TK-313

Subj. I tried to place two partly-transparent stock flags in a layered manner and this happened: The lower flag's image somehow covers the upper one. Any ideas about what I'm looking at or whether I can do something about it?

Well, it could always be placed in the extras...

@blackheart612, I'm sorry if it isn't in your plans, but could you add blue to the colors and (maybe) a half-D-sized platform? Because, well, being able to build the likes of these crew and lander search and recovery trucks would be super cool. If anyone's curious, these are Soviet (and later Russian) ZIL Bluebird AATVs designed with this very purpose in mind. So far I've managed a couple of almost-lookalikes: But still, blue (and smooth sides) would be really nice

Try autostrutting each part to its grandparent from Block A or B upwards to the capsule, then from the LES downwards to the capsule (probably including the decouplers). Works for me. Also, if you want the launch to look nice without Block A making the rocket OP to interplanetary, try some 2.5-3.2 scaled solar system. Perfect fit

See here:

*Looks at the second thing from above* *Reaches for a couple of RTGs*

Looking at this, I wondered: is it possible to make some small disk-shaped rotator-like part that would be mechanically a solar panel with 0 output, always rotating towards the sun together with any attached parts? That would be a great thing to build your own two-axis solar panel arrays out of whatever for stations like this Mir-2. @Beale, your word? Or anyone else?

Ah! I mixed up two things... Yes, the early Vostok is cool. Perhaps I'll try that as well. And no, the flying doghouse was tested with dogs, and the mannequin wasn't there then (not that they would both fit into one catapult at the same time), the mission descriptions will give you that. When the mannequin was on this catapult, the dog cabin was not there and the whole thing looked like an ejection seat (which it was)

Ahem... I do believe "match the warhead nosecone shape"does not equal "based on a warhead", but okay. I'm still trying to understand, though, why you are still trying to present the poor animal container as a standalone spacecraft when all evidence says it was an integral part of the unmanned Vostok... Or do I misunderstand?

Affirmative, there is one - but you have to note it is not based on a warhead, but built around the spherical lander pod (as were all Vostok designs, actually - see page 6; there's even a specific mention that the cone-shaped lander didn't even make it to design drafts) with its cone-shaped service module in front of the lander. On the same page we read that this layout was dropped by 1959. Furthermore, we read on the same page 7 the launch plan for unmanned tests: - 2 1KP ships (no life support, no thermal protection, weight imitator where the pilot would be - this is what crashed in Manitowoc, Wisconsin); - 3 1K ships (to test ship's flight and recon instrumentation; Belka and Strelka flight was one of these); - 2 3K ships (to test life support). 3K was the manned Vostok we all know, 1K was its simplified variant intended for testing purposes only. Its layout, presented on page 10, was not greatly different from a regular Vostok: Mind the part marked in red here: this is the ejectable dog container, which, as I've been telling you, was just a container in the place of the ejection seat and not a standalone ship.

Waiting for them most eagerly, they might seriously change what I know about early spaceflight in USSR. However, I have to note that literally the second sentence on the Russian wiki notes that "it was designed for human spaceflight and was the first prototype of the Vostok ship-satellite, on which such flight was performed for the first time" Meanwhile, here are a few photos of Belka and Strelka's ejectable container (Sputnik-5 mission) as exhibited in the Cosmonautics museum in Moscow - and a Vostok ejection seat for comparison.

Please do provide the basis of your statement as I have provided mine. Also, please do explain your distrust to the soviet book the text of which is provided on that page. P.S. If by "paintings" you mean the schematics you quote, please do take your time to check the link I have posted above, it is to the book they are taken from. You will see they are in the section named "Ejectable animal container", which describes said container in fine detail.

Once again, this is not a spaceship. It is what took the place of the ejection seat on Vostok's prototypes - an ejectable animal container. This page goes into more detail about this piece of equipment, Google Translate help you if you don't know Russian.

I'm sorry, but you're very wrong in naming that cylindrical part a pre-Vostok ship. The images you quote show a life support pod for two dogs that was installed in the place of the ejection seat on the Vostok unmanned prototypes (which actually were designated Ship-Satellite/Korabl-Sputnik as well as Sputnik-4, 5-1, 5, 6, 7-1, 9 and 10, to be exact. The "-1" numbers were used for failed missions to reserve the "clear" designation for successful ones. Weird, I know). All in all, this is very much a Vostok thing.

I'm sorry, but you're very wrong in naming that cylindrical part a pre-Vostok ship. The image you quote in the other topic shows a life support pod for two dogs that was installed in the place of the ejection seat on the Vostok unmanned prototypes (which actually were designated Ship-Satellite/Korabl-Sputnik as well as Sputnik-4, 5-1, 5, 6, 7-1, 9 and 10, to be exact. The "-1" numbers were used for failed missions to reserve the "clear" designation for successful ones. Weird, I know). All in all, this is very much a Vostok thing. Now, it might be implemented as an ejectable science bay coupled with an overgrown Vostok-shaped heatshield, but I'm not sure if it will be in @Beale's scope these days, now that KSP 2 is at our doorstep.

In fact, the N1 is perfectly scaled for a 3.2 system - all staging events happen exactly as intended by the original N1-L3 flight plan. Just remember that block D does both orbit insertion and most of the landing.

Meanwhile I found a few glitches with engine plumes. In particular, Dolk and Star both lack plumes (but they have lighting) and the Block D's engine's built-in RCS have these big glitchy plumes in the wrong direction. On a more positive note, an (almost) proper tower for the N-1: P.S. Where did the grid fins go?

There's also this, although it's no longer in development. I think I even had a craft file lying around...

Oh well. I made a thing And did a Mun orbit with another one But they're such lightweights! Suffice to say, in a world of 2.5 planets and 3.2 distances instead of a whole Vulcan they fit comfortably on top of a single Zenit.

Also, some day, perhaps... (walks away to try it with the Pirs parts)

Wonderful! P.S. In Russian it's called "cable and fuel mast" or, most times, just "cable mast" for short. And yeah, it's for the spacecraft and the upper stage (block E, the one below the fairing, if anyone's curious). P.P.S. Will there be the smaller arm, too? The one that hides in the gap in the taller one's base, reaching to just the top of the rocket's second stage - the "bulb" tank, like on this photo:

Same here.

No problem Here's a couple photos from the module's assembly and integration:

I actually kind of doubt it, because the difference is quite obvious in pictures like this:

The Speccy, of course Most iconic 8-bit computer in (post-)USSR ever.