Crunch Time
22 Jul 2016Mara Korine
Distance from Sol: 24,396.41 LyHull: 95%
Rovers: 2
Mood: Embarrassed but confident.
I've done dozens of planetary landings. I familiarised myself with the flight characteristics and procedures before I left the bubble, and have made safe and successful landings many times since. So why am I logging an incident report? Coming in too fast? High gravity planet I just hadn't approached carefully enough?
No, I was taking off from a low gravity world.
I was taking off.
I rushed my preflight check and rushed the takeoff procedure. Was the hangar powered down? Check. Shields powered on? Check. Engines engaged? Check.
So I applied some vertical thrust, pitched up, and crunch! I had not waited for the shields to actually charge and come online and I had not gotten enough altitude that the aft would have enough clearance. It's minor damage, but dents and creases are stress risers and that's where things start to wear out once you've dinged it. It isn't bad enough to worry about. I'm just embarrassed that it happened.
I did have a chance to see Jaques Station. Everyone seems to be heading there these days. Even if it wasn't intentional I think he ended up at a gorgeous location. The station is right in a purple and blue nebula and orbits a beautiful ringed world. It's so pretty! Station services were very limited. They are still too short on supplies and personnel to provide ship repairs, and they don't seem to be connected to Universal Cartographics. You can dock, and the marketplace is open as people had reported. It was nice to get out of the ship for a bit while I was there.
So now I'm off again. TOSIA awaits! The only hurdle left for me is to cross the Mare Desperationis. Lucky for me some wonderful members of the Borderlands Venture have already mapped out several crossings of that gap between the spiral arms. The only challenge for me is to gather enough materials to boost my drive before arriving. This means many more planetary landings between here and there. Next time I will remember to get a little more altitude before pitching up!