Kerbal Space Program's European Space Agency collaboration is live
Land on comets and take a trip to Mercury.
A pair of new missions have appeared in Kerbal Space Program today. The Shared Horizons update has been put together in collaboration with the European Space Agency and includes new parts and cosmetics to go along with cosmic trips, both of them based on real ESA missions.
Rosetta will task you with sending a landing module to a comet. The ESA launched the mission in 2004 and it concluded successfully in 2016, but setting down on a chunk of ice and rock that's hurtling through space won't be a simple task. You'll be able to detect and visit more comets in the career mode, too, as they've just been added to all modes.
The BepiColombo mission, meanwhile, won't reach its destination, Mercury, until 2025, but you can beat it in the virtual version, sending your probe to take readings and conduct experiments our star's neighbour.
Shared Horizons also includes some planet texture updates, new part variants inspired by the ESA's rockets, flags, a suit picker and a smaller version of the advanced grabbing unit known as The Klaw.
The update is free for everyone, and you can check out the full patch notes on the forum. Kerbal Space Program 2, which was expected this year, has now been pushed back to autumn 2021, but at least the original still seems very much alive.