pTrevTrevs

Interlude, STS-10, STS-11: STS-10 really does not deserve to be lumped into a post with another mission, but I lost most of my photos of it when my save got corrupted and what you see here will be the remnant I already posted in other threads. Bear with me, and we'll be back to your regularly scheduled Shuttleposting momentarily. Challenger's next flight will see a return to Skylab, but instead of delivering the Power Tower, she will be carrying Spacelab LM-2 to resupply the station with consumables. Following Columbia's maintenance period, and due to delays surrounding the arrival of Discovery, Challenger will fly all the missions in 1982, 1983, and the first half of 1984, earning her an admirable streak of six consecutive missions by the time Discovery arrives to relieve her. With her status as the only orbiter in active service during this time, she will earn a reputation as the workhorse of the Shuttle fleet, capable of any kind of mission, or any challenge, as it were.

Soon.

Immediate restraining order.

Bad news everyone; while trying to mod my game some more the other night, I accidentally corrupted my save, and while erasing it to start with a clean install I accidentally permanently deleted my screenshots folder. At this point I believe I'll just start a new save with a new, modern set of mods. That being said, I also have plans to make a different save approximating the one I've been flying my shuttle missions on, by manually placing the relevant craft into the proper orbits and time-warping to the proper date (1983). It might probably will take awhile, but I hope to resume covering Shuttle missions eventually. In the meantime you can view my STS-10 flight over at the Bluedog Design Bureau thread, since that mission delivered a new docking adapter to Skylab. As of the date of writing this video I also have flown STS-11, however all photos of it were lost in the recent incident.

My own:

Well fellas, my modding addiction finally led to me possibly corrupting my game, and in the process of making a clean install I accidentally perma-nuked my screenshots folder. Oh well, I took this opportunity to upgrade to KSRSS Reborn. Allow me to treat you all to the first screenshots under the new status quo:

Spaceflights of 1982: The Greatest Crossover in Cinematic History: Got a lot of minor missions to show off this year, but I like to feature them anyway. Not every spaceflight is a blockbuster, you know. January: Insat 1A / Delta 3910 PAM-D: March: STS-8 (Challenger) with Insat 1B (India), Palapa B1 (Indonesia), and SPAS-01 (West Germany): April: Intelsat 5-2 on a very icy Atlas: June: Satcom 5, on the first launch of Delta 3924. Exchanging the Delta-P with its Apollo LM descent engine (the supply of which is diminishing rapidly) for a new AJ-10 variant on the Delta-K, the Delta 3920 series offers yet another increase in power for an incredibly resilient launcher. Even in the face of reusable space shuttles and increasingly cheap Saturn IC launches, Delta refuses to die. August: STS-9/Spacelab-1: Won't say much here for the same reason I didn't say much about STS-8. Visit Shuttle Adventures. September: Skylab 12, the first five-man expedition to the station, launches from LC-34. While Skylab flights are rapidly becoming seen as uninteresting and routine, today's launch is special. Skylab 12's primary objective will be to oversee the addition of the station's first major expansion in over six years, cooperating with STS-10 (Challenger) to install and checkout the new Androgynous Multiple Docking Adapter... October: Challenger launches with the Skylab AMDA. I haven't even covered this one in Shuttle Adventures yet, so you should feel special seeing it here first.

STS-9: Spacelab-1: August, 1982: After yielding the spotlight to her younger sister for the last three flights, Space Shuttle Columbia returns to flight for one last mission before her scheduled maintenance period. This time, she's flying the European-built Spacelab module, a pressurized compartment installed in the orbiter's payload bay which provides additional living space and research facilities. Spacelab equipment has flown on the Shuttle several times already, in the form of the OSTA experiment packages and the Spacelab pallets used for cargo and instrument storage, but the Spacelab Laboratory Module expands the Shuttle's ability to conduct crewed research in microgravity tenfold. In preparation for this flight, the longest mission to date, Columbia has undergone a number of modifications, including the addition of a Ku-Band antenna to relay data through TDRS-1 in geostationary orbit, the disarmament of her ejection seats, new amenities in the mid-deck such as sleeping bunks, higher-capacity fuel cells, and new SSMEs rated to a higher level of thrust. Her original engines have been removed and are in the process of refurbishment in order to be installed on the fourth orbiter Atlantis, scheduled to arrive to the fleet in 1985.

So, I did this, and after a little work I was able to get the new pad into my save. Only problem is that it’s not showing up as an available launch site, even though it appears to be set as such in the Kerbal Konstructs menu. Strange, but I’ll work on it.

Have you considered asking for permission to adapt textures from BDB, Near Future, and the like? Some of the newer parts added to the former have really great foil textures.

Did you enable crossfeed on the ET decoupler?

STS-9 coming soon:

Actually, I already have KSPCF installed. Come to think of it, I didn't have this problem nearly as much before I installed the mod.

Anyway, you guys want some bloopers? Because I've got some freaking bloopers... Maybe this is what I get for using the Breaking Ground robotics system. How do you guys move large objects with the SRMS? Also having weird problems (which may or may not be caused by the same thing as the SRMS spaghettification) with parts of the orbiter moving slightly every time I load a save. It's not funny anymore.

Magellan, you say?!? 376, you say?!?

As I understand it, the updated LC-39 comes with a setup for an ahistorical KSC; were you able to easily adjust it back, or did you leave it as it comes off the shelf?

If there are any intentions to expand this mod to feature more texture variants, might I recommend a few? I have photographs to back all these up, but I've also verified them against this guide to Orbiter external markings. From what I can tell, it appears accurate. The wings of Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour during their early days all had a different insulation pattern than is depicted in base SOCK. Instead of a smooth line as seen in the mod, it appeared much more jagged. It appears this pattern disappeared around the time the orbiters switched from the NASA worm and black wing tiles to the Meatball and white tiles: Additionally, the same three orbiters also had a different pattern of thermal blankets along their sides during the "Worm Era". It's very subtle, and the untrained eye can miss it, but if you know what to look for you'll see that there are significantly more blankets on the orbiters during this period than later. As a matter of fact, they cover almost the entire payload bay, leaving only a small strip at the top of the fuselage bare: More OMS pod variants for versatility. Columbia and Challenger were identifiable by their gold umbilical plates, which are represented here already with the early OMS pod texture. However, both orbiters were eventually updated to have black tiles on their OMS pods, while their gold plates were retained throughout their service. Conversely, Discovery and Atlantis both flew their first missions with white OMS pods like were seen on the first Shuttle flights, only neither of them ever had gold umbilical plates. (Technically, Atlantis flew her first two missions with black tiles on her starboard OMS pod only, but come on, even a pedant like myself has to draw the line somewhere).

"I kek'd"

FWIW, I'm pretty sure the first image in the thread is KSP. Isn't that the BDB Juno I?

STS-8: SPASing Out: March, 1982: After a period in the OPF for refurbishment following its rescue of the Lunar Module Spider, Space Shuttle Challenger prepares to embark on STS-8. This flight was to have been the first nighttime launch of the Shuttle, however an unexpected delay in the launch of STS-7 resulted in that honor going to the previous mission. Never mind, STS-8's crew has plenty to brag over, from the deployment of two more communications satellites to the operation of a European-designed payload which will return stunning images of the orbiter in flight (see cover image).

1981: The Long Haul: January 1981: TRS-1, delivered to Skylab last October, is undocked to make room for the newly-launched AARDV 6, delivering supplies to the Skylab 10 expedition, currently a month into their half-year long stay aboard the station. It will remain in a parking orbit at a virtually identical altitude to Skylab while its docking port is occupied, and will return to the station when the space is available. May, 1981: America's new Space Shuttle, the Challenger, launches on its maiden voyage. STS-6, the designation for this mission, carries a new Tracking and Data Relay Satellite aboard the first Inertial Upper Stage, designed to deliver constant communication with manned spacecraft from geostationary orbit. IUS itself is a new system, featuring many advancements from the typical spin-stabilized solid-fueled upper stages such as Star-37 or the PAM-D, such as three-axis stabilization, a second stage enabling it to perform a geostationary insertion burn, and the ability to launch large satellites and space probes from the Shuttle payload bay. Late May, 1981: Skylab 11 launches from LC-34, marking the beginning of a new era for NASA's Apollo division. Skylab 10 is still aboard the station at this time, nearly finished with the six-month expedition for which they were trained. Skylab 11 is itself scheduled to stay aboard the station for six months, meaning that if all goes well both crews will achieve the first year-long habitation of Skylab. This feat would provide amazing data for scientists researching the effects of spaceflight on both hardware and crew. Interestingly, Skylab 10 was originally launched for a seven-month mission, intending to set a new single-flight endurance record as well as contributing to the yearlong objective, but around four months into the crew's stay, two of the astronauts began exhibiting symptoms of mental stress. Belligerent behavior, forgetfulness, restlessness, all were signs that the crew was at their wit's end in space. The reasons were unknown to mission control; previous flights has achieved a six-month duration aboard Skylab, and this crew contained seasoned veterans, yet they nevertheless began to break down. Ultimately, it was decided to move Skylab 11 forward by a month and bring Skylab 10 home a month early. This schedule would still allow NASA to achieve the coveted year in space, but no new personal endurance record would be set by either of these flights. Regardless, Skylab 11 provided enough novelty to make up for its predecessor's shortcomings... July, 1981: AARDV-7 launches to resupply the Skylab 11 crew for their own six-month stint in space. Not much to say here, other than that the mission went normally: August, 1981: STS-7 launches from LC-39 on the most ambitious Shuttle mission yet. Attempting to demonstrate the Shuttle's ability to retrieve satellites from orbit, Challenger captures the derelict Apollo 9 lunar module Spider and returns it to Earth. Read more in Shuttle Adventures: September, 1981: Intelsat 5-1 launches on an Atlas-Centaur. 5-1 is the first of the Intelsat series to be equipped with three-axis stabilization. There will be others. Mid-September, 1981: An ordinary Delta 3914 launches GOES F to geostationary orbit. GOESF is a weather satellite designed to observe cloud patterns above a single region of the globe for long periods of time, and is built from a typical Hughes spin-stabilized bus: Late September, 1981: Voyager 2 arrives at Saturn. Bound for Uranus and Neptune in the years to come, Voyager 2 must follow a very particular and dangerous route through Saturn's rings which precludes the possibility of an encounter with any of Saturn's moons. As this spacecraft is not strictly BDB, I have little to say about it: October, 1981: Anik-C2 launches aboard another Delta 3914. Originally slated to launch on STS-7, the Spider rescue mission forced Telesat Canda to reschedule it for a late date aboard Delta 3000. A typical HS-376, this launch is honestly only barely notable: Late October 1981: After five months aboard the station, the crew of Skylab 11 performs an EVA to inspect the spacecraft which will return them home. No Apollo spacecraft has spent a year in space before, and NASA is concerned about Skylab 10's Apollo suffering the effects of long-duration spaceflight: Early November, 1981: The new Titan 34D performs its maiden flight, carrying the final DSCS-2 satellite and the first DSCS-3 satellite. Propelling these two spacecraft to GEO is the second Inertial Upper Stage, flying once again in a plan to collect additional data before its next flight aboard STS: Late November, 1981: After six months in space, Skylab 11 returns home, flying the final baseline Apollo Block III to a safe splashdown in the Pacific. Oh yeah, based Titan I enthusiast

Yo bottom right, they made MOLMir into a real thing

Keep your forked tongue behind your teeth, lest the righteous flame of Atlantis's forward RCS cluster burn it out.

Well, I sure hope so. I'm pretty sure I'm the first person to propose a mission like this, and I'm especially proud of that.

Been challenged to do the same thing with LM-4 (Snoopy) in a solar orbit. We'll see if that happens one day... It totally might...