[ Calder Orbital · Launch director ]

Fuel-X

A live rocket launch site you can play like a strategy game.

You never fly the rocket.

You decide when, whether, and how much risk. Tankers shuttle, transporters crawl, picket boats patrol, and the window keeps closing. Get the stack off the pad, catch the booster in the tower arms, then turn it around faster than last time.

Open the pad Scroll to count down ↓

[ LC-1 Flight 7 ]Live

Next launchT-00:23:41

Propellant loaded87.4 %

Stations4 of 5 GO

RangeGO

Window90 min

Weather▲ Marginal

engines on B-09: 33
catch tower: 146 m
calls per flight: 4
quick-time events: 0

Booster B-09 and ship S-21 stacked on launch mount OLM-1 beside catch tower TOWER-1

[ LC-1 Flight 7 ]B-09 / S-21

T-06:00:00

Contract accepted

Alt km: 0.0
Vel km/h: 0
Prop %: 0.0
Engines: 0 of 33

Launch dossier: one flight in six sheets

Contract

T-06:00:00 · Sheet 1 of 6

Norrland Relay wants fourteen relay satellites in low orbit. The window opens tonight and lasts ninety minutes. The price is good. So is the penalty.

[ Decision ] Accept NRL-3?

AcceptWindow before your margin is built
PassNo money, no reputation

Customer: Norrland Relay
Payload: 14 sats · LEO
Window: 90 min
Pair: B-09 / S-21

Prepare

T-05:15:00 · Sheet 2 of 6

SP-41 crawls B-09 out of the yard at walking pace. The tower arms lift it onto OLM-1, then set S-21 on top. Meanwhile the RIME and FEN tankers queue at the farm gate.

[ Decision ] How much propellant margin?

Run leanCheap, one long hold and you scrub
Rush trucksSurvives holds, costs 20 times more

Transporter: SP-41 MULE
Stack: Booster, then ship
Road closes: T-00:40:00
Farm: LOX ×3 · CH4 ×2

Count down

T-01:20:00 · Sheet 3 of 6

Five stations report: weather, range, propellant, vehicle, pad and crew. Upper winds are rising and a fishing boat is drifting toward the hazard area. The window does not care.

[ Decision ] Go, hold, recycle or scrub?

Go on marginalClock runs, anomaly risk goes up
HoldWindow shrinks, farm drains, crews tire

Stations: 4 of 5 GO
Weather: Marginal
Range: PK-03 intercepting
Load: 87.4 %

Fly

T+00:00:00 · Sheet 4 of 6

Thirty-three engines light. Max-Q, MECO, hot staging. You watch telemetry, not a joystick. If an engine goes out, the numbers that decide the catch start to move.

[ Decision ] Engine out on ascent?

ContinueLanding propellant shrinks
Abort catch earlyBooster expended, tower safe

Engines: 33 of 33
Max-Q: T+00:01:02
Staging: T+00:02:40
Ship: S-21 to orbit

Recover

T+00:06:00 · Sheet 5 of 6

B-09 boosts back toward an offshore aim point. Catch probability is shown honestly, to one percent. Bet the booster and the tower, or put it in the sea.

[ Decision ] Catch p 0.62 · deadline T+00:06:20

Go for catchMiss: booster lost, tower down for weeks
DivertBooster lost, tower safe

Band: Lean
Tower wind: 11 m/s
Landing prop: 6.1 %
Arms: Open

Turn around

T+00:07:30 · Sheet 6 of 6

Caught, safing. Vent, purge, lower, refurbish. The debrief prices every call you made. Cadence is the score: the next flight starts the moment this one ends.

[ Decision ] Quick turn or full refurb?

Quick turnFaster cadence, more wear
Full refurbResets wear, pad sits idle

B-09: Flight 7 · wear 0.21
Turnaround: 5 d 6 h
Reputation: +12
Next: LC-1 Flight 8

Four calls per flight

Every alert is a choice with a cost on both sides.

Propellant margin

Standard trucks must be ordered before the forecast can see the window. Rush trucks can wait for the forecast, at twenty times the price.

[ Push ]: Cheap. One long hold and the farm runs dry.
[ Protect ]: Survives holds and a recycle. Eats the profit.

Hardware

Every machine on the coast, modelled from a script. Hover or focus a plate for its sheet.

12 / 12

TOWER-1Catch tower
Class
Catch tower
Size
13 × 13 × 146 m
Role
Stacks the vehicle with its arms, then catches the booster on the way back.
OLM-1Launch mount
Class
Launch mount
Size
30 × 30 × 20 m
Role
Holds the stack and its quick-disconnects until liftoff.
B-09Bulwark booster
Class
Bulwark booster
Size
Ø 9 × 71 m
Role
33 engines, 4 grid fins, 2 catch pins. Flight-proven hardware is the long game.
S-21Vesper ship
Class
Vesper ship
Size
Ø 9 × 52 m
Role
Upper stage. Carries the payload and the contract.
SP-41Mule transporter
Class
Mule transporter
Size
16 × 14 m
Role
Rolls a stage from the yard to the pad at walking pace.
CR-77Derrick crane
Class
Derrick crane
Size
boom 96 m
Role
Lifts stages onto the transporter in the yard.
LX-03Rime / Fen tanker
Class
Rime / Fen tanker
Size
21 × 2.6 × 4 m
Role
LOX and methane by road. Late trucks wait at the gate.
LOX-2Cryo tank
Class
Cryo tank
Size
Ø 6 × 28 m
Role
Farm inventory with real boil-off.
LN2-1Sphere tank
Class
Sphere tank
Size
Ø 18 m
Role
Purge and chill nitrogen.
PK-03Picket boat
Class
Picket boat
Size
26 × 6.5 m
Role
Keeps the maritime hazard area clear.
RV-1Grapple vessel
Class
Grapple vessel
Size
72 × 16 m
Role
Holds at the divert point, in case.
WX-1Vane station
Class
Vane station
Size
3 × 3 × 10 m
Role
Ground and tower wind for every call.

Varne Coast

One region, four sites, one clock. Expansion is the long game.

Brackwater

LC-1 · Orbital pad · Active

A spit between the bay and the open sea. Tower, mount, tank farm and a small yard. Where every campaign starts.

How it's built

A game made like a launch site: reproducible, measured, boring in the right places.

01
Assets are code
Every tower, booster, tanker and boat is a Python script run headless in Blender, exported to glTF, optimised and loaded in three.js. No hand-made binary.
>>> blender -b -P tower.py
02
A deterministic world
A fixed-step simulation runs the whole site at 30 Hz. Same seed, same launch, to the tick. Time compression means more steps, never bigger ones.
>>> sim @ 30 Hz · seed 42
03
A printed control room
Paper, ink and one signal orange. Monospace telemetry, a few huge numbers. The 3D world uses the same tokens as the interface.
>>> 1 accent · radius 0

[ Pre-alpha · Brackwater LC-1 · Browser, no install ]

The window is open.

The pad runs in your browser today: the scene, the clock and the logistics. The full director’s chair is being built in the open.

Open the pad

Fuel-X

Launch dossier: one flight in six sheets

Assets are code

A deterministic world

A printed control room

The window is open.