Return Trip
Having completed the principal objectives on the surface of Duna, the crew was ready to get back to orbit, where the rest of the spacecraft awaited. One last picture for the history books ...
The next, critical part of the mission was returning to orbit. Thankfully Duna's atmosphere is so thin that ascent to orbit can be done with reasonable fuel efficiency.
Rendezvous and docking were uneventful.
Now begun the long wait for the planets to realign. The kerbonauts spent almost 130 days in the small habitat module, playing board games mostly.
Finally, the launch window back home opened. The kerbonauts couldn't keep their sanity much longer.
They fired the engines one more time to depart the Red Planet for good, putting the ship on a 74-day transfer to Kerbin.
The first chapter in the manned exploration of the solar system was coming to a close.
Continue to Return to Kerbin ...