Aelfhe1m

In RO, MechJeb ascent guidance works better with primer vector guidance (PVG) rather than the classic ascent guidance. For early rockets you generally don't have any coast phases (which classic relies on) but PVG is designed to handle continuous burn to orbit and in the recent versions can even handle unguided SRB kick stages. For example, this is the first orbital rocket I used in my latest save. It has a RD-102 first stage, XLR-11 second stage and two GCRC kick stages. With the MechJeb settings shown in the image, it flies itself to orbit (provided test flight doesn't fail an engine).

Here's a very quick (and horridly handling) aircraft I slapped together. As you can see four Goliaths are enough to push that plane body to over 10km (even with 80+ kerbals on board) but it could do with more wing incidence as it needed to hold nose up to get enough lift and the wings are frankly about half the size I'd want for that size of craft.

Since you have both Near Future Construction and Near Future Launch Vehicles but not CryoTanks, the LFOX (Liquid Fuel + Oxidizer) tank type should be being supplied by GameData/NearFutureConstruction/Patches/NFConstructionFuelTankTypes.cfg but I don't see it in your log.

You need to match the name of the descriptionDetail field in the patch and correctly nest the maxThrust field. Then since you're applying the same change to all the subtypes you can use ,* to match them all provided you add a has clause to identify the correct B9PartSwitch. Here's the modified patch (untested): @PART[rmm_cotopaxi]:NEEDS[RocketMotorMenagerie] { @MODULE[ModuleB9PartSwitch]:HAS[#moduleID[engineSwitch]] { @SUBTYPE,* { @descriptionDetail = <b>Thrust:</b> 1962 kN ASL / 2421 kN Vac.\n<b Isp:</b> 368 s ASL / 454 s Vac. @MODULE { @DATA { @maxThrust = 2421 // kN } } } } }

Make sure that when editing a Launch Site in KK edit mode you set the launch site type to VAB and the category to Rocket Pad (RP). Any other values and they won't show up in the "locations" button selector window in KCT. [or you can manually set the "LaunchSiteType = VAB" and "Category = RocketPad" lines inside the config file with the static instance for that pad (if you haven't moved it, it will be in GameData/KerbalKonstructs/NewInstances.

For in depth video tutorials about KSP stock aerodynamics check out Kerbal University by Lt_Duckweed. The various aerodynamic information can be enabled through the Mod+F12 "cheat" menu (mod = Alt on Windows), Physics => Aero. Edit: For a more visual representation of how much drag (red arrows) or lift (blue/yellow arrows) each part is generating press F12.

It looks like a rogue mod is using a patch with :FOR[AJE] instead of :NEEDS[AJE] (or you have an leftover/empty directory called AJE in your GameData). You can find which mod is responsible by searching <KSP>/Logs/ModuleManager/ModuleManager.log for ":FOR[AJE]"

There's a number of decent tutorials on YouTube. Try this playlist by Carnasa it includes the first two. Raiz Space's sandbox video series also explores a lot of advanced topics. For falcon 9/heavy booster landings you'll probably want an extra mod - either BoosterGuidance or KOS. If you go fully expendable then F9Heavy can send an unmanned probe to Moon/Mars. Most manned Mars missions need a lot of launches with assembly in orbit or very heavy launchers (e.g. Sea Dragon or Starship can reduce the number of launches needed) or you can really overbuild for single launch missions (Carnasa has some insane videos of stacked Saturn Vs last segment has a Saturn V in orbit of Pluto!)

How high a plane can get essentially depends on its lift to drag ratio. To go higher you need more lift or less drag. You get more lift from more speed or more wing area (angle of incidence/attack also matters for lift). Drag reduces speed (and hence lift), so adjusting wing incidence so that the plane body is as close to horizontal when cruising will improve your lift/drag ratio. The long body surface of a passenger plane can generate a lot of drag if it's not facing directly into the airflow. Also check your engines are getting enough air. Might need larger/extra intakes to fly at high altitude. Thrust will decrease if engines are starved of air, which will slow the speed and hence reduce lift.

In VAB: Shift + Mouse wheel: camera zoom in/out. Mouse wheel : camera up/down Hold down wheel button for pan In SPH: Mouse wheel: camera zoom in/out. Shift + Mouse wheel : camera up/down Hold down wheel button for pan Almost all KSP key bindings can be changed from the settings menu available when you first load the game but before loading a save.

All fuel tanks can accept lead ballast, so you could add the ballast to the same tank as the sounding rocket payload (adjusting size and utilisation to fit). And yes batteries (especially in the early game) are heavy in RO, so adding extra battery capacity to the avionics nose cone would also make the nose heavier. The downside is that battery capacity is more expensive than lead ballast, although as it's further forward, less mass is needed.

It's a while since I played Kerbalism in stock KSP (rather than the RSS/RO version), so I may be wrong but I think default Kerbalism profile needs a science lab to restore samples in depletable experiments. (Some experiments have upgrades that unlock later in the tech tree where they start with more than one sample.)

Nothing obviously wrong in the picture. Click through blocker can prevent key presses registering when your mouse is over a window or dialog. Try clicking somewhere on the background (e.g. the sky) then pressing Z for full throttle. You also don't need the MechJeb ascent guidance autopilot for sounding rockets since they are uncontrolled. Usually you just press Z for throttle, then space then space again after the solid rocket motor burns out.

Not sure it's the diagrams you're thinking of, but there are several diagrams for resource recipes in the wiki which is linked from the opening post of this thread.

Pathé News Monday 1st February 1960 “A surprise announcement from Puck Aerospace Chief Executive Peadar Kincaid rocked journalists at a press conference at their Kourou, French Guiana headquarters today. Riding high on the successes of their fledgling space programme, the ambitious entrepreneurs have signed an agreement with a consortium of European aerospace companies and governments to begin developing some daring new rockets. Not content with merely sending artificial satellites into orbit around the Earth, they plan to launch probes to explore our nearest neighbour, The Moon! “While Mr Kincaid admitted that they did not have the technology to achieve even the simplest of the new project’s goals as yet, he stated that several lines of research are planned and he was confident that they would soon show real progress and have close up photos of The Moon from space within the next 18 months to two years. “Opinion amongst various experts interviewed following the announcement was mixed, with several expressing the belief that while both the Soviets and the American space programmes have demonstrated recently that reaching the Moon is just barely within mankind’s abilities now, they feel that the smaller independent Puck Aerospace will not have the same capability for many more years yet.” Pathé News Wednesday 10th February 1960 “Flying high on her earlier success last summer, Mdme Arlette Bertrand of Puck Aerospace once more climbed into the skies above South America as she took her Condor research aircraft on a survey flight 25 kilometres above the French Guianan and Brazilian coastlines during an 80-minute mission today.” Pathé News Wednesday 2nd March 1960 “Test pilot Mdme Arlette Bertrand was once again breaking records as she took Puck Aerospace’s Kestrel experimental jet aeroplane up for a short flight from Kourou, French Guiana today. Climbing almost to the edge of the stratosphere, Mdme Bertrand held her plane at more than 18,000 metres while making a three-minute speed run at a peak speed of 721 ms-1 (1,612 mph). Once again pushing her plane to its very limits. After returning safely to Kourou airport, she expressed the opinion that while she could perhaps squeeze a little more speed out of the current engines, they were operating right at the limit of their heat tolerance and pushing them much further risked explosive failures.” Pathé News Monday 21st March 1960 “Hawker Siddeley’s new experimental rocketplane was rolled out for its first test flight from Puck Aerospace’s facilities in Kourou, French Guiana today. Test pilot Mlle Marguerite Laurent was aiming to take the plane more than 85 km into the sky but after releasing from the carrier aircraft several hundred kilometres off the Guianan coast, she reported some minor control issues during the initial ascent and briefly shut down her engines while she regained control. With the aircraft once again in the correct orientation she attempted to start the engines once more, but only one responded. Despite a couple more attempts, the starboard engine refused to light again, and Mlle Laurent was forced to hold the throttle on the remaining engine at a severely reduced setting to prevent the off-centre thrust pushing her aircraft out of control. “Despite these difficulties however, she did succeed in setting new altitude and speed records with a peak altitude of 81,023 metres (50.3 miles) and a top speed on ascent of 1,524 ms-1 (3,409 mph). A second attempt will be scheduled for the end of next month.” Pathé News Friday 29th April 1960 “There were no engine problems for Puck Aerospace’s XSP-01 rocketplane today when it carried test pilot Mlle Marguerite Laurent to new record-breaking heights and speeds, reaching a top speed of 1,571ms-1 (3,514 mph) while climbing 90,986 metres (56½ miles) into the sky above the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of French Guiana today.” Pathé News Friday 10th June 1960 “In their first major rocket launch of the year, Puck Aerospace showed off their new Lycan rocket. While smaller than the massive Xanthos launcher, it utilises much of the same technology although the first stage used only a single one of the booster engines, the lighter upper stage should have been capable of placing a small scientific probe into an orbit crossing above the Earth’s poles in order to take low resolution video photographs of the whole planet’s surface over the next several months. “Unfortunately, there was another failure of the booster engine, with an abrupt drop in performance just 90 seconds into the flight dooming the mission to failure. The probe managed to only transmit a small number of images before falling back into the atmosphere and being destroyed just 29 minutes after launch. Another attempt will be scheduled for later in the year.” Pathé News Monday 20th June 1960 “Puck Aerospace test pilot Mdme Arlette Bertrand set a major milestone in manned spaceflight today, by taking their experimental rocket plane up above the 100 km mark for the very first time. According to a new ruling by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), this qualifies her as the world’s first astronaut. Mdme Bertrand only had a few minutes to appreciate these lofty heights before plummeting back into the atmosphere and gliding her plane to a safe landing on the runway at Kourou, French Guiana.” === Gameplay notes and screenshots