valens

I look forward to seeing this used.

I second that.

Sure. On that subject, if you plan to land/recover it, I suggest you make the re-entry as shallow as possible; the ACTV has no braking surfaces and will speed like a bullet through the atmosphere.

Some of the latest work on Lookdown is documented here.

PMing it to you as we type...

I meant for the ascent. Is it the same?

Nice craft. Just wondering how you attached the tail elevons to the rudder, something I've been trying to do and failed.

I think this is a very elegant solution for this kind of problem (the only disdvantage I can see is having to deorbit and fly back 6+ boosters, which I guess can be a little boring). Just wondering though where is your control part and if this does not make ascent too challenging.

With the AIRBRAKES, both boosters slow very efficiently in the high atmosphere, so heat shields were not really necessary. However, one key aspect of my re-entry profile is gyroscopic stabilization of the booster: entering the atmosphere with SAS off and all control surfaces fully deployed takes the booster into a fast spin, which stabilizes its trajectory and preserves the AIRBRAKES at the same time. The thing is that your engines are already rated for quite high temperatures, so they should take the brunt of the heat. Airbrakes, though... Hence the spinning. As for the weight aspect, Herakles-R weighs about 37 tons when dry, and uses 8 drogues and 12 chutes to land (though I should check if the chutes are enough — imho they should). I try to avoid splashing down, though, as the booster often topples and breaks. The latest iteration of Phaeton-R uses indeed a Vector with 30% gimbal to improve the ∆v.

My own take on recoverable first stages/boosters. Although most of them incorporate expandable SRBs, these can be removed for lighter payloads. Phaeton-R is a bit more advanced these days (R-1V/6), due to the mad resistance of 3.75 m parts. BTW, is that a Skipper under that fairing?

Indeed. Apparently, my silly self skipped it a few weeks ago...

For the Stock Community Space Program: One of my lifters:

I am quite curious to see the N1 in action.

OK, here's the report. The full album is on imgur, highlights are presented here. The first flight I launched included two LKO crafts: an UTV charged with supplies for Unity station and an ACTV to act as a lifeboat for Gateway station, as I noticed earlier that there were more kerbals than seats in case of emergency (to this day this is still the case). The two crafts were put to orbit by my own Herakles-R partially reusable launcher. For those interested, the UTV and ACTV are available on KerbalX. Both crafts are sturdy and well-equipped, the ACTV was docked to Gateway's central node and the UTV filled Unity's monopropellant and ore tanks. The latter can be processed to monopropellant, liquid fuel or oxidizer when needed with Unity's ISRU module. The UTV was then de-orbited and met its final fate in a lake (except for the solar panels, which lighted up ca 33 km higher). The second flight delivered a comm/service/monopropellant/docking node module named Aster to Lookdown station. This additions bring large monopropellant storage (>2000) capabilities to Lookdown, be it for station manoeuvering or lander refueling. Of course, the lifters and intermediate stage were either recovered or destroyed. For lack of time, I cancelled a SSTO flight with two mapping probes which would have gone to Minmus and the Mün. Now on the next ones, Godspeed! [Edit:] One last note I forgot to mention: some of the mods I used for efficiency and all-around visuals: MechJeb, Docking Ports Alignment Indicator, Action Group Extended, Environmental Visual Enhancements (without the cities lights) and Poodmund's Calm Nebula skybox (requires TextureReplacer). So although the crafts are very strictly stock, the game is not.

Well I don't really understand why you built it with this internal cargo bay... Anyway I think it's a nice nod to the real-life ISS that these crafts were inspired by the different, real-life crafts. Now we're only missing H-II and Cygnus clones.

OK I have forwarded the save to @DMSP. A full report with pictures will come later today, suffice to say that: Unity's monopropellant and ore reserves have been topped up by UTV-1 "Pierre Bordage"; Gateway has received the addition of the ACTV-1 "Iain M. Banks" as lifeboat; in case of emergency, there should now be enough seats to evacuate everyone on board; Aster, a service/monopropellant module, has been added to Lookdown, greatly expanding its monopropellant reserves. Also, I noticed after docking the ACTV that Gateway now comprises one transfer craft from each of the great players largest space agencies: a "Soyouz/Progress" (Roscosmos), a "Dragon" (NASA/SpaceX) and an "ATV" (ESA). Totally unplanned, but quite cool!

@DMSP Yes, I have it here.

Well I'm waiting for @DMSP's word to continue with 1.2, but there's already a large number of mods already up to date, to say nothing of the dev builds. The mods I really depend on in late career/sandbox are MechJeb/KER and AGExt (for reusable lifters). Anyway my three launches are planned and mostly ready (cargo + lifeboat, service/monoprop module, 2 scanner satellites). If I don't have any news I'll proceed with 1.2.

No no no... I tried to manually revert the save to 1.1.3 by editing it. I've been looking at it in 1.2 and it works well. Also, there is no modded craft since this is Stock Community Space Program. The mods I'm concerned about are informational/navigation (e.g. MechJeb, KER, etc.) or visual (Historian, InFlightFlagSwitcher, etc.), but for these I can do without or with dev builds.

People, I just got my hands on the save and a rapid check showed that it is 1.2. So far, I can see four possibilities: Going with 1.2 earlier than planned and continuing, for some people without some useful mods; Freezing the game until the next player(s) have been able to update their mods; Reverting to the last 1.1.3 save; Manually editing the save, but most certainly losing any craft with new parts on them. Suggestions? [EDIT:] Strike that last one, all craft disappear. [EDIT2:] Also, I notice that @TwinKerbal's addition have been deorbited.

Not yet.

If this is more practical for you, I will not need the save until monday 7-8 p.m. (central Europe time). It will make more time for @TheGuyNamedAlan to complete his launches.

All kinds of tea (fennel, peppermint or black tea + cocoa being the current favorites).

Eclipse

I was also wondering how/when do you want to make the transition to 1.2 (as it is supposed to go out next tuesday).