Simes

I've noticed that KerbalFoundries doesn't seem to be updating correctly, either. The version string changed from starting with "Alpha" to "Beta" at the time it stopped updating properly - might this be related? The mod's up to date on KerbalStuff.

https://github.com/KSP-CKAN/CKAN-support/wiki/Installing-CKAN-on-OSX

If you wait a few days, new pilots will become available for hire. You can also send up a rescue ship controlled by a probe core in order to retrieve your pilot.

Oh wow, now I want to do this but with a four- or six-line LCD panel for diagnostics.

Since the downtime earlier today, when I run ckan update I get this: It's correct, in that those mods are all at the latest versions, but I didn't request a reinstall even once... CKAN is version 1.5.2 on OS X.

I think the Ships folder it's referring to is the one in the KSP directory, which isn't in GameData, so if you cleaned out GameData after previously having FAR installed that file's probably still there.

There seems to have been a big reversion of the index today for some reason - a lot of my installed mods no longer have current versions listed in "available" and are showing "X" or "*" in "list". e.g. SpaceY-Lifters is showing 0.6.1 and I have 0.7 installed, ShipManifest isn't showing as available at all.

"FirespitterCore" is already listed in CKAN at 7.0.5463.30802.

Feel free to help, if you like: https://github.com/KSP-CKAN/CKAN/wiki/Adding-a-mod-to-the-CKAN

I didn't have any difficulty keeping things on course once I'd turned the gimbals off on all four engines, but I did have to do it individually on each one. However I did just remember a problem I had when prototyping the vessel, which was accidentally clipping one of the hexagonal fuel tanks (45t when full) entirely inside another one so that the CoM was decidedly out of place. I had been carefully placing things with symmetry so didn't check the CoM before launching and could only work out what the problem was after I dismantled the ship and found an extra fuel tank somewhere it shouldn't have been. You've been flipping and scaling stuff a fair bit, from the look of things, maybe you've got something extra clipped inside part of the craft. Do any parts flicker weirdly when you mouse over them in the VAB? The framework's from Freight Transportation Technologies, another of Roverdude's mods. The ASAS discs are actually 3.75m discs from Modular Rocket Systems which have been tweakscaled to 5m. A bit of a cheat perhaps, but I'd spent a very long time on trying to get the ship working thanks to the above problem and so as soon as it was working OK I said "done!"

It is entirely possible to run stuff in a puller config: This craft has a tug attached to the front and the rear section splits into three, each of which is landed separately by the tug on the Mun to drop off the components. I did not launch from Kerbin in a puller config, so I can't say how well that works, but towing from LKO to the Mun and landing on the Mun is definitely doable. I did, however, have to turn off the gimbals, as others have mentioned. Even with the two big reaction wheels the ship was drifting off course otherwise.

I think you might need more struts to stiffen the link between engines and body. Check that your docking ports are secured, as well. They like to move around during launches if they're not strapped down.

If you can get something that bulky off Kerbin and landed safely on the Mun, I wouldn't say that you're doing it wrong.

Finally getting my Mun colony ready to deploy!

Honeybadger control modules hold 750 monoprop and 4000 electriccharge, which would seem to solve both of the problems you're having.