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I just developed my first shuttle. After a lot of hard work and calculations, it is done. Unfortunately, it is made from Mk2 parts. I cant pu many things inside that cargo bay. It has 2 CRG-08 bays. I am asking you, Kerbal-killers, to help me get ideas for funny and interesting shuttle missions. I already have interplanetary probes waiting for transfer window, but I think that wont be enough for me to feel like I used the shuttle as much as I can. Shuttle has enough delta-V to lift anything that can fit inside those cargo bays. Thank you in advance!

I made a model* of the Lockheed Star Clipper. Called it the Star Chipper do to its likeness to a wedge. It definitely didn't spin out and crash upon re-entry... it only spun out but I recovered it * = ish should also point out that it is mostly to scale unlike a few other models i've seen around excrements i forgot the winglets...

Something I've never really accomplished is building a reliable shuttle, so I set out to do just that. I've already done some test flights, but it's far from stable. The issues stem from the orbiter's aerodynamics which I can't figure out. The vehicle is completely stock except for the docking assembly in the forward bay, but here is the craft file with the assembly removed (it brings the CoM just in front of the aft docking port): https://www.dropbox.com/s/xyv532298gm371q/Shuttle%20Orbiter.craft?dl=0. I can't figure out why the centre of mass is so far back and why the centre of lift is upside down. I've double checked to make sure the wings are the right way up. The centre of thrust shown here is with the main engines disabled. In-orbit stability is another issue considering the two OMS engines aren't perfectly aligned unless I tilt them up to an awkward angle. Also, sometimes the CoL will act up and just appear as a dot in the middle of the tail without a vector:

HELLO! I am making a space shuttle. I pretty cool one in my opinion. I've spent a week working out on the stability. But for some reason it just wants to tick me off and flip out chaotically I've used the center of life and center of mass to make it stable. It is stable in normal flight, but when I come in from reentry, it loosed control. I am going to post a craft file so you guys can test if you want. Any advice with space shuttles and reentry will greatly help me. Also, the mods that I have that are with the ship is TAC life, and mech jeb, for the information. Stubborn Shuttle That will not cooperate craft file. Thanks a lot you guys!!

My second attempt at a KSP cinematic. Took some tips from another Kerbalnaut, lemme know what ya think ^ _ ^

Space Shuttle tank ET94 entered the atlantic side of the Panama Canal yesterday and is now passing through the first of the Pacific-side locks, the Pedro Miguel Locks. The following webcam is at the next set of locks, the Miraflores Locks, facing towards Pedro Miguel: http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html?cam=Miraflores There is a bit of a rain storm right now but as soon as it passes, you will be able to see the Pedro Miguel locks in the distance. You can track the tanks progress here, it is being towed by the Shannon Dann: http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:400748/zoom:10 It just entered the first set of locks about 15 minutes ago.

Just wondering why the topic Component Space Shuttle V 5.0.1 (July 14, 2013) is closed when it is still active and being updated? It is linked from http://spacedock.info/mod/268/CSS-%20Component%20Space%20Shuttle Thanks! Link:

STS Space Shuttle Atlantis OV-104 is a MK3 scale replica of the Space Shuttle. Atlantis was the 4th Shuttle built and it's maiden voyage was in 1985, it completed 33 Missions before it's final mission in 2011 which was also the final shuttle flight of all. During it's operating life it orbited the Earth 4,848 times. It deployed the probes Magellan to Venus and Galileo to Jupiter. Mk3 Fuselage parts are about 64% scale of the real Shuttle Fuselage, this shuttle was built with that in mind and where possible (Length, Width, cargo bay length, wingspan etc) will be faithful to the scaled dimensions of the real shuttle. The External Tank and Boosters are similarly scaled. In the pictures and video I have painted it using a newly updated KerbPaint (get it from the last page of the thread) and retextured the ET Fairing using FairingTextureSwitcher mod (If you want the texture I debatted let me know), these do not effect the stock craft. When staging the used SRB’s use the ‘w’ button to tilt the shuttle forward so the SRB’s can seperate cleanly, otherwise they may clip the wings because the main engines push the shuttle laterally as well as vertically. There are three fuel tanks on the orbiter for the OMS, you need to unlock them currently once you have discarded the main tank. I have a fix to add an action group to enable them. A new upload will be up soon. The maximum payload capacity is one full Orange Tank (36t) to 100km orbit. Watch the video below to see how to fly it, the craft was flown by Mechjeb in the video (for artistic reasons) when flying manually make sure you begin your roll straight off the pad, you will not be able to roll smoothly once above 100ms, the torque from the SRB’s is too great and you will end up flopping around a bit. Built with 218 of the finest parts. Download Sorry about the poor editing, I don't have a lot of free time to do this and I did what I could. Edit: Haha I just watched the whole video, I missed a capital letter in the end title, that what you get for rushing!

This save is technically modded, however none of these mods are being used/should affect the aerodynamics I'm building a new shuttle, the Large Unmanned Cargo Kraft, or LUCK. Its gone well for the most part, for instance it looks fantastic, however there is a problem with the aerodynamics. I cant quite tell if its just (somehow) more stable in reverse, if its something to do with the Cargo Ramp up front, or if maybe the control surfaces are acting wired. I've been testing in Hack Grav for the "Glide Tests". It flys normally, until I turn a bit too far in any direction, at which point it flips so that the rear is facing forward. When i attempt to correct, it just ends up spinning. Here's are some reference images: http://imgur.com/a/Bq1GK Any and all help will be appreciated, so thanks in advance

N5 Aerodynamics and Space is proud to introduce its new craft, the Advanced Kerbin Shuttle. This craft can haul 50 tons into orbit with ease (basically whatever you can fit into the cargo bay), and is capable of reaching Munar orbit with lighter cargo. Kerbal egngineers based their initial designs on the blueprints of the STS and Buran, two shuttles from a far away place called Earth (no one is still sure where the blueprints came from). However, it was decided to add more streamlining to the spaceplane component of the shuttle and greater overall fuel capacity. Like Earth's STS, the shuttle uses five gimbaling engines and is assisted on liftoff by two dettachable boosters. However, like Buran, it only uses liquid fuel and the main tank also serves as the main booster. The gravity turn must start almost at launch and the shuttle should be facing up to avoid collisions with the dettachable boosters after separation. Engines are te be cut off after a high enough apoapsis is reached, and simply let the flight computer follow the prograde vector into the apoapsis for circularisation. Because of its greater fuel load, the main booster and tank can provide thrust well into the flight so separation is only needed before rentry. For a balanced glide into the runway, the deorbit burn must be done while still attached and then all remaining fuel on the shuttle should be transfered to the main booster before separation. Download: https://kerbalx.com/nestor_d/AKS-Reliant

A new STS system that can be used as a SSTO when not launching the Shuttle. Manual on KerbalX craft's page. Download: http://kerbalx.com/crafts/9830

Hi everyone. I'm just wondering now that both KSO and SSP don't work anymore, if anyone is currently making or planning a Space Shuttle mod for 1.0.5? Thanks -Banana

JSC SHUTTLE IIC I've been spending quite a lot of time with shuttles recently, and having really tested my Buran thoroughly with every single mission profile in the STS challenge, plus using it to collect and land an asteroid, I thought it was time to look at a new design. STS seemed a little obvious, but while browsing shuttle concepts I found the JSC Shuttle IIc and was instantly hooked on the retro-futurist look of the shuttle. Pictures vary but basically I had to make this when I saw it. I'm sure you'll agree it's a mean looking shuttle. And here's my version. It is a work in progress (largely cosmetic), but is already pretty refined and capable of full mission profiles (and full mission failures): The shuttle is 192 parts and 268t on the pad without a payload. I think the side view is really elegant, and I'm pretty pleased with the over all look compared to the original mock ups, especially considering this is total stock. It's got pretty much a full length payload bay apart from the reaction wheel and senior docking port, which mean that while it can take the inigma fuel pod to orbit it's a bit of a squeeze, and I could do with moving the reaction wheel to make space. Hey it's a work in progress, so there's a snagging list. What I am particularly proud of is the escape system. The JSC Shuttle IIc was in design study when Challenger was lost, and crew safety was top of the consideration list. Consequently the crew cabin was designed to separate in emergency and return from orbit on it's own: Thinking about how to design this was pretty difficult, especially to make it look like a seamless join in the shuttle, so this is what I settled on: As you can see I've used two Mk3 engine mounts reversed to each other with the gaps made up by radiators positioned to look like the skin of the shuttle. It's pretty seamless and provides just enough space for the emergency separation mechanism. It's not quiiiite powerful enough to save you from an on pad failure, but it can abort to orbit above a certain height, and is extremely versatile during re-entry calamities. Any angle, rotation, you name it, the separation mechanism does and wonderful job and allows the crew a safe landing on land or water as we can see here: The front end of the shuttle is explosively separated from the body of the shuttle and set up so it will always immediately find prograde even if the abort is completed at a funny angle. The front end is capable of water based as well as land based touchdowns, and can abort to orbit, abort de-orbit with its RCS engines, or just handle those harsh re-entry meltdowns. Now under normal flying conditions the Shuttle behaves very well indeed and while re-entry could do with some refinement it's perfectly happy returning from a 500km orbit. It's rated really for a 10-15t payload as normal maximum to that altitude, but with jigging about it would probably cater for a lot more. Here's some photo's of a typical mission without the need for the crew cabin ejection: This is a work in progress, so I'd expect much like my Buran major deign reviews will take place, but I'd invite you to download the craft file and have a go yourself. I'm certainly open to any advice or feedback on this one, it's been a very challenging build and for sure there is improvements to be made. SM

A very interesting read. Best to set some time aside for it though because it's pretty long. I remember a few months ago we were talking about whether or not it'd be ethical to make a movie about a "what if" scenario. Reading this made me feel like I was watching that movie. http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/02/the-audacious-rescue-plan-that-might-have-saved-space-shuttle-columbia/

I've never had good luck with winged re-entry, but this little shuttle is coming along really nicely. It lifts up to 22 ton payload to 100km (barely, and only if flown very carefully) and can bring down 11 tons. This performance is very close to the real space shuttle, which was quite a lot larger than the Kerbal one.. By my math, my shuttle is about 60% the size of a real one. It will comfortably throw 11 tons into orbit and if done well, it has enough Dv onboard to go on to anywhere in Kerbin's SOI (although might not come back). Anyhow, I'm pretty proud of it. Pardon the audio drop out during the fast forwarded bits... https://youtu.be/QMJg1-pGqL8

So, I was playing KSP yesterday, and I noticed something that I think should be changed. The Mammoth engine cluster uses 4 KS-25 engines, supposedly. However, the single KS-25 engine added in 1.0.5 has a different look to it than the ones on the Mammoth cluster. Mammoth: Single KS-25: NASA RS-25: As you can see, the new single KS-25 looks a lot more like it's real counterpart. I think the Mammoth should be changed to match. Shouldn't be too hard, right?

I've been playing KSP for a long time now, and I have enjoyed many of the mods that you guys have shared here. Now I think it's time to share back! This is the first craft I am uploading. It's based on the shuttle-design, but fitted to my needs. She gets into orbit quite easily and behaves well at reentry. I enjoy the flight much, so I decided to share her with you. Actualy this design here is not 100% what I have been using. I noticed she is lightly mod-dependent, so I decided to make her STOCK before uploading. This ment to replace a KIS container with a fueltank, change the wheels from procedural to stock ones and ... that's it. She's a bit heavier now, but should still perform decently. Action Groups: Abort - Deploy Chute 1 - Toggle 3 Main Engines 2 - Toggle 2 Assist Engines 3 - Toggle small Cargo Bay + Solar Panels (The panels won't open with the bay closed, just wait for the bay to open then toggele twice to open the panels too) 4 - Toggle large Cargo Bay Get her into Orbit: 1.) Pitch upwards ("S") to about 95°-90° right from the start, or you risk toughing the clamps. Make SAS hold the ship there. 2.) When the SRBs burn out, ditch them, set SAS to Prograde and switch from Surface-mode to Orbit-mode 3.) Stage off the Mainsails when they burn out and keep going Prograde until you reach desired AP. Then stop the Engines. 4.) At AP lift your PE up to 40km and ditch the last tank - except you don't mind debris or need additional dV, then you can keep the extra fuel. Keep burning until you reach desired orbit. (Note: Staging the big tank fires up the 2 Assist Engines! You don't really *need* them, so feel free to press "2" to toggle them off and save fuel.) So far I mainly launch stuff up to a Rockomax Jumbo-64 into Orbit, which means about 40t of payload. (With support of that Jumbo-64 it's enough dV to visit Mun!) If you can fit in more, feel free. She should be capable of taking the punishment! If you have managed to overload her, just make sure that all three Main Engines fire on launch (instead of only 2 now). A few seconds just before the SRBs burn out are the most critical because when fully loaded she risks to run out of torque to counter the SRBs. The third engine (or maybe even the Assist Engines) should be enough to counter that. Talking about that Jumbo-64: I have added two Subassemblies into this pack. One is said Jumbo, outfitted with Docking ports of 2.5m and 1.25m, a Probe to prevent "debris-ing off", batteries for easier docking and landing legs. To those who remember Scott Manley's 100% reuseable Space program, build your own spider and start mining Mun! The other Subassemblie is the same thing but with a Rockomax 32 tank (both can be seen in the album). This leaves some space in the shuttle i.e to bring a satelite with you, or SCIENCE! Download: Download Buran Kai (Stock) Here are some screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/0sKP0 Edit: Due to popular demand, I have tested a version without additional Reaction Wheels on the Launch Tanks. You can simply remove them ingame and save the craft. Here's a copy-paste from a future post: I have done a few flights to test the behaviour without the reaction wheels. My Conclusion: The more you load in, the more I recommend to use the third Main Engine from the start on. I have done an empty flight without any other change than to remove the RWs. Went straight to Mun (circular at 10km) and back. Then I did one with a Jumbo loaded, same config. I had to turn on the Assist Engines to prevent her from pitching over - the SRBs get too powerful with the shifted CoM. She almost fell over, luckily the SRBs depleded before that. But any more mass might make that dangerous - so be sure to launch that third engine early on! Just keep an eye on your AP and don't pitch too much at start (rather 95° than 90°). Cheers!

So I decided to do asteroids. Never had much luck before but after watching about 200 videos, and buoyed by the recent success of the Buran 11F35 Kerbal 1 I decided to try and land an asteroid...On Kerbin....From interplanetary space....Using my Buran replica shuttle. Oh and Patcan Kerman would try and become the first Kerbal ever to re-enter from interplanetary space while riding an asteroid attached to a shuttle. Let's see how the crew got on: Now I'm hesitantly claiming a couple of firsts here, but happy to be corrected. I think I might be: First to land an asteroid on Kerbin using a shuttle replica. First ever chair riding asteroid aerobrake from interplanetary space. If I'm this, then I'm also the First ever chair riding asteroid aerobrake from interplanetary space using a shuttle replica haha! Firsts or not I had a blast doing this mission, learnt all about intercepting asteroids, and learnt that my shuttle replica was way more capable than I thought. as a result I thought it worth sharing! SM

BURAN 11F35 KERBAL 1 Buran 11F35 Kerbal 1-3 post missions. 11F35 Kerbal 4 survived an emergency abort to the island runway after a KSC Kraken attack. 30/12/2015 - Design review complete, and OP updated with new information and craft files. A couple of people may know or remember that I've created a few very low part count and really tiddly shuttles in the past, but the big one has always evaded me. With the advent of 1.0.5 and the new shuttle friendly parts I wanted to see if designing a shuttle was within my grasp. I already had quite a decent knowledge of the shuttle proper, but I thought this would be a great opportunity to teach myself about the Buran orbiter and associated Energia launcher. Couple of interesting facts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_(spacecraft) - Have a read Then I thought how am I actually going to make this useful, and not just a series of wonderful screenshots. I mean the thing has to do what the Buran was really designed to do, and also I've never successfully managed to build and fly a working shuttle, let alone a Buran with it's shuttle's engines not firing all the way to orbit and all the off axis shenanigans that entails My only real stipulations when I was thinking about how this would all work were: Stock. Remember that not everyone has a GERTY 3000 - low part count where possible - With this in mind I have left the shuttle "bare bones". I thought it would be better to leave room for individual preference and creativity in this area. If you want fine detail such as solar panels or fuel cell arrays, antennas, ladders, Snacks etc for extended on orbit operations, please feel free to add them yourselves and get creative, it's better than removing a hundred of my parts before you get going!! Has to hulk something useful to orbit. Has to actually be extremely user friendly. So I set about creating the Buran 11F35 Kerbal I (doesn't that just roll off the tongue), and I think in the process made easily my finest shuttle, and very possibly my finest craft not including the Deep Jool which still surprises me when I look back at the mission report. Anyway, without further bum-guffery I bring you the shuttle: Buran 11F35 Kerbal 1 on orbit with the core module of the Sunrise High Altitude Orbital Outpost in the cargo bay. So the details. Well it's a close enough copy of the Buran without using any mods or adding any more parts than I absolutely have to. For example most people familiar with the Buran will notice the absence of the sticky outy bits containing the maneuvering jets. In a nod to these I moved the proposed location of the turbojets slightly. In another nod to the bulbous shape of the rear of the Buran I included a helpful drag chute for landing. As we can see the vertical stabilizer is, importantly, present. It's actually 2 vertical stabilizers set up so when B (brake) is pressed, it flares and performs the aero-brake function. Let's have a look at the bottom now (stop it ) Buran 11F35 Kerbal 1 on on the launch pad for inspection of underside. I've tried to make this profile as neat and uncluttered as possible, but at the end of the day you still have to address COM vs COL etc, so the above is as close as I could get. It's mostly straight lines, although the profile of the wing parts has been very, very carefully set up to maximise stability in atmosphere. The result is beautiful - you can leave this thing to aero-brake itself back from orbit with almost no supervision. A closer look at the side profile shows up the wing setup with more clarity: Buran 11F35 Kerbal 1 on on the launch pad for inspection of wing angle. Here you can see a couple of tasty tricks. Firstly, where the wings join the main hull of the craft near the nose we are angled up and in slightly. This was pretty instrumental in getting decent atmospheric flight, and also helped rather a lot with maintaining a decent attitude on reentry. Secondly there's two shuttle wings on each side. I originally just had the lower wing on each side, but needed so many reaction wheels to keep the thing stable, and it also looked a little thin for my liking. Inserting the second wing at just the right angle above the first allowed me to remove every single reaction wheel, and hence reduce part count and maximise internal volume in the cargo bay. The result of the double wing is an extremely maneuverable and easy to fly (remember it has jet engines) craft, as well as being more aesthetically pleasing in my eye. So let's have a look at Cargo options. The Buran can lift Inigma Industries 42t payload to over 1000km but it's really in it's element lobbing space station modules weighing around 9-18t to any orbit you please. Below you can see the Sunrise High Altitude Orbital Outpost, assembled in orbit from 4 modules which are ready for download at the bottom of this thread. Sunrise High Altitude Orbital Outpost at 400km. It would later use it's ion engines to raise it's orbit to 1000km I think now might be the right time to have a look at the whole Buran and Energia together on the launch pad: Buran 11F35 Kerbal 1 fueled and ready for launch. I'm sure that wreck in the foreground is scheduled for rebuild... I'm not entirely sure if I have the scale right, but to be honest, using only stock parts there's compromises which have to be made, which is part of the joy of painting. Your happy little boosters can only be so big. So there's some other compromises here. For example in the real Energia the boosters split off in pairs and then separate, but in this version they all separate. I've now managed to set up the separation properly so the boosters rotate away beautifully and fall away with increasing distance from each other, ensuring no unauthorised kabooms. Next we need to cover off a typical launch profile. After all I designed this to be as easy as possibly to fly, but it is probably not what one would class as a beginners rocket. First a gallery: Now the instructions. These are overly detailed, but should lead to simple repeatable launches every time. Please bear in mind heavier payloads may require adjustment so play around: The Launch Profile: Press 2, 1, 1, Z, T - 2 closes the air intakes, 1 (twice for some reason) disables the Burans RCS ports, Z is full throttle (Oh yeah!) T is stability. Press Space - Seems obvious now doesn't it. Did you make sure you closed the cargo bay doors?! At 4000m press R and change to prograde hold. Throttle depending on cargo to hit 300m/s at 10,000m and 440m/s at 14,000m - no control input is required for the vehicle to pitch correctly. At roughly 45 degree pitch over throttle up - This should be just before booster sep Separate boosters At about 50,000m rotate so the Buran is effectively on top of the remaining tank - This is only really a style thing, it's not required if you don't want to Reduce power until you have reached the desired apogee Burn again at apoapsis raising periapsis to just below the height of the atmosphere - be responsible and let that space junk burn. If you want to achieve a really high orbit then keep burning and await future Kessler sydrome. Fire the sepatrons to blow the main fuel tank away from the orbiter - This is a nice sep I promise. If you have fuel left in the main tank you can top off the Buran for extended orbital operations. Stage the orbital engines in on the buran and go about your business citizen! - don't forget to press 1 to re-engage RCS if required. I realise de-orbiting is rather dear to some people's hearts so let's also discuss that. The below profile is for deorbit from around 300km. Adjust as required and remember with shuttles, gentle is better. This shuttle is extremely easy to handle, and you can effectively de-orbit hands free if you get things right. First a gallery: Now the instructions. Again these are pretty over detailed, and you will be able to figure out the best reentry for your orbit. Just remember that we do have the immense luxury of two J-33 Wheesley turbofan engines for those with deorbit deficiencies (I'm talking about me here, and this was a primary reason I went with Buran over Shuttle): The Re-entry Profile: From 300km lower periapsis to about min 26km - max 50km and shut down orbital engines - again find the best profile for your orbit, you won't always be able to dip so far into the atmosphere depending on cargo and speed etc. Right click all wing parts and enable pitch, yaw, and roll - They were all but 1 set disabled for launch as they were not required Press 1 to enable RCS ports - again really not needed but it's a nice to have for that virtually hands free re-entry Set angle of attack to roughly 25 Degrees - again find what works for you Make a cup of tea - If you have set up your de-orbit correctly you can absolutely do this! On a very gentle reentry you may see yourself drift from 45km back up to 60km before dropping down again, and covering a large distance. Press 2 to open the air intakes at around 20km, and stage the Wheesley's, or right click on the engines to activate them When re-entry flames have died off suitably, pitch nose to prograde and follow down to suitable altitude to utilise jets. Fly about a bit. Deploy landing gear, hold B or press brake button to flare aerobrakes, and land, staging parachute to assist. That's about it folks! Let's recap on what I wanted to achieve in building this. Stock - tick Remember that not everyone has a GERTY 3000 - low part count where possible - 238 parts including launch clamps and lights on launch clamps. 476.9t on Liftoff. Has to hulk something useful to orbit - I built a space station at 400km. It also lifted Inigma Industries 42t payload to over 1000km. Has to actually be extremely user friendly - I made a round of tea during a deorbit. I misjudged the re-entry and used the wheesley's to land at the island runway. I think all in all I succeeded. I've left pretty much every single unnecessary part off, removed as many struts as I can find without taking away from structural integrity, and generally tried to make the most flyable and user friendly shuttle possible. Odd that it turned out to be a Buran! AWARDS: Awards are all won from entry to the STS Challenge V2, being run by FCISuperGuy. I highly recommend you check it out. Report Here. Inigma Industries has contracted you to take their 42t fuel pod up to Kerbin orbit. Since it requires special on-orbit activation procedures, unmanned expendable launch vehicles are out of the question; it's up to you to take this behemoth to orbit and back. Not only that, but they require a very precise orbit: there must be less than 100m difference between your apoapsis and periapsis. If you have successfully taken the Fuel Pod to orbit (70+km), you get the special Flight Director badge, the ultimate display of piloting and engineering prowess and skill. Report Here. Your goal is to deploy 2 comsats from Inigma weighing from your Shuttle and to return to Kerbin. Additional goals are required for higher-ranking badges. Reach an orbit of 350+km and deploy your two comsats with spin stabilization (using the provided Sepratrons) to geostationary orbits. Deorbit and land at either at the KSC, the Island Airfield just off of KSC, or at any Kerbal Konstructs airport. Report Here. Your mission here involves some orbital construction - you are to launch the Hubble Space Telescope by xoknight into orbit and deploy it. This will require assembly with the 2 MMUs provided, as the solar panels need to be attached on-orbit with Kerbals. Requires STS Commander Rank 2. Launch the HST to a 550+km circular orbit inclined at 25-30 degrees and assemble it. After deployment, land at either at the KSC, the Island Airfield just off of KSC, or at any Kerbal Konstructs airport. Report Here. This'll be the most daring mission so far - first, you must launch a single shuttle to orbit, then send another shuttle to rescue it. See this article for technical details of the IRL proposed STS-107 rescue. Launch your first space shuttle into an 350+km orbit with 6 crew at an inclination of 25-30 degrees, then send your second shuttle to rendezvous with it and rescue its crew. Land at either at the KSC, the Island Airfield just off of KSC, or at any Kerbal Konstructs airport. CRAFT FILES: Buran and Energia Launcher Variant 2 - Updated 30/12/2015 following extensive design review. Sunrise High Altitude Orbital Outpost Module 1 - sub assembly Sunrise High Altitude Orbital Outpost Module 2 - sub assembly Sunrise High Altitude Orbital Outpost Module 3 - sub assembly Sunrise High Altitude Orbital Outpost Module 4 - sub assembly Photon Fuel Cell Module - sub assembly Absolutely welcome any observations, criticisms, or general praise SM

As I commented on the WiP thread, I find the alternate shuttle concepts that didn't actually come true much more attractive than the real thing that we got stuck with. I guess I can't shake the feeling that the STS as Nixon's cuts condemned us to was a pivotal point... before it, NASA was used to thinking big, bold, and with a generous sparkling of crazy. In other words, The Kerbal Way. Just how Kerbal? Well, this was MSC's 1969 concept for the "logistics vehicle" that would service their space stations and would help build the Mars vehicles, as designed by North American and recreated by yours truly... Yup, the legendary designer of the Mercury Capsule basically put a ridiculously big freaking rocketplane on top of another, even more ridiculously big rocketplane. And with straight wings! Not the least hair-rising stage separation I've ever done... Still, credit where credit is due, after some hard thinking, my replica works beautifully, so there must be some merit to the idea. And who doesn't want to at least try out a crazy reusable rocket concept from the sixties? A few things I didn't really capture, like the number of engines (the RL thing was supposed to have 10xSSMEs on the Booster and two on the Orbiter), but hey, you will allow me some scaling to fit with the cute size of kerbin. And the Booster struggles a bit with level flight, too, you basically have to keep the "s" key constantly pressed, but then again, I really think it should, at least a bit. The monstrosity... The Orbiter, OTOH, flies beautifully, having just enough aerodynamic control to keep a 30º AoA "ballistic" reentry that will offer a very gentle thermal environment on reentry, even with a full payload bay. And I did check, when completely empty it can even fly up on the Junos at low altitude! So it is not completely crazy to consider using this on a career save, actually. Putting 20mT on a 100km orbit would cost you about 12,000√ in fuel, if you somehow manage to recover the cost of the 102,000√ Booster. To make it work in KSP with booster recovery you have to cheat a bit, though. In order to test out landing both things, the procedure I came up with was as follows: drop a quicksave immediately after staging, then switch to the booster to perform the RTLS maneuver (i.E: fall down uncontrollably until the wings bite air, then turn on the jet engines and head home mashing the "S" key). Then you can note how much money you make from recovering it (no cheating if you botch the landing! :P), load the earlier quicksave, and later when the crew is safe on orbit... you can edit the savefile to add such quantity of funds to your account. Or you could install flight manager for reusable stages or something... In any case, in stock KSP it is impossible to control two vessels at once, so make sure to fly with the booster unkerbaled, as the original was meant to (seriously, the seats were there for "ferry flights", in normal operations they would be unmanned ). And that was the kind of crazy things NASA thought about in the sixties. Those were the days to dream indeed... But these are the days when we get to play with digital recreations of those retro-futures, so there, I hope you enjoy mine! DOWNLOAD http://www./download/21104sb45pbj5ya/DC-3+STS.craft IMGUR ALBUM Rune. By the power of awesome engine gimbal, you will fly straight.

Jebediah and Valentina, the intrepid pilots from the Kerbal Space Center, are attempting to land the first Shuttle after re-entering the Kerbin atmosphere...

The Mk55 "Thud" engine that radially attaches to anything has always been a pet peeve for a lot of people. It's a jack of all trades since you can attach it basically everywhere, has comparatively high thrust, and a high degree of vectoring. However.... the Thud is excruciatingly heavy for what it does and guzzles fuel. Especially since we now have the Vector that can basically do the same (sans attaching radially), but better. Which raises the following questions: Is there a good use case for a radially-attached LF/O engine with the stats of the Thud? If not, what would be proper stats to make the Thud more useful? Would the engine be better off as a Monopropellant-fired service engine, like a large version of the "Puff"? Since the engine already looks like the shuttle's OMS, feeding it with the right fuel and statting it as a properly usable OMS engine would be sensible. Are there any other purposes for the engine as it is right now? What would be better improvements on it? Remove it altogether? Your opinions are welcome. IMO, the Thud already has the looks of an OMS, and feeding it with Monopropellant means we can fly more realistic shuttle mission profiles since the shuttle does not need to carry LF+O on board.

Replica of the Energia rocket an the Buran space shuttle, with payload capacity of 150 tons to LKO (300 tons in vulcan configuration). Top of the rocket houses decoupler, remote guidance unit and separate payload fairing. Zenit boosters are equiped with parachutes (pod doors activated by action group 1) for splashdown recovery. How to fly: Pitch down 15-30° (depending on payload size), reduce thrust to minimum after reaching 50km Ap and pitch down, decouple boosters after reaching 2/3 circularisation. Action group 1 - parachute bay doors Download: (vulcan configuration) (shuttle carier configuration) Edit: added new version, fixed broken post