Kerbal Space Program is getting a free update

Private Division and Squad has announced a partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA). This new partnership is for an update to Kerbal Space Program, titled Shared Horizons, planned for PC from July 1. An update for consoles is planned but won’t be until later this year. Shared Horizons celebrates the continued contribution by the ESA to space exploration and will also be a free update for all players.

Shared Horizons will contain two cornerstone missions, led by the ESA, the landmark rocket Ariane 5, an ESA-themed space suit for Kerbals, new parts and new science experiments.

The first mission, BepiColombo, will recreate the ESA’s joint mission with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to reach Mercury. You’ll aim to reach orbit and land on Moho, the Kerbal universe equivalent of Mercury. You’ll also perform various scientific tasks from the real ESA mission.

The second mission, Rosetta, will pay homage to the successful landing on a Jupiter-family comet. This mission enabled the gathering of data on the comet’s environment. Rosetta is based on this ESA mission and will allow players to experience these same moments in Kerbal Space Program.

“We are excited to partner with the ESA to bring their actual missions and spacecraft to Kerbal Space Program for the first time,” said Michael Cook, Executive Producer at Private Division. “It is an honor to work hand-in-hand with such a world-class space organization, and we cannot wait for fans to experience these monumental missions with the Shared Horizons update.”

“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.”

The PC update will be available from July 1 with console players having the Shared Horizon update later this year.