michal.don

I'm not sure where you are going with this question, and because I'm curious, I'm going to say "go for it" Yeah, I thought so... My go-to method for deploying geostationary constellations is goinf for the first maneuver at the same time, and then spacing the sats using 4 hour orbits, and circularizing one every orbit... But his one works too, there's just some adjusting to do... Looking forward to seeing the next mission! Michal.don

Good job on this mission, too! The sats aren't exactly equidistantly placed, but I'm going to take that as precise enough Curious though - is there a reason why you chose this deployment method (the three maneuvers 120° apart, which caused the not-exact spacing)? Other than that, I have to admire the precise landing again Congratulations! Do I see a sort-of-Skylab? Michal.don

Hello there, time for a new round of reviews! Oh my, this was very interesting indeed! From the video thumbnail, I was wandering how you managed to pack the ring segment into the shuttle, and I certainly did not see this one coming! Very good job sir, here's your badge: Congratulations! Shuttle in a fairing, haven't seen one of those for quite some time! And using the support launch for stuff you forgot to take with you, htat's a properly kerbal way of doing things On another note - I didn't expect aerobraking at Duna would be possible with the outpost exposed to aero forces like that, but I was mistaken, it seems. No objections on my part, very well executed mission, good job! Hello, welcome to the challenge! It's perfectly fine to comlete the 1a and 1b missions in one go. Great to see another STS-resembling shuttle around here, and apart from a bit of wobbling duriing the ascent, your design seems to work pretty well! Also, I was surprised to see the quite steep reentry, but it brought you just where you needed to be to execute a perfect landing. Very impressive, considering this is your first entry here, congratulations, here's your first set of badges (of hopefully many more to come ) And this time, you nailed it perfectly! Nice flight and a pin-point landing, definitely commander-worthy, great job! Michal.don

Alright, it seems you chose to do the missions in order, thanks! There is only the slight issue of not leaving atmosphere, but since you got pretty close, and the mission looks fine in all other aspects, I'm willling to overlook this detail and call the mission successful. Good job! Regarding the STS T-3 - yes, RCS tanks are considered as fuel, they can't be included in the probe/lander. The two small tanks are the only means of propulsion allowed. Michal.don

Thanks for the link - I see that you completed the STS-1a mission, and were awarded the appropriate badge. If you have a new shuttle design, you can either start from STS-2, or complete the STS-1a again - up to you. Michal.don

Welcome back! To be honest, I don't remember exactly which missions you completed so far - could you please send me a link to your most recent one? Of course you can then continue with the next one. Well, since they are sort of "bonus" missions, I think it's not neccessary. But so far, everybody completed them in the order they are in the OP. Are you interested in only a specific one? Michal.don

Just for the protocol - absolutely fine by me. And good point, I should update the subassembly for the current version. I'm soooo looking forward to seeing this one fly.... Michal.don

Alright, sorry for the slight delay, but I'm finally ready. So, let's get to it! And the first entry I get to review after my holiday is an impressive one indeed! Good call makng a video report, the robotics stuff does look very good in action. I have to admit, I did not try all the functions of the new parts yet, but after seeing this, my urge to properly play KSP grows significantly And the "crawler arm" design that moves around the whole station is a great piece of engineering! The overall design of the station is very nice, too. I have no objections to any part of your mission whatsoever, so, a well deserved commander badge for you, congratulations! Looking forward to seeing the announced 1.8.X redesign! Alright, the first mission requiring orbital rendezvous out of the way - congratulations on completing that one! Also, nice robotics touch with the docking boom, I really, really have to give the robotics a proper try. And of course, good job on the runway landing from an inclined orbit - not an easy thing to do Again, no objections on my part, so a new commander badge for you: Congratulations! Oh, I missed this question.... But as @sturmhauke said, droptanks/boosters of the LV can go with you to LKo and beyond. The rules don's specify when you have to drop those, only that you drop them eventually. For example my, design for the Duna missions dropped the ET almost after the departure burn to Duna, so no problem with that. Hope that clears your question, Michal.don

I have to admit, the jet lag hit me harder than I expected, so I did not manage to get to the extries yet, but I'll at least share a few images from my holiday. If you're interested, they're in the spoiler: I'll hopefully adjust to my regular timezone soon, Michal.don

Hi guys, so I am back home, tired, jet-lagged as hell, but with many great memories and interesting experiences I was watching the thread when possible, and I am glad to see many new faces, as well as a few comebacks. I'll have a closer look at the entries when I get a full night of sleep, now I'm just stopping by to say hello to you all and thank@4x4cheesecake for doing an awesome job, I really appreciate it Michal.don

Good luck with your missions! I'm curious how the station will look like! Hello, welcome to the challenge! Just to clear up some (possible) confusion - the "Pilot" and "Commander" aren't different missions, just different difficulties of each mission. You have to begin with STS-1a, but it's up to you whether you decide to go for the "Pilot" or "Commander" set of requirements. I hope I was clear enough for you to get what I meant.... Anyway, good to have you here, good luck with your first mission! And one bit of (sort of) important info - tomorrow I'm leaving for three weeks for a holiday - my first real one this year - and @4x4cheesecake was again very kind to agree to take over the challenge for the time I'm gone. So, all the entry-checking and badge-awarding will be done by him, I'll just check the thread from time to time, when I encounter decent internet connection (which might not be too often) So, I expect all of you to be on your best behavior, and have fun flying shuttles! Michal.don

Good job on the rescue mission, and the runway landing! That's one of the trickier aspects of shuttle flying.... Mission complete, looking forward to seeing the next one Here's your badge: Congratulations! (Oh, and I can't wait to be able to "like" again, so many rep-worty posts here.... ) Michal.don

Well, you made the MMU part a bit easy on yourself - making the solar arrays kerballed? Can't say I really approve this, but since the rules don't specifically ban this, there's not much I can do On the other hand, a nighttime landing on the island airfield is an impressive feat, so these two kind of balance each other, and you certainly deserve the badge Congratulations! Too bad the "likes" are disabled for the moment, another great part of your mission! Michal.don

Alright, a few new flights, let's go get them: No, any completion of the mission enables you to go for the next one. Well, if you picked up the MulletDyne fuel pod instead of the formerly-orange fuel tank, you'd have qualified for the "flight director" badge.... Still, congrats on a successful cargo run! Well, that's certainly something I'm going to watch as it unfolds, good luck my friend! Michal.don

Ah, my bad, I did not notice that. In that case, here's your first badge: Congratulations! Well, if you think about it a bit, most of the shuttles here are basicly SSTOs strapped to a booster on steroids - all that practice did not go to waste Glad you are enjoying the challenge, I hope to deliver some more content for you all to enjoy! Nice job again A "commander" level landing, but unfortunately, only a "pilot" badge this time - one sat is lacking for the A-league Maybe there is a slight redesign with a bigger cargo bay coming? Anyways, congratulations on a second successful mission! In that case, I'm taking back the first badge I gave you, here's the proper one instead: I would have never expected to hear the sentence "Buddha doesn't sound very Kerbal" in my life, yet it kind of makes perfect sense Michal.don

Alright, we have a few new entries here, so, let's take a look at them: Well, designing a proper shuttle takes time, so no worries there The shuttle looks like a mighty one, and capable of going pretty far, especially with the dual-rocket launch system. I suspect though, even when they look cool, the tilted tail fins cause a fair share of your reentry instability - you seem to go into a flat spin, which is caused by insufficient vertical stabilisers 99% of the time (in my experience) - maybe a slight redesign could help you a lot there You managed to meet all the mission objectives though - I'm not just certain if there are any modded parts in your shuttle and launch system, could you clear that up for me to award the correct badge? Thanks! Well, if you put it like that... There actually is a badge for doing unspecified crazy/impressive stuff with the shuttle, and the more I think of it, the more I realize that this is indeed a worthy mission. So, for the third time in tho almost two years od running the challenge: I award you the Skunkworks badge, wear it proudly and don't stop being awesome Congratulations! No worries, there is no hurry, the mission will be available for a long time Yes, there will be some sort of infrastructure building involved in the Minmus missions, I'm already curious about the designs that will appear here. But you have a good point, I should edit the challenge title to be a bit clearer about the new missions. Yes I already wrote some "little" spoilers some time ago in the thread, and some people got a pretty good idea what it will be about. And then life got in the way and I still did not finish the mission, so.... But, hopefully, soon Welcome to the challenge! It seems the first mission did not cause you too many problems, and you even got the reentry right enough to get you to very close proximity of the KSC - bravo! There seem to be some minor difficulties, but a slight modivication of the design will probably get it all right. Just one minor thing - I get that screenshots look better with the UI turned off, but it makes it difficult for me to udge what's going on. For the next report, could you please make at least a few of the important ones with the UI turned on, so I can see the orbital parametres etc? Thanks! (Oh, and I assume that the shuttle is stock, f that's not the case, please, let me know!) Congrats, here's your first badge: Michal.don ah, a new entry, just as I was typing.... You, sir, certainly got the commander level this time! It seems that your split-shuttle design makes it quite easy to adapt it for different payloads, we'll see how far it will get you Good job on the mission, here's your badge: Congratulations!

This is pretty awesome, I have to admit that It seems your shuttle has no real limits to where it can go Just a heads up though - some of these things may appear in some of the upcoming missions, so you might have to go to some of these places again, if you want the badges..... Michal.don

Yeah, imgur is pretty well known for making an utter mess in your albums... Thanks for the screenshot, that's all I needed, here's your badge: Congratulations, and happy asteroid hunting! Michal.don

Alright, I admit, I'm really confused by that one, I can't even tell how many flights happened (It's more than four I guess?) Would it be possible to take a screenshot of the whole station, and then somehow label what was added in which mission (for example in MS paint)? Thanks! About the badges, you go to "Account settings" (upper right corner), then "Signature", and paste the badges there Michal.don

Well, the deorbit procedure (the where and when to burn) varies greatly from shuttle to shuttle. But if you are successful in aiming for a general area, the landing is just a question of time - and trying. Once you try it several times, you learn the characteristics of your shuttle and learn what to do if you are a bit short/long. Then comes the first runway landing, and in a moment, you'll be able to land from any kind of orbit, don't worry

That's either a pretty small shuttle, or a monstrously huge external tank (or, possibly, both )! But as thay say, if it works..... Nicely executed mission, here's another badge for you: congratulations! Welcome to the challenge! Judging by your nickname and avatar, I think we have a new shuttle fan here Regarding the mission - I don't have any objections, you certainly met all the requirements, and then some more. A bonus payloas, a functioning robotic arm - I'm looking forward to see more of your shuttle in the next missions for sure! About the cockpit clipping - certainly not against the rules, and it's a creative solution to the balance problem, that certainly did not cross my mind. Just wondering, does it cause any excessive drag issues? Anyhow, here's your first pilot badge (for reaching commander level, you'll have to master runway landings): Congratulations! Michal.don

Good thing the sats were over-engineered then In that case, here's your badge, congrats! And on to your STS-3... Very nicely designed telescope (I especially like the huge solat panels!) and flown mission, the only thing preventing me from awarding the commander badge is indeed the orbit inclination. Other than that, very good job! Welcome to the challenge! Looking forward to seeing your entry here soon Michal.don

Ah, that explains that Just wondering - how does the stock d-V calculator handle the rotating engines? Is there an issue with the calculation, or does it work fine, regardless how the engines are rotated?

Wow, it seems that during my absence I forgot the size of shuttles some of you fly here The engine pod design seems to be working fine, I'm just curious - what engines are those? I don't recognize them, are they from a mod? Regarding the missions, there are no complaints or questions on my part, very good job! Well, in this one, I do have some complaints. While the sats are placed equidistantly, they are not placed in a geostationary orbit (which is the important part here). So, I can not award you the badge for this mission. However, if the sats have enough juice in them, they could just raise the orbit by themselves. If that's not the case, I'm afraid you'll have to refly the mission. Sorry. I'll wait with the STS-3 review until this one is sorted out Michal.don

I have to admit, my first thoughts were "OH-MY-GOD-SHUTTLES-ARE-GOING-TO-LOOK-AWESOME!!!" yeah, and then we also have some other stuff there.....