warmarrer

That's odd because the other craft crashed while I was about 1/4 the way around the planet still, I was on my way up into orbit on the map screen and it just nosedived when it brushed the atmosphere. This is after several hundred full orbits from the tracking station to ensure it wasn't just going to crash on its own

Actually I was attempting to rendezvous with the test craft to see if being in near space to it makes it susceptible to physics when it lost orbital speed and crashed into the planet. Maybe physics doesn't work on craft from the tracking station but will work if you're currently piloting some other craft?

Hmm.... I just tried it out and it looks like you're right. Is there any other factor that could cause a ship in an apparently stable orbit to crash?

Given the fact that we already possess point defense systems (both ballistic and laser) that can vaporise incoming missiles I'd wager space warfare would return to ballistic weaponry of some kind. The distances involved in most combat would make it difficult to sneak any sort of self propelled device past enemy defenses. Maybe even some metal storm kind of device that launches dormant projectiles that self activate guidance systems after a programmable time. Imagine if that weapon fired ballistic shells. Those shells activate at a pre-set distance from the enemy ships (regulated by a timer or transmitted signal). Using very small thrusters they orient themselves to launch an explosive payload on an adjusted ballistic trajectory. These rounds are difficult to detect because for most of their lives they travel inactive, and randomly changing course upon detecting launch doesn't guarantee safety because the explosive payload is deployed on a corrected trajectory at a much closer range, giving you far less response time. That combined with the number of shells may overwhelm any point defense system. I know it's like a gun shooting another gun that shoots a bullet at the target, but it seems like an example of the creative means you may have to take in space warfare. Drones could be used in a similar way. Launch them as a projectile and activate at attack range.

Oddly enough I've had closer calls. I've had stages jettisoned while still active do a full loop de loop and knock the engine off my current stage without destroying the capsule. I've even had an old space craft in a highly elliptical orbit that was apparently losing the tiniest amount of velocity to atmosphere each pass re-enter atmosphere for the final time and crash only ~3k off my launch pad as I was preparing to take off. I don't even want to imagine the odds on that one. I'm more of a "experimental" rocketeer than one that uses "math" and "orbital physics calculations". I only recently started recording my exploits so some of my more outlandish experiments are lost to mankind.

Yeah... control surfaces are a good thing.

I believe in the current state of our technology it wouldn't be the defender with the advantage, but the person with the most advanced object detection/fastest computers. We're actually fairly good at making one object go to another object in space. Whoever gets the math done first fires off a couple high velocity projectiles and with no shielding technology the target is most likely destroyed.