Quote Originally Posted by Thomas Cardew View Post
Several months ago, when first planning the expedition, it's explained that the launcher sends out the pods several days/weeks before they leave. Since they're accelerating with ships drive they'll eventually catch up to pods, resupply, and consume them. This supply launch is a large part of their initial investment in the trip, getting the fuel in place for them to be able to make the trip. That's what Florence is talking about in this strip. I didn't keep searching for the full explanation as it's even further back.

EDIT NVM here it is, only 200 ish strip ago. http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3200/fc03192.htm
My basic understanding is that they could have made the trip without the initial launches, but that they actually get there faster by delaying their departure by a couple weeks to set up the reaction mass drops.