Knautilus

Wow thank you to all who contributed a response so promptly! I just performed a reentry from the same 87km orbit, and stayed prograde but pitched up to ~45° when plasma effects started up, and things went very well indeed. No changes to the craft needed at all. I had the mistaken impression that the aero forces needed to be minimized (by having a low AoA), but of course that concentrates and prolongs all heating right on the nose of the craft! I've played avidly since v0.17, but have been slow to take up 1.0+ as I was still working through a huge comprehensive Jool all-science Kethane-supported mission in v0.24. I had planned on aerobraking in a number of spots, but without heatshields (they weren't a thing back then), so I didn't migrate. Looking forward to more learning by exploding!

Hello good Kerbal folk! I made a rather nice Mk2-based space shuttle in 1.1.2 (goo.gl/oP0Wt2). On Kerbin reentry the cockpit (Mk2 Standard) heats up way faster than anything else and explodes every time. I tested a shallow reentry profile with PE ~40km from a near-circular 87km orbit and it still cooks off at 33.5km (goo.gl/msjzfL). I'm using MechJeb just to keep AoA very close to zero for this test; my understanding is that an AoA of zero minimizes the stress on the craft (but does it minimize the heating?). After the cockpit explodes the centers of lift and mass are backwards, and the craft whips around violently, but it stays together and no other parts explode (I've run this test several times). You'd think that the cockpit - with poor Jeb and Bill inside - would be more resilient, or at least as resilient as the Mk2 storage and fuel parts, plus wings and landing gear etc. To me it's a bit unrealistic like this. Am I expecting too much of the Mk2 cockpit? Am I making an error I hadn't thought of? Or is there maybe a case to make the Mk2 cockpit a little less reentry-sensitive? Cheers, all. (goo.gl/c1LHLW)