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Fairing can't deploy without also decoupling at high altitude


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Hello fellow kerbonauts!
I've an issue with my fairing (1.25 meter, fairing base expanded). For some reason it won't deploy without also decoupling.

The funny part is that below 20k meter of altitude, the fairing does indeed deploy without decoupling. At 34k of altitude, instead, if I try to deploy, the fairing will also decouple (and of course that causes my launch to fail).

Is it that normal? It is like 3 hours (probably more) that I'm trying to wrap my head around this issue. Why should the fairing have different behaviors below or above some specific altitude?

Edited by carlorizzante
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Fairings, in stock, don't have a decoupling ability that I'm aware of.  You have to stick something on the bottom of the payload between it and the fairing component to be able to decouple.

If I've missed this ability somewhere in stock, please, someone tell where it's hiding.

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Thanks all!

How do I disable a fairing so that it does not decouple by staging? That option seems very much to be what I've been looking for yesterday!

Anyway, in flight, when I right click on my fairings (1.25 meter fairing base expanded) I have two buttons, deploy and decouple. The two options work independently before launch and at low altitude (I tested it up to 20k altitude). But above 34k of altitude clicking on "deploy" causes the fairing to decouple as well.

Some days ago I could manage to deploy without decoupling, the same rockets that behaved properly days ago, now show the same issue, so it might very well be one of the mods I lately installed. Too bad some parts from those mods are on the ships I'm testing the fairing :-o

My guesses go for NRAP, CubeSat, or Probe Plus. I'll make some test over the weekend and report back.

Anyway, thanks for your reply folks. How can I share here a .craft file in case you still want to take a look at it? I will remove all non-stock parts from it if necessary.

Edited by carlorizzante
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16 minutes ago, carlorizzante said:

Anyway, thanks for your reply folks. How can I share here a .craft file in case you still want to take a look at it? I will remove all non-stock parts from it if necessary.

Then you have to remove your fairing base as well, because that is a modded part. :P There is no "fairing base expanded" in stock KSP.

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21 hours ago, WanderingKid said:

Fairings, in stock, don't have a decoupling ability that I'm aware of.  You have to stick something on the bottom of the payload between it and the fairing component to be able to decouple.

If I've missed this ability somewhere in stock, please, someone tell where it's hiding.

Why is this even an issue?  Why does it have something in the stack?

I just had a very nasty outcome from this--I put a fairing around an engine because it was smaller than the rest of the stack.  The stage lit, the engine burned normally and the rocket didn't accelerate.  Since it had a TWR of .08 I didn't catch on immediately.  Somehow that base that shouldn't even exist was able to absorb the energy of a Nerva engine without being destroyed.  (By the time I figured out what was up the radiators were in the yellow, though.)

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17 hours ago, Loren Pechtel said:

Why is this even an issue?  Why does it have something in the stack?

I'm not sure I understand the question.  If you're asking why the component needs to exist, it's because of the game mechanics as to how KSP builds rockets.  If you're asking why it doesn't have a decoupler built in, I can't answer that, I don't know why the devs chose not to include it.

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40 minutes ago, WanderingKid said:

I'm not sure I understand the question.  If you're asking why the component needs to exist, it's because of the game mechanics as to how KSP builds rockets.  If you're asking why it doesn't have a decoupler built in, I can't answer that, I don't know why the devs chose not to include it.

I'm not saying it should have a decoupler--there's no reason for it to.  Fairings go flying when you leave atmosphere for the last time, not when the stack reaches them.

Rather, the part that is in the stack should simply be a phantom.  The only mass and physics should attach to the pieces that are jettisoned.

Edited by Loren Pechtel
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