DDE

I suspect that it's more that the bulk of society is just plain ignoring spaceflight at all.

Oh, the Soviet Union did have military space stations masquerading as three of the Saluyts. And then there are the numerous secret space missions: But Intercosmos didn't involve Soviet African allies. Vietnam, Syria, Afghanistan, East Germany, but no Africans. In case someone needed convincing this is fake.

Oh, they tried. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tail-sitter

Yes, my son?

I guess you need to use the arithmetic average weighted by fuel consumption.

Yeah, but he'd done a bang-up job of detuning the stage. Also, please ignore me accidentally messing up the Pilot and Science flight qualification ribbons. Edit: oh, finally, the first page is over!

There are two-three Asteroid Impact Calculators on the Web, complete with detonation altitude estimate (Chelyabinsk-style), crater size estimates, and change in length of Earth day, go crazy.

Polybutadiene Acrylonitrile? Or Philippine Ban Asbestos Network? There is. Even when launching craft with regular RTGs, NASA-JPL has civvies going nuts at them. IT'S NUCULAR!!!1!!1

Obviously.

Chapter 10: A Divine Tragedy A Hermes core stack with a bulky payload fairing blasted off a few weeks later. The ascent into low orbit occurred normally, with the aeroshell splitting open to reveal a bulky, cylindrical vehicle with oversized solar panels and radiators. Upon arrival into a 300 km orbit, Athens station jettisoned the propulsion stage, and went into sleep mode. Jeb wasn't in Mission Control for that one. He was screwing around with KRASH, flying a ship through the Harvester gap of Sarnus's rings while in sight of Slate and Eeloo. Alone, this orbital laboratory was worthless; it needed the Hermes ship, with three Kerbals, miscellaneous scientific equipment and a hundred days’ worth of supplies. So, the following day, they were sending up one. And Yaroslav Kermanov was getting the scoop of astronomical proportions, escorted by new-fangled engineer and pilot as support personnel. “Athens expedition 1, flight controllers, go or no-go! Booster?” Gene called out. “Go,” Bill answered. “FIDO?” “FIDO, go.” “Guidance?” “Go.” “Surgeon?” “Go.” “EECOM?” “Go, Flight.” “INCO?” “Go.” “SGC?” “We’re go, Flight,” Linus responded, having replaced the Sarnus-era Network controller with his constellation of commsats. “CAPCOM?” “Go!” Jeb responded. “Range safety?” “Go.” “Pad leader, Hermes is go for launch, execute when ready.” The Mainsail fired as expected, the rocket cleared the tower and began pitching downrange as normal. Bill was watching the telemetry intently; when boosting Athens, the recalibrated dampeners did their job. However, the booster and the payload could possibly interact in fairly surprizing ways. The rocket thundered past the 10 km mark, all telemetry nominal. The acceleration was building up, as was dynamic pressure. Then, the pressure data on the second-stage hydrogen tank flat-lined. A heartbeat later, the bulk of data streams cut off. Then, the entire feed from the flight computer – embedded in the second stage – died. “Flight, FIDO, I’ve got discreting sources on radar.” “EDS trigger!” INCO barked. “Range, please confirm visual,” Gene called out calmly. “CAPCOM, Hermes, please respond!” Jeb echoed. “Flight, Range confirms total vehicle loss.” “Walt, lock the doors!” “Control, Hermes,” Yaroslav’s voice came through, “Boost cover separated, we’re tumbling, vertical speed still positive.” “SAR go!” Jeb promptly barked, “FIDO, why are you under the table? Get a slide rule and give us a projected LZ!” Bill stood silent in the ensuing chaos. “Well,” he mouthed, “This’s just downright embarrassing.”

Guys, sorry for the pause, I'm trying to not completely jeopardize my finals. Also, me and Bill have been doing some work in Acquisitions. Also also, yes, I'm trying to make the forum end the page.

Done. I was unaware that this pack has been significantly expanded compared to its original form. The fins appear to be right on the money in size and functionality. I was kinda hoping for a staging-triggered deployment, but I understand that it's not easily implemented outside stock modules; I'll make do with SmartParts.

Although, realistically, they'd tend towards dwarfism. Behold this cutie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magyarosaurus

Nope, just tested them. Those are just a modded fin, their "deployment" (at least in the fan-patched version) is similar to other fins - they all just turn in one direction. Whereas I'm talking about this: Somebody here expressed concerns over OPness. These belong pretty high up the tech tree. They were pretty innovative to Sergei Korolev back in the day.

Why would it be controversial? It's brutally honest, anyone willing to look it up would hardly be surprised. It has also been photoshopped by the SCANSAT team, so we have it in-game.

A hybrid between several generic real and fictional space program and Starfleet logos that I slapped together in Powerpoint.

I've got a whole bucket of shots here: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=C21E6BF4E2665269!9598&authkey=!AMHpoBIvjorMBWk&ithint=folder%2cjpg

Guys, I think we've forgotten one thing: SpaceX is still doing much better than MarsOne! http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=701083119&tscn=1465813601

You can do a comparison between F-1 and RD-170, two heavy-lift Kerolox engines from the opposite sides of the Iron Curtain. When it comes to other Soviet motors, if you want a quick overview, you could go through the RD-2xx series (hypergolic, including heavy lift), the RD-301 (a fluorine-ammonia upper stage motor) and RD-701 that goes from Kerolox to H2-lOx mid-flight. And that's just Valentin Glushko's Energomash.

Yes. No. From what I've seen, those mods seem to lack the full capability I'm hinting at (compact stowage before deployment, work as fins). Wrong. Many grid fin systems are equipped with actuators; it seems to be the case for Falcon 9R.

Oh, it's not just for landing. As seen above, they can be used on ascent stages as well.

Guys, could we get these into stock? Make their deployment stageable, so that we can drop them open once we ditch the strap-ons? Right now we're stuck with airbrakes, which don't have the same functionality and produce head-on drag (as intended).

As I thought. From what I read, pointiness is of little help at hypersonic velocities.

Then they are not in a hyperbolic escape trajectory, are they? It's simple, here's some Hollywood science: beyond 100 km, the gravity is so low, you're technically in space, but unless you're a space station, you still have to constantly fire your engines, or you'll fall back to the planet. Good luck rationalizing it. At this point it's easier to just call Them stupid, and try to chain them to a computer and make them play KSP. There is one historic, and one possible future ICBM that are equipped for sending nukes into orbit as part of the illegal Fractional Orbital Bombardment scheme. But escape trajectories would be a step up from that; no ICBM-based booster was used for interplanetary flight either, AFAIK.

Guys, seriously, what do you expect of the mainstream media? You're lucky they didn't try to depict the weapon components as glowing!