Now why would they chose a noob like me?

[terje439]

1Q59

Saved by the bell. The new budget has arrived and saved us from bankrupcy.
We are given two new short term objectives, one is to keep our funds above 8000$, and the other says "keep the reliability of atleast two mission components associated with the following set skill "human rated rockets" above 85%.

I can tell you right now that #2 will fail, as I do not have any components with that skill.

Since we do not have the required funds available to launch the Sputniks, we send a total of 13 staff members on training.

[terje439]

Night, more will follow [:)]

[terje439]

2Q59

With all our staff undergoing training, we are not able to do anything, but we change our researchers from the Sputnik rocket and back to the Proton rocket.

[terje439]

3Q59

We launch the Sputnik, again we have a failure during countdown. This is becomming critical as we need as satelite in orbit to open up new projects. Time is wasting quickly now. I fear we might have to attempt some shortcuts down the line, but we shall see.
A total of 7 staff members were sent on training.

[terje439]

4Q59

Nothing to do but wait while the reliability on the SPutnik is back up, so we keep training our staff.

[terje439]

1Q60

Still waiting on the Sputnik modules. More training.

[terje439]

2Q60

We took a slight gamble and launched the Sputnik at a lower success chance than last time around, but this time we succeeded. This is VERY important as we can now send probes to the moon, as well as trying to send people into space.

[terje439]

3Q60

We open our first moon program, and we realize that we are going to need a larger audience for Major Tom, so we expand our control centre. Our pilots keep training, while our scientists focus solely on the new module and the Proton rocket.
We also close down the Sputnik Satelite program to free up space in our HQ (the size of the HQ dictates how many programmes you can have open at any time. Closing down the ones that are of no further use is cheaper than expanfing the HQ).

[terje439]

4Q60

Nothing happens this quarter, research on the Proton has now given it a reliability of 65%, so it is getting there. I would have liked to open another research program, but the programmes to send people into space are a little too expensive just yet.

[terje439]

1Q61

We send our people out to train once more, and hire three new ground control crews. I need more, but the rest that applied for the positions were simply not good enough, so we will have to wait a little longer before we hire more people.

[terje439]

2Q61

We open up a new project, apart from that there is nothing to report.

[terje439]

3Q61

No project is launched, so we keep training our staff. 4 pilots and 7 ground controllers are sent off to school. We also expand our research centre to the next size, so we can hire more scientists.

[terje439]

4Q61

Nothing happens at all. We keep doing research, and most of our staff are still in school.

[terje439]

1Q62

We fire two scientists (these were some of the "free" scientists we recieved at start, but they simply were not good enough to keep or train), and we hire 6 new ones. We have one more slot available, but there were no more people to hire that had decent skills.
We also hire three flight controllers, again here too we have room for more (4 more), but the available people are not good enough.
As always our unneeded personell is sent to school.

[terje439]

2Q62

Another quarter where nothing happens. Time is ticking, and we now have 46 quarters remaining before we HAVE to be at the moon [X(].

[terje439]

3Q62

With our new scientists reporting for duty, we open a new program, the Ranger 3 Lunar Impactor.
As usual, staff is trained. We know that we will need every bit of skill if we are to succeed down the line.

[terje439]

4Q62

A quiet quarter. One scientist comes back from school, and is exchanged with one of the others doing research on the Pioneer IV. The replaced scientist is sent to school.

[terje439]

1Q63

A new budgte is passed, and we recieve max funding available. We also hire more staff, two new flight controllers are hired, but we had hoped for four. But too many tomatoes around. We also hire the last available scientist.
Although the Pioneer IV is ready, the Proton rocket is not, so we have to wait a little longer before launching.

[terje439]

2Q63

We are now waiting for the flight controllers to return from school. When they do, we will launch the Pioneer IV. Apart from that, nothing.

[terje439]

3Q63

We decide to launch the Pioneer IV, and we open a new moon programme, the Lunar Orbiter.
All unneeded staff is as always sent to school.