Kerbonaut
A kerbonaut is the KSP equivalent of an astronaut. Kerbonauts are the select Kerbals who crew vehicles launched from Kerbal Space Center. They wear an IVA suit and helmet inside of crafts, and an EVA suit and helmet outside. The EVA suit includes helmet lights and a jetpack meant for maneuvering in outer space.
Each kerbonaut has two personality attributes – Courage and Stupidity – which are displayed in-game. There's a small chance they may also have the hidden "badass" attribute. These attributes together affect how a kerbonaut reacts to decouplers decoupling, vessels accelerating, and other variously lethal events.
Every game starts with the same "original three" kerbonauts hired and ready. More can be hired in the Astronaut Complex, each one having random amounts of Courage and Stupidity and a (rather) small chance of being a badass. Each kerbonaut also has a random first name; the surname of any kerbonaut, and of all known Kerbals, is always "Kerman".
The Original Three
Every new game, whether Sandbox or Career mode, begins with three kerbonauts already on your roster. While all other kerbonauts have randomly generated names and stats, these three are always the same. Their names are Jebediah Kerman, Bill Kerman, and Bob Kerman.
These are the only "veteran" kerbonauts in Kerbal Space Program, designated by orange IVA suits and icons in crew interfaces; everything else is visually identical to all kerbonauts. In some of the game's loading screens, three orange suited kerbonauts (presumably Jeb, Bill, and Bob) have helmets with orange stripes though no such helmet is seen in-game – IVA helmets have grey stripes and EVA have red.
Their presence at the top of the list of kerbonauts in every game means they each have much greater likelihood of being aboard any given vessel than does any random kerbonaut, with Jeb being far and away the most likely to pilot any craft any time he's available. This, and their presence in every player's games, makes them the most famous faces of KSP.
See also
- Jebediah Kerman: kerbonaut, badass, and manufacturer/junkyard operator
- Bill Kerman: kerbonaut
- Bob Kerman: kerbonaut
