This Season 2 stream on GopherCraft's multiplayer server starts with an old design and ends with a new family of rockets. Basket flies BasketCase XVI twice, then builds Laika I, named for the first dog in space, and flies it, Laika II and Laika III. All three reach space. Laika II comes the closest of the three to orbit and brings its pilot home, and the stream ends with Laika III crashed in the mountains and Magvy Kerman killed.
BasketCase XVI, two more times
The craft list in the VAB already runs past Basket XII to Basket XIII and BasketCase XIV, XV and XVI. Basket loads XVI, a stubby rocket with side tanks and wings, with a plan: "go straight up," slow down after the first push, and skip the gravity turn. The commentary admits the last time "I kept on losing horribly."
The first flight climbs well until a small tilt starts it spinning. It still comes down under its parachute on the sea, where Hilchel Kerman climbs out on EVA beside the floating pod before recovery. The second flight tries again with no gravity turn and a maneuver node to "land somewhere cool." It ends on the shore, and the Flight Results read "Outcome: Catastrophic Failure!" with a highest altitude of 17,648m.
Laika I: Straight up, straight down
Basket starts over with a new base name. "Like one for the first dog in space." Laika I is a single stack: a Mk1 pod with a heat shield and, after a viewer's point, a decoupler under the shield, three Mystery Goo canisters, a thermometer, an antenna, a parachute, three fins and one engine. The engine is the question. Viewers suggest one that gimbals so the rocket stops spinning, and after some hunting for the word in the part stats ("Gimbaling. I found it."), the LV-T45 "Swivel" goes on.
Joebles Kerman flies it, and it does go straight up: "it's a miracle." It runs out of fuel high above Kerbin, the goo and the thermometer find nothing new, and the capsule turns retrograde for home. The angle is too steep. The capsule glows through re-entry over the mountains and hits the ground fast. The Flight Results list a highest altitude of 122,616m and "Joebles Kerman was killed."
Laika II: A burn in space
Laika II keeps the core and adds three more tanks on the sides with nose cones. "Science the heck out of it." Magvy Kerman is the pilot this time. It climbs with no gravity turn and no spinning ("this is amazing"), and high up Basket sets a maneuver node for a burn of about a minute, then throttles up on the countdown.
The fuel runs out first. The map shows a Kerbin periapsis of 32,020m, and the commentary sums it up: "So our orbit is really bad." Basket adds a new node to come down in the mountains, then learns the hard way that there are no batteries or solar panels on board. The electric charge drops to zero, SAS stops working, and the capsule falls through a long re-entry. A goo canister goes missing on the way down, but the parachute holds. The pod lands at night and tips over on what the science window calls Kerbin's Grasslands.
The crew report says "Hey, I can see my house from here, I think." Magvy cannot go on EVA, because the pod lies on its door, but the goo and a temperature log go into the bank, and the craft is recovered with its pilot alive. "The guy even came back."
Laika III and the Skipper
The research tree now shows 101.0 science. Basket reads through engines and the Hitchhiker storage container and spends 90 on the node with the RE-I5 "Skipper," which turns out to be "really obnoxiously big" for this rocket. So Laika III is the same ship with batteries and solar panels added: "I like batteries."
Magvy flies again. This time Basket tries a gravity turn, the rocket does not like it, and the fuel is gone early. The capsule still reaches space and has charge to spare, but it comes in too steep over the mountains. The Flight Results read "Catastrophic Failure!" with a highest altitude of 118,424m, and "Magvy Kerman was killed."
Where it ends
The stream ends at the Space Center at night with 11.0 science left. None of the Laika rockets reached a stable orbit. The plan for next time is the same design with fins on the side tanks: "it's hard to say if that will work."