The Yellow Dart

I like the idea of career progression unlocking a new sets of rocket skins, and it fits with the aesthetic of the space center upgrades that currently exist, where you start with a concrete slab with scorch marks and a bumpy dirt runway. Start off with clunky looking cobbled together part skins, then once you upgrade the VAB it can unlock a set of Space Race era skins (Apollo & Soviet) and parts default to that from then on, then the third upgrade gives you a futuristic looking set. Same for the SPH and plane parts.

I am tired of always having the same 4 kerbals in the early game, you have a nice kerbal name generator but it doesn't even matter until you actually have need of more than 4 kerbals. When a player starts a new game of any type, bring up a Kerbal Selection Screen, with the big four always available at the top of the list, and, say, 10 to 20 random kerbals, or possibly 5 random kerbals of each class. Allow the player to pick 3 to start with. You can always keep any of the main 4 kerbals that don't get selected at the top of the list in the Astronaut Complex, if the player wants to get them later, but it just doesn't make sense to always have those 4 kerbals every single game.

Here is my poorly made response to this poorly worded poll:

The safety issues aren't really any different than those of passenger planes, which this will more directly compete with given it will likely have long distance routes and high speed. Leak problems can be solved by emergency systems that will allow pressure back into the tunnels, or sections of tunnel, when a loss of cabin pressure is detected. Fire will be dealt with however planes do it, no reason to reinvent the wheel. I agree about breakdowns and pod retrieval being a problem. Assuming we are dealing with tracks that go hundreds of miles between stops, a pod breaking down halfway is a problem. You can build multiple service stations between stops (expensive), or add a slower backup means of propulsion (heavy/bulky) to get it to the next station without outside help, but there aren't any clear solutions. Emergency stops could actually be the same as the emergency pressure loss system. Once you let air into the tube, the car essentially becomes a hydraulic piston, so you just have to control how fast you let it push the air back out to control deceleration.

Wow that was like a magic trick! POOF! Here's a rocket. Ta da!

www.spaceflightnow.com

Space Shuttle tank ET94 entered the atlantic side of the Panama Canal yesterday and is now passing through the first of the Pacific-side locks, the Pedro Miguel Locks. The following webcam is at the next set of locks, the Miraflores Locks, facing towards Pedro Miguel: http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html?cam=Miraflores There is a bit of a rain storm right now but as soon as it passes, you will be able to see the Pedro Miguel locks in the distance. You can track the tanks progress here, it is being towed by the Shannon Dann: http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:400748/zoom:10 It just entered the first set of locks about 15 minutes ago.

As to the Merlin 1D success rate, wasn't there a Merlin failure on one of the first CRS flights? It caused the secondary payload to not reach orbit and burn up. Was that not a 1D? If that is the case, they should track all varieties because it seems misleading to put 100% up there.

I don't understand how a nano-satellite is supposed to beam data to earth from +4ly away. It takes a decent sized antenna/transmitter to go from Earth to Mars, and the whole probe was only supposed to be like the size of a quarter, right? I didn't watch the talk, did they talk about that at all?

I think it looks weird, at least to me, because they didn't seem to use the same materials for the exterior as the shuttle, which is what our eyes are used to. The shuttle had a matte look due to being coated in fabric and ceramics, whereas this looks shiny like painted metal. Plus the exterior tank is painted as well, but the shuttle was orange foam, except for the first few flights. Probably just your brain playing tricks on your eye...or your eyes play tricks on your brain, or something like that.

Since BO is working on bigger rockets right now, maybe he is holding out for a cheaper ride from his own company. Wouldn't surprise me.

But if you look at the left frame of that video above, you can see plumes shooting to the side, but no plumes shooting straight up. So the plumes on the right that look like they are shooting up must be pointed above the camera but perpendicular to falcon. edit: not that this is of any value or importance... I don't really know why I'm arguing about this

It isn't shooting straight up, look at the left side of the video at the same time you see them. No plumes going straight up, they are just pointed towards the deck cam.