XB-70A

Damn cracker, I only knew your "Lounge" side before but here that's an awesome job you made!

While Moho Direct was accomplishing its mission Vishnu for its parts was approaching Minmus for two different missions : Aslorf Kerman was trapped in her capsule at a terribly low orbit and needed a (well paid) immediate rescue. After a terribly annoying circularization at such altitude and in total dark condition, the crew managed to approach the Cupola Module to approx 50 m. Hopefully the Illuminator made its job perfectly. After one minute of space walking Aslorf reached the X-21A spine door... ... and it already was time to leave the mint ball. 175 m/s of dV being needed to come back home. 2/3 of the mission being completed, only the Spark engine test while leaving still was needed. A super slow acceleration and we were leaving Minmus once again. The last contract being completed now was remaining the most stressful part of the mission, ensuring a safe return to them.

So much nice realizations here. Personally I can't draw for nearly a month now and it really starts to miss to me...

The Moho Direct relay has just arrived. Approaching the planet slower than expected the braking maneuver required "just" 3 km/s of dV while the whole system still had a bit less than 4 km/s available. With only 34 seconds of fuel remaining for the 4th stage Terrier the maneuver has to be started much more sooner than the node, as the satellite just got one underpowered Spark for its own propulsion. The satellite now keeps on the deceleration by itself. With a KSC link power at 31% I was afraid to lose any control of it if did not circularize before a total loss of contact... ... but Moho Direct made it! Entering an orbit not quite good of 263 x 340 km. A second super small burn had to be realized to circularize at 262.8 km. Then all direct and relay antennas were deployed, ensuring a 98-99% connection with the KSC and even a pretty nice one with Eve and even Duna. I am still not totally decided about the use of this relay originally built for using a rover on Moho one day, as I never landed any here and instead always sent crew missions. A super compact one originally built for Eve maybe could made it but I would have to change the parachutes for engines and a small tank... and probably switch its cheap Soyuz-2.1v launcher for a Soyuz-2.1a.

Launched the X-21A Vishnu for its fourth flight this week, but this time with a new launcher. Its first one being powered by three Vector, the price was going to 131000 while the main reason for its creation was to get a five seats touristic craft than the precedent one : It's now going way better as the Vector were replaced by a Mainsail for main propulsion, four Thud dedicated to maneuvering and dual Kickbacks for initial boosting, reducing the whole cost to 78000, approx 40% less : Now was time to test it. Taking two low-cost tourists, a Spark engine test at Minmus and an orbital rescue missions to still making profit... if it's not going crazy. The whole launch appeared to be super stable, a surprise for such a configuration. Initial orbit was selected at 300 km. However the main core reached it without effort and still had about 800 m/s available after it. Anyway I took the decision to separate it, like this it would gives much more interesting data about the X-21A for circularization and the following transfer. Ciao fat one. 27000 going to the sea. Due to a stupid mistake from me the orbit inclination was at 0, ensuring a waste of propellant to align with Minmus... ... then, with a lot of luck, it appeared that Minmus was well aligned for a smoother transfer burn. With approx 1,9 km/s still available Vishnu seems now more performing than its previous variant. At least one contract already was accomplished and ensured a good funds covering for the whole mission.

Relay ComSat at the program today. Destination : Moho, where I didn't went since 1.0.5 but for the first time without staying on a parking orbit for months (...). I decided to use Alliance-3 (a terrible Soyuz-3 project wannabe) launcher for that flight as it's launching cost of 34 000 would make the whole flight pretty cheap. Yes, once again the typical Korolev cross was here! Being at a speed of approx 450 m/s after 50 sec Moho Express kept on climbing, now softly propelled by the single Reliant and four Thud of its second stage. Nothing problematic here. The acceleration appeared to be much more soft than what was expected but still sufficient to place the Ap at 280 km... ... before the third stage took over the work for less than a second. Then 14 min later started the immediate acceleration to leave Kerbin's orbit and the transfer to Moho. Third stage empty after having make 3/4 of the work. Approximately 800 m/s were still needed to completed the whole transfer window. Two days later we were peacefully leaving Kerbin SoI for the real beginning of the adventure. Alas a small burn still was needed on the 21st day to place the Pe for Moho at 205 km. Just 65 days remaining made it the fastest flight to the planet for me I think. With approx 4 km/s of dV still available I hope everything will go right.

The end of the journey for the passengers of Vishnu : Two maneuvers costing a total of 190 m/s were required to intercept Minmus without spoiling fuel to change the inclination before. With all the contracts completed there was no other interests to stay orbiting the mint-ball... Due to a lack of fuel for a circularization around Kerbin it was decided to realize a burn for a direct re-entry and to land anywhere by using the parachutes. It extremely annoyed me to do that as it's usually a maneuver dedicated to most of my Mun-Minus flight with a capsule... Then, for the first time I think (!), the KSC appeared to be clearly attainable, requiring a simple and short burn to change the inclination before re-entry. The X-21A firstly seemed able to kept its angle without doing anything then started to drop so a fuel transfer to the rear tanks was needed. It was enough to correct the problem. The altitude for the distance to reach the runway was perfect, the speed for its parts was miserable... ... but the craft appeared to be a much better glider than what I expected!.. I mean, for such a kind of wings. With "only" 10 degrees available for no-damages landing the flare was extremely small but sufficient to reduce the speed to about 41 m/s. The braking chute then appeared to be totally useless at such a speed but as it was a testing flight I decided to use it. Samus and Sergei are proudly posing in front of their craft while the tourist (sadly) can't get out (or are probably vomiting too...). Anyway, contracts completed! A pretty nice one. I built a compact one yesterday too, only to carry micro probes and satellites for the Mun/Minmus contracts : (It makes me discover that the front Mk 2 fuel tank looks like a sad Transformers robot face if you placed a pair of rectangles under the tanks "eyelashes")

Such an interesting topic. I tried to find a craft from my beginning in January 2015 but all of them were deleted... except one! The XC-70A Comet : This is the really first one from 2015. Made this time with the help of Tweaksale for the vertical surfaces, a small tail gear for the safety of the same surfaces and some ridiculously placed solar panels. Then after an umpteenth update I got enough of the parts mods and had to rebuilt it a bit (not counting the medium gears were replaced by the heavy ones after one of these official update) : I replaced the Swivel by the Aerospike which were way better for its transferring flight to 200-300 km it was built for. Stock vertical surfaces replacing the original ones. To be honest it was my really first SSTO and that is why I kept it as all the others pre-1.0.5 vehicle were lost or threw to the trash...

I finished a small craft this morning which should be used as a Mun/Minmus touristic craft or a transfer vehicle but simply don't find what could be the best looking for it : With a cockpit, which gives another seat, just in case... or without, which was the original looking of the craft and making it a pure remote controlled spacecraft.

Some crazy reasons made me unable to play a bit of KSP for two weeks. To compensate a bit my Kerbal addiction I just decided to send nearly all my team to Duna for my first landing here in 1.3... and discovered some seconds before that the next transfer window will not be before a year and 200 days more (big sigh). So what could help to pass the time once again apart satisfying my addiction to small shuttle craft? So I choose to give a brand new launcher to my 5 seats X-21A Vishnu which was firstly launch a month ago (but that I gave up)... and gave the honor to three passengers to be onboard another experimental flight. But this time to the two Kerbin's satellites! Three Vectors are powering the first and second stage... and that's all. For the first time I didn't give any third stage for orbital maneuver to one of my shuttles (apart of Eos which was an exception). Acceleration wasn't bad at all but we started to angle around 90 m/s as my biggest fear was another crazy reaction from the whole system, due to the lifting surface of the X-21A... ... but nothing happened! It was even more impressive to me as there is no lifting surfaces hidden in the central tanks. The whole control of the system being extremely simple and satisfying for one of the first times! Saying good-bye to the boosters actually was a light problem as it makes me discover that the second stage engine totally was unable to make the craft turning on its X-axis. Anyway we kept on the flight as all the rest was clearly good! Dual views of our first destination, the Mun of course! I firstly think about going to Minmus then returning back to Kerbin but with 2.8 km/s of dV available with Vishnu I finally decided to make a single flight to both satellites. If the dual Twitch engines appeared to be satisfying in term drinking, they clearly were too weak for such a craft. Even if weighting "only" 17 t, the engines just forced us to realize a 2 minutes burn for the transfer to the Mun. Here we are! About 1900 m/s still available after the circularization burn. Still enough for a traditional transfer to Minmus. A nice view of Kerbin while waiting for the Minmus transfer burn in 21 minutes. As the X-21A also was conceived as a crew transfer vehicle the rear docking port is equipped with an Illuminator Mk 1 to ensure the night docking maneuvers. I will upload the other pictures tomorrow as it's now 01:44 locally and I am about to sleep on the keyboard...

Today is the last day I am uploading a scribble before at least two weeks, so what could represent my beloved aircraft with spacecraft... The X-15 of course!

Too busy to make a real concept and flight, so I choose to build a new launcher. It finally appears to be a good choice as I was lacking a nice looking light one. Enters the Alliance-2.1v (well Soyuz being Union it's the closest I found) : Far from being a good Soyuz 2.1v replica but you know... stock. To imitate the NK-33 and the RD-0110R a Reliant and four Thud are powering the whole launcher. The second stage got four Thud again for the RD-0124 and a Terrier for the upper Volga stage (it's way too big and powerful to imitate it). The first stage gives a good kick at launch, far from being impressive but more than enough. After just more than a minute the 1st stage nearly is empty, the speed being at 900 m/s, the altitude at 20 km. With four Thud for just some tons to kick the power as to be limited to 60% or the acceleration is rising to 9g... Fairing and second stage jettisoned. Enter the last one wich will finish to rise the Ap at 500 km. I just love this view. Circularization completed. The upper stage still got some resources available... but is not needed anymore. Mission ended. Such an ugly satellite. No really. Of course 23797 for just 1 ton to 500 km is expensive, but I like it, it's hard to explain. I will probably dedicate to it my first 1.3 career's Moho light probe.

The first post was for the same reason I created the account : to thanks CaptRobau for its Outer Planets Mods under 1.0.2.

Well after aircraft and spacecraft... why not roadcraft?! The Corolla WRC drove by Didier Auriol during the 2002 rally championship.

Thanks, it was actually much more easier to make these parts flying away than any other effects. It's more than a possibility indeed, I will re-work over it once I will have enough time to buy different type of pens. NSEP already gives me a good list of them but I still haven't invested in them.

Thanks NISS', but the problem to me is it's too "soggy", I should not have pass the black over the Earth. It was to give an effect of night. Here is a scan just before I made the mistake : EDIT : I went back to the aircraft to relax a bit after this Unnecessary to present this legend.

Finally decided to finish the Apollo-Soyuz one : I am so disappointed by it

I didn't have many time lately to draw a bit and will probably have even less after Sunday (the time to recover from the operation). So I tried to make some bases today I will complete easily after : Apollo-Soyuz And... Salyut 1 and the ill-fated Soyuz 11

The rover Triviality made its inaugural flight : Under the thrust of the powerful first stage the whole launcher rise promptly. First stage separation at 24 km and 1200 m/s, everything OK. The second stage place the Ap to 500 km and still got enough fuel to ensure the circularization, but as the flight consist in a simple leap I jettisoned it, immediately followed by the third stage and the fairing. Some maneuvers while in space the test the whole system controls. Each inputs reacted perfectly. Separation of the rover breaking stage which should gives enough punch to circularize around Eve then ensure a final breaking impulse to de-orbit close of the atmosphere. Ciao to the solar panels. The breaking stage is leaving is own plasma tail while being lower than us. Everything is still going well. Still no problem with the heat. The whole system should survive the Eve's atmosphere. Well... I should have lowered a bit the fairing ejection force as it disappeared immediately. The system still was stable at this time and decelerated not too hardly. Heat shield dropped and all chutes opened, descending velocity of 7 m/s. The most stressful moment as the inclination of the landing site was far more important than what I expected... and the CoM of the system is high with this fuel tank. Arg! The rover nearly flip due to the upper tank, but hopefully by ejecting it nearly at the same moment the wheel touch the surface limited the problems. For just a bit of fun a tried to accelerate the rover to its breaking speed... 34.2 m/s. Just some points to refine and it will be ready for its flight to the purple ball.

Just get some minutes free today to build a small and new rover destined to Eve. The last time I went to the purple ball with a rover was in 1.0.5 and it was a partial failure... So here enter Triviality : Hopefully the Eve Express com-sat already arrived some days ago and was placed on a polar orbit. This will give an interesting area to explore with this little 8x8 bug. Three braking chutes coupled to a main parachute plus 4 Twitch engines for a soft landing. 2 Sepratron will throw away the whole section just at the time the wheels touched the surface. The choice of the launcher was difficult... so many possibilities were available. Elektron-K was costing less and Short Step 7 would have been more performing for more money, so Dawn-3SLB finally was selected. Tomorrow morning will be the "moment of truth" with a simple test flight consisting of a jump to 500 km with a return at high speed in Kerbin atmosphere. Another occasion to test the whole system.

The best fighter never existed. It's a story of harmony between the machine and the Human at the controls. Aircraft are like the others machines, nearly everybody with enough formation could control them but only some have the "thing", making them better than most of the others while flying. Now if it's about our favorite one, it's hard to take a decision... but I would go for the Grumman F-14s. Since I've seen one of them for real on the JFK deck at 4 years old she stayed in my heart. This size, this mass... and these lines. I never seen an aircraft who gives me again this impression of power mixed with elegance, beautiful and dangerous at the same time.

Wow... thanks for the link I was not aware of this. This looks more than probable, if we look at what they made to the Nimrods and with what they replace them... personally I couldn't resist to laugh a bit when I read the RC-135 they will receive were as old as the Nimrods, with the only difference of being unable to refuel (a great sigh of despair just after). I'm betting that many peoples in the whole EU will applaud this new measure, a bit like when they congratulated PM Cameron for having created new posts in the Royal Navy... after having deleted three times the number just some time before.

The last week I was passing some time in my friend's house in Sarasota but due to the heavy rain their pool was about to overflow, so I pumped out the water and just follow the flow all its way, to make sure it will not run to the neighbors garden, then at one moment I just stopped, like this, I don't know why but I stopped and raised my head to see her, right in front of my nose ! I can't identified her precisely. I also got this little (and fat) friend some days ago while walking back to my car : It was far from being afraid of me... Camouflage. My bored daily companion.

Poyekhali!

For sure, but I'm lacking of imagination. I was about to make Vostok 2 firstly instead of Mercury-Atlas 7. The next probably will be Vostok 6 or 5... or Apollo-Soyuz, or Salyut 1 or... no I should stop here. Damn... that's more than nice for MS Paint! I was using it as a kid for terrible imaginary aircraft or later to make caricatures of my teachers.