After gaining a lot of science from the first ever time going into orbit, Equestrian Aerospace had enough science to get some new parts. They unlocked the part of the tech tree that leads to more science equipment. They constructed another rocket, but this time, they upgraded the Orbiter I with some solid rocket boosters.

This time, Dr. Whooves was the pilot of the mission, because Planetshine was on holidays in Manehatten and this mission was to gather science from outer space, so Dr. Whooves would be the most reasonable pilot. Orbiter II was a rocket that would only use 'Thumper' boosters to get it to a high altitude with some vertical speed so the LVtT-30 'Reliant' engines wouldn't need to burn for so long, so there would be more delta-V to spare.

The rocket was designed to be able to go into a polar orbit and then be able to change inclination into an equatorial orbit. It was also designed to get into an eccentric orbit, so Dr. Whooves could collect science from high above Equestria.

Orbiter II stood on the launchpad, ready to be launched. The rocket going through exterior safety checks, and Gene was replaced by Lyra. She was a very good pilot just like Planetshine, but she was a backup pilot just in case Planetshine was not there. Dr. Whooves even asked the EA administration why she wasn't chosen to be the pilot of the mission, and they just said that he was a good enough pilot.

Orbiter II was going to be launched in about 1 hour. Dr. Whooves checked if everything was working, his spacesuit working fine and if the science gear was working.

Lyra sparked up the launchpad after about an hour waiting, Dr. Whooves initiated the first stage. The solid rockets accelerated him slowly because his thrust-to-weight ratio wasn’t very high. He initiated a very slight gravity turn in a polar direction and waited for the solid boosters to flame out.

After the boosters flamed out, he decoupled the boosters and initiated the next stage, which was the main boosters. He adjusted the thrust limiter of the LVT-45 ‘Swivel’ engine to 25% and fired up his LVT-30 ‘Reliant engine to max so he could get into orbit. He initiated an aggressive gravity turn so he could gather up more horizontal speed than vertical speed.

After having his apoapsis higher than the Karman line, he still had his ‘Reliant’ engines burning, but he turned off his ‘Swivel’ engine. He placed his apoapsis at more than 2500000m above Equestria but he was on a collision course with Equestria.

After reaching the apoapsis, he turned his rocket prograde and burned with the ‘Swivel’ engine. Right after he started burning, he forgot to decouple the ‘Reliant’ engine and turn the thrust limiter of the Swivel engines to the max. The ‘Reliant engines and the fuel tanks were on a collision course with Equestria, and there was no way that it would leave debris in orbit.

After burning for a few seconds, Dr. Whooves’ rocket’s periapsis was above the Karman line. He conducted some experiments high above Equestria and did an EVA. He did an EVA report and he was the second pony ever to do an EVA while in orbit. He transmitted the data to the space center and kept a copy of it for further analysis after recovery.

After waiting a long, long time to get back to periapsis, only about 1 hour to be precise, he did another EVA so he could see Equestria as a whole close up instead of far away. He did some science experiments, transmitted it, and held on to a copy of it. Once he was near the equator of Equestria, he pointed his rocket in the ‘normal’ direction to change his inclination. He had to burn for a long time and then realised that he didn’t have enough fuel to do a full inclination change, so he left just enough delta-V to get back down to Equestria.

His orbital inclination was perfectly along the equator, but it was close enough that a bit of an error in the retrograde burn wouldn’t fling him out of Equestria and into Abyssinia. He waited until the apoapsis and did another EVA and a lot of science experiments.

Next, he pointed his rocket retrograde and burnt until all his delta-V was all used up. He was on a collision course with Equestria and then, he decoupled his booter and his command pod was the only thing that remained, with the science gear, heat shield and a parachute.

Once he entered the atmosphere, he realised that the staging was a bit off and that the parachute would deploy when he entered the lower parts of the atmosphere. He quickly disarmed the parachute and then waited for the rocket to fall to a good point for him to deploy the parachute. The rocket reached about 2000m above the water. He deployed the parachute and the command pod slowly fell all the way down to the ocean.

The ocean he splashed down in was the one dividing Equestria and Griffinstone, also known as the Celestial Sea. Instead of sending transponders, Gus contacted a cargo ship that was bringing supplies from Equestria to Griffinstone to retrieve the command pod.

Data gathered: 231
Data value: 3.2
Science gained: 739.2

Author's Note

If you think that the science gained was a bit too much, it could well be it. I was too lazy to do the mission so I used hyperedit to do the 'missions.' Anyways, I'm going to put in pictures when I get the chance to.