Kerbal Space Program is getting free European Space Agency missions

An upcoming Kerbal Space Program update will add European Space Agency (ESA) themed content to the physics-based space simulation game.

Releasing on July 1 for PC and later this year for consoles, the Shared Horizons update will include two ESA missions, BepiColombo and Rosetta.

BepiColombo is based on Europe’s first and ongoing mission to Mercury, which is the smallest and least explored rocky planet in our Solar System, according to the ESA. It will challenge players to land on Moho, Kerbal’s Mercury analogue, and perform tasks from the real mission.

Rosetta is based on the successful mission to chase, go into orbit around and land on a Jupiter-family comet.

Shared Horizons will also include the Ariane 5 rocket, an ESA-themed Kerbals space suit, plus new parts and science experiments to carry out.

“Here at the European Space Agency, many of our engineers and scientists are very familiar with KSP,” said Günther Hasinger, director of science at ESA.

“Both Rosetta and BepiColombo are highly complex missions that have specific challenges; however, each 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.”

Take-Two indie publishing label Private Division announced Kerbal Space Program 2 in August 2019.

Set for release this year, initially for PC and later for consoles, the title is in development at a new Private Division studio with support from original Kerbal Space Program studio Squad, which sold the KSP IP to the publisher in 2017.

VGC interviewed Kerbal Space Program 2 creative director Nate Simpson last year.