"Chasing Dreams" - A Kerbalized KSRSS Shuttle Program

[Jacktical]

Great job as usual Talv.  

[Lil_Bread402]

I like the Shuttle.

[pTrevTrevs]

54 minutes ago, AstroMods said:

I like the Shuttle.

I missed her a lot today, boys. I missed her a lot.

[Lil_Bread402]

2 hours ago, pTrevTrevs said:

I missed her a lot today, boys. I missed her a lot.

I like the shuttle.

[kerbalboi]

1 minute ago, AstroMods said:

I like the shuttle.

i like the shuttle

[Jacktical]

13 hours ago, kerbalboi said:

i like the shuttle

I like the shuttle

[Admiral Fluffy]

4 hours ago, Jacktical said:

I like the shuttle

I like the shuttle

[ninthninja05]

1 hour ago, Admiral Fluffy said:

I like the shuttle

I like the shuttle

[Rutabaga22]

2 minutes ago, ninthninja05 said:

I like the shuttle

I dislike the shuttle (Other than the RS-25s, they are my boys)

[pTrevTrevs]

1 hour ago, Rutabaga22 said:

I dislike the shuttle (Other than the RS-25s, they are my boys)

Keep your forked tongue behind your teeth, lest the righteous flame of Atlantis's forward RCS cluster burn it out.

[Rutabaga22]

33 minutes ago, pTrevTrevs said:

Keep your forked tongue behind your teeth, lest the righteous flame of Atlantis's forward RCS cluster burn it out.

I mean, it's cool, I just think most of it wasn't a great idea.

[Lil_Bread402]

2 hours ago, Rutabaga22 said:

I mean, it's cool, I just think most of it wasn't a great idea.

With the way things were with NASA it was one of if not the best option to go for

[Rutabaga22]

3 minutes ago, AstroMods said:

With the way things were with NASA it was one of if not the best option to go for

Would you mind explaining? Why not go with a traditional rocket/?

[Lil_Bread402]

2 hours ago, Rutabaga22 said:

Would you mind explaining? Why not go with a traditional rocket/?

Well part of it I'd say it the idea of the Shuttle in the 70s and early 80s was the "flat bed truck of space", something that could fulfill many purposes for taking things up and down, science, building things, and in general living and working in space. And while I do not believe that NASA was fully successful in that goal (partly in issues with politics and some other not so fun stuff) They did pretty good with what they had. And for things such as the design, it was for a multitude of reasons such as to fit payload sizes the DOD wanted and bigger wings for cross range capabilities that the Air Force wanted. Overall a lot of things we're done on the shuttle that couldn't or weren't easily available with a "normal" rocket. And while there could be some cooler idea for the shuttle. I wholeheartedly believe NASA did okay with the limited resources they had after the Apollo program. And also I suggest we take this conversation elsewhere before this thread gets flooded with shuttle stuff that's not really related to Chasing Dreams itself.

[Talverd]

Please stop.

[Rutabaga22]

1 hour ago, Talverd said:

Please stop.

Ok

 

[Ashiepoppy]

Beautiful work as always Talv. I wonder when we'll see Shuttle-C enter into service?

[Lil_Bread402]

On 9/8/2022 at 4:34 PM, Talverd said:

Please stop.

My apologies

[Talverd]

I'm making this to set in stone what the orbiters look like! I keep making mistakes myself when I'm doing missions so hopefully this should prevent that in the future. I plan on making these for the whole fleet. 

[Lil_Bread402]

On 9/10/2022 at 6:25 PM, Talverd said:

I'm making this to set in stone what the orbiters look like! I keep making mistakes myself when I'm doing missions so hopefully this should prevent that in the future. I plan on making these for the whole fleet. 

Looks amazing. Part of the magic of AH is making the little side materials like this.

[AlmondTheAstronaut]

On 9/10/2022 at 9:25 PM, Talverd said:

I'm making this to set in stone what the orbiters look like! I keep making mistakes myself when I'm doing missions so hopefully this should prevent that in the future. I plan on making these for the whole fleet. 

Stuff like this makes an AH easier to visualize it also looks really good!

[Talverd]

 

 STS - 71-A, February 15th - February 21st
Expanding Horizons

 

Faulty Sensors:

       Starting off one of the busiest years in the Shuttle program's schedule, STS-71A will see orbiter Freedom rescue the failing Earth Radiological Observer satellite. This satellite was deployed by Intrepid over 2 years ago and operated fairly normally until recently, where it began displaying impossible radiation measurements and appeared to begin a very slow tumble. With this information, the ERO team decided it was best the mission be truncated and the satellite be recovered early. NASDA managers gave the plan a green light and 71-A's Spacelab payload was shifted to STS-71-E. In addition to recovering a satellite Freedom will be deploying INDSAT-1, Insulinda's first GEO communications satellite. 

     In other news, Wilson Kerman was officially inaugurated as president of the United States of Akermia. It remains to fully be seen how this will effect NASDA but the changes will surely be drastic.  His support for Akermia's space program is vital, yet his calls for the militarization of space have generated much controversy.  It's all but guaranteed at this point that Stonewall North Akermian will be getting another order for an orbiter but it won't be for NASDA. 

Crew:

Commander: Bart Kerman

Pilot: Wayne Kerman

Mission Specialist: George Kerman

Mission Specialist:  Wubbo Kerman

Mission Specialist:  David Kerman

Mission Specialist:  Jay Kerman

 

No crew photo this mission due to a suit bug, sorry! 

 

'

"...We're just under.. 10 minutes from launch here at Cape Canaveral. We should see the, uh, crew tunnel retracting here shortly. Listening into the ground control and orbiter loop, commander says it feels good." 

 

"Crew tunnel should be retracting here in just a moment."

 

"There it goes, rolling back now. APU startup to follow shortly. Crew still reporting everything feels good. This evening, we are joined by astronaut Valsen Kerman, Commander of STS-51-D. We hope to have her on shortly."

 

"..and as we said before, the APU is now running. You should be able to hear it over the broadcast. Next up in the time-table is the retract of the, the "GOX" arm. The "Gaseous Oxygen Vent Arm."

 

"Seems to be retracting just fine.  Unfortunately it appears Valsen will not be appearing on the broadcast today as we're having some technical difficulties... we apologize for any interruptions. Ground control is still reporting a go for todays launch. "

 

"Orbiter is now running on internal power. 50 seconds until launch."

 

"Ground launch sequencer is go for auto sequence start, t-minus 30 seconds till launch."

 

"T-minus 10, 9, 8, 7.. Go for main engine start!"

 

"We have ignition! 4, 3, 2, 1.."

 

"Go! Liftoff! We have a liftoff! Freedom now climbing off the pad!"

 

"Liftoff of the 28th Space Shuttle mission! Go Freedom!"

 

"That is something you never get tired of... She is a beauty! *Cough* Now, onto our next segment during this launch. NASDA was kind enough to supply our network with a rough outline of what each shuttle would be doing in 1985. Up first, we have Freedom. Freedom will be deliver the "Unity" escape vehicle to the Skylab space station. It will also be recovering an ailing satellite, which we assume is this mission here." 

 

"Pathfinder will also resume normal operations this year. It will be deploying the Hale Space Telescope and carrying out what appears to be an entirely classified military mission. We, of course, have no idea what payload it will be carrying and what the mission objectives are. Hopefully we can gain more information at a later date."

 

"Intrepid will be performing preliminary observations of Halley's comet in preparation for its closet approach in 1986. It will also deliver the Valropan sponsored laboratory to Skylab and launch the first journalist into space!"

 

"Voyager will be the first shuttle to fly from the Vandenberg Space Launch Complex, entering a polar orbit and delivering a payload for the Air Force. It will also see the deployment of a lunar probe on the first scheduled "Shuttle - Centaur" flight. Everything in Freedom's launch appears to be going nominally...."

 

Freedom soars!

 

Clean SRB separation.

 

 

 

 

MECO.

 

ET is cut loose. 

 

OMS-1

 

OMS-2

 

Freedom is now in a stable orbit. Crew will wait one orbit for systems checks before beginning mission duties.

 

 

Freedom ready to get to work.

 

 

 

 

 

The first major milestone in the flight comes about a day after launch, the deployment of INSAT-1.

 

 

 

One orbit left before the deployment of INSAT.

 

INSAT prior to sunshield opening.

 

INSAT-1

 

Crew begin deployment procedures and the satellite is spun-up.

 

Nominal deployment. INSAT fired its kick-motor about 30 minutes later and was successfully able to raise its apophasis to GEO. It's apogee kick-motor was also successfully fired, fully placing the satellite in a geostationary orbit.

 

Next up, Freedom fires it's OMS engines to align it's orbit with ERO's. It spends the next day and a half playing catch-up with the satellite.

 

Earth Radiological Observer

 

Finally, the two meet.

 

Commander Bart carefully maneuvers the orbiter closer to ERO. Jay and Wubbo don their suits and prepare for capture.

 

Jay steps out and climbs into the MMU with the capture assembly. Wubbo follows shortly after.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After triple checking his systems, Jay moves out of the payload bay. He's determined to go fetch a satellite.

 

"Gotta pretty good visual here on ERO. Houston, I think we may just be able to grab it. It's not spinning to fast."

 

"I got it!"

 

Jay starts to bring ERO back. Wubbo waits in the extra MMU incase anything goes wrong.

 

"Better hurry Jay, its gonna get dark soon!" "I'm going, I'm going."

 

Wubbo exits the extra MMU and begins assisting Jay in folding the solar panels of ERO.

 

 

 

Jay moves the satellite down into the cradle.

 

"Capture!"

 

The MMU is stowed and the pair begin making sure ERO is fully secured. 

 

 

 

Soon enough, their job is done. It's time to return inside and prepare to go home.

 

Freedom has completed every major mission objective. The crew are ready to return to Earth.

 

ERO

 

2 days later, Freedom is prepared for it's return journey. The payload bay doors are sealed.

 

De-orbit burn, heading for Edwards Air Force Base.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another one for the books! 

[AlmondTheAstronaut]

I'm excited for some military shuttle action 

[KerballingSmasher]

BLUE SHUTTLE IS COMINGGGGGG yay

Anyway, finally decided I'd give this a read-through after keeping an eye on your Titan preps on Twitter, Talv, and boy, am I glad I did!

[Talverd]

Just checking in - I'm still alive. I promise I'll have some more missions out soon, my first semester in college is finally about over. Here's a map of what Valropa looks like!