Andetch

I perfected saving a Kerbal on re-entry that had been up in one of my suicidal designs in v1.3 (ADX-WMP - got a massive engine on the back so flips easily) and I think I can talk Val down..... It needs to have a decent amount of electricity to power the reaction wheel. I would guess there is enough left. Commence a de-orbit burn, make sure the trajectory will spend the last 50% over water - at least. (You must be heading over water for this to work). Keep the craft locked retrograde - let the engine and fuel tank act as a heat shield (or you could have kept the fairing). This is where the reaction wheel comes in handy! Let the air resistance slow you down, try and get subsonic - this should happen as you hit the soup below 8KM. Bailing out at supersonic speeds is risky! Jump out - enable the EVA RCS. As you get near the water, use the EVA RCS to slow down. Kerbals have a very high tolerance for water landings. 50 - 100 m/s should be okay. It needs to be deep water though, because if the Kerbal hits the seabed it can be fatal. They also bounce quite well off their heads - so if you're not over water, try and hit the ground head first. Tell us all if Val was able to survive. Congratulations of the horizontal launch there!

So it is possible from KSC - again I just get locked into a single track mindset (as per Cavetech SSTO Spaceplanes, thanks @ManEatingApe for yet again showing me a different line of thinking)...... So I guess mine is a bit cheaty as I launched from the desert gaining around 800 metres on KSC launches. Back to drawing board to make a KSC launched version! Oh and no spaceplane type entries yet! I wonder.....

And the prize for the naughtiest amount of points (and my favourite number) goes to Hoioh!!

Yeah, I did watch the videos - and I see the landing approaches used, and can also target the flat areas - I have enjoyed landing on these islands with a few of my KEA submissions. Just, doing all three, in one flight.... with no distractions that put me off.... All it takes is one missed approach, misjudging the airspeed and BAM. I'm into the cliffs.

Ok, I just did this - the video is just rendering. I used a conventional vertical rocket style craft, with staging. One thing - I didn't launch from KSC, I launched from the desert airfield site. The reason being that the TWR/Engine ISP i so low at the KSC, the extra approximately 800 metres above sea level makes a huge difference. Not possible to get to LKO with this craft from KSC. (I am not sure if it will even be possible to get there from KSC as the engine ISP is so low there) Can also get to LKO from Woomerang. I have KER installed, but I don't really use it much in flight. I also have Kerbinside (because I like flying aircraft and having somewhere to go to and land) - these mods didn't really affect anything. Also, I didn't use any expansion parts, just the launch site. Below is the video of the mission launch to landing.

@Andetch will reply next! Aww damn, I replied already so I lost P.S (Don't think of The Game that you lose if you remember you're playing it)

I keep crashing on a certain island, and it is frustrating after having landed on the others - big plane or small plane..... So, I'm out!

Derp derp, thank you! Derp

Okay, hate to be a complete idiot here ....(but I am going to now, and nothing will stop me!)..... How do I enable the cheats? Derp derp.

Righty - then remember to disable them later Thanks!

So, I am trying to make a mission - and for testing purposes I don't want to have to fly out to the ship that needs docking with each time to test the next steps are working - is it possible to use the F12 menu to auto RV like you can in-game while testing my mission? Am I missing something, or does the mission builder have a significantly altered F12 menu that won't allow me to auto RV, or even throw my ship into orbit?

Yeah, Vessel Mover is a mod. It allows you to a) pick up a vessel and move it somewhere and b) spawn a vessel saved in your VAB/SPH Really useful if you're playing with BDArmoury and want to launch a formation of craft at the same time.

Well done for making orbit! Still looks like the Com/CoL might be a bit flippy.... CoL should be behind CoM. Where you have it will be very maneuverable but unstable. No sure how it will end up on re-entry.... About lack of resources in LKO - you will see from my Cavetech Spaceplane that it get's into LKO with around 10 units of fuel left - so really as long as you made LKO it doesn't matter You can always have a tug up there to RV and move the plane around after!

Stability issues most likely caused by a shift in the CoM/CoL alignments, (note the wings now have a forward strake) plus all the added drag from the new air intakes?

You could always use vessel mover to spawn the vessel on the runway. So, launch your command pod with your pilot, leave it on the runway. Go back to the SPH, make the craft. Go back to the pod, use vessel mover to spawn the new climber attempt. Walk kerbal the few metres into the new climber. Maybe use a quicksave too, so the the pod is always sitting on the runway containing your pilot. I am sure if you strenuously denied reading this post, no one would catch you. And as long as the craft starts from the ground it wont matter... right?

I think you will need to either de-attach the rest of the line, move the bit around then re-attach what you took off. (That's what I would do) - Also, the left shift button may be a great assistance to re-attach the part as when held down it makes sure the selected part will only attach to a node.

Sort of like the first time I saw a Vulcan Bomber in flight.... (I didn't cry, I was 20 - I did jump though. I think everyone around aged 10 or below literally went do do in their panties through).. It hung in the air exactly the same way a brick doesn't, completing it's turn and lining up for the low pass - and then the pilot open the throttle, and that has got to be the loudest noise I ever heard! Nice review, I enjoyed the read

So to try out @Lego_Prodigy's question I just did a 5min build of an SSTO spaceplane (bi-plane). It worked, I even "landed" back at ksc. (I put landed in quotes because on hitting the runway the craft slewed across then flipped onto it's back). Had a few issues with stability, but I think they were mainly due to the poor build quality as I rushed it (things like not enough air intakes so some of the engines flamed out, and as I was using rapiers I forgot to turn some off auto switching etc, but I recovered). So in answer to the OP, yes it is possible in KSP. To the best of my knowledge, in reality there are no SSTO spaceplanes. Only things close are the Shuttle/Buran, the X35 thing the US military uses (all launch vertical and glide) and Virgin's Spaceship Two (launched from a carrier plane) and none are SSTO. https://imgur.com/a/V12TbY5

Yay, I had influence! (Oh, and I see your badges now - I was on my phone before and couldn't see the badge)

I would also caution @Doslidnyk to watch out for his CoM/CoL balance, as it looks like that will become unstable with low fuel? As for the question about needing yaw input - you will be surprised but actually you can get away with a fixed vertical stabilizer in a lot of cases. Yaw control makes spin recovery easier, but to turn a plane you should bank and use the elevators to bring the nose around (and if you have yaw control you use the yaw to keep the nose up while turning) so it is not essential. If you're still having issues with this, post a kerbalX link to the plane, and I would gladly take it for a spin and see if I can come up with some design revisions for you. (Also maybe post the save file, or at least an image of your tech tree so I don't use parts you don't have yet)

Either way, I like and agree with making an entry functional. Not sure how far my entries would go (I launch with bare minimal fuel), but I tried to make sure they both worked as an aircraft rather than just a capsule plus engines!

I think this could probably win you a Kerbin Circumnavigation badge too (If you haven't already?)

Getting to jool is easier than one would think. As long as the planetary alignment is correct it doesn't take huge amounts of dv. Slowing down once you're there however is a completely different ball game.... and it is a planetary system in it's own right, so once you're there moving around the system takes a lot of planning! Jool5 is a big achievement. I've never done it.

I am not sure if they do. I think lose Kerbals on Eva add something, as was found out with a submission on KEA, the free floating Kerbals in the cargo hold kept messing with the CoM/CoL alignments. Anyway, I'm gonna give this another shot. I keep messing up my landing at the northernmost island. Maybe I should go for the beach to land instead of the nice not flat top...

I think the flight out to jool, then to Bop is at least 50% of the challenge. Bop is quite low grav so once there it is easy enough to land with precision.. think minimus but further away That being said, I've never landed near the krakken.... maybe I should get around to a jool5 mission and do this too... kill 2 birds in one.