GKXS

After literally 6 hours of rendesvous and docking, STS 5 & 6 are combined in orbit, and ready to begin unloading. 3252 parts, 1488.68T, 8 crew and I think the biggest thing I have ever constructed in orbit. The depressing thing is I have only done 2 of about 100 docking manoeuvres required

I hoped you'd say that. STS 6 is circularising now, the Rubik's cube has been solved twice this flight already, and the frame rate is predictability low...

I spent the roughly an hour it took to get to LKO remembering how to solve a Rubiks cube, browsing the forum on my phone, and wishing I had got around to writing a savefile editing script. I hope you won't disqualify me for it, however I used a large amount of savefile editing to remove all of the RCS thrusters from the RCS key command. The payload RCS was being used, and the massively varying TWRs and COMs was shaking the craft to pieces. I could have manually clicked on every port, but I REALLY don't have time for that. (especially at that frame rate) I've now got to orbit with STS 5, and STS 6 is just being finalised. (forgot the batteries) Presumably an STS 8 that doesn't actually add a component to the station is OK as long as it does a rendesvous and dock? I don't particularly want to launch a token extra component if I can avoid it. My current STS8 plan definitely has enough rendesvous and docking for a lifetime!

My Space Station is underway. As I type I'm 10k up and just scraping through 350ms-1 Frame rate is c 2/second, and I'm getting 1 second of physics every 10 seconds on the wall clock. These 2 launches are going to take a while... I've managed to fit the entire station into 2 shuttles, and I'm intending to use the other two for crew and inevitable spare parts. Now reached 17km and 500ms-1. Blistering...

In answer to your questions: 1: The Shuttle has to be in a 350+km orbit. From there it launches the commsats which boost into a Keostationary Transfer Orbit, and they they circularise themselves. My mission log is here if you want to take a look (Ignore the slightly OTT Shuttle piggyback combo - I was attempting to put 15 shuttles up in 2 launches) 2: You can earn pilot/commander on each mission based on that missions merits, doesn't matter what came before.

I've discovered a problem with my UberShuttle that I thought I'd designed around - it was too small Have now redesigned it to have 18 Mk 3 cargo bays, including a run of 6 in a line to allow a 60m payload to be carried. I've finally finished payload design, comes to 1800+ parts. The solar array alone is going to require 2 enlarged UberShuttles. I suspect that I will have c. 5000 parts in orbit to complete this one. I don't want to know what frame rate I get on that. It's taken me a full day to try to load the payload into the Shuttles (and I'm less than half done) Will hopefully launch tomorrow evening. Assembly expected by Christmas...

@michal.donJust a clarification on the rules for STS 5-8: As you may have guessed from my lack of recent activity, I'm working on something of rather excessive scale. Am I OK just to do 4 launches, 4 Runway Landings, and have everything docking to a station in the correct orbit? I've got a hitchiker, a lab, some reaction wheels and some engines, and a lot of other random stuff and I'm going to throw the entire lot into a 300km+ orbit. Will that qualify me for the badge, or do I specifically need to send each of the sciences, hab, and core in each of the launch vehicles? Also, @The Dunatian, that's a perfectly acceptable runway landing. You should see some of mine so far... I had to use all my spare fuel to bump the nose up onto the tarmac, so that the aircraft tug could tow it home

You really haven't experienced enough of my ideas. I seriously debated putting those fuel pods in a very low Solar Orbit, but irritatingly you'd specified 'Kerbin Orbit' in the rules. Incidentally, I've redesigned the UberShuttle so it can now glide properly, and also done some drag reduction. It will now hold a 10o glide slope at a steady 100ms-1, and the stall speed is sub 40ms-1. Ironically, the main problem is now getting a sufficient AoA to have the rear wheels hit first, while still descending.

Sorry... OK. for the next test pilot mission I suggest doing 15 loop the loops and landing on the VAB!!

I'm studying Computer Science and Physics at Cambridge University in the UK. had a Physics Exam this morning - fortunately doesn't count towards my degree so I just get yelled at if I do badly! Regarding further test pilot missions, can I suggest RTLS aborts, both back to the runway and 'transatlantic' either to either the island runway or (ambitiously) some flat bit of ground across the ocean! I can create a savefile with a suitable abort runway marked with flags if you like (assuming I find a suitable runway!!) Other alternatives would be an ATO (Abort To Orbit) - I.e. start a launch to a 100km orbit, deliberately lose 33% of your engines, and try to limp to a 70km orbit and/or get high enough to go all the way around and land back on the runway.

I found the easiest way to separate was to put the carrier in a 10o dive, then cut the throttle, nose down, separate and nose up in rapid succession. This manoeuvre gave me enough vertical separation to clear the tail(s) of the Carrier. The 2 problems I had with my UberShuttle was that it can't glide, and is so heavy that the carrier ran out of fuel on the way up... Edit - Didn't see @michal.don's post. Thanks very much. Test Flying provided a useful brain reset so I got some more work done - exam went better than expected!

STS-1T has been completed, mission report here. I had a slight head start having already tested 2 of my Shuttles in this way, I just had to redo it deadstick. That said, the UberShuttle requires major modification to fly sans engines - it has a minimum air speed of 150ms-1 which requires a very steep dive. Might try a rocket powered carrier aircraft to get it up to speed (although that's quite close to just doing an RTLS...) Also, @michal.don, did you have to release a new mission 12 hours before I have an exam? Can I plausibly claim this as Physics revision?

I like this idea of this one, so I created an entry, which can be found here. I combined it with my entry to the Shuttle Challenge - using it as a rescue shuttle. This necessitated the cabins and service bay (with the Xenon, Batteries, Monoprop and RTGs) so it kind of has a fueselage, but it's as slim as it could be. Flies quite happily to 10km, and can turn around and fly home. It has no directional stability at low speed, so routinely lands going sideways, backwards, or any other direction. It also is a pain to take off, due to bicycle landing gear (why not) which is un-steerable. I used I beams for landing gear - they have 80ms-1 impact tolerance, and work in any direction, so make excellent landing skids. They're also very high friction, thus necessitating the detachable gear for takeoff. Edit - forgot to say: No Reaction Wheels required to fly, and it flies without SAS. SAS in fact puts it into a horrible horizontal oscillation, which leads to a crash if uncaught, due to the slow reaction times of the AIRBRAKES used for steering.

STS 3 and 4 have been completed. STS 3, the design and assembly of the Kerbal Space Binoculars has it's mission report here. STS 4, which was in true historical tradition the Servicing Mission for the Kerbal Space Binoculars (I ran out of monoprop for the MMUs) has it's report here. A couple of difficulties were experienced during STS4, namely a meteor strike, so STS 4B was launched. I got slightly sidetracked and built an entry to the 'Flying Wing' challenge, but decided that my entry should be a shuttle. That entry is here for anyone interested. Plans for the Space Station are underway - this may take me a while. Partly because I'm pushing the limits of common sense, mostly because I'm allegedly studying for a degree at the moment, and have exams coming up. (Although 'studying' is currently the bit I'm not doing...) Incidentally, while I'm pushing the limits of common sense, would anyone be interested in a Real Solar System version of this challenge? Either as a separate entity, or rolled into the same thread? I've been wanting to play with RSS for a while (and all the associated RO mods) and I thought this could be fun... If I get to orbit I can either make a new thread or the challenges can be added here, depending on people's opinions

STS 2 is complete, mission report here. I never want to aerobrake another shuttle again - I think this mission took at least 50 aerobraking passes /re-entries in total. I still havn't added more fail photos - I'll do it soon (probably) I can safely say that putting 600T into orbit was a stupid idea, trying to bring it all back again was a stupider one, and trying to do it in 2 launches and 15 landings was the stupidest. Interesting you should say that - I have a Mk2 Crew Shuttle in the VAB. Am I allowed to send one of my UberShuttles up for the Hubble Mission (STS3), and then a Mk2 Crew Shuttle to recover the crew for STS4? I'll then land the UberShuttle under remote control. (Because I believe NASA would have tried to re-enter a crewless shuttle, even if they didn't put it on the runway.) Also, do the MMUs for the HST mission have to return or not?