AlphaMensae

Continuing with the General Launch Bases restructure, I got the new Micro Launch Base almost done: Then I realized I need a Micro Fallback Tower, and yes, it will be styled after the Electron one, just not exactly. Thinner and shorter, enough to handle Electron-class rockets. This was a fun quick job; I made the core of the deck on a previous night, then I made the frame block in a few hours in the evening.

Version 2.5 Released on Spacedock and the GitHub! Changelog: * Added crew capacity to all Crew Elevators and hatches (Airlocks) to the elevator cars, so Kerbals can still "ride" the elevators up and avoid the anchoring system shenanigans which plague Kerbals on EVA. The hatches have no mesh, but the colliders are big enough for easy clicking. * Elevator car floor should be at least a few cm above any crew arm walkway or tower floor to avoid the hatches being blocked. * Greatly increased the speed of all crew elevator cars, as the slow speeds were no longer necessary with the new hatches. Apologies to anyone wanting to use the elevators normally in KSP versions after 1.8.1.

Saturn, Shuttle and Soyuz elevators are done. Update coming!

And this will now be v2.5, as the hatch additions and speed adjustments are more than just a few tweaks The general and launch stand crew elevators are done. The Gemini one was a little tricky, and I finally got one hatch collider to work at both the top and bottom, but then decicded two would work better, as top egress and bottom egress are in different directions, so the two colliders face in opposite directions.

Now I'm thinking that since I'm adding the elevator hatches, I can go ahead and speed up the cars again as they don't need to move so slow anymore. Apologies to anyone who still tries to use the elevators as intended.

Did some testing of the elevator car hatch with the Mini General Crew Elevator, and got it working in both directions: The bottom of the elevator car does need to be above the walkway of the crew arm, or the "hatch" will be obstructed. I can minimize the distance by adjusting the vertical height of the hatch collider, but better err on the side of caution.

That's why I stick with KSP 1.8.1, as Squad ruined KSP for me after that. For my own use, I'm restoring the elevator cars to a faster speed. But for MLP releases, starting with 2.4.1, I'll add an invisible hatch to the elevator cars, that's a great idea

You need Animated Attachment for that to work, and it does. Bad thing is that mod will mess up many of your other parts and screw up your craft unless you delete its config file in its folder.

The restructuring and partial revamp of the General Launch Bases has long been on my mind. First, I'm going to add two smaller size bases, the Micro and Mini ones. The existing ones will be far more restricted in exhaust hole sizes. One thing I've noticed is that people like to put the tower on the base itself, which isn't surprising since these bases are sort of mobile launch platforms. So rather than trying to cram as many exhaust hole sizes in a given frame size, there's just going to be a few, with the maximum size being small enough to leave plenty of room on the deck for a tower. Another thing is taking the experience with the Titan III Launch Stand and some of the other launch stands, and get away from the basic launch clamp template for some of the bases. This mean adding optional railway wheels like the Titan III stand to indicate it really is a mobile launcher. So here's a preliminary lineup for the restructured bases: Micro Launch Base: "inspired" by Rocket Lab's Electron mount, a small block-style base for Electron-class rockets; 1.25m and smaller, though 1.5m ones could work. Just one hole width, with square, short rectangle and long rectangle shapes. **EDIT** Did some preliminary blocking out, and will probably get rid of the long rectangle shape. It's just too big to keep the base as micro-sized, but will know more once I build out the rest of the deck and compare it with the current Small base. Mini Launch Base: Tall block style on wheels, "inspired" by ISRO's PSLV mobile base, and got the idea when Dylan Semrau made the PSLV in the Chrayol mod; for 1.875m rockets, but may increase that to 2.5m if it doesn't make it too big. One or two hole widths, depending on how it goes, along with the three shapes. Small Launch Base: Wheeled mobile launcher for Atlas V class and (maybe) ULA Vulcan class, so 2.5m - 3.5m with the three shapes. That's it, nothing bigger, or it will shrink available deck space too much. Medium Launch Base: May add optional wheels, and restrict it to a size range centered on 5m rockets, with perhaps three hole widths. Large Launch Base: Eliminate the extended deck and make the overall size a bit larger. Size range centered on Saturn V-class rockets with a max of two small side boosters. Extra Large Launch Base (or Super Size?): This will take over the rocket sizes that the extended deck on the cuurrent large base was made for and them some. It will be BIG, and will extend past the stock tier 3 launch pad static and will require an LC-39 pad to keep the support columns on the ground--but it might be bigger than even that There will be the usual leg extensions to reach the actual ground. It will be big enough to handle monstrous Saturn MLV types like a Saturn V with 4 AJ260 SRBs and the Saturn tower, while keeping the exhaust hole centered. I'll give it some Saturn launcher styling like the vertical stringers to make it look like a supersized Saturn Mobile Launcher.

I believe the need for 5 pads was when EOR was still being considered for the lunar missions, which would have needed a large number of launches. Once LOR was finalized (and other realizations, I think), there wasn't any need for 5 pads, so only two were built. If you look at aerial photos of the crawlerway near LC-39B, you can see where they started the work on extending the crawlerway to what would have been LC-39C before it got cancelled.

A quiet v2.4.0 release is now on Spacedock and GitHub (GitHub was a few days ago as Spacedock was having update problems). Changelog: * Added additional height variant, front wall options and umbilical attach nodes to the Mini General Crew Elevator Core. * Added new Mini Crew Walkway, a stripped-down short version of the Mercury-Atlas Crew Walkway, designed for the Mini General Crew Elevator. * Retitled the crew elevators and crew arms to a standard scheme so they will be grouped together in the CCK category in Simple Mode. * Retitled the General Service Tower parts to add "General" at the front so they will be grouped together in the CCK category in Simple Mode. Decided to give the Mini Crew Elevator some upgrades after I saw NathanKell use the Mini General Crew Elevator for his Mercury-Titan craft. This is the kind of thing I actually don't mind doing. What I really don't like doing anymore is make replicas of real things. I'm so tired of studying photos and diagrams, of being constrained by reality. I had much more fun with the General Bases and Towers, when I can free-form design, and I like how one thing in particular from that group--those super-sized alt-Soyuz clamp arms--is used quite a bit. One thing I've wanted to do is tro restructure the General Launch Bases by adding a smaller and larger size, and to reduce the amount of overlap between them, so each base will have a specific range of rocket sizes it can accomodate. This is something that might actually happen over the next year.

I'm getting a 500 Internal Server Error on Spacedock when I try to publish an update for Modular Launch Pads. Happens several times. Still happening. @VITAS

The Wayback Machine address for SpaceLaunchReport: Space Launch Report

Ah, that! Yeah, that's how the original Thor IRBM was launched (or would have been), via an erector that lifted the missile out of a horizontal storage box. And looks like the hold-down posts-only method wasn't just used at Vandy:

Props for using the compact variant of the Thor-Delta Launch Stand, which was based on images I saw of Thors launched from Vandenberg (I think). The big ring was only used at the Capes' LC-17 for the original Thor-Ables and Deltas. Once the Castors were being added, the ring was removed and only the hold-down posts were left, which were made taller to accomodate the Castors' exhaust. LC-17 evolved over the years to where in Delta II times, the hold-down arms were embedded in the concrete pad itself. It's why I couldn't find pictures of the Delta II launch mount at the Cape--it wasn't visible!. That's why I used the Vandenberg Delta II launch mount for the Delta II variant of the Thor-Delta Launch Stand, at least what I saw in one image.

Yes, for the deploy limit slider to function the way it's supposed to, the animation has to start at the end. Think of the stock cargo bay doors or the cargo ramp. It's also why the crew elevator cars in Modular Launch Pads start at the highest point, and the adjustable length swing arms and umbilicals and such start at the maximum length (or deploy). I did get a deploy limit slider to work for some of the crew access arms without remaking the animations by reversing the three "true/false" values in the animation module for the deploy limit. Not sure if that will work for the solar panels in question.

I decided very early on that I wasn't going to make the LC-34 tower. It's an unsymetrical tapered nightmare that simply doesn't fit with the rest of the MLP parts, which are made out of symetrical modular sections and 90-degree angles. The milkstool leg trusses were bad enough, and the Thor-Able Fallback tower was a weeklong exercise in extreme tedium to make; more than once I stepped aside and wanted to quit. After that I declared "No more tapered towers ever!" And frankly, I just don't about the Saturn I or LC-34 beyond the launch stand I made. I only ever cared about the Apollo Saturn IB on the Milkstool.

Probably due to the switch to NathanKell's Staged Animation, which uses some of the core code of Animated Decouplers but doesn't use or need the decoupler module, so there is nothing to disable.

And another update uploaded, this one is v2.3.3 Changelog: Added black extension to the base of the Thor-Able Fallback Tower. The tower still attaches at the original node on the base; the extension has no collider and is meant to fill in any gap if KSP puts the tower slightly above the launch pad surface. Added black extension to the base of the Saturn Tail Service Mast. The TSM still attaches at the bottom of the main white structure; the extension has no collider and allows the mast to be raised up a bit to align with the umbilical plates on the new BDB Saturn V engine mount. Updated BDB New Saturn V MLP v2.3 craft file with properly aligned Tail Service Masts. Sometimes KSP puts the Thor Launch Stand higher than it's supposed to be, leaving the Thor-Able Fallback Tower slightly above the pad surface. The base extension fills in the gap, and should be mostly below the floor of the VAB Wit the BDB Saturn revamp, Cobalt added the umbilical connector plates for the Saturn V tail service masts, and it turned out I underestimated the height of the TSMs by a little bit (or maybe it was the too undersized old BDB Saturn V). The base extension for the TSMs allows the mast to be raised up to align with those plates on the S-IC engine mount, and I've updated the BDB New Saturn V MLP craft file with properly aligned TSMs.

The S-II Aft arm, the one without any umbilicals, was actually just an auxiliary access platform to the S-II interstage and the J-2s inside. It was retracted some time before launch whenever it was no longer needed. For my Saturn V launches, I retract it along with the crew arm via an action group. Both the S-IC arms were also retracted before launch; the S-IC Intertank arm (LOX fill and drain) at T-30 seconds, and the S-IC Forward arm (pneumatics, air conditioning, various electrical connections) at T-16 seconds. The only arms that retracted at liftoff were the two main S-II arms, the two S-IVB arms and the SM arm.

@GoldForestI see people using the standard Saturn tower and swing arms with these 2- and 4-booster variants of the Saturn V, but if those had been a reality, the mobile launcher would have undergone extensive changes. Most likely the liquid boosters would have been fully fueled up from tail service masts, much like how the Shuttle's ET and the SLS core was fueled through the orbiter from two TSMs. Swing arms would only have been used for upper stages.

I just updated MLP v2.3 (it's v2.3.2) by adding new craft files for the BDB v1.10 revamped Saturn IB and Saturn V; they're titled "BDB New Saturn xxx". The old craft files were kept and renamed "BDB Old Saturn xxx".

The version has to exactly match what you're using, so you have to specify "1.11.1".

The crane wasn't used for any stacking operations, but used to haul stuff up to the deck of the launch base (and maybe the tower levels). One time though a cracked fin on Saturn IB Skylab crew launch was replaced with the crane. The red portion of the crane boom had a 5 ton load limit, the yellow portion had the full 20 (oe 25?) ton limit.

Considering Nertea would have loved to rip the stock system out and dump it into a black hole, and that he's on the KSP 2 team, I'm thinking it's the former