Small green astronauts called Kerbals are strapped into rockets built from parts and launched with real orbital mechanics, and most of the early ones do not come back. Released as a free alpha in June 2011 by a Mexican marketing company's side project, it taught a generation the word 'delta-v' and the record files the moment NASA engineers admitted to playing it.
The record notes that Jebediah Kerman is the pilot who is never afraid, that the Mun is the moon, and that an orbit is achieved by pointing sideways, which is the lesson most players report.
Correction: the 2023 sequel did not replace it. Kerbal Space Program 2 was released in Early Access, its studio was closed in 2024, and the record notes the original is the version people still play.
YouTube, 2013 to 2015: a Scottish channel's tutorials on rendezvous and docking, watched by people who then did it, and comments from people who worked in the industry saying the videos were accurate.
Someone remembers landing on the Mun with no fuel to return and leaving Jeb there for a year of real time, and the rescue mission working. The record files this as the game.
What does it mean? Write it the way you would say it out loud.
