Publisher Private Division and developer Squad have just announced that they will be partnering with the European Space Agency for the upcoming free content update for their space program simulator Kerbal Space Program. The free update, titled Shared Horizons, will release in the summer of 2020 for the PC and later this year for consoles.
Shared Horizons aims to bring the ESA’s actual space missions and spacecraft to Kerbal Space Program. Michael Cook, Executive Producer at Private Division, said in a press release that “It is an honor to work hand-in-hand with such a world-class space organisation, and we cannot wait for fans to experience these monumental missions with the Shared Horizons update.”
Among the notable additions will be a scenario involving the BepiColombo mission: an ongoing joint mission between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. In real life, BepiColombo aims to land on Mercury (or its in-game counterpart, Moho). It launched in 2018 with the Ariane 5 Rocket and is expected to touch down on Mercury in the year 2025. The second scenario follows the Rosetta mission, which launched in 2004. After 10 years of traveling, it landed on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
ESA’s Director of Science, Gunther Hasinger, commented on the complexity of these missions. “Both Rosetta and BepiColombo are highly complex missions which have specific challenges but prove to be very rewarding for ESA and the global scientific community. Because of this, I am very happy that these ground-breaking science missions can be experienced on Kerbin as well as on Earth,” Hasinger said.
This wouldn’t be the first time that the space simulator took inspiration from real life. In 2018, an expansion titled Making History was released, which paid homage to the “Dawn of the Space Race” and other iconic moments such as the first spacewalk, the first moon landing, and more.
Kerbal Space Program’s Shared Horizons free update will be made available on July 1 for the PC and later this year for consoles. The game is also set to release its sequel, Kerbal Space Program 2, within the year for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The sequel will include features such as multiplayer, colony building, and more.
