RealKerbal3x

You have to hold F9 for a few seconds for it to work, not tap it (if I'm understanding you correctly).

Now hang on a sec. You're a moderator now? Good job

Remember this? It's back! SN8 will avenge Mk1!

SN7.1 has popped!

SN8 flaps! Super Heavy! Eeeeee!

The thing that I - and I'm sure many others - find the most exciting about this is the fact that this is actually being developed with Mars landing capability as an important design consideration. It's not some design study or technology demonstrator that may or may not lead to an operational vehicle. They genuinely want to land it on Mars, and as far as I can tell there's no other vehicle, in development or otherwise, that is intended to have this capability. SpaceX is breaking new ground here. I remain convinced that when humans land on Mars (whenever that may be), it'll be aboard a Starship.

Next upgrade will have new marine-optimised Raptors.

Interesting, I remember that simulation shown during Elon's presentation last year was showing something closer to 70.

@chd You can just copy the entire save folder from your old install to your new one, then you'll keep everything, including your ships and named quicksaves (that's what all of the other .sfs files in there are).

Probably because before the last PC update is available on console, another PC update comes out and work starts to back up. So they just take the content of several PC updates and bundle it into one console release.

Well actually, you need Firespitter Core.

SN8 gets its aerocovers! Flaperon installation should be soon. Edit: also seems that SN7.1 is being tested right now:

Seeing as SN7.1 is being tested on a separate mount, I doubt it'll be that much of an issue.

Watching Tim's video yesterday, I realised something: Artemis lunar operations are essentially designed so that the HLS vehicles make up for SLS/Orion's performance deficiencies. Orion can't reach low lunar orbit, so they put Gateway in a high elliptical orbit and left the landers to get the rest of the way down to the surface. Basically, NASA are insisting on using an underpowered rocket and spacecraft for their chosen mission profile, and then forcing commercial providers to make up for it. I'd say having a well-balanced and interconnected system is a part of being sustainable, and this certainly isn't that.

SN6's been moved out of the midbay - and based on Elon's tweet, I'd reckon it's because they want space in there to attach SN8's rear fins.

That's pretty cool, two active Starship prototypes sitting right next to each other. Anyone want to take a guess on how many flight-proven SLS prototypes there are? That's going to be fantastic to see. The bellyflop maneuver will look insane. Also, SN7.1 already did a cryo proof test, and now it's been lifted onto the stand for pressure tests with the thrust simulator...

I came back from a mini KSP hiatus today (first week of school after COVID-19 lockdown, so it was a bit too hectic to get any time to play) and got quite a lot done involving my various interplanetary probes. A long post ahead! I had nothing to do in-game until the arrival of my Moho probe, which I launched a few IRL weeks back, so I decided to timewarp the 100 days forward. Here it is arriving in Moho's SOI and grabbing its first load of science. The first insertion burn begins. In order to maximise the Oberth effect, I performed a large 1800m/s burn to capture into an elliptical orbit, before doing a second to circularise. As the probe was coming in only a few kilometres over the north pole of Moho, I got this cool shot. Sadly I missed the Mohole as I was in map view at the time. After capturing into orbit, I set up the circularisation burn, before realising that my Duna return probe was due to head off to Kerbin soon. So...liftoff! I launched this probe several months ago, before I realised that I could essentially ignore Probes Before Crew's requirement to return uncrewed planetary probes to Kerbin. But I decided that this vehicle may as well complete its originally intended mission. Before long it reached orbit, and headed off to its secondary target, Ike. I took a lot of screenshots here but I figured I could just condense it down to a few. But wait! The Moho Explorer is circularising around, uh, Moho! After that brief interlude, we return to the Duna system. A nice pic of Duna setting as Triton I brakes into orbit around Ike. Ike may be a jerk if you're trying to simply enter the Duna system, but it's downright pleasant to land on. After a while on the surface of Ike, it was time to return this probe to Kerbin! After leaving Ike's surface behind, I did several uneventful aerobrakes in Duna's atmosphere to circularise for my escape burn. And speaking of an escape burn, here it is! I had a lot more dV left on board than the pre-launch simulations had suggested, so I was able to spend a little more fuel than I had expected. Triton I is now on its way back to Kerbin, with a course correction burn in about 84 days and arrival in about 300. Between Moho Explorer (which will soon land a rover on Moho's surface) and Triton I visiting Ike, I collected over 1000 science points today. Those points will most likely go towards ISRU parts for my upcoming Mun and Minmus bases. Stay tuned for that

AFAIK it's firmly attached to the test stand using a bunch of huge bolts. They have to build those bolts pretty strong, too - they need to be able to handle 16,000 kN of force.

SN11 isn't much yet, but it sure is coming!

Even though the engines allow quite a bit of control authority due to gimbal, they most likely still use the grid fins during the landing burn as they impart a force further from the CoM (during landing the CoM is quite low due to the mass of the engines and the small amount of propellant left), creating a larger moment arm and allowing greater control. I made a diagram: Also, gimballing the engines more means less thrust going directly retrograde to slow the stage down, so the first stage's computer probably steers mainly with the grid fins/thrusters to ensure maximum deceleration as well as good control authority.

Looking amazing! I want to play with it Any chance you could make the NASA/Ares decals optional variants though? They kind of make it less Kerbal. Also, I would love to see an empty version of the command pod with a tarp on top

If I know what you mean by dual-bell correctly (and I probably don't) then most likely not, considering that the RVac bells are meant to be stabilised against the thrust section skirt.

So SN6's tiles were attached using adhesive? Shuttle-style? Despite their cracking, it appears that the tile attachment method used on SN5 is considerably more durable. Or maybe SN6 just landed that much harder.