Deuce Science Flight 11

they make a good team - Cpt Jeb & Cdr Val are prepping to depart just after 3rd sunrise on their Deuce mission to bit.ly/Sector_IS-L031, where they'll be scouting out potential landing sites for a future expedition by MSV as well as any interesting inland features

Deuce is idling on the tarmac as Val in the right seat handling comms and navigation requests taxi and takeoff clearance from flight controllers. Jeb is in command on the leg out to the target. On the way back they will switch roles to ensure fatigue is not an issue

aircraft is lining up on the turf runway 09 after crossing the paved runway ahead of the rocket sled test track, which is currently nearing 1km long and will span the entire 2km runway length by the end of the month. Winds calm - clear for takeoff!

good standard departure along runway heading to 800m then turning on course, gear up, wings clean, throttle reduced to cruise altho they are still climbing - no rush to level off at 4.5km. Passing through 1.5km now the crew gets an early sunrise

cruising SW along the coast @ 4.5km, peering through the morning haze you can barely see the still-visible scar of the asteroid impact in 2018 that so far has come the closest to directly affecting operations at KSC. You can read about it in this timeline: twitter.com/KSA_MissionCtr…

we've lost the aircraft over the horizon, Val got final course heading from flight control before signing off. Minmus will set in a short while and then they will only have the sun to use for resetting their INS, so they won't be able to make a very direct flight

assuming all is well, by now the Deuce should be over its target - the most-remote largest island on Kerbin. They will have step-climbed to 5.5km & will do a high-alt pass over the island before dropping low for better images of these potential maritime expedition landing sites

Jeb has hailed us as they come within sight of Umbarg. All is well, good flight there and back with no troubles other than some minor turbulence. Val will begin descent shortly. Coming back at night with plenty of stars for position fixes allowed a more direct route

Deuce is entering the traffic pattern to land turf Rwy09 after Val hugged the coast similar to their route out in order to avoid having to deal with as much terrain as possible, although a nearly full Mun is out to help provide some extra illumination

another image from yesterday's flight, lower to the ground as the Deuce investigates one of the beaches on the west side of the island where the months-long future scientific expedition may land to begin exploring what has evolved here in isolation since the asteroid impact

although they flew 11km farther along their route than Ted & Aldy on their last Deuce mission, which is the current record-holder for Longest Continuous Flight Time, Jeb & Val failed to set a new one. Whether or not they did this on purpose they refuse to say

check our Ops Summary for more details on what went down this week, including final mission preparations by Bob and his backup, Bill. Who is ready to witness history next week?? kerbalspace.agency/?p=9332