Jonboy

You're absolutely right that you can't build an interstage that remains intact after separation. So you can't perform a perfectly accurate Apollo transposition and docking, retaining the Stage 3 booster and fairing until after the maneuver is complete, like below: But there's really no practical difference between having the fairing remain attached and separating it. And you can still use interstage fairings to do things you never could have done before in KSP, like making interstage fairings for landers beneath command modules, and streamlining your rocket when you're using a Skipper or Mainsail with a 3.5 meter tank. I do both of those things with the Saturn V I slapped together as a demonstration, and it's a much nicer looking and more streamlined rocket than anything you could easily make in stock before 1.02. Overall I think the new fairings are definitely a useful improvement.

I actually quite like the construction mechanics for the new fairings. It's a good balance between Procedural Parts and something like KW Rocketry that forces you to use very specific shell shapes and sizes. Now that the mass problem is fixed, the only real annoyance is the separation animation, but it's not a huge deal. I actually haven't had trouble making interstage adapters with them. Here's a rocket I made that has an interstage fairing for sleekness as well as an Orion-style fairing for the command pod, with the launch escape system jutting out:

1.03, when and if it comes, will be a bug-fixing patch similar to 1.01 and 1.02, and Squad won't introduce any radical new features or break any saves with it. It's my understanding that most mods that were updated for 1.0 should work fine in 1.01 and 1.02 (and probably will in 1.03 as well).

I agree that there's room for improvement. However the new model is leaps and bounds ahead of the old one, and I doubt Squad is capable of designing an aerodynamic model that can be entirely realistic, or that they want/need to. They just need one that is good enough, and I think the new model is much closer to that than the placeholder we've had for so many years.

Ah yes, as opposed to the old aero, which I recall had very realistic reentry heating, true-to-life aerodynamic stresses, and definitely NO infinigliding.

A wall I usually climb by doubling the number of turbojets on my plane

Yes, God forbid anyone but you and those you deem "skilled" can enjoy SSTO spaceplanes. Your attitude and behavior over the last few days have been tiring to the extreme.

Great observations there, Geschosskopf. I had no problems coming in from orbital velocities, even with a rather steep descent. The atmosphere slowed me down to about 260 m/s and I popped the chutes. And yes, I didn't realize how much I missed Trajectories until I didn't have it anymore! It's one hell of a mod and made everything involving atmospheres so much less tedious.

What atmospheric density did you have your parachutes set to open at? My usual strategy with Duna is to set all my parachutes for the lowest possible atmospheric density and 5000 meters. Then I stage them when I feel like I need them to open, I've never had a problem with them not opening and I have only ever used retrorockets to slow down a bit just before impact. It's usually not a problem to get down to 10 m/s if you use enough.

Haven't got to Eve yet in my 1.02 career, but I'm about to launch a Gilly satellite for a contract. I'll try saving some delta-v with a pass through Eve's atmosphere and see what happens.

Just read through all 6 chapters. Really insanely incredible. I have no words.

Been playing since .19 in March 2013.

For someone who is new to the game? It's possible. For me, career on normal is very easy, but that's because I've been playing for a while.

Seems like OP could better spend his time adapting to the new aero rather than pining for the glory days of spamming intakes and infiniglide.

Interesting. Kerbals have conquered Duna in my 1.02 career and Jool is the next step. We haven't unlocked the RTG yet so this is going to force me too try using fuel cells. I welcome the challenge!

OP, think back to when you first started playing KSP. Getting to orbit likely seemed "impossible" then, too. But it wasn't; you looked up some YouTube videos, kept trying new stuff, and eventually, you got the hang of it. If you had just thrown up your hands and given up, you would have never enjoyed playing KSP at all. You have a huge advantage over the completely new players who are just now starting to blow stuff up. Trust me, getting to orbit with the new aero is not that hard, and didn't take me too long to figure out. I'm confident you can do it too.

In old KSP, I could usually aerocapture at Duna coming in at interplanetary speeds with a periapsis of around 11km to 14km. You really needed to get that deep into Duna's atmosphere before you would start to see any appreciable braking. Even at 1500 m/s I rarely saw reentry heating effects at this altitude and with Deadly Reentry installed I never needed heat shields to survive aerocapture. Vessel size and shape also didn't really make a difference with the old aero. I was at the point in my new 1.0 career today where I wanted to land a large science base on Duna's poles. Instead of a conventional insertion, I opted for aerocapture to reduce the size of my interplanetary stage. I encased the base and rover in a fairing as a heatshield, since I was unsure how much reentry heating would be present in Duna's new atmosphere. Since Kerbin's new atmosphere is much less soupy, I assumed the same would be true on Duna, and decided to try a rather low 5km periapsis for my first attempt. This resulted in me smashing straight into the ice caps at about 800 m/s, with all my parachutes failing due to aerodynamic stress. I F9ed and tried again with a higher periapsis of 15km. This appeared to be just below what is needed for a Low Duna Orbit aerocapture. There were significant reentry effects and the front of my fairing just bairly started to overheat. My apoapsis was dragged all the way down to almost above the atmosphere, at about 49km (the Duna atmosphere starts at 50km now). Falling from that altitude, the atmosphere quickly slowed me from 800 m/s to 250 m/s about 5km up. I deployed my chutes, and only 8 of the mk2 radials slowed my base down to about 10 m/s, and I landed barely using the retrorockets. The little rover dropped separately with 6 mk2 chutes and landed at 6 m/s with no retrorockets. Here's a few shots from the atmospheric insertion and landing: So somewhat counter-intuitively, it seems like Duna's atmosphere is soupier than ever before - for my next aerocapture attempt I try a periapsis around 18km. And it seems parachutes are definitely still a viable option for Duna landings. Does anyone else have observations on Duna aerobraking in 1.2? What periapsis did you use? Did you need heatshields? How much does vessel size and shape effect aerobraking? I'm eager to hear other people's results in the new atmosphere.

I've got over 1,000 hours in KSP according to Steam, and I never really touched career mode. I didn't like the contracts, and I REALLY didn't like the idea of having to upgrade buildings when that was introduced. I always played either on career, or science hard mode when I wanted a challenge. I started a new career for 1.0 though, and I've progressed to the point where I'm about to unlock ISRU. It's not perfect, and it's not particularly difficult, but I've actually been enjoying it a lot. I would still probably recommend that new players start on science or sandbox, but the money and contracts are ... interesting.

Started a new career the day after 1.0 came out, on medium difficulty. So far we've picked the Mun and Minmus clean of science. We built a space station in Mun orbit with a lab that's generated over 1,000 science. Sent Val to Duna and returned her. She went back with Jeb, Bob, and two others to establish a permanent science station in Duna orbit with multiple landers. A nuclear shuttle is on its way right now to bring a fresh crew and send the orange team home. Plus, we just built our first SSTO spaceplane for some local tourism contacts. Never really got into career mode before but I have to admit I'm having a lot of fun

This was an awesome challenge, I was really sad when I accidentally deleted my save halfway through my attempt. It would be really cool if we could see a new challenge for 1.0 that incorporated the new ISRU in an interesting way.

I find the title of this thread strange considering I just threw together a simple SSTO plane in about twenty minutes. And I'm awful at spaceplanes. I assumed people would realize completely new aerodynamics would change spaceplane design a little.

I've been working on this challenge for a while. Actually, I've already flown my first sortie to Duna and landed the first crew, and assembled my second sortie. It's currently sitting in orbit waiting for crew transfer and Duna Insertion Burn. I've just been too lazy to post. Might as well start now. Reusable AdaPtive Technology Orbital Rocket (RAPTOR) 15 tons to LKO. 2 stages, fully reusable using Space-X style recovery techniques. Like I said, I've already landed two Kerbals on Duna with this rocket and have a second sortie in LKO ready for the second transfer window. I'll post the program schedule and reports from those missions soon. The program will be realistically conservative, with an emphasis on modular architecture. I'll be using Deadly Re-entry, procedural fairings, and Ven's Stock Part Revamp, along with a bunch of info mods.

Used to be when you accidentally double-click on a planet in map view and switch focus. For the longest time I never realized that you just need to hit backspace to reset focus to your vessel.

When you facepalm at every inaccurate description of spaceflight in movies and news.

Definitely want to do this when I finish Death Engineering's Constellation challenge.