michal.don

It's an AutoCAD drawing with pictures inserted. If you want just the basic timeline with travel times, they are possible to download, the link to them is in the original post of the challenge

I believe it comes from SpaceY suite of mods, I'm not really sure which one, to be honest... Aaaand I see I did not touch this mission for half a year, shame on me

As @hoioh said, there used to be a "standard" telescope for download, but no more - the payload design is a part of this challenge now. Read the requirements for orbital assembly carefully Michal.don

Welcome to the challenge! Sure, the rules state that only the atmospheric flight has to be done manually, MechJeb is fine for the orbital operations. Looking forward to seeing your first entry, Michal.don

That's an example of fine piloting skills, especially the very steep reentry and a precise landing. I'm curious though - did you nail in on your first try, or was some iterative trying needed to get the landing location right? In any case, great mission, and a well-deserved badge for you. Congratulations! No, you can design a new shuttle for every mission, if you'd like Or modify and existing one to suit the specific mission. No problem with that. Michal.don

Well, I'm not going to ban anything, and feel free to show multiple methods To be honest, I did not think of that... But I do not see any reason why not, you just need to complete the pre-requisite missions to get the badge

well, yeah I had it almost ready for some time, I just wanted to test some of the parts a little bit more before I released it. But I'm confident it's definitely doable, even without the final few tests, so I'll just let you do your thing and not worry too much

Ah, what the hell, here's a mission for you STS-6T is officialy go, the mission is focused on booster recovery. The details are in the OP, and yet another badge to claim: Hope you enjoy it, Michal.don

@Kerbolitto, @zolotiyeruki, @4x4cheesecake, @hoioh, @sturmhauke, @Ozelui - thanks again for the ideas, and for your confidence in my judgement - I'll try my best not to disappoint As you said, I'm trying not to force too specific mission requirements to let you do your thing, your own way. So probably no ramp requirements. But you are right about the rovers - we did not use too many of those, so I'll try to incorporate those in one of the coming missions. Since you asked, i'll probably release a "Test pilot" mission soon, maybe even today, and one "Main" mission soon-ish - I have to think about the precise rules for a bit. But I can give a small spoiler to you - it's for a celestial body we have not visited yet... So, please have a bit more patience with me, it should come pretty soon.... Thanks, Michal.don

That's a very welcome surprise, looking forward to it very much Glad to see you back!

Also, if you want some inspiration, there happen to be plenty of awesome shuttle designs in "my" STS challenge. (A bit of a shameless plug, I admit ) But feel free to browse the entries a bit, and maybe even fly a mission or two, we have a small but passionate shuttle community over there Michal.don

I know the aerobraking can be tough in some instances, but hey, that's what the wings are for....

Yes, that part is a bit confusing, I remember struggling with that myself, back in the "shuttle flying, not challenge-running" days It means you have to capture by aerobraking to a stable orbit within the planet's SOI. Then you may adjust the orbit however you like.

Also, I finally tweaked and edited lots of small things in the OP and the rules. And quite a bit of spelling errors, too If you happened to stumble on anything out of place, or straight wrong, please, let me know so I can fix it too

Yes, pretty much. You have to design the telescope, the attachable solar arrays, and the MMUs (Manned Maneuvering Units) and do the assembly in orbit.