RP-1 New Horizons Space Agency Episode 2

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:00]Welcome back to episode two of the New Horizon Space Agency. In this episode, we are going to be launching some more space shot sounding rockets and debuting a brand new launch vehicle. Let's get right into it. March 12th, 1952. Another space shot rocket is rolled out to the pad and prepared for launch. This rocket carries a brand new experimental biological capsule hoping to gain information on how biological life responds to being in space.

[00:00:26]However, after a successful full duration first stage burn, the second stage engine has a catastrophic failure proceeding to explode and causing the mission to be a failure. The biological capsule does successfully separate validating our recovery methods and giving us valuable flight data for future launches. April 26th, 1952.

[00:00:46]A new vehicle has been constructed in order to once again try and bring a biological sample into space. This time, both stages complete full duration burns allowing our biological capsule to finally make it to space and the capsule is successfully recovered. This is a massive milestone for the program as this is the first biological object ever sent into space. The future is looking very bright for our fledgling space program. August 24th, 1952. The brand new K4 rocket is rolled out to the pad and prepared for its debut launch. On this launch, it's going to carry a camera that we need to try and get 200 km down range while reaching an altitude of above 100 km.

[00:01:25]After a relatively uneventful launch, the engine unfortunately suffers a performance loss about halfway through its burn causing this mission once again to be a failure. However, the camera was able to be recovered and valuable flight data on the engine and the systems has been gathered for future launches.

[00:01:41]January 3rd, 1953. A new K4 rocket has been rolled out to the pad and prepared for launch. This rocket will be following the exact same flight path as the previous one just with hopefully slightly less engine failures.

[00:01:58]The vehicle successfully executes a full duration burn on its first stage motor, matching both contract requirements and marking a successful mission. This is the first successful mission of one of our K4 vehicles. Moving away from active launches for a second, let's look at the construction of a modified K4 that is going to be used a lot later in this video. This vehicle adds a second and will later have a third stage in order to complete two sets of contracts. First of all, this rocket is going to be capable of completing the 3,000 km and 5,000 km down range contracts. These are some of the most difficult near the game, so it was good to have a vehicle that could do both with minimum modifications.

[00:02:37]Secondly, this vehicle is going to be able to complete our advanced biological experiment. The hardest part of that contract is reaching 2,200 m/s surface speed above 140 km. To do that, you have to end up going really high and you need a fairly high-performance upper stage for this stage in the game.

[00:02:55]This will be the last major vehicle that we construct before beginning our orbital attempts, making this vehicle vitally important to keeping our program on track to reach orbit as soon as possible. August 19th, 1953. The new modification for the K4 rocket has been rolled out to the pad and is prepared for launch.

[00:03:14]This vehicle's primary objective is to haul a biological capsule into space while going faster than 2,200 m/s. This marks a pivotal launch for the program, as this is the final launch in our suborbital research campaign. If this launch is successful, we can move on to our down range contracts and we are one step closer to hitting orbit.

[00:03:43]For the first time in this program's history, the launch goes off without a hitch. The vehicle successfully validates all contract requirements and is successfully recovered. 29th of August, 1953. Our premier pilot, Gleb, takes to the sky once more in his experimental rocket plane. This time, his main objective is to reach above 12 and 1/2 km at a speed of 550 m per second. Once he completes this, he's coming back to the KSC to hopefully have a much less eventful touchdown than last time.

[00:04:32]Gleb accomplishes all flight objectives and successfully glides his aircraft back to the runway for a relatively smooth touchdown. Gleb lives to fly another day.

[00:04:46]June 12th, 1954. Another modified K4 rocket is rolled out to the pad. After previously performing well on our biological experiments, this rocket is now been modified with a third stage in order to try and reach 5,000 km of downrange distance. If this mission is successful, the program will have successfully completed all pre-orbital requirements and will be moving on to its first orbital attempt very shortly.

[00:05:30]After successful full duration burns from all three stages, the payload is successfully sent 5,500 km downrange, completing all contract requirements and allowing the program to put all of its effort towards its first orbital attempt. Thank you guys all so much for watching. In next video, we're going to be designing and launching our first orbital vehicle. So, I hope to see you guys there. Have a good one.