Jakalth

Ok, after 8 hours of work, I finally got the whole thing assembled in space. Man, 3 fps makes it very hard to put together... O_o Time to go eat something before I pass out.... It needed two fuel modules but it's now got 6,700m/s of Delta-V for launching too Jool. And I've got a headache... ugg...

Why do they have to be so adorable and yet functional? Gah! But... how can you say no to a happy face like that???

Yeah, the claw has no crossfeed other then for manual fuel transfers. Fuel can't be pulled form tanks on opposite sides of the claw, passively, by engines. So THIS is the design you were showing me, suggesting the puller engines. Nice! Your ability to make your craft so compact does make me jealous. I can't seem to find the right balance between size and minimal fuel load. Especially for spaceplanes... btw: ingenious reuse of the Nerv drive section on your ssto. That is a very useful trick to use in space, where your choices are limited.

I put up some better pics for you guys. The thing to note is not the machine as a whole, but how the landing legs sit on the sides of the reaction wheels. Just having them extend a little bit past the outside diameter of the reaction wheels allows them to grip the same way they do for a lander. The reason I tried this was simple. A lander can land on a highly angled surface in the Mun, minmis, and other planets. And as long as you can keep it from tipping over, will not slide down the hill like a rover can. So if the landing legs can hold a lander in place on a slope, can it do the same for a round object being used as a wheel? Turns out it can. As long as they extend past the outside of the object your using as a wheel, you'll still get grip. the legs will compress until your wheel touches the ground, in the case of heavier objects, but will still provide the grip needed. The longer you extend the legs past the outside of the wheel, though, the more power it will take to turn the wheel. Too far, and it becomes nearly impossible to turn the wheel at all with a heavier mega rover... Also by having it only just extend past the edge of the wheel, you reduce the chance of damaging the landing legs.

Hello, I am Stickybot. I can stick to almost any angled surface. (now tested with optional external seats: not included)(sorry about the dark night time photos) Roll around in the grass? No Problem! Climb and even park on a steeply angled surface? No Problem! Turn? That's not so easy... Tip me up at an angle and pivot me around to turn. With my custom landing gear wheels, I have loads of traction. Enough to power my way up and over even the steepest grade. Try me today! Stickybot Note: Stickybot does not like water... After promotion info: Stickbot is just a simple demonstration model of how to give the wheels of Mega rovers traction. By having the landing legs on the side of the wheels, and just barely sticking past the tread while extended, it gives the wheels a lot of grip that they would otherwise be lacking. I'm pretty sure the normal rules apply where a mega rover that is very heavy will need the heavier landing legs, while lighter ones can get by with the lighter legs. Hopefully this will help those that are better at making them then I am. And have fun playing around with this little guy. To move forwards and backwards; use Q and E to roll. To turn requires a combination of W, S, A, or D depending on how he's sitting. It's easier to turn with the landing legs retracted. You can run him around at up to 4x time warp, but warping faster then 2x increases the chances of the reaction wheels coming detached while traveling. Also, retracting the landing legs does increase his speed a little, but at the cost of him having almost no grip. I have done some playing around with it and this guy can roll over the service vehicles found around the science buildings. But he has a harder time getting over the larger fuel tank hauling truck. And the only thing that can stop this guy seems to be vertical surfaces, like buildings and the large fuel tank hauler.

Ok, the modules are ready for deployment. There are 5 total modules for this craft, more can be added as the missions require. First off, the Lathe Plane Module: This module houses the two amphibious space planes destined for lathe. The planes them selves are the MK4 variant of my original design. They have the adjusted wings, the 6 sepratrons to help lift them off the water, and lots of science gear for performing experiments on lathe. You can see 3 of the sepratrons on one of the planes, under its wing. They act like an air cushion after jettisoning the floats, keeping the craft above the water as the main engines push it up to flying speed. Some nose pitch-up occures but is easy to correct. Not quite sure how I'll be de-orbiting them since their fuel load is quite limited... Next we have the Mini-Tug Module: This module consists of two mini tugs and a central refueling tank. The mini tugs are RCS powered and I'm hoping they have enough power to move things like the space planes around. The central fuel tanks house enough fuel for 3 full refuelings between the two tugs. This module needs some serious testing before i'm willing to launch for Jool with them on board... The Passenger Module is next: This module has room for 16 Kerbals, some liquid fuel, and monopropellant. It is one of the more important modules due to it carrying the majority of victim... er... Volunteers for the missions off world. It has some power gen and an array of rungs for Kerbal EVA activities. Hopefully the little guys remember to fill the snack dispenser this time... The Fuel Module: This module holds extra fuel for extending the range of the Tug. Nuff said... Finally, the Tylo Lander Module: After a bit of testing and a eureka moment, I was finally able to make a reasonably small Lander capable of landing on, then taking off again from Tylo, hopefully. I then packaged the lander in this neat little module binding for easy integration into the module system. The lander this time ticks off at 38 Tons, which is a big drop from my old design that weighed in at 80 tons and it's predecessor, that weighed 130 tons... The descent stage has 3200m/s delta-v while the ascent stage has 3100m/s delta-v. It's a pretty fine line, but if I fly it cleanly, I should be able to pull it off. So now, along with the Lamp Post, I have the full train I'll be sending too the Jool system. After I have performed some testing of the minitugs, I'll just have to assemble the whole thing in orbit of kerbal and send it on it's way too the Jool system.

I actually have tried a vtol style water lander already. But it didn't end well... I couldn't get it to land stable. The bounce would always end up toppling it over... It was more of a jet powered drop pod then an actual plane though so it was taller then an amphibious vtol lander should be. I might have to revisit that idea for the other liquid filled planet, Eve. Sadly, the flotation tends to add a lot of weight, but a vtol would probably be the best way to minimize the total weight needed since no external structure is needed for the floats. I also can't seem to get small enough craft, that are amphibious, to make a vtol viable and still be able to reach orbit with the same craft. Although... I could always ditch the ssto idea and make a vtol water hopper with a second return vehicle, leaving the hopper behind planet side... *update* Currently have a set of 5 different modules that can be dragged behind the space tug, that I am now calling the Jak-112 Lamp Post. So far, i'm keeping optimistic, but there are quite a few little hurtles to get past yet before I can see if this project will work. Got little bugs to fix in some of the modules as well as adding lights to my landers(seemed to have forgotten to do that...). Also need to test out the mini tugs to see if they have the snort needed to move around the space planes for deorbit and if they can shunt the different modules around if needed. Fuel might also be an issue. The Tug it's self has 6500m/s of Delta-V and can do most of the missions by its self, including refueling, but it's the little stuff like landing on Lathe and Tylo that need more specialized equipment. I also have a slight weight issue with my tylo lander. I can use a nice light weight, non-returning lander if I want, but if I plan on bringing a Kerbal down, I'm having issues keeping the weight down... the best I've got so far is a 45 ton mini-monster of a lander. not really the best choice for being lugged about behind the Lamp Post...

Well, yeah. Was going to try sending my Driad too Jool, but things didn't go so well for that craft. I kinda broke it... badly... So this time I'm starting over from scratch with a new plan. And thanks too a lot of tips and info from several different KSP regulars, especially Rune, I've got a new design as well... So far the design is in it's early stages with lots of room for tweeks and changes. The idea, is to launch a space going tractor and pull all the cargo too Jool orbit. For this prupose I went a little overboard(yeah, not surprising for me. I've been doing that a lot lately) and built a multi role tug. This craft has a large docking port on it's bottom to attack cargo module too and has the thrust provided from 12 Nerv(nuke) rockets. Alone, the craft has just shy of 6500 delta-V, allowing it to make the trip on it's own. But where's the fun in that? So I'll be making cargo modules to drag along with it too be deployed in the Jool system for various missions. These missions include deploying space planes to explore Lathe, deliver satellites to various parts of the Jool system, bring a lander or two for dropping onto Tylo, and maybe even dropping a probe into the depths of Jools atmosphere where it will eventually be crushed. So far, I've got the Tug its self initially designed. The design allows the tug to land on Vall, Pol, and Bop and refuel it's self using the built in drills and Refinery as well as perform scientific experiments. The Tug has sufficient TWR and delta-v to land and return to orbit from all three moons. It has a small crew compliment this time, with only room for 3 Kerbals in the command pod. But with it's towing capabilities, it can bring more Kerbals to the system in relative survivability, by towing them in crew pods behind the tug. Power generation comes from 6 large solar arrays and a cluster of radio isotope power generators for when solars don't do the job(at a much slower pace of corse). It even has radiators installed to help dissipate the heat of the Nerv rockets into space, for when long burns are needed. Hopefully, this will allow this craft to fill most of the roles to be performed in the Jool system. Yeah, I went a little overboard with symmetry, but at least it should fly strait this way. And no, it's not self launching, that would be too easy. I also have the Lathe spaceplanes built and tested for this mission, although not yet finalized. Coming in at around 20 tons, they are not the lightest sstos I've built, but they should do the job. Each are equipped with a pair of water skis made from radial intakes so they can land in the seas of lathe with no worries. Their safe landing speed is at or below 70 m/s, which gives them a nice large safety margin. They are equipped with science equipment to run experiments in Lathes atmosphere and waters and have landing gear if I can land them close enough to an island to make use of it. Takeoff from the water is achieved by getting the craft up to at least 35m/s and jettisoning the floats. The current versions have 6 sepratrons to give an initial boost to lift as the engines push the craft up to a high enough speed to sustained flight. They are a bit finely tuned though, and only have just enough fuel to reach orbit, from there they will need a smaller tug to bring them back to the primary tug for their return trip too kerbin. This is an earlier version, possibly MK2. Newer versions have better wings, better floats, and sepratrons to lift them from the water for take off. There is a lot more to get done for this mission, but hopefully, this time, I'll be able to complete it. Download for the craft can be found in this thread: HERE

Nice. Once again, that is some very useful info Rune. Much appreciated. Maybe I can resurrect the Driad as a puller ship instead of a pusher after I figure out a few things with my current project. Oh, is the ore tanks a higher density fuel source then the lf/ox tanks? IF so, that might be useful for making a more compact design. Currently working on a replacement for the Driad, for the Jool run. I used your suggestion of having the drive section double as a heavy lander and the refueler. Ends up, it is possible to have a nuke powered lander that can land on Pol, Bop, and Vall, and still have the delta-V to bring most of it's fuel back to the orbiting mothership. Good call on that one Rune. But, right now, the craft is a pusher design. Although, less then half of the primary thrust actually comes from the rear multi-role segment. I have over half of the thrust being contributed from the central fuel segment. So it is a bit of a hybrid push/pull craft. The front crew segment is quite light and will only be hauling two Lathe drop ssto's so it might still be safe enough to pull this off. This craft is about half the size of the Driad and has less then 300 parts atm. 6,200 m/s of delta-v as well, unloaded. Will be quite a bit less once loaded, guessing around 5k. Now I just need to build a nice reusable tug for de-orbiting the ssto's once I reach Lathe(RCS powered or lf/ox fueled, not sure yet). The ssto's fuel load is very small and they are relatively tiny compaired to what I've been building lately. Also made them completely amphibious with a 70m/s landing speed on water and jettison-able floats for easier to-orbit burns. The tug only needs to shrug around a max of 30 tons while de-orbiting the ssto's.

Well, found a fatal flaw in the craft as it stands. with the 5 mammoth engines for power, it has more thrust then the craft can handle. During the try to send it Jool, the engines got so excited to finally be used that they flew strait through the fuel section, when I went full throttle, and sent the crew section into a tumble. not much survived the spontaneous dis-assembly that followed... Just a little too much thrust for the ship too handle... O_o If I swapped out the engines for something more efficient and lowered it's TWR by half or more it might still be viable... but that's a lot of work just to fix a fundamental flaw with the craft. At least the crew, and "most" of the crew segment survived intact. Only lost the docking ports, the primary solar arrays, and half the comm tower of that segment. Nothing survived intact of the rest of the craft. One thing to be noted, until I went full throttle, the docking port setup stayed mostly rigid with only minimal flexing of the craft. And when I say mostly rigid, I mean I was only seeing about a 1 deg angle of flex. Even while turning, with full RCS and SAS control, there was never more then 1 deg of flex in the craft, and it dampened down to basicly unnoticable within a few seconds of finishing the maneuver.

Nuff said!

Yeah, the large separators, they are the best part you can use for a very smooth running bearing, but they are quite large... :\ The second best being the structural fuselages like you have in the later pics. IMO, for gear teeth, I find the white "small hardpoints" to be the best ones. They do not hang up or bind easily, and only slip every once in a while if the bearing has too much play in it. I've gotten them spinning at some pretty high RPM's without failure, even making a syncro helicopter(syncropter) using them to keep the crossing blades mostly in sequence. It was not completely reliable due to the bearings having too much play in them.

Alright, I get what you meant now. I can be a bit slow on the pickup sometimes. I'll be looking into different engine configurations to see if I can get its range increased. We'll see, if I can get even another 500 delta-V out of it, that will help.

@selfish_meme Lowering TWR(by shutting down some of the engines) has no effect on delta-v. It's a more fundimental problem with the craft. It's total mass consists of 80% fuel, and that fuel weighs more then what you'll get in return from propulsion. So it's gone way past the point of diminishing returns. But that's not the point of the craft, the point of it is it's sheer size. heh Was worth checking though, so thank you. @FlipNascar I'll look into different engines and see if I can reconfigure the propulsion section for longer range. But with the craft being 1,400+ tons, there isn't much that will be able to push it with real gusto. And after testing what selfish_meme suggested, shows that the craft needs close too 12,000 units of thrust. @Rune Thank you. That is some good info you provided. But as it stands, mass of the landers is not really much of an issue. The total mass of the craft so completely dwarfs the mass of the tiny landers I have planned that their total mass will have negligible effects on the crafts delta-V. That and I have plenty of room for multiple craft being brought along for the ride. I wouldn't mind hooking this craft up with nerv engines, if it wasn't for the fact that it would require at least 150 of them to push this craft around with any form of speed. It's just too big for that... But following your suggestion on orbits just might do the trick. I just hope the sloo......ooow maneuvering of this craft doesn't become too much of an issue for orbit changes. I might end up going with a much lighter and simpler Jool transfer vehicle some time, but I built this craft and I want to do something with it first. And I believe I can muster the delta-V to at least insert into the Jool system.

Sad news everyone... I finally got back to setting up the mission to the Jool system and, while I was gone, the Kraken decided to play with the Driad and broke all it's fuel routing... *un-docks the segments and re-docks them* Good news everyone. The fuel routing issues have been fixed. It's good to see that the Kraken resistance of the docking port system holds up to an actual Kraken attack. I've fully refueled the Driad in orbit. It ended up taking me 8 refueling trips bringing the craft 15 full S3-14400 fuel tanks total. The cost to refuel the craft ended up somewhere over 3,025,000 Kredits. With the massive payload of fuel on board I checked the delta-V reading for the engines... Huh... That's not right. I checked again. Broken... The Version of the Kerbal Engineer mod I was using was glitching out on me... So, I checked for a newer version, installed it, and reloaded the game. This is when I found out where my problem was... Remember when I said this craft had over 8,000 Delta-V of fuel on board? Well, that was the version of KER being broken... :\ The final numbers I have for the Driad is about 4,200 Delta-V with a TWR of 1.92 and a total mass of 1,420tons, give or take a few tons. I don't even know if this is enough to reach Jool anymore... Could someone with more experience at long range missions let me know for sure? If it's still a go, I'll have a Lathe capable, amphibious, spaceplane ready to dock with the Driad along with an accompanying drop pod/lander with a 2-stage ascender, both destined for Lathe exploration. I have a very carefully designed, and quite rugged, unmanned drop pod destined for the lander eating monster known as Tylo. I'll have 2 on board for redundancy. Vall has a manned lander with lots of science equipment on board made especially for this icy moon. Then Pol and Bop have a shared, high efficiency lander that will work on both of the little moons. As well as a good sized ore mining craft to gather ores from Pol for refueling the Driad. Although I fear it will take longer to refuel the Driad this way then I'm willing to spend on a single task, somewhere around 80 trips between the driad and the surface of Pol... And to process these ores, I have a simple IRSU pod that can dock onto any of the docking ports and recieve ores brought up by the mining pod. The parts of the mission are all built, but the sadly lacking Delta-V of the Driad now has me wondering if this is even a viable mission anymore, in it's current configuration...

I'm currently working on sending this craft, initially, to Jool with a full compliment of landers, probes, and satellites for it's various moons. The mission preparation work is on hold for the next couple of days as I'm busy with trade fair projects atm. But so far, I've got a small amphibious ssto built for Lathe as well as a drop pod. Plans are in place for some refueling pods to convert ores into fuel for the Driad as well as at least 1 mining craft to descend onto one of the moons to gather the ore for the Driad to convert. I will have pictures posted of the various craft I'll be using once I've got them finalized. The one snag that may hold this back is the fact that I haven't fully refueled the Driad yet so I don't have the Delta-V numbers I'll need to calculate it's true range yet. But, if sufficient Delta-V can be added, I might just make a run for Eeloo after going to Jool. Either by way of a refueling stop at kerbin to restock on probes, or directly from the Jool system after transferring ores up from the moons of the system. Here's hoping next week gives me more time to send this craft on it's grand tour.

that's a good little spaceplane you've got there. Simple and effective. I like how you did the air intake, it's a simple little thing that makes it look good.

And, now for the craft files. I delayed releasing the craft files until I had fixed a few things with the segment launchers. The Driad comes in 3 segments, crew, fuel, and engines. Each segment has it's own way to get up into orbit. Once there, they snap together to make the mother ship. In Kerbal Orbit the Driad will need to be refueled, stocked with satellites, probes, and landers for it's mission, and have the rest of it's crew brought up. Details of each segment will be stated separately. The Crew segment: This segment houses the life support systems, crew quarters, and snack dispensers every Kerbal needs for a successful mission. It comes with minimal solar collectors, enough to keep it powered on it's own, but a good supply of fuel for the RCS system it has for orbital maneuvering. The nose mounted docking port is for ease of crew transfers and for the ever important snack restocking. The crew segment has an ultra high gain communications tower equipped with a high gain antenna, 2 medium range folding antenna, and a pair of EVA communications antennas. This segment also houses the planetary survey equipment needed to scan a planet from orbit and any moons you might find nearby, no matter what side of the craft the planet might be on(yes even upside down for when Jeb does his show boating). The launch profile of this segment is a bit rough and requires keeping the craft basically vertical until it is over 12Km up. At this point a very shallow gravity turn can be started with the turn being inched slowly over further as you continue to climb. This means it does not allow for a truly efficient orbital burn. But its lifter has plenty of fuel to make up for this. Once in orbit, the lifter will need to be manually undocked from the docking port. Price for this segment and lifter: ~613,000 Kredits The Fuel segment: This segment's main purpose is to house fuel for the engines and generate power with it's array of solar panels. This segment is also equipped with 12 docking ports for attaching many of the various probes, satellites, and landers needed to complete the various missions the Driad is capable of performing. It has room for nearly half the fuel the Driad carries on a normal mission, and a good amount of fuel for it's onboard RCS system. Just to be on the safe side, the fuel segment has an auxiliary monopropellant tank on it's tail end for extra maneuvering fuel for docking. It needs to be noted that the top of the fuel segment(the end with the nose cone) connects to the crew segment, and the bottom(the end with the lifter and extra monopropellant) connects to the engine segment only. It will not link up properly if attached the other way around. The launch profile of this segment is the same as the crew segment, but it tends to be a little more sensitive to leaning during the gravity turn, meaning it has to take an even less efficient orbital path. There is a separator to blow off the lift engine once it is in orbit and closing in on docking with the other segments. It is advisable to leave the extra monopropellant tank in place untill all it's monopropellant can be transfered into the onboard tanks. It is also advisable to leave the nose cone in place until you are ready to connect it with the other segments so that it is easier to tell which end is which. The winglets on the front of the segment should be jettisoned as well, once in orbit, to free up docking space. Price for this segment and lifter: ~450,000 Kredits The Engine segment: This segment is the main propulsion for the Driad. It houses the 5 Mammoth engines and has 8 docking ports and 4 large cargo holds for carrying equipment for your mission. This segment only has minimal power generation in the form of a few solar panel arrays, two of which are hidden under the control fins during launch. This segment has extra fuel tanks on it's nose to give it a little extra breathing room during orbital flight due to it having only just enough fuel to reach orbit. The fuel segment can launch it's self too orbit, not needing any other form of propulsion to aid it. It's flight profile is about the same as the crew segment, but it is a little more forgiving during it's gravity turn, allowing slightly more tilt then the other two segments, but you should hold off on starting your gravity turn untill over 12Km with this segment as well. Once in orbit, the fins should be jettisoned to make room for the solar panel deployment and to free up space for the docking ports to be used. Also, draining fuel from the nose mounted tanks and undocking them will be needed before this segment can be connected to the others. Also note, this segment has a LOT of TWR. Too much in fact. You will want to run the engines lower then normal to keep the segment from accelerating too quickly. Like all other segments, this one is equipped with plenty of fuel for it's RCS system to aid in orbital maneuvers and docking. Price for this segment: ~406,000 Kredits Total price for launching the whole Driad: ~1,469,000 Kredits, not counting the cost of refueling, equipment loading, and crew delivery. The docking segments can only connect to certain others due to their being two different docking port arrays, one for the back of a segment, and one for the front. This means that two fuel segments can connect to each other as long as they connect front to back, and it means that the engine and crew segments can be connected together directly if wanted. It's only an issue with the fuel segment having two docking port ends and the fact that a front docking port array can not connect properly to another front array, while a back array also can not connect properly to another back array. Hope you all enjoy this craft as much as I had at making it.

You'd be a bit surprised. It's only 562 parts on the beast. And I still get at least 15 fps when flying it. What helps is that all the docking ports, other then the ones linking the segments together, are shielded. This way they don't slow the game down as much. Now... Mission plan. Anyone have a mission idea for me to try with this craft? I have it in orbit, just need to fully refuel it and load it up with probes and have a location to shoot for. Oh, I also forgot. The engine section has 4 large cargo bays for holding even more stuff. So this big ship can take a lot of stuff with it on a mission, but to where... Hmmm.

I've been playing around with the idea of making a super heavy and very large modular starship. The results turned into the Jak-109 Driad. This craft is modular, so it can be sent up to orbit much easier. It is quite large, close to half again bigger then the VAB. Has a crew capacity of 104. And when fully fueled, can weigh more then 1,500 Tons. The starship has no capacity to enter atmosphere and survive so it's to remain in orbit or in trans planetary space once assembled. It's fuel capacity is immense, giving it a total Delta-V of well over 8,000 while still having a respectable TWR of around 1.3. It has 21 docking ports for bringing along nearly all the equipment, landers, probes, and satellites it could possibly need for exploring a different planetary system. Loads of solar panels so even if things go bad, you have power generation to spare, and quite a sizable reserve of mono propellant for maneuvering it's hefty bulk. As well as the ability to relink the segments if the kraken tries to pull them apart. The Driad in all it's lengthy beauty. Lets take it from the top. And the Key to it's ability to stay intact while maneuvering: The reinforced docking ports, aka: docking port senior with 4 standard docking ports on outriggers, to give the docking system the rigidity it needs to hold together. The sections require nearly perfect alignment so that all 5 ports link up correctly. Luckily, the fuel and engine segments are designed to be the same on all 4 sides so it only requires being aligned to the closest 90 deg. Also, each section has it's own core for maneuvering and plenty of RCS authority to allow for the maneuvers needed for docking. Only the crew section is single sided and has just one side up. But luckily, the rest do not so once linkage is achieved, the craft only needs to be rolled until it's facing the right way. Maneuvering this craft is very slow. Even with the massive amount of RCS authority it has, and the added reaction wheels in the crew and engine segments, it is a slow process. But changing orbit, once it is pointing the right way, goes quickly thanks to the 5 "Mammoth" engines and their combined 20,000 units of thrust. So no 12 minute burns for this starship. With it being modular, it is entirely possible to add a second or even third fuel segment to the craft, increasing it's range even further. The possibilities are great. But the ability to maneuver, and it's great TWR, will drop dramatically with each added segment. The crew and fuel sections are best sent up empty with their own launch vehicles to bring them into orbit. But the engine section has enough delta-v to launch its self into orbit fully loaded with no need for any boosters. Although adding boosters can be fun. I hope you enjoyed taking a look at this craft. It was quite the build but was fun to make none the less.

a beautifully simple looking craft. very elegant and has such clean looking lines.

could the link for my multicord craft be updated on the main page to show that it is now mk2? I updated it as a seperate download so as to not break things. for the current one(mk1) can you place a score of KIA or something similar to show that the craft is a complete failure?

@Nich, I didn't seem to have any roll wobble, instead I was getting pitch wobble, badly. I have a feeling this might be the "phantom force" issue that I've been hearing about... Might be the same issue I was having with the vamanos and one of the other craft. Something just causing issues with the simulation... The nukes couldn't hold for the same reason I was having troubles with it for the rest of its flight. Pitch issues... I'm wondering if there might be something wrong with your install? Possible an issue that is still in your install from an early version of KSP? from before 0.24? Only thing I can think of. But I'd have to try making a copy of your craft, from scratch, on my system and see if it acts the same... And I can't quite do that, your designs are something I haven't been able to pull off, asymentric wings of that type.

Neagle MK3... attempt 1: Got her to take off. It felt very strange having a craft that lifts off from the runway with no input at all from the pilot. O_o Got her up to speed and altitude with little problems. Controls were a little sluggish, but that's simply due to the weight of Mk3 parts. Transition to LFO mode was a bit easier then you made it seem and the nukes did make getting orbital interesting once the craft ran out of oxidizer. I do have to say, this craft does not like to fly strait.... From 30Km too orbit I had to constantly put manual input into the controls to keep the craft pointing the correct way. she wanted to drift up/down all the time and kept throwing off the orbital trajectory. I did, after quite a long burn time with the nukes, get it into a nice 75km x 80 km oblong orbit(nothing wrong with that if your trying to catch, or be caught, by something in a different orbit.) Deployment of the 17tons of cargo went smoothly. The deorbit burn was hairy to say the least, it kept changing pitch on me during the burn. Reentry was accomplished by fighting the pitch the whole way in, not really sure why I couldn't get the fuel ballanced enough to get it to fly level, I only had about 6,000 units of liquid fuel left in the craft after deorbit burn was completed. maybe it just needs more SAS reaction wheels to help keep it level, who knows. Reentry went fairly well at first, but as I got deeper into the atmosphere, it became harder and harder to maintain pitch. I ended up having to ditch my normal reentry plan and level her off, hoping she could take the heat for a while longer. With her being as big of a craft as she is, and only having the 4 airbrakes, not being able to hold her at a steep pitch meant I could not slow her down well enough to land at KSC, I ended up overshooting it by over half the ocean east of KSC. Once she was lower in the atmosphere, I attempted to rebalance her fuel again, and brought the engines back online. I then proceeded to try turning the craft back around to fly back too the runway. there was more then enough fuel to do so. but, about half way through the turn, I lost hold of the craft and she went into a flat spin. I was unable to recover the craft, even with 8,000m of height to do so, I was never able to get her out of the flat spin or bring her nose down low enough to get the speed needed to pull out... all my fighting with the controls only ended with the craft crashing sideways into the ocean at 112m/s nothing survived... Bad flight on my part... Not sure why the craft was fighting me so badly the entire time... I don't even want to try calculating the score for this...

Ok, I updated the Multicord too mk2 status. There were too many things wrong with the origional version that I basically had to update it... Redid some of the fuel routing, changed around the fuel tanks a bit, gave her a LOT more oxidizer, probably more then needed, and corrected the command groups so they work correctly now. And yes, I flew her to orbit to make sure she can do it this time. And yes, she can go orbital now, even with the Munar Lander payload fully fueled and untouched. Mk2 variant had an increased development cost of 8,293 Kredits Her new purchase cost is = 79,255 Kredits I updated the origional post with the changed info and the link to the new version. sorry about making such a bad run at this one... I should of further tested it before releasing it, now the cost is even higher. @Nich you don't have my testing of the Vamanos up on the board yet, not that big of a deal though. As for the deliverance's score, thanks for correcting that, I forgot to add in the testing cost when I calculated the score. Thought it seems a bit too high for the way I fly...