XB-70A

Well... I got that one from my flying instructor when I was 14 years old... "To perform a stable approach just keep the controls at the right of your left ball". Others : "Any landing simply is a missed go-around". "It's better to fly with a loaded pilot than an empty fuel tank". "You've never been lost until you've been lost at mach 3".

Today Areion made its inaugural flight and definitely is qualified for futur operations. I was terribly borred at the shop opening with nobody coming before the next two hours that I past the time to draw new prototypes. The XC-16B is one of them. Powered by five Goliath turbofans the climb is smooth and stable. About safety it should be better to release the launcher with a 0 degree angle but we were here for challenge and fun! See you fatty. With a TWR of 1.7 we can't say that the launcher really is a performant one... But it mades its job perfectly, rising the Apogee to 213 km before running out of propellants. Separation and insertion on a circular 500 km orbit. The objective now was to intercept Duna before Singularity rover arrive in its SoI. I found a good compromise on time and dV it asked for and the relay should arrive about 20 days before the rover to be placed on a polar Molnya-like orbit. Ensuring some good hours of rover control every Dunian days.

Wow wow wow... such much happen in a week, about seven pages to read! And, as usual, all interesting by the way. Here nothing special. After seven days of exploitation serving my clients I finally granted myself an awakening around 09-10:00 local time... just to be awakaned by a guy around 07:45-50 knocking at my door... I felt what it was to step to the Super Saiyan level !!! Anyway I just took the opportunity to ensure the transfert of my Duna's rover Singularity : Placed on a 700x700 km parking orbit 152 days before... It was now the time to accomplish what I waited pretty long for (no game warp apart of the ones during the flights). T-05:25 before the maneuver. About 1.1 km/s still available in the 2nd stage. And we left Kerbin for a long travel of 253 days before the so-waited encounter... and first rover operation in that career... and first in my whole KSP play which will use propulsion to land instead of parachutes. But meanwhile, in the SPH... A whole new prototype will launch a relay satellite following Singularity by three days. I expect to place it on the same polar orbit as the rover will land on one of Duna's poles (but I still have to decide which one), probably on a circular between 100-150 km or maybe a Molnya like to ensure the longest operation with the rover. I just wonder what it will be as I never tried this system before, the carrier as the launcher...

Thanks everyone. It's really nice to read that after a full, exhausting week of work

The Pegasus-like stock system is completed and fully operational. About an hour to finish it this morning but finally everything is working. Starting the climb easily at 10 degrees. Keeping on accelerating while Kerbol starts to rise over the horizon. Once with 200 m/s of speed accumulated its time to get a better rate of climb. Dropping altitude reached. We have a GO for the launch! DROP! Some moment needed to make the launcher perfectly stable... A super smooth climb but alas I should have flare a bit more before the first stage activation to ensure a better angle. The acceleration lasted about 45 seconds until the first stage burned all its propellant. But I decided to kept it for 15 seconds more. The real Pegasus system lights up its second stage nearly immediatly after the first one separation. It's not really possible here as it will make the decoupler explode. The second stage raised the Ap to 244 km. Like the real system sequence I kept it until some seconds before the third one activation. It's gonna be the moment I am waiting for. Will it be a new failure or a working system... The orbit is not awesome but I can't say Chrysaor didn't completed its job. It's a success, woohooo! Then the small ChrysaorSat I was placed by its own capacities on a circular 1500 km orbit with still some dV available.

Dear @Kerbal Astronautics it's ready! Here comes a full stock Pegasus-Stargazer system called Chrysaor-Kalliroe. Coming from a old project started about two years ago it was not possible to create a TriStar-like carrier powerful enough a this time with the Whiplash being the only turbofan available. I threw away the carrier file and just keep the launcher in case of better days : Time passed by and a week ago I discovered the work of Kerbal Astronautics who made a Pegasus-Stargazer craft. It immediatly brings me back the envy to finish an incompleted work. And now with the Goliath available no way to step back again. The craft in available on KerbalX : https://kerbalx.com/XB-70A/Chrysaor-Kalliroe-Pegasus-Stargazer Build with 93 parts, the carrier is powered by three Goliath engines and able to climb to 10 km before dropping the launcher, but at this altitude the whole system whill be about to stall. The best launch configuration is between 5-8 km, at this time the speed should between 170-115 m/s. Stabilize the roll as much as possible, keep the Y-axis a bit positive then drop Chrysaor as your will. Once free you have some seconds to stabilize a bit more if you need it then you can light up the first stage. The rest is more than basic and easy. Honestly it's the sole system with one of my shuttle I decided to ensure the whole control from the launch to orbit for the first time since maybe a year. Its whole stability is surpprinsing good enough to make it easy to fly. First stage separation after a minute. Second stage activation. . The third complete its function of circularization. The payload is a small relay satellite only built to confirm the system possibilty to place a payload of 1-1.5 tons in orbit. I decided to use its own engine to place it on a more convenient orbit for its limited capabilities. After these maneuvers some dV was still available. But to me the best part of the system is that : The carrier is recoverable with Stage Recovery mod. The whole flight album is available here : http://imgur.com/a/Jsct4

He was a old and really proud veteran from the Army only buying French car. I remember one time we just past by a stopped Mercedez SL (maybe a 320) with warning light on and him just howling at the poor guy "You should have buy French!". It was so easy to make him turns crazy No way, you have a BX? They became such are piece of history now, the poor quality of metals use by the French or Italian industry to make their 50-80s cars made them so easily attacked by rust. I can imagine some peoples thinking that they will easily overtake an old BX then of a sudden they discover that it's not easy.

Whoaaa Azimech, you're a master! That was the car of my grand-father (not in GT of course) underpowered with its 90 hp diesel engine. I will always remember how we drove him crazy every time by touching the hydropneumatic suspension stick inside, lowering it to the minimum (but working with the car engine to give the pump enough pressure). So everytime he was starting the old BX the car suddenly lowered and we were hearing him yelling some kind of "You bunch a little... !!!". To bad he decided to replace her one day by a Citroën Xantia, less confortable and no spoiler on... but still the specific manufacturer suspension in, haha!!!

Ellitism? None at all for me. I used to play with a lot of mods (about 70-80 differents folders if my memory still is right) under 1.0.2, then while passing to 1.0.5 I discovered how boring it could be to update them. Finally I still use some of them like SVE, OPM, even if I know that I will probably never went further than Jool (if I go here one day), MechJeb and Re-entry Particle Effect. About the parts just Cormoran orbiters and the landing legs from SpaceY. By making stock-only craft its first of all the insurance to transfert the craft to another version (nearly) without any changes or risks of non-compatibility. About the sharing its much I like the principle of simplicity behind as nearly eveybody should be able to try it. Of course there is always a bad part, I think it's the fact that any modded craft of 20-30 parts will mostly require 100-20 in stock... I'm seeing much more "elitism" in the RO+RSS players, but not as persons who wants to draw all attention on them as "Hey you! Yeah you! Just look at my awesome modded game! And the best? It's full scale and realist, Ah!" but much more as peoples who like new kinds a challenge and love realism. They have chosen a way to play with pleasure, and that is principaly the most important thing for a game.

Thanks KA. I was so tempted to rebuild a TriStar as the Goliath now is available but I haven't forget what I promised. These screenshot were taken during yesterday morning on the second offcial flight test (unoffcially it was during the 3rd and 5th, when I got the battery problem...) but right now I am and will be trapped at my shop on 09:00 to 22:00 everyday until Sunday (end of the year). But a promise is a promise and I should be able to share it on KerbalX on Monday. Some other screenshots taken during these flights for waiting

The same horrible thing happened to me with the Pegasus-like launcher I'm working on (and not for the first time). The first launch was a complete failure 'cause once the first stage released with its control surfaces and out of the dense enough atmosphere I just re-discover that the Probodobodyne OKTO2 module simply have no reaction wheels... so a second flight with a small reaction wheel was made. Launcher released, accelerated correctly then smoothly put to a 60 degrees positive angle and I just got a "SAS disconnect" message. I was like "what the?! Why? How is it possible?!". That probably not happened to me since the really first tries on KSP about 2 years ago. I probably made like FIVE different flies always ending with the same problem, even looked online for a solution if it was a bug. Then I remembered that the OKTO2 module need some power to work... and that all the stage need control with a source of energy to ensure their works... and that there was strictly no batteries on the probe used for this flight () What a shame! Sc..w you test probe!

I swear you that the last minutes were absolutely terrible. It was the first time since Orion EFT-1 in 2014 that I wake up an hour before for seeing a live retransmitted launch (07:00 while I came back from the work at 01:15...), everything was going well then during the countdown last seconds it comes like that : ...6 ...5 ...4 ...3... wait, wait, wait! Arrrrh nooooo, not again! Finally they restart it about a minute later and everything went well. As it was dropped from more than 10 km it's still impressive to see how fast it past the 100 km border.

Actually working on a full stock kind-of Pegasus-XL launcher called Chrysaor. There is still some work to do but the main targets are achieved. The launcher got more than a year old now but the carrier trying to be the Stargazer TriStar is totally new (and hideous). The payload was a useless ComSat of 1.3 tons only put into orbit to confirm the design. Strangely Chrysaor is so stable that it's the sole craft with the Hecate shuttle that I flew manually... really, once its dropped you just have to flare a bit and stabilize enough then ignitiate the first stage SRB, wait a bit to get speed then start the climb easily. Surprising.

CYGNSS launch confirmed for tomorrow with the window opening at 13:20 UTC (08:20 ET).

I'm a "Power Bomb" player hehe Just cause they clean the room in a second. Also I promise to a co-player on KerbalX to share my kind of a Pegasus-XL launcher and so restart to work on. I made it under 1.0.2 and at this time just the Wheesley turbofan was available. The carrier was so underpowered that I just kept the launcher called Chrysaor (the brother of Pegasus), then... why not trying the Goliath? I mean, I never think about it! And the result is encouraging. Here is Chrysaor : Its carrier, called Kalliroe (the wife of Chrysaor) is by far the ugliest airplane I ever build in KSP! A shame as I always loved the Tristar. But at least it made its job now : Less than 100 parts. It's an obligation for my 13 Gb space available laptop... Aaaannnd... HERE WE GO!

Yep, problem with the arm release, also there was a Weather RED during nearly all the launch, some CB all around. Also they were talking about a new attempt for today (16/12/13) with a window between 13:19 - 14:19 UTC for some times, but they finally have to send new pieces from Mojave. Despite all the bad thing that is said about it and its rare launches Pegasus stays an exceptional vehicle. If some of you are interested Matthew Travis had put on line a video about the payload objectives :

Wow thank you! To be honest I was not expecting any good returns about the look I made it available some hours ago on KerbalX. Otherwise nothing was planned for the next hours. Another Minmus-Mun-KSC tourist flight to get some funds then just for looking I went to the Astronauts Complex and discovered here an applicant in the name of... Samus Kerman! No way to miss such a great occasion! Hired! The first flight will be for the tourist Stephanie under the supervision of Newbro. The rest was just banal...

Got a day off. The morning was dedicated to medical exams but once in the barrel (and while it's normally forbidden to think) I noticed that I never made any work on a stock replica of my favorite launcher... Zenit! Of course with her limited successful rate a lot of people denigrate and laugh at her for years now, but to me she got this thing that makes you turning crazy about. That powerful RD-171 is just delicious to listen at each time (even if the last is nearly two years old now). So the problem was how to replicate just a bit the "small" RD-171 nozzles and keep the slim body without using the hideous X200 familly and their "roll of fat" while being totally stock. Of course this isn't a good replica as my computer can't handle any craft with more than 200 parts in the hangars but the objective was just to get on Zenit-like launcher available. As a mark of inferiority she's named Dawn instead of Zenit. The payload is a simple relay sat' with a medium ore tank to raise its mass to 5.3 tons. Nothing complex and absolutely ugly. Then comes a Block DM-SLB-like third stage : By itself it got around 3 km/s of dV available. A Terrier and two Ants are here to imitate the RD-58M. The second stage got a Skipper and four Twitch for the RD-120 and RD-8 respectively. Countrary to what can be seen here, the fairing will be jettisoned not to long after this stage ignition. And as there was no other way to keep a white body for the whole launcher she is totally made of FL-T800 tanks joined inside the fairing... Then the time has come to complete the work : Here it can be seen that to have enough punch during the launch the first stage engine is made of 8 Reliant and 4 Swivel coupled together. About 20 fuel tanks are inside the fairing to feed them up... And it was not long before the inaugural launch : To not invade the topic the rest of the flight is in the spoiler window : Also if you like thunderous melody have a look at this launch (actually the last of a Zenit to this day) : https://youtu.be/De4rdybEt4Y?t=23s And watch for your ears and speaker at 0:25!

Thank you for all these explanations, now everything is much more clear.

Big mistake from my part... again. So after a clean and new installation transfering the save folder and "SubassemblyCategories" will make all of these available?

Arrrrg nooooo... well, I will have to take screenshots of the subcategories and keep on doing it manually. Thanks for your answers, at least it permit to better understand how the program is working.

Hello everyone, First I apologize if this topic is in the wrong section as it isn't really a gameplay question and none either dedicated to the technical support... I will update the game to 1.2.2 and will make a full save as usual, but I would like to know if their is a way to save my different subassemblies "folders" like it can be seen on that picture : Every time I had make a new install (not an update) due to some crash or any other problems I just past the subassembly folder in the career folder. All the craft files are present but only under the common "Subassemblies" window and I have to re-create all the "Sub-subassemblies" folders after. Is there a way to keep them?

There was a really nice book (can't remember the title right now...) with a part about these test made with a Galaxy. The final step should have been to modify some KC-10A into multi-Minuteman launching platforms. Edit hours after : I finally remembered the book, An Untaken Road

The next days will be pretty intense for me, so today was the occasion to launch the full stock Duna's rover Singularity : Yep. She's far from being sexy but also is my second rover ever made since I'm playing KSP... the first one being destined to Eve under 1.0.5. Two drague parachute and a main braking one assisted by four engines during the last seconds. Once landed four Sepatron will expulse it out of the rover. The rover will make the whole trip in the fairing which will be release some seconds before the heat shield to brake a bit more. The Gamma II launcher second stage will ensure the Kerbin SoI escape while a third stage with around 2500 m/s of dV will take care of the insertion in Duna, circularization the de-orbiting before being released. Gamma II is waiting for the countdown. With a mass of approx 18 tons, this was the heaviest payload I ever put in that launcher. The first two seconds were pretty alarming but then it lifts perfectly under the thrust of its Mainsail and six of the nine Thumper it accelerate well. Two Twitch are serving as vernier engines aside the main engine. First SRB separation and ignition of the last three Thumper. While it keeps on accelerating I was surprised to see that even with that payload the first still got about 2/3 of fuel remaining. At this time the use of the optional 3rd stage looked useless to me. See you Thumper, that's clearly one of the few time you don't disappoint me... like with the Delta II launch visualization I decided to keep the fairing even with the second stage. First stage smooth separation then ignition of the Skipper (badly) simulating the real launcher second stage. Fairing separation and positioning of the Ap at 700 km. It will have some potential. Can't wait for the arrival in more than a year. Aww... still 152 days to wait now... also my precedent launch of Eve Express was already in orbit when I discovered today that another one was already here... at least I will not have to warp again before the transfert window opening and keep on completing the contract for points.

The day was pretty slow so it gives me the force to make something tonight. I keep working on many different shuttle systems (the Eos is still in orbit) but also have to anticipate the next transfert windows for Duna and Eve. The last one is the target of tonight work with a first relay and scanning sat' to get some funds, Eve Express. This satellite got nothing special. about 3 km/s of dV for itself it will not have to much capabilities once in Eve's SoI. For a timing (and lazyness) reason I picked my medium-heavy launcher Ariadne 5 and her 4 km/s available. Séparation des EAP. At this time the launcher is light enough and the atmosphere so thin that the accelration is about 3G. The Ap already is at 400 km and will just necessitate a small kick to circulize. Instead of a Swivel, like on my Ariadne 4, on this model a Poodle is the engine of the ESC stage-like. With just two of its antennas deployed, Eve Express will wait for about 300 days here at 400 km for its transfert to happen. But meanwhile in the VAB... Destined to explore Duna the rover Singularity is nearly ready for its launch too.