Pappystein

already been stated as no it isn't coming... But So was Pegasus I am still hoping for a TU-122 nosecone... For INT-19 reasons... But at the size it is I could probably be "Okayish" with a stock one

Keep in mind, The 10ft Pressure vessel is oh I don't know.. MOL sized so Titan Diameter @Ultim32 AKA 1.875m in KSP

That would be Minotaur II! You know I still have not found any 1st tier sources on Minotaur I... which is vexing. (that is aside from the historically useless payload planer guides) But I have learned a darn lot about Minuteman... stuff I never intended to learn Like one thing I learned. The reason that Northrop Grumman can offer the Minotaur VI with the stacked SR-118s? Because under START only a certain percentage of ALL UP rockets can be utilized to launch payloads into space on governmental contracts. However individual stages can be used in conjunction with other all up units (thus stacking SR-118s is OK). The warhead bus, nor the Ballistic missile Guidance Unit can be used for Satellite launches. But CAN be used for weapon tests (be they warhead related or Intercept related.) And it is START that apparently prohibits the use of made for Military ICBMs as civilian launchers. (I have not verified this by trying to read the START treaty, Just repeating info from several sources including NASASpaceFlight etc)

So what is the Difference between Minotaur I's M55A1 Engine and the original first stage used on the Minuteman IA (the M55)? Well performance wise (thrust and ISP) They are essentially the same. It is in the reliability of the Gimbal hardware that they differed, the M55 typically melted the 4 gimbal nozzles which caused the motor to fail around the 55 second mark in flight (variable). The M55A1 was strengthened to survive the full 70 second burn time (actually a little less than that) This results in almost a 2000km range improvement (when used in conjunction with either the M56A1 or the SR-19 2nd stage.) FWIW the USAF did not like the M56A1 (it was still not 100% reliable) and Aerojet made the all new SR-19 to replace the M56A1 on the Minuteman II. The Minotaur II utilizes the M55A1, the SR-19, and the current version of the M57. All Minotaur II launches are in conjunction with military weapon tests or warhead tests for future ICBMs.

Actually only the Test and Evaluation Minutemen had a Flared Skirt All Operational Minuteman Missiles were straight skirted. The Flared skirt was apparently for On pad protection of the Quad Engine bells (from the elements) The Transporter Erector carried the Minuteman missile inside a Coccoon, And since it was used for both Test and Evaluation launches as well as Service(Operational) rounds, the Cocoon was designed to accommodate the flared skirting. Sources: A Technical History of America's Nuclear Weapons (I and II) Minuteman: A Technical history.... In Short: Flared skirt means the Minuteman was meant to ONLY launch from a PAD and not a Silo. Straight Skirt is for Either. @GoldForest@CobaltWolf

I may not use RO personally but I really do appreciate the effort! Been forgetting to ask... is this going to be 0.9375 & 0.625 diameters?

I don't see a nosecone for my Saturn II INT-19! Kidding of course. Looks amazing... can't wait!

Ok So on a barebones system with BDB and a few other station parts mods only... I can confirm. The Hypergolic patch is working fine... HOWEVER, There is a visual discontinuity that can lead to "problems" As you can see this is the 8250-B engine mount with the twin 8250 engines per pod (No RCS) There is an AZ50/NTO fuel tank This is the 8250 Inital variant tank/engine combo which is 1 RCS engine and 1 8250 Engine. Notice the tank has no AZ50/NTO? Well that is because as far as a Hypergolic engine is concerned it gets fuel from a separate tank. From the expanded text document on this engine we can clearly see it's Propellants are AZ50/NTO and Mono... The tank just holds Mono Only. So unless another mod is suppressing cross-feed in your game (or you have disabled it) you should have a fully functional engine with the base 8250 engine. Obviously assuming your Tanks are actually setup for AZ50/NTO. Hope this helps!

I will get to it within the next 24 hours barring any power issues (major storm inbound) *EDITED* I am mystified by this error report, the patch SHOULD be providing AZ50/NTO to the SPS engine (bluedog_GATV_SPS) Booting up KSP instead of intended program now to test myself (it worked the last time I built up KSP modlist but checking on a new mod-build)

This looks really awesome In reading the several books I now own on the Minuteman, it had an interesting design history. The M55 and M56 stages both had serious construction issues when the Minuteman I was in development. All three stages original had Quad exhaust and only the 3rd stage was low enough thrust/pressure on the quad gimbals to NOT EJECT the gimbals themselves as rocket Exhaust. Truly the M55 and M56 stages were DESIGNED to RUD totally on accident. Thus when the slightly strengthened M55 and M56 were approved for service, it was with a lower thrust level than initially designed. The So called Minuteman IA resulted. Range was short by almost 1000km from designed with the same payload. The Minuteman IB was further strengthened and with the Minuteman IA payload was closer to design spec (but still not there. The Aerojet M56 was troublesome to re-design... By this time the payload mass had increased so the range remained about the same. Minuteman II has the M55 and M57 of Minuteman I with a new second stage the Aerojet SR19-AJ-1 which was made from titanium to save mass and had a new LIQUID INJECTION TVC system with a single exhaust nozzle. The SR19 allowed either even more payload or the planned range of the original Minuteman I missile. It is not fair to blame just Aerojet for the lack of range as the Thiokol and Hercules sections (the M55 and M57) Both had their own problems. Minuteman III has an updated M57 for the 3rd stage a new Solid state Guidance and Control Unit and between these two features further increased the payload capability (including MIRV) or the range. Minotaur I is a Minuteman II's first and 2nd stage combined with the Orion 50XL, the Orion 38 and a HAPS terminal stage (all from Pegasus XL) Minotaur IL is a Minotar I, with out the Orion 38 or HAPS and it is commonly used for Strategic defense target launches Minotaur II is a full up Minuteman II without the Minuteman II's GCU or payload bus... the end is replaced with a strategic defense target Minotaur C, also know as Taurus is a kinda hodgepodge between the CASTOR-120 and the Minotaur I's/Pegasus XL rocket stack of Orion50XL, Orion 38 and HAPS... Minotaur III is a LGM-118 Peacekeeper MX without the final stage Again Strategic defense and Hypersonic suborbitals only Minotaur IV is already in game and we know it is a Minotaur III with some Star rockets on top

So it is funny, I have all the sources I thought I needed for Minotaur 1... instead I can now write intelligibly about Minuteman I II and III. So while we wait for KSP 2 to release in 25 minutes... I will leave you with this thought. Where has all the modern published history gone?

So I thought I would share an update on my Article writing. I have found a historical conundrum that I can not solve via Web... too many contradictory sources with no real citations that are trustworthy enough to go by. So I have ordered 3 books on the subject that are considered Top Tier. All three books deal with the ICBM side of things and one is specifically on Minuteman and many comments state it includes Space launch data.... So until I get the books (this weekend and early next week) My writing is going to be curtailed on the first article... and since the first article (Minotaur I) really drives the latter narrative on the Taurus/Minotaur C and Minotaur III+ I do really need this info... Hopeful that these sources will have all the data I need to do right by my last KSP-I Article series

Funny because all I see are SRMs for the Saturn II INT-19 are in the offing! I guess I better get my Butt in gear and finish this Minotaur I article I am working on

I see no Power Tower... FAIL Nice Mockup! CAn't wait to see your mission launch pix!

So I have an Itch to write another article... Problem is.. I have NO IDEA what I want to write it on. Looking for suggestions for my next historical article. A couple of things I won't write about: I won't write about Nuclear weapons, nor the Ballistic missile side of the space race other than in the pure space sense. (don't ask me to write an article on how the Peacekeeper guided it's warheads for example, but I could write one on how it evolved into the Minotaur IV/V/VI)

A) I am using KSRSS 2.5, B) Yes RSS/RP1 HAS in the past utilized BDB, but that is up to them to support. With all the major changes to saturn I do not know if they are up to date with current BDB release yet however... again up to the RSS/RP1 community to maintain, not something the BDB team does.

An interesting rocket idea... one that could have been easily built IRL (assuming tooling for large ~4m tanks was available )

Sounds like you built it (the Skylab) wrong. If you use the wrong Core part for your rocket construction this is a known issue to happen. I just do not remember what part you CAN'T start out with right at this moment I think starting with the IU is fine (and build up and down from that)

Your smol-sat launcher is awesome looking 331st SLDF RCT FTW! Totally unrelated but I have been playing with TUFX settings... it turned out I liked this one... Thought I wrote down the settings, and then totally lost them And yes that is a Saturn C-2M (monohull first stage) launching a S-IVC to my in orbit Tinker-toy to the Moon train

That is a third party mod interacting poorly with the parachute then. In my experience, There are two major and a few minor mods that really mess with parts sometimes catastrophically. Tweak Everything has been known to bug out BDB Nosecones/parachutes (that would be the first culprit I would look for.) Then any of the KJR family of mods. Just too many niggling issues for me to use them... and yes they HAVE caused issues with weird parachute behavior in the past so it *COULD* be them. A third one could be a bad copy of RealChute and or SafeChute (which do work fine on my system) Beyond that look at mods that alter play-style (Things like SMURF or Skyhawk, FAR, etc... where they do a pretty in-depth conversion of the base files.) Hope that helps, I don't know what is causing your issues but that is what has caused issues for me in the past.

RUINED you ruined a good thing by bringing ST Enterprise into it! Heck I am old skool Star Trek (saw Wrath of Khan in the theater on Release) And I prefer the Kelvin Timeline to ST Enterprise

Please say the crew was blaring "Rock me Amadeus" all the way there and back!

Yep and Google already has it Tagged: https://www.kitchenstuffplus.com/ksp-citrus-hand-held-juicer-orange Err wait a minute!

You can consider ArCK To be BDB adjacent along with all of @benjee10's mods. Benjee and CobaltWolf work to nearly the same level of fidelity, reality and quality. Each is better in certain areas but they are so close together it would be like choosing between Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci to do a painting/drawing. The fact is there are parts shared between the two artists in BDB as well as Habtech2/ArCK/ShuCK Sorry I won't stop putting the letter R in that acronym... ARC sounds sooooo much nicer than ACK! You say ACK when things go wrong!

RS-56OSA is literally the same Specs with much of the same bell structure... While the OBA was RS-27/H-1 (so bigger better LR89 derived) the OSA was basically still just an LR105-NA-7 with a new Fancy Schmancy name