The complete(ish) history of rockets! Recreating the entire space race in KSP!

[Mulbin]

All the ships in this thread are available through the link in my signature!

OK, this is my latest and most ambitious KSP save game.

I intend to recreate the entire space race, right from the 1940s to the present day complete with every major rocket type and launch right from the V2 to the present day!

These will be highly detailed 100% stock craft from my every growing historical shipyard, however I will be running a few "Hard Mode" mods to make things a bit more challenging.

TAC Life Support - now I have to keep those Kerbals alive!

Chatterer - So my rovers will send back SSTV images

Ampyear - so I have to manage electrical systems!

Alarm clock - so I can keep track of multiple missions at once.

Telemachus (sometimes) - so I can gather useful data for future missions.

ISA Mapsat - again to gather info on planets.

Interplanetary Launchpads (so I can launch larger ships from my Soviet site).

*Also Hyperedit, but only to move some early rockets to the airbase before launch (airbase represents white sands base rather than KSC)

What I will include..

The maiden flight of every key type of rocket involved in the space race (and beyond) as well as every significant mission (E.g Mercury 1, 2, 3 etc... but not necessarily Viking 1,2,3...)

Accurate order of missions.

What I won't include...

Repetitions of near identical missions (e.g. endless V2 launches for several years!)

Accurate timescale - kerbal days are only 6 hours long and there is no monthly calendar... I'd go insane trying to match actual dates!

Rockoons! KSP doesn't support ballon launches at present.

Every variation of a rocket / near identical rockets.

Purely millitary launch vehicles if they did not later become a space booster.

I'll edit this main post as I go to link to mission reports!

Ok... let's get started...

The Missions!

Note - some missions (in black) are not depicted on this thread due to repetition of identical rocket launches - I have, however, launched EVERY flight, including these in my save game to ensure all correct spacecraft are present at each point in the timeline.

1947 - 1956

V2 Rocket Launch - 16 April 1946

Hermes B-1 Missile Test - 30 May 1947

Aerobee Rocket Launch - 24 November 1947

WAC Bumper Rocket Launch - 13 May 1948

Viking 1 Launch - Failure 3 May 1949

Viking 4 Rocket Launch (first successful Viking Launch) - 12 May 1950

R5-Pobeda Missile Test - 15 March 1953

R11-Pobeda Missile Test - 18 April 1953

X-17 Re-entry Experiment - 23 September 1953

Jupiter C Re-entry Experiment - 20 September 1953

1957

Thor PGM-17 Missile Test (Failure) - 26 January 1957

Jupiter PGM-19 Missile Test (Failure) - 1 March 1957

R7 Semyorka Missile Test (Failure) - 15 May 1957

Jupiter PGM-19 Missile Test - 31 May 1957

SM-65A Atlas Missile Test (Failure) - 11 June 1957

R12 Dvina Missile Test - 22 June 1957

R7 Semyorka Missile Test - 21 August 1957

Thor PGM-17 Missile Test - 20 September 1957

Sputnik 1 - 4 October 1957

Vanguard TV-2 - 23 October 1957

Sputnik 2 - 3 November 1957

Vanguard TV-3 - 6 December 1957 (Failure)

SM-65A Atlas Missile Test - 17 December 1957

Summary of Acheivements - 1957

1958

Sputnik 1 de-orbits - 4 January 1958

Explorer 1 (Juno 1) - 1 February 1958

Explorer 2 (Juno 1) - 5 March 1958 (Failure)

Vanguard / Vanguard 1 - 17 March 1958

Explorer 3 (Juno 1) - 26 March 1958

Sputnik 2 de-orbits - 14 April 1958

Thor DM-18 Able Rocket Test - 24 April 1958

ISZ-D1 No.1 Launch Failure - 27 April 1958

Sputnik 3 (ISZ-D1 No.2) - 15 May 1958

SM-65B Atlas Missile Test Launch Failure - 19 June 1958

Explorer 3 de-orbits

Explorer 4 (Juno 1) - 26 July 1958

SM-65B Atlas (First Success) - 2 August 1958

Pioneer 0 (Thor-Able) Launch Failure - 17 August 1958

Explorer 5 (Juno 1) Launch Failure - 24 August 1958

Luna E-1 #1 (Luna 8K72) Rocket Failure - 23 September 1958

Pioneer 1 (Thor-Able) Partial Rocket Failure - 11 October 1958

Luna E-1 #2 (Luna 8K72) Launch Failure - 11 October 1958

Beacon 1 (Juno 1) Launch Failure - 23 October 1958

Pioneer 2 (Thor-Able) Launch Failure - 8 November 1958

Luna E-1 #3 (Luna 8K72) Launch Failure - 4 December 1958

Pioneer 3 (Juno II) Rocket Failure - 6 December 1958

SCORE (Atlas Success - 18 December 1958

Summary of Acheivements - 1958

1959

Mechta (Luna 1) Partial Failure - 2 January 1959

Titan 1 Successful test - 6 February 1959

Vanguard 2 Partial Failure - 17 February 1959

Edited October 4, 2013 by Mulbin

[Mulbin]

Craft - V2

Launch Site - Kerman Airbase

Mission - Suborbital

Outcome - Success, AP achieved 71.5km

[Mulbin]

Craft - Aerobee

Launch Site - KSC

Mission - Suborbital

Outcome - Success, AP achieved 74km

Edited August 3, 2013 by Mulbin

[Mulbin]

Craft - WAC Bumper

Launch Site - Kerman Airbase

Mission - Suborbital

Outcome - Success, AP achieved 80km

[Mulbin]

Craft - Hermes B-1

Launch Site - Kerman Airbase

Mission - Suborbital Missile Test

Outcome - Success, AP achieved 102km

[Whirligig Girl]

Amazing. Just. Awesome.

[Mulbin]

Craft - Viking

Launch Site - KSC

Mission - Suborbital

Outcome - Success, AP achieved 110km

[Death Engineering]

Transcends gameplay into an artform. Looking forward to more.

[SuperWeegee4000]

Some of the images don't seem to show up. Most of them do though. Odd. Anyway, I like it!

[NathanKell]

This is great!

[kookoo_gr]

very nice indeed. Can i suggest the use of remotech mod for more realism at your ventures?

[NathanKell]

RT2 isn't really playable yet, and RT1 is obsolete (though I'm still using it in .21 for now). But yeah, Mulbin, I'd love to see your take on the TDRSS to control all these things.

I do, though, want to suggest Deadly Reentry. Otherwise you can pull some crazy stuff, and if you're going for that early-space-race feel, then the forces of Mother Nature really do need to be your enemy.

I'd say FAR, too, but since you're designing realistic rockets, FAR's lower dV requirements might make things too easy?

[magnemoe]

This is very cool, can not wait for more, Why is some launch done from Kerman Airbase?

[zekes]

i love it, keep them coming! apollo 11 will be great!

[Mulbin]

very nice indeed. Can i suggest the use of remotech mod for more realism at your ventures?

I have used remotetech in the past but I have to edit a lot of parts to get it to do what I want - I don't like having to add the extra control modules (they seem pointless.. and a bit ugly to me) so I usually edit the stock pods to have the functionality built in, also having to add dishes ruins the look of most of my ships... so again I have to edit pods and cores to act as dishes.

This is very cool, can not wait for more, Why is some launch done from Kerman Airbase?

In the early days rockets were launched from airbases, mainly White Sands Base. I am still having to launch a few early rockets (like Viking) from KSC as you can't move any rocket that uses the big red structural supports... they disappear if you try to move the ship!

There will be some launches shortly from another location....

[Mulbin]

Meanwhile... somewhere in the desert!

Craft - R5-Pobeda

Launch Site - ????

Mission - Suborbital - Warhead Test

Outcome - Success, AP achieved 123km

[Scorpi15]

How do you get them to the launch sites? HyperEdit? Save editing? Rovers?

[Mulbin]

How do you get them to the launch sites? HyperEdit? Save editing? Rovers?

It says in the main post, Hyperedit to move the launch site. Unfortunately this only works if the rocket doesn't have any of the red support towers as they dissapear if you move the rocket.

I'll probably look at save editing to change launch site when I get to Sputnik, vostok etc... I did think of using the second KSC easter egg in the mountains (yes it's still there... and still looks like the .17 KSC!) but thought a remote spot in the desert was more appropriate

2 more rockets on the way later today!

[Mulbin]

Craft - R11-Zemlya

Launch Site - ????

Mission - Suborbital - Warhead Test

Outcome - Success, AP achieved 138km

[Mulbin]

Craft - X-17

Launch Site - KSC

Mission - Suborbital - Reentry experiment

Outcome - Success, Data Collected

Mission Description

The X-17 was used to test the effects of high speed re-entry on warheads and space capsules, the rocket consists of three sold fuel stages. Stage 1 is sufficient to get the craft to an AP in excess of 85km. Once at AP the rocket tilts its nose fully toward the surface and begins free fall, once well within the atmosphere the second stage separates and fires propelling itself vertically downwards toward the ground, shortly after the third stage separates and fires raising the speed even further.

Telemetry gathered:

Maximum velocity reached in atmosphere - 1426.9m/s

Maximum G-force reached - 14.04g

Maximum external pressure reached - 50337.75

Engineers notes:

No wonder this thing catches fire!

[Mulbin]

Craft - Jupiter C

Launch Site - KSC

Mission - Suborbital - Reentry experiment

Outcome - Success - nosecone successfully re-entered and retrieved

[Mulbin]

Craft - Thor PGM-17

Launch Site - KSC

Mission - Suborbital - Missile Test

Outcome - Failure, Rocket motor malfunction, exploded on pad.

Mission Notes

The maiden flight of the PGM-17 Thor was the first of many launch failures.

Edited August 6, 2013 by Mulbin

[GusTurbo]

There is something really funny about old-looking photo of the structural fuselages exploding apart in characteristic Kerbal fashion.

[OUScooby]

Fantastic idea! Keep it up! One request could you include the dates that these launches occurred so we can get a perspective on where along the timeline of rocketry these launches occurred.

[Mulbin]

Fantastic idea! Keep it up! One request could you include the dates that these launches occurred so we can get a perspective on where along the timeline of rocketry these launches occurred.

Good idea! I'll add them in later today.