Cavscout74

Did a little experimenting today. Jeb is still alive, but otherwise a failure so far. Actually, it was controllable just underpowered. And the top-mounted engines force the nose down, making land takeoffs difficult & water takeoffs impossible. Actually reaching orbit (my goal) isn't even in sight at the moment.

A few more days of progress on my hard career. The first Duna exploration vehicle was dismantled in orbit and the Cherenkov heavy NERV deorbited and splashed down safely. Shortly after, the second manned Duna mission arrived in the EV-1 Avalon Along with a Lancer surface outpost. Astute observers will notice my slight 'oops" on this Lancer build. Luckily it didn't cause issues for landing and the engineer was able to fix it once the crew landed. Finally the Duna crew landed safely in the new Mk 2 Duna Lander

My first Duna crew of this career finally arrived home. When they left, I barely had a functional spaceplane. When they returned, the spaceplane that picked them up in orbit is capable of reaching Jool. Their exploration vessel will be dismantled in orbit and the valuable pieces recovered as there are vastly more effective craft now. Just their returned science (not including what was transmitted from Duna) was worth over 550 science points with science set at 30 or 40% (I don't remember which).

This is a few days worth of stuff from my career save Got my Lightning spaceplane into service finally Then my Eve crew arrived in orbit, and carried out a few missions And the last two events were a deep space rendezvous between a relay & an interceptor probe (for a contract) and the arrival of a relay into Eeloo orbit

You haven't lived till you launch a new space station for contract with everything it asks for - all in a single launch - and burn 2 (yes TWO) units of liquid fuel more than you should have establishing orbit and fail to meet the contract parameter of having "x" amount of liquid fuel on the station. What planet pack and/or visual mod are you using for Jool & Laythe? Looks really nice

Continued on with my career the last few days. Pulled off an orbital rescue via spaceplane, then got it into a flat spin after reentry that I barely recovered from. Ended up landing in the desert instead of at the Desert Space Center. All at night of course Then it was time for the Duna crew to head back to orbit & start prepping for the return flight Finally, my first Laythe lander for this career arrived & safely splashed down (after a slingshot around Tylo of course). And as expected, it was also all at night. Didn't even stop to grab a shot of it actually splashed down.

I did a multitude of course corrections, assorted gather science missions from places I already have probes and tested an Eve atmospheric skimmer - designed to skim the upper atmosphere with a crew then return to orbit. The test on Kerbin went well - despite totally forgetting any way to land/recover the test vehicle. It handled surprisingly well in, with a remarkably low stall speed My Pioneer-Jool probe also finally arrived in the inner Jool system, did a flyby of Tylo & Laythe before entering Vall orbit.

So I had a little time this evening to get a few missions launched. First up was a new Kerbin station, which let me deorbit my old Manned Orbital Lab Then fine tuned my little intercepter that is supposed to dock with one of my solar relays for a contract Finally, I picked up a comet and launched a much bigger interceptor to catch it. Everything is a "go" and it's on course to intercept. Now I just have to wait 3 1/2 years.....

My first Jool probe of this career arrived in Tylo orbit last night, and got a nice view:

It was, normally I just run at 4x just to get through disposing of the stage but after the first 20k into the atmosphere & it hadn't flipped one way or the other, I slowed to real time & just watched it the rest of the way down. I also got my Laythe glide rover into orbit & my Dres-Surveyor lander arrived & landed safely

Continued on with my career, getting a few launches of craft soon to be Jool & Eeloo-bound. Also tested out a few designs - like my Laythe Glide-Rover. Sends a rover to Laythe via a rocket glider to (hopefully) be able to reliably set down on one of the islands. Initial suborbital test went mostly well, although the landing was a bit rough. Random spent stage reentering the atmosphere. The fuel remaining just balanced the engine mass so it held this attitude until it got below 10km

Hopefully it fairs better than my first Tylo land. There were a few pieces of debris left after running out of fuel a few dozen meters above the surface

After talking with a coworker who just discovered KSP, I decided to fire it back up after a long break. Picked up a 1.12 hard career where I left off. Had the tech to build a basic spaceplane Kerbal Launch Failure mod reminded me it was still working with a radial decoupler failure seconds after launch. Still managed to make orbit though Testing a jet powered drone for Laythe exploration Had my Eve Dust Sample Return mission finally get home too And most recently sent off the first manned Duna mission of this career: Crew transport arriving. Jeb & company did a quick orbit of Ike before coming back to dock with a science station & wait for the crew lander. Successful landing of my Duna outpost Bringing in the Duna Rover to land

It is working pretty much ok on my heavily modded install. Some of the texture switching is glitchy at times but not sure if its 1.12 or some other mod. It mostly works, so I haven't looked into it at all.

My first manned Jool mission from my long lost "Out of the Sands" career arrived, 2 (or has it been 3?) real world years later than intended. Jeb & company did fly-bys of Tylo & Val before entering Laythe orbit & docking with the previously launched Laythe station My Tylo folding lander also arrived. It turned out to be a very effective design except the final stage TWR was a bit too high - full thrust would quickly send me flying back up, and with Tylo's gravity it was tricky to find a partial thrust setting that allowed a safe landing quickly enough. But it is a tough little bird & landing without explosions