Earth, ~19,000 B.C.

Pathfinder maiden flight, For All Mankind “Triage”

Apollo 17 Lunar module docking after trans-lunar injection (1972)

Saturn (3200x1800, CG)

Taken with Space Engine 0.990.37.1720

KSP Loading... Deep Dive on the Breaking Ground Enhanced Edition Expansion

Welcome to our official newsletter, KSP Loading…!  If you want to learn about all the current developments of the KSP franchise, then this is the place to be!

Kerbal Space Program Update 1.9 on PC

The KSP team is so excited about the features being worked on for Update 1.9. Similar to the last update, 1.9 will focus on furthering the performance and graphical improvements to the foundations of the game. These improvements include: new textures and mappings for Celestial Bodies, new shaders, optimizations, additional revamps and much more. Our goal for update 1.9 will be to continue to build upon the foundations that make KSP great.

Terrain Revamp for Moho and Dres

We’re continuing to revamp our celestial bodies, and in 1.9, Moho and Dres are getting fresh high-quality texture maps & graphic shaders. Take a look!

KSP breaks ground on consoles!

As we announced recently, Breaking Ground, the second expansion of Kerbal Space Program Enhanced Edition is coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on December 5th and it will have 100% feature parity with its PC counterpart.

Kerbal Space Program Enhanced Edition: Breaking Ground is all about exploration, experimentation and technological breakthroughs. With this expansion console players will be able to discover mysterious surface features across the moons and planets of the Kerbolar System. Players will also have the ability to collect data with brand new deployable experiments and design complex crafts with the addition of robotic parts.

Deployed Science

This feature will allow you to deploy experiments on the surface of celestial bodies to take measurements over time. You will need to bring these experiments with you, unpack them from storage containers on your craft and set them up to run. In order to do so, you will need to place a central station, one or more power generating devices and possibly a booster antenna to get your science base set up. The experiments and power generators will run better if the right kind of Kerbal sets them up, thus giving you more reasons to bring Kerbals with different professions on an adventure.

Click here to see the different experiments that will be available in Kerbal Space Program Enhanced Edition: Breaking Ground 

Surface Features

Surface features are items of scientific interest scattered across all celestial bodies.  These features include meteorites, craters, mineral formations, and even stranger planetary oddities. Surface features vary in size and Kerbal astronauts will be able to pick up and return the smallest of them to study back at KSC. However, larger specimens will need to be scanned and analyzed on-site by the newly developed Rover Arms. The Rover Arms come in three levels that you unlock via Research and Development, each of which have more sensors and tools that allow you to collect more science from the same surface feature.

Click here to see more images of Surface Features and the Rover Arm in high-res. 

Robotics

With Breaking Ground, you will see a number of robotic parts including: hinges, pistons, rotors, rotational servos, propeller blades and turbo-shaft engines. Available in a range of shapes and sizes these new parts operate under realistic physics, with real forces and torques, electricity consumption and even motor mass accounted for. 

We are also including a controller part that will let you coordinate the behavior of many different parts on your craft. Use Hinges to provide angles of rotation between two parts. Pistons give you linear motion. Rotors will allow you to generate torque around their axis. Rotational servos will give you precise control of angular position. Propeller Blades and Turbo-shaft Engines will allow you to build helicopters and other blade-propelled contraptions. 

The KAL-1000 controller can sequence the actions of all the robotics parts and a number of other fields.  It gives you access to a powerful track editor tool which lets you plan how parts will behave over time. Using this controller, you can set up complex cranes, walking crafts, disco lighting or whatever you can dream up!

Click here to see the Robotic Parts images in high-res.

The New Suit

This futuristic-looking suit was designed to match the spirit of Breaking Ground. It not only looks great on Kerbals, but offers customization where players can choose what color the helmet and suit lights will glow when in a darkened environment.

Click here to see the Suits in high-res.

Free Update for Consoles

Coupled with the Breaking Ground Expansion, Kerbal Space Program Enhanced Edition is getting a FREE content-filled console-optimized update that will bring all improvements, features, color variants and part revamps we’ve added up to PC 1.7.3 to console. These updates include:

Altimeter mode toggle

A long-requested quality-of-life feature that will allow you to toggle the altitude mode from Above Sea Level (ASL) to Above Ground Level (AGL) by simply clicking on the new icon to the altimeter. The KSP Team is optimistic that this will lead to improvements in the KSC’s survival rates…

Delta-v per Stage and Delta-v Tool App

Plan missions better and find flaws in your ship staging setup with this long requested feature that will let you visualize the Delta-v values along with a range of other technical data for each stage and the vessel overall. Plus, a Delta-v app that will allow you to get the vessel environment for how Delta-v is calculated in the VAB and SPH. Players will find this very useful!

Improved Burn Time information

The  improved burn time indicator will now calculate based on dV and not acceleration. Additionally, it will contain a staging indicator that shows which stages contain the dV needed to complete each part of the maneuver. This will show a red section at the end if there’s not enough dV in the current vessel to complete that maneuver. In the extended mode of the burn time indicator two extra lines are shown, allowing you to adjust how much time you want to spend burning before and after the node during the maneuver as well as showing you a countdown for when you need to start burning fuel to do so.

Extensions to the Action Group System

Along with those updates we’re also adding two extensions to our action group system. The first one adds another type of action group for controls that lets you bind input controls to fields - an axis group. The second adds Action Sets, which allow you to enable or disable sets of axes or action groups.  

This extends what you can do with a limited number of buttons, allowing you to put your craft into different modes of operation. You can even override the base controls with the action set feature, furthering how you can fine tune the interface between you and your craft. We developed these extensions to give players more options to control their robotics, but it certainly will be useful for stock and modded players as well.

Revamped Parts

A large number of parts have been given a fresh new look since the last update. You’ll be pleasantly surprised to find over 40 new part revamps, including the MK2 Lander Can, which like many other parts, includes a new variant for you to choose at will.

KSP 2 Developer Diary

In case you haven’t read through our latest KSP 2 Developer Diary yet, we invite you to check it out! Included in the post is an early animatic for the concept of our KSP 2 Announce Trailer, which was illustrated and narrated by Star Theory’s Creative Director, Nate Simpson.

To learn more about the effort that went into creating this trailer and how every bump, hiccup and cheer of triumph led to the final KSP 2 Announce Trailer, be sure to read our latest Dev Diary.

Apollo 12 Challenge’s Stellar Stand-outs

Thank you to everyone who participated in the #KSPApollo12 in-game challenge to re-create the Apollo 12 mission. There were so many amazing posts and we wanted to highlight 3 stellar submissions here: 

IG: ksp_space_agency

YouTube: Dronez

TWT: Punet Shrivas

Remember, you can share and download crafts and missions on Curse, KerbalX, the KSP Forum and the KSP Steam Workshop.

That’s it for this edition. Be sure to join us on our official forums, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Stay tuned for more exciting and upcoming news and development updates!

Happy launchings!

I say it was one of NASA's worst decisions. Really it wasn't their fault. They didn't have enough government funding to contract two companies to build landers, so they went with the bare cheapest bidder (SpaceX).

It's genuinely possible that Starship HLS might not be ready before Blue Moon MK 2 is.

Dragon has achieved zero-g!

Signalis is such a good game. It's so melancholy and dreamlike. It's like one of those really sad dreams that makes you cry when you wake up 😭

Great shots of China’s Chang’e 4 lander, the first Chinese spacecraft to make a soft landing on the surface of the Moon. These were taken from the Yutu 2 robotic rover.

Interesting to note, the Yutu 2’s mission was supposed to last only 3 days, but it’s exceeded that by 362 days!

More can be seen at moon.bao.ac.cn