This video is actually something I’ve been wanting to do for almost four years, ever since I spent a few days with the propulsion engineers tearing down vintage F-1 rocket engines at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. What if we could sit down with Scott-a real astronaut who has flown the space shuttle and everything-and get him to talk us through a (somewhat realistic, somewhat silly) launch in KSP? We got to talk to him briefly when he was at the office back in October, but I wanted to take things a little further. Though silly and fun, KSP also works as a reasonably solid and wonderfully interactive demonstration of the vagaries of orbital mechanics-and that, dear readers, gave us an idea.Īstronaut Scott Kelly is most famous for spending an uncomfortably long time on the International Space Station, and he’s currently touring to promote his book about the experience. If you’re a frequent Ars reader, you’ve likely heard of Kerbal Space Program, the space flight/space crashing/space explosion simulator that lets you create your own vehicles, then fly them into orbit and perhaps even to other planets.

Lee Hutchinson proved-explosively so-that traveling in orbit ain't like dusting crops. A year ago in December 2017, former astronaut Scott Kelly stopped by the Ars studio and spent the morning launching rockets with us in Kerbal Space Program. We're re-surfacing a few videos from days past over the Christmas 2018 break to give folks a chance to see them anew.

Kerbal space program game poster