MaxMurder

Bad suggestion is bad... This would serve no logical purpose and alienate many players...

OMFG! just into the dev cycle and my brain has already broke due to excitement.... ??? First thing im doing when .17 comes out: Curiosity re-enactment!

NOVA! You dog! ...must.... contain... excitement... ???

Yup, spectacular failures abounds! 'You have to be careful with those big engines Jeb! The are extreamly powerful!' I actually like the new SRBs. they look much sliker than the 'trashcan filld with explosives' look of the old ones! =P

Interesting. May i ask what method you used to discern the mass of a Kerbal?

I personally do not use mechjeb at all. However, i think that it would be a useful addition to the game when campaign and techtrees make it in: Players start out manually flying missions. Once techs become unlocked they get something akin to the Apollo DSKY computer. As they progress they are given more data modules and computer functions eventually ending with a KAL 9000 super computer system.

Too many people give up on DF too early... it is truly an incredible game. Once you climb the learning cliff it is quite fun, the community is very helpful and it has an extensive wiki. However, you must remember that all forts are doomed from the start and losing is !!FUN!!

Don\'t use maximum throttle during ascent, as this is very inefficient. Keep the LFEs on very low (just enough to allow some control) until the SRB runs out of fuel. Then throttle up to about 3/4 throttle (maybe a little more). As you gain altitude you slowly throttle down, to conserve fuel. The trick is to be slowly gaining velocity during the ascent, at about 1 - 2ms^2. The shuttle\'s optimal orbital altitude is 100,000km. Begin the gravity turn once your PE reaches about 60,000km. The LFEs should nearly take you to orbital velocity. I usually end up dropping them with 1/8 fuel left in the bottom tank, so they will not achieve orbit. The final insertion is done with fuel onboard the orbiter. The final few m/s to get to orbit only uses a tiny amount of fuel. The RCS tanks are dropped just before reentry, once the craft is already suborbital. I usually drop them at the end of my deorbit burn so i back away. Once it hits the atmosphere it the potential to fly back into your face if you do it to late. For reentry watch your angle of attack, if its too steep the craft will surly flip. Keep your nose pointed a little above pro-grade until you drop below hypersonic velocity. You will probably want to conserve some fuel for landing as it takes considerable skill to land unpowered. Like the real shuttle it has a fairly constrained flight profile and is tricky to fly. It wont fly you to the mun, but its a real thrill to pilot.

Ive never used mechjeb.... I belive op mentioned some tutorials that helped him. A few rules of thumb which are invaluable: - Launch when the target\'s orbital path is directly overhead. - It is easiest to align your orbital plane with the target at launch. - If you are in a lower orbit than the target you will catch up to it. - If you are in a higher orbit that your target it will catch up to you.

As promised, the screens of ma shuttle. Sitting on the launch pad runway. The LFEs stay at low throttle until the solid booster burns out and is drops away. Then I throttle up and gain speed. This is a tense time for the kerbanaugts, as the most spectacular launch failures tend to occur at this point. In orbit it has plenty of fuel for menuvering and deorbit. However, like the IRL shuttle it is only designed to operate in LKO. The Shuttle will drop its RCS tanks before reentry. The decent into the atomosphere is thrilling. At hypersonic speeds the craft will tend to flip backwards if it is facing to far from prograde. If it flips, control cannot be recovered and the crew only will survive if they deploy their drouge chute and pray they land in water. Im sure if reentry heat were implemented the craft would brake apart and explode in this situation. Anyway, it is really rewarding when you complete your first crew transfer where everybody lives. It took me many test flights and kerbals to get to this point, but it was well worth it. EDIT: Derp, i guess it would be best to attach the .craft file. Its all stock.

Ya shuttle designs are pretty tough! and a IRL inspired launcher designs tend to fail. The real key is symmetry. My launch design moves away from the belly mounted fuel tank and puts two tanks with large non-gimbling LFEs with a large SRB in the center below the orbiter. The engines on the orbiter are for steering, final orbit insertion and deorbit. It is a sound design which doesn\'t stray too far from the IRL shuttle\'s design. The toughest part of the design is getting a stable reentry and landing. I shot for an unpowered decent and landing. It is very difficult to get a design that wont flip over during reentry and still be able to nose up for a safe landing. Manually flying a shuttle through reentry is probably one of the most thrilling moments ive had with ksp. I don\'t have screenshots of the launch stage, but i will post them when i get home. EDIT: Also you mite want to use the spaceplane hanger to build your shuttle. It will allow you to get a more stable orbiter design as you can use mirror symmetry. Just turn the Cockpit 90degrees when you are ready to launch.

Awesome! You\'ve completed one of the most challenging accomplishments in ksp! Once you get it down it\'ll become easy! Next step is to build a survivable shuttle and get it to the ISS for a crew transfer. It is actually quite an interesting challenge to do because it has to fly in drastically varied conditions. Preforming a crew transfer at the KALMAZ station.

Max Q causes some epic failures... Make sure you throttle down once you get some altitude, or drag will break your rocket. My strategy is once i am above 10000m i throttle down to the point where i am accelerating slowly, about 1-2m/s. Then once I am above the atmosphere i throttle back up. This keeps my rockets from exploding and is much easier on fuel.

Dear god! It is beginning! Hide your children! Hope you all enjoyed your sanity while it lasted...

My favorite eva pic so far... and my current desktop background

Map the RCS pack thrust to the numpad. You will be able to use the pack without reorienting the Kerbal.

621) When Bill bails out of the ship just before touching down on the Mun.

OMFG! I cant wait to get off work now! THANK YOU SQUAD!!!!!

That new trailer is pure win! Kerbals sound exactly as i would expect! ... so .... exited .... for .... 0.16 ...

609) When everything is going too perfectly.

Screens from a recent shuttle mission to the KSS!

552) When your spaceplane flies better in reverse. 553) When you realize that you installed your fuel lines backward. 554) When staging is done by burning off the lower stage with the upper stage\'s engines.

Dear god! Struts are your only hope for keeping that monstrosity together long enough to get to the end of the runway. And you will need a LOT! good luck fling it! My suggestion is to scrap this and start with a smaller and simpler design...

Wow! now thats a sexy shuttle! My design is much simpler (and probobly easier to fly lol). It launches with top and bottom mounted boosters, wich will take it into space. The launch boosters run out of fuel moments before the craft becomes orbital. It is 100% clean of orbital debris. The shuttle is desiged to get to LKO only, just like the real suttle. It dosnt have much onboard fuel, enough for minor plane changes and deorbit. Most on orbit menuvering is done with RCS. It is able to make a successful docking with the KSS. The kerbals on board will be glad to get home. The KSP desided to send up a space station before building a way to get them back... After seperating from the Station the shuttle makes a deorbit burn, using the rest of its fuel. After that it is an unpowered decent into the atomospere. Finally making a landing at realitively near the KSC runway. It is a dream to fly, and ive only had a few challengers.

Shuttle designes are really hard to pull off... the problem is that as your tanks empty your center of gravity shifts horizontaly. My IRL inspired designs would fail in the same way. Theyd be great up to about 50k then flip like mad. The key is symatry... rather than have on large fuel tank strapped to the bottom of your shuttle (or a shuttle strapped to the side of a rocket in your case). Strap two tanks and boosters to the top and bottom or the sides, and have them drain symetrically. That way your center of gravity will be much more stable and not lead to tipping. It wont look much like the IRL shuttle but it will be alot easier to fly!