The date was earlier this year. I had just purchased SSM200007 and was going through the first few missions for my patches(on easy). I was giddy, everything seemed a breeze.....then 51A.
At first I thought there may be some bugs to this mission. There were many troubles with getting the Eva-s in their proper alignments for sat. capture. Turned out on east setting, you really only needed to be in close proximity. The antenna removals proved difficult as well due to the fact that you can get the sats in the "antenna down, engine facing out" position, but there's only one right way. Then there was moving the second sat to the point for robotic arm capture. That, my friends, took many hours...why? The shuttle wasn't in a proper zeroed position and I didn't know it had to be. By this time, I had moved on to other missions. I just had had enough of 51A. But, after a lot of searching, I found out about the shuttle position requirement. Ding! I had the eva1 in the right place the whole time because when I adjusted the shuttle's yaw, "beep" next step!
I was almost through all the missions on easy...but I felt like doing them on easy wasn't really earning them. From that point, I went to complete 51A, but then I discovered the Check Lists! Yes...I must go back and redo all the missions on high setting. I will finish 51A the right way. And so, I restarted my patch quest. The check lists were great, the first few missions were a breeze again, and the added excitement of using checklists was great.....then....51A
I was going through the on orbit and mission comms fairly well....even got the sats retrieved, and in the bay. On deorbit, I noticed that the umbilical doors had never been closed. I thought this was odd because that is part of the procedures just before the initial orbit insertion burn. Hmmm. When I looked at the checklist...I noticed a few steps missing. How the mission continued after missing those, I do not know. But, it caused the deorbit burn not to happen. I was only using quick save so I had only one point to reload from and that wasn't going to help me at all....so....do over. From launch. Time to do 51a....again.
This time, I found the missing steps on the checklist from another mission. Umbilical doors closed? Check. Fast forward to the first sat retrieval where eva1&2 "man handle" the westar into place. Well... that procedure takes 30 min...so I left the room to let my team handle it. Somehow, I got eva 1 too close because when the sat finally settled in the pallet, eva1 was "inside" the westar. Stuck. and I hadn't saved it up to that point. ~:(
OKay..once again..prep, launch, deploy, and now....back to capture. For some reason...the positions I used before for the antenna removals didn't work. More hours of maintaining patience....and then....more frustration. So what's a virtualnaught to do? Move on to the next mission! I got through sts26....but 51A was nagging me.
I had saved it at the first westar capture a couple weeks ago. Last night, for some glorious reason, everything fell into place...one step after another until....finally....a "for sale" sign!!!!! I looked at that beautiful red and white sign....fighting back the tears of joy(okay...dramatic license there) Now, time to get it all home. Deorbit burn? Check.
Landing was on the first try and I stand here today a humbled man. 51A....I love/hate you. All total? About 20 hours invested into it. Mission accomplished. You may exit the shuttle.
