For us early fans of the original Kerbal Space Program, there were so many things to enjoy during those first sandbox days. Whether it was the slapstick fun of stringing together small fuel tanks (there was only one size) into impossibly huge rockets, or the eternal search for unlikely uses for the game's only “robotic” part (the landing leg), KSP was a good time from the very beginning.

Ah, the good old days. (Courtesy of TD Channel)

If HarvesteR and Squad had stopped there, Kerbal would likely still be remembered as a beloved curiosity. But then they added Science Mode. Suddenly, the game had goals: anywhere you went in the Kerbolar System, you could gather a Science currency that could be spent at the R&D Center to research new technologies. Over time, an expanding roster of new parts were added to the game, and lo and behold, KSP became undeniable.

With the siren song of new celestial bodies calling out to me, my own campaign saves turned into epic sagas. I became attached to the individual Kerbals who crewed my first, stumbling Mun missions. Stranded survivors of landings gone awry could not be left behind. That first Mun landing was a moment to remember, but the first Mun rescue was even better!

As that narrative emerged — and as I invested my crews with personalities and dreams — the game began to invade other parts of my life. I have a strong recollection of designing a Laythe rescue rocket in the margins of my meeting notes at work. It not only had to land upright in Laythe’s ocean, but had to deploy a boat to collect the survivors of a previous mission who had contrived to get stranded several kilometers apart from one another. And then the whole thing had to take off from the water again to rendezvous in orbit with a Kerbin return vehicle.

The missions became puzzles that I couldn't put down. To feed my growing hunger for design ideas, I first turned to the KSP Subreddit, where others (some of whom clearly knew a thing or two about space travel) were achieving impossible things with their own space programs. Some of these creators drew inspiration from planned space missions, some of which were more speculative than others.

Thus was I introduced to the strange and beautiful universe of “what happens when the Kerbal spirit is applied to the material world.” Could you propel a ship with nuclear bombs? Yes, and we almost did! Could you build a plane that takes off from a runway, then switches from air-breathing mode to oxidizer mode to fly to orbit? You sure can try!

My Kerbal experience became a way to investigate many of these real-world mission architectures, and as a greater number of mods became available, virtually all things became possible. The real-world mission proposals all had awesome names that hinted at their audacity: Orion, Nautilus-X, Constellation. Sometimes it felt like I could wish them into being by building them in KSP. Not all of these dreams were as far off as they seemed — as SpaceX achieved the impossible goal of landing first stages propulsively, we all played along at home.

This video game had introduced me to a new and beautiful reality. When I knocked together my first goofy rocket, I didn't even really know what an orbit was. HarvesteR didn't just give me a game, he gave me an endless undertaking, the pursuit of which would lead me to Atomic Rockets, the NASA Spaceflight forum, and the videos of Scott Manley.

Tomorrow, Kerbal Space Program 2 is crossing that same threshold from “fun toy” to “trying to figure out in the shower how to make a rover when you haven't unlocked wheels yet at the R&D Center.” With the release of the For Science! update, the game receives several new features and numerous high-consequence bug fixes. I've been playing a single Exploration Mode campaign for a couple of months now, and I'm suddenly realizing that thousands of deeply-invested sagas are about to get underway.

Just unlocked some probe cores, it's time to fly to Duna!

My son was born a year after the original KSP’s debut. Now we're playing KSP2 together, and our own Exploration Mode campaign has just entered Tier 3 on the tech tree. We've Gotten Weird With It, somehow managing to unlock the nuclear NERV engines before having rover wheels, extendible ladders, or any but the smallest batteries. We've returned samples to Kerbin from Duna's North pole and the deep craters of Gilly. We've disintegrated more than one probe in the thick atmosphere of Eve, and we're assembling a very big nuclear rocket in low Kerbin orbit, with the goal of exploring all the moons of Jool in one go.

We've got a lot of empty docking ports on that main truss. Probes? Landers? Packing for Jool is always hectic.

It's so fun. It's really, really fun.

How is it different from KSP? Lots of ways, big and small. Science collection is a much smoother process that involves a lot less guesswork, and the new Science parts are pleasingly diverse, asking you to think hard about how to take advantage of their unique properties. To give one example, the long collection time of the ASCM-A "Air Sniffer" atmospheric science module requires you to develop a loiter capability. You’re either going to have to make a plane, or you’re going to need to get creative with your lander design!

We haven't unlocked the big engines yet, but that won't stop us from testing some spaceplane ideas!

The new terrain system really comes into its own here, as well. There’s no way to predict what you'll encounter when landing at a new location, and I often find myself sightseeing when I'm supposed to be doing serious science stuff. Adding to that feeling of mystery are the new Discoverables — one-of-a-kind points of interest, a couple dozen of which have been scattered throughout the Kerbolar System. My son and I have run across one of them so far (won't tell you where), and it was every bit as exciting a discovery as I'd hoped!

Tim C. Kerman clearly thinks he's discovered a delicious baked potato.

This update’s inclusion of re-entry heating and more rigid joints are of course hugely important to the overall experience, as are the recent corrections of a number of stability and performance issues. Buoyancy has also seen a major upgrade, and it’s now possible to build working seaplanes (and launch them from our brand-new boat docks)! The game is still in Early Access, which means there are still plenty of improvements to come (as well as plenty of opportunities to help us out by submitting your feedback and bug reports), but the simple fact is that the game is now very hard to put down.

My first glorious seaplane flight in KSP2 (inspired by this amazing real plane).

Go check out our deep dive video for a breakdown of everything that arrives tomorrow at 10am Pacific time in the For Science! update. We've got an all-new Mission system that offers you interesting new goals to pursue in your quest for Science, and there's a completely revamped R&D Center with four tiers of unlockable technologies. Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing how deep into the Kerbolar System people can get with only the first research node unlocked. I suspect it's shockingly far. Could Eeloo be in play? Could somebody possibly manage an Eve landing and return? Only time will tell!

Eve, beguiling yet deadly!

The For Science! update is the first of a series of major Roadmap Updates. The next one brings colonies to the game, and future installments will add new star systems and new technologies to enable you to fly between them. We’ll also continue to listen to player feedback to get a sense of which changes are working well and which ones need further development.

The fun is just beginning!

2023 has been a year of challenges for KSP2, and we appreciate the huge role our community has played in helping us to identify and pursue areas of improvement. I also want to give a big shoutout to our Pioneers, whose dedication and eagerness to dig deep into early builds uncovered a lot of previously-invisible issues. I hope that as we pass this new milestone, you can feel how much passion and hard work the team at Intercept has poured into this game. We are proud of how far KSP2 has come, and we are equally grateful for the dedication and patience our players have shown over the past year. We certainly have come a long way in the last ten months.

From all of us at Intercept to all of you in the KSP community: thank you for your support. We’re excited to finally get the Exploration Era underway with all of you.

Don’t forget to check your staging, and I’ll see you on Laythe!

Nate