CAPFlyer

I tried all 3 cores earlier and none gave me the success condition. I'll try again now that I'm home and see though.

Running into a little problem on the TRANSIT 4A flight. Launched. Used Ranger 6 (BDB) core as stand-in TRANSIT 4A, Aerobee 100 (Sounding Rockets) core as stand-in INJUN 1, and SOLRAD (BDB). Got all tasks finished except 1 (RTG because first launch with SNAP3 failed to recognize the SNAP3 attached to the Ranger 6 for whatever reason) - The SOLRAD 3. I'm using the SOLRAD satellite model from BDB, I added the Ranger UV telescope for the science, and it all went great and all checked, but the full task won't check. See attached - Tried renaming again, jumping out and then back in, and a couple other things, but nothing fixed it. Also, couple things here - 1) real mission, SOLRAD 3 failed to separate from INJUN 1. 2) If order matters (i.e. have to complete each in turn), then SOLRAD 3 needs to be the 3rd item to complete because it was the top of the stack, not the middle. Unfortunately, this was right before I had to shutdown to go to work, so I can't further troubleshoot until tonight. Would love to get some insight in the meantime.

I'm working Explorer 10 right now which has one of those odd orbits and it took some pretty extreme (for me) messing with MechJeb's Classic Ascent Guidance and then disconnecting once in terminal to achieve it. Then I forgot to kill the Altair and ended up in too good of an orbit so now I get to fly it again. But that's what's cool - it shows that even in super-simplified KSP that "Space Is Hard"TM/R/C...

Yeah, the problem is stability, not thrust. I switched to classic guidance and got it to work, just find it odd that PVG causes this wierd Alpha/pitch harmonic at/near Max Q on a rocket that's pretty conventional and should work fine. I guess it's just an oddity of that rocket.

It's ~1.4 on liftoff and stays under 3 all the way up. Also, I was finally able to get it to launch using Classic Ascent and some tweaks from another user in the BDB thread, but I'm still hoping to get some suggestions as I still have a few Juno II launches left in the sequence and I would love to be able to use PVG for the launches since it seems to be smoother and I'm about to start working some high precision launches that are on the edge of the rocket's capability.

I do have the tanks filled to 100% on the flight; forgot to mention that. I will try using classic and see what happens.

Hi guys, I'm having a problem with a rocket using MechJeb Ascent Guidance. For reference, I also have FAR and ReScale 2.5x installed. All parts of the rocket are Bluedog Design Bureau. https://imgur.com/a/MO7fUGS I'm not understanding this pitch change/alpha change as I hit ~25000pa. It happens only on this rocket, and it happens in all guidance modes. I've tried restricting and enlarging the Alpha limiter, changing the rocket pitch rate, and several other items and when I am finally able to get it to successfully orbit, it's a massively steep launch path that results in me having far too little dV to get into a basic 90 x 90 orbit, much less get into the orbit described. Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will try that as well here shortly and see if that changes anything. To kinda help as well, here is a link to a series of images of what happens - https://imgur.com/a/MO7fUGS Changing the Alpha limit doesn't really help. It seems like about the time I pass 25000pa Q there is a sudden alpha and pitch command change. MaxQ is about 28000 - 30000pa. I'm not finding a way with MechJeb to see what its commanding or why this change. Again, any help will be appreciated.

I'm still tweaking on this but as always I love to get opinions from those here who know better, but in the most recent version of the mod, I've started having issues with instability of the Juno II going through MaxQ. I do use FAR and a 2.5x rescale, so I'm sure it's an interaction with FAR and the mod that is causing the problem, but what happens is that as I get to about 95% of MaxQ I start getting a sudden Alpha change that isn't being commanded and then the control inputs are too slow to properly damp it resulting in a harmonic deviation that quickly breaks the launcher at the Stage interface between the Juno tank and the Juno Command section (the tapered part). I've tried using all 3 MechJeb launch algorithms and GravityTurn and while I can get it to not happen with a very steep launch, that results in a massive overshoot of the initial periapsis and thus early staging and loss of Dv and inability to get orbital insertion because neither guidance will go up through MaxQ then make an aggressive pitch over (which is what it would need to do) and I'm not good enough manually to make it work anywhere close to reliably either. Any ideas (other than removing FAR)? I don't want to really imbalance anything and I'm hesitant to change the gimbal rates if I can avoid it. I did try auto-strut and manual struts to make the joint more rigid, but this didn't help. I'm more interested in adjustments to either my launch profile or ideas where this sudden Alpha shift is coming from (this happens to *all* Juno II configurations and payload setups through Explorer 8, so I'm pretty sure it's something with the base Juno II, not a probe). Thanks!

Perfect timing! I'm just about to launch Transit 3 in my save! Okay, not a "request", but a question - has there been any discussion of adding at least some form of MIDAS and/or SAMOS to the collection? More than anything, I'm interested in the solar panels because none of what I've found currently available really fits well as a stand-in for those that also fits flawlessly under the Thor-Agena or Atlas-Agena interstage skirt. I believe the later KH-8s also used the same or similar solar panels but I'm not sure if they're in the pack because when I searched I didn't see anything specifically calling out KH-8 and solar panel.

I read the same thing as well. I did finally find (on like page 3 or 4 of the returns) an article that more specifically said what you did - that the change was a "new" cold-gas thruster system that allowed re-orientation for the Altair 3rd stage. I wonder if the original RCS system on the Able was a "hot gas" system that used fuel from the main tanks? I can't find any verification of how the thrusters worked on the Able. I guess I'm back to hot staging and hoping I get the required performance. Getting some of these missions is becoming very tricky without being able to coast or relight the second stage.

Okay, I think I'm missing something. I have now moved into the Thor-Delta and I can't figure out how I'm supposed to do the staging without kludging. According to several sources, the main change between the Thor-Able and Thor-Delta was the new engine version and a new cold gas system that allowed for inflight restarts. However, none of the Able or Delta tanks appear to have ullage thrusters. Am I missing something or was that not present and I just need to add RCS ullage thrusters externally?

I have a GTX 1080Ti, so I'm not sure that's it. I have the current drivers as well and they were updated prior to this problem. Installing the current version of Scatterer did fix the issue though, so I think the default shadows are just screwed up again.

I guess I just noticed it yesterday due to the sun angles I was launching at. No problem if that's where the issue is. I am using 1.10.1, so that would be correct. I had been using Scatterer and pulled it for other reasons (general cleanup, lack of a 1.10.1 release at the time) so maybe that's also why I didn't notice it before. No biggie though. Just looking to see if it was a known issue/conflict and how to fix it instead of me having to go addon by addon and figure out what happened to cause it.

I'm suddenly getting some odd shading on my rockets. Anyone have an idea why? Sorry for the fuzzyness, don't know why it did it that way, but it still shows the shading oddity.

I added an issue in GitHub for this, but just got to Pioneer 5 in my current Savegame with Historic Spaceflight and it needs a Micrometeor Impact science report returned once into the Heliocentric orbit, but the probe doesn't have that science experiment available. I modded my own in (probably not really correctly, but it worked), but I suspect it'd be a good thing to add to the package base.

Quick question - on PVG guidance, is there any way to get it to ignore an ullage stage? I use Engine Igniter and I'm finding it problematic with the ullage stage because it tries to use it before the coast and even if I manually actuate it, I have to like wait 5-6 seconds beyond the end of the coast to ensure that it stages properly and doesn't kill the throttle when the dV hits 0 on the ullage stage maneuver.

Yep. I just look at the launch date and then roughly set the time in KSP to that date. I'm not using RSS or any other mods to make it "Earth time", just starting with the first launch as Year 0 Day 0 and then advancing time appropriately from there to the next launch. Sometimes it's a couple days, sometimes it's months. Occasionally, it's just a few hours so I can go from Canaveral/KSC to Vandenberg/Desert Launch Site.

I was the same until I realized hot staging was more of a thing than I thought. Quick change of stage numbers, update to MechJeb staging program to hot stage 0.5 seconds before burnout, and Bob's your uncle. BTW, now launched through the last Vanguard launch and everything seems to be going well, so I think I'm back on track to be able to get through the entire US missions in one go for the first time.

Also, does anyone have a suggestion on a stand-in for the Beacon series of balloon probes? I've just been using the Explorer 1 probe as a stand-in since it used the same body, but it'd be nice to be able to use the full probe since some of the Nike Beacon launches actually succeeded.

Pain as in installation - you already covered that. I didn't have an issue because I don't use B9 as a full addon. Pain as in difficulty? Yeah, it'll make things more difficult. But I've liked it. Also, thanks for the suggestions everyone on the Thor-Agena issue. Just launched Discoverer 5 without any issue using the PVG guidance. Had to manually stage because it doesn't deal with ullage motors properly, but that wasn't a big issue.

FAR isn't really doing that much. I'm using a fairly aggressive trajectory to get up a tad higher, but my BECOs are around 70km (don't really pay attention) and a bit lower speed, but still within Agena-A capabilities. I am doing a coast, but again, being that the coast is somewhere around 45 seconds, that's not a lot of time to make, set, and tweak a maneuver node. If you're using a 149k AP and then burning low to bring it down and circularize, that might be what I need to try to give me more time to get the guidance to work more reliably. I'll try that. I hadn't tried PVG yet since I'm not using RO/RSS, but I'll give it a try too. Overall, I'm just looking for better guidance than just following the trajectory and trying to manually throttle and cutoff since i only get 1 burn with the Agena-A so I can be more consistent, especially since there are quite a few Discoverer missions. I'm really liking Engine Ignition so that's why getting it right the first time is so much more important. I can't just kill the throttle and then fire back up.

Atlas V Brown (Bronze) Serious question/request - I'm running a rescaled Kerbin (as suggested earlier in the thread) and Ferram Aerospace with this addon and working my way through the Historic Missions pack US missions. I'm now into the Thor-Agena A Discoverer flights and I'm running into a bit of an issue. The contract for the initial flights wants me at 91km+ orbit, but I'm running into some odd issues with the ascent guidance and getting a good "groove" in staging so I can get into orbit smoothly with the single start Agena. I don't know if anyone has any suggestions on what adjustments to make for Gravity Turn or MechJeb Ascent Guidance to help. I have enough Delta V to make it into orbit, but I'm running into problems with not being able to setup the circularization maneuver (either manually or automatically) soon enough to get a good light of the Agena since I'm only ~60 seconds from Apoapsis when the first stage burns out and I have a ~2 minute burn to circularize and the automatic circularization for both modules not triggering until I pass 90km (meaning I'm less than 30 seconds from AP). Any suggestions or other addons I might be able to use to help?

As opposed to calling it what? Convair's (and later Lockheed's) nomenclature for the LR-109 was Sustainer, so I think that's the only appropriate term to use.

Installed. I did have a gap, but it seems like they "dive" into the rail and that's what causes it. I'll play with it some more with Collide-o-Scope and see if that gives me any insight.