Planetshine, Bon Bon, and Luna reported to the launchpad, with the rocket waiting to launch. Bon Bon and Luna walked up the stairs to command pod while Planetshine flew up to the command pod. The rocket was extremely big, having 2 different side boosters staged in an onion stage. The two side boosters would feed fuel and oxidizer the main booster so that when the side boosters are decoupled, the main booster would be full.

The command pod wasn't that big, but it had ample room for sleeping and lying down. Planetshine was on the top level while Luna and Bon Bon sat together at the bottom level. The rocket was very large, though not as large as the Minmus rocket. The only thing that was larger was the transfer stage, which used a Wolfhound engine, which had high efficiency in a vacuum because of its very wide engine nozzle.

The lander would have a crew capacity of 2, which would house Planetshine and Luna as they land on the moon. Gene said, 'You ponies all good? We will be launching in 30 seconds.'

'All good,' Planetshine said.

Launching in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Liftoff!

The rocket had a pretty good TWR to start with, at 1.5, but once it started to have its fuel used, it quickly changed to over 2. The launch wasn't that uncomfortable. The ascent this time was a little different than other rockets. Instead of doing a gravity turn a bit late, Planetshine initiated the turn 2500m above sea level and then pointed the rocket in the prograde direction, slowly turning the rocket until horizontal.

Once the side boosters finished burning and the fuel was fully depleted from them, Planetshine decoupled them leaving only the main booster that would get it into orbit. The decoupling had a bit of a problem, as in a lot of problems, such as the Seperatrons not firing up, which meant the side boosters collided with the main booster, but nothing bad happened such as breaking the engine of the main stage, which would be disastrous.

Once the apoapsis reached 75000m above sea level, Planetshine stopped the main booster, and still pointing prograde, coasted all the way to the rocket's apoapsis. Then, once the rocket reached its apoapsis, Planetshine burnt along the prograde vector to get into a stable orbit around Equestria.

Author's Note

I promise next chapter is going to be long, just trust me.