Episode 7 of the GopherCraft Great Space Race opens in the VAB with Planet Exploration III, a craft that has flown before and carries lights and a thermometer. Jebediah Kerman flies it twice toward the mountains, the science buys a new research node, and then comes the first rocket built for orbit, Orbit I. It gets closer than anything so far and still runs out of fuel.
A night hop to the highlands
Planet Exploration III launches at night in a new direction: "Oh yeah, that's where the mountains are, good." With the lights on, the trajectory stretches out and the fuel runs low. The pod lands in the dark: "We are in the highlands." Basket runs a crew report, the goo and the thermometer ("Temperature readings are quite literally, nominal"), and Jebediah climbs out for a surface sample and an EVA report. Jebediah's samples pay 11.4 science and the craft 14.4, for 55. Basket spends 45 on General Construction, leaving 10. "I can use these and some other things to potentially, make my aircraft better."
Same craft, new towers
The map shows the miss: "those are the mountains, I just missed the mountains." Basket loads the same craft and adds two support towers beside it. "I don't know how this works." It is hard to steer after launch until SAS goes on, and the climb runs high and off course. "Poor Jebediah. All these crazy missions." The altimeter passes 43,000 meters before the parachutes bring the pod down in a spot Basket knows: "We are in the grasslands. We've already been here." Jebediah's surface sample is worth "a smidge." Then: "Now let's actually try to get up into space."
Orbit I
"This is the orbit one." Orbit I stacks a ring of side tanks around a tall core, with Jebediah in the pod. It is wobbly off the pad and starts to spin. "I think the spinning is a problem." Once the side tanks drop, Basket gets it pointed and climbing, and the last engine and fuel push it higher.
Short of orbit
Past the top of the climb Basket adds a maneuver node. "Actually that's not too bad of a burn." Basket starts the burn, and then: "I'm going to run out of fuel before it's done." The Mystery Goo reads "The Goo seems to be getting very cold now," and the craft drops back. "We almost made it. We were just short on a little bit of fuel, but part of that was because we were doing loop-de-loops."
Where it ends
The pod comes down in the ocean in daylight. Jebediah climbs out for a water sample ("It appears to dramatically increase the surface humidity of anything it touches"), and the recovery pays 0.8 science for Jebediah and 4.2 for Orbit I, for 24. The plan for next time is the same design, tweaked: "I was a little bit too low on fuel to get into orbit, but then I wouldn't have enough to try and get out of orbit if I actually did." The end card wishes Gopherboy, Scoti Garbidis, Pikerize, Sayulily and Steel Douglas good luck.
