thylordroot

I just recorded about an hour's worth of video, and I have to say, wow. This was well worth the wait! In good keeping with Kerbin tradition, my first contract launch was doomed to fail thanks to a staging error that deployed the chutes at the same time as my SRB. Miraculously, Jebediah Kerman somehow survived and gained positive reputation (despite destroying the bulk of his rocket). So far, the only real wrinkle I have found is that "activate while landed" can also apparently mean "activate at launchpad". That isn't really a complaint, though; I suppose anybody who really wants the challenge can simply avoid staging the parts in question at launch. Otherwise, I am having fun so far; I have already managed to have my space program teetering on the brink of insolvency, which I feel is in good keeping with finding parts on the side of the road.

I was thinking about this when I was coming home from work, and I think I have a plausible explanation for how bankruptcy could lead to the dissolution of Kerbin's space program (based off of nothing but circumstantial evidence and rampant speculation, of course). I submit to you that the Kerbals may (in fact) need the space program to survive. Consider the following: * Kerbin is apparently sparsely populated, and all Kerbals that share the last surname. * The Kerbals understand enough about rocket engineering to achieve rudimentary spaceflight (despite the fact that airplanes or even that the wheel constitute groundbreaking research). * The sole mission of the Kerbals we have seen is discovery. This goal seemingly happens at the exclusion of any other endeavor. * The Kerbals absolutely refuse to manufacture munitions (at least according to the Wiki). * Year 1, Day 1 coincides with the beginning of the Kerbal Space Program. * Money is apparently a new concept and reputation never seems to have mattered before. One can speculate that at some point in the past, the Kerbals were actually incredibly war-like; perhaps they had the capacity to employ mutually assured destruction and did so successfully. If that is the case, then maybe Kerbin is a post-apocalyptic world and the Kerman lineage really represents the last of their kind; this lineage is maintained either through natural means (like binary fission) or cloning. Because Kerbin is recovering from the apocalypse, accessibility to knowledge is scant, and their manuscripts on basic rocket science were one of the few things they could recover. The space program is merely a distraction to keep the Kerbals from recognizing their true nature; should the space program suddenly become insolvent, there is nothing left to unify the remaining Kerbals, and the descent into utter extinction would begin (perhaps irreversibly). Yes, this conclusion is about as far reaching as it gets, but hey, it could happen!

Don't let him fly! He'll hijack your rocket and deliver to the hands of KSC2!

I've avoided them up until recently on the basis of practicality. Designing a shuttle-like vehicle that does not crash immediately (let alone get out of the atmosphere) is difficult since your center of lift or center of thrust are never where they need to be for stable flight. Nonetheless, I did so recently, and I think it is worth a shot if you'd like a good challenge. There are also a few hacks that make cargo bays in stock easier to build (c.f. ), and spaceplanes have become much easier to build in the last few released.I'm not a plane person (I prefer rockets instead), but I've been looking into them since near the end of 0.23, and have been building them exclusively while I'm waiting for 0.24 to be released. If you're comfortable with KSP's aerodynamics, I think it's worth a shot to try a building a shuttle vehicle for grins. I'm not sure that I will make it part of my Career Mode game once 0.24 hits, but I imagine they will become a little bit more popular because of budget recovery. It'd be interesting to see whether or not that ends up being the case.