Fly, Vertibird, Fly!

Watching from a safe distance, through cameras, windshields, and suit visors, Kerbal hearts are elated to see a cluster of boosters grace the skies once more.

Until it begins tipping over, spinning, and going out of control.

Just as the dull growl of the boosters reaches their ears, the crude machine spirals into the ice below, the still-firing boosters going their seperate ways.

As it would end up, the recovery parachutes mounted to the Vertibird's wings tipped its center of mass off-kilter, and it had no way to correct.

As soon as it was confirmed to be safe, the ground crew ran out to go and recover the Vertibird's probe core, rolling away on the ice. The sight of several pressure-suited kerbals ungracefully chasing after a rolling probe core is later parodied in Monty Kython and the Swimming Circus.

Tis but a scratch!

Several weeks later, the refined Vertibird 2 would be dragged out to the dirt strip, and thankfully, would fly upward as straight as an arrow.

The six clustered SRBs more than overpowered Oshan's weak gravity, and the onboard thermometer records a rise in temperature as the cryovolcanic atmosphere is forced out of the way by the crazy little thing.

When the boosters flamed out, the Vertibird continued to coast upwards, past 50, 100, then 200 kilometers, recording the point where the barometer stopped working as 117,500 meters. Ground ranging data indicates that the Vertibird 2 went over 315,000 meters above the ice, well into space.

What goes up, however, must come down, and the wispy atmosphere of Oshan has no mercy upon those who dive too steeply. The Vertibird would spear straight downwards, and plummet into the ice at mach 2.36.