunteer to go on an EVA and intercept the satellite – an ultimate test of KSCs backpack PMU – and she in typical Kerbal fashion eagerly agreed.
She overshot the satellite at first, passing within 50 m of it before being able to stop relative to the satellite having flown nearly 1 Km past it. She then slowly made her way back and was able to retrieve data from the on board experiments.
KSC Mission Control held its collective breath as Sally made her way back the capsule which was now 10 Km away. She made a much better approach this time, and with less than 0.1 unit’s of propellant left, boarded her capsule.
Her exemplary mission continued as she made reentry and the most accurate splashdown of all, just 1.2 Km from the intended landing site!