RealKerbal3x

Today I launched some new relay satellites with RA-100 antennae I unlocked using science from the questionably successful Eve rover landing. I used my standard reusable SSTO launcher to place the satellites into a low polar orbit, before deploying each of them into high elliptical orbits that will take them out to the edge of the SOI. These particular orbits ensure that the satellites spend as much time loitering above Kerbin as possible, making them a good substitute for kerbosynchronous orbits but without the precision and annoying fiddling those orbits usually entail. The 90 degree inclination also prevents the orbits being perturbed by encounters with the Mun (the fate of my previous satellite constellation - it was in an equatorial orbit and two of the satellites were ejected from Kerbin while the other two slammed into the Mun). After it had deployed all four satellites, the booster re-entered and made a successful landing on the western side of the KSC's peninsula. I was hoping to be able to land it back near KSC but the timing of the polar orbit made that infeasible. I have many millions of funds in the bank anyway, so some extra recovery costs don't really matter (In fact, I have so much cash that I could exclusively use expendable launch vehicles and I would still be fine). But reusable rockets are cool. These satellites should be useful for my upcoming Dres and Jool probes, which will launch in a few hundred days. Until those come around I think I'm going to occupy myself with those Mun and Minmus base contracts that have been sitting around in Mission Control for ages.

@DMagic Question: is there any difference in functionality between the various sizes of hi-res visual scanners? Apart from their size, mass and electric charge use they all seem to do exactly the same thing, seemingly making it a no-brainer to use the smallest one to maximise craft dV. Is there something I'm missing? Agreed...the SAR-L antenna also seems a bit massive at 2.0t. It's a huge part when deployed but surely it shouldn't be a full two tons?

No posts here in nearly 24 hours? Interesting. Anyway, here's the new NSF video. The fact that the outdoor eating area now has chairs and tables is absolutely the most interesting insight from this. Welcome to a new era!

Indeed. I think a mistake I made that influenced this failure was the placement of the RCS - at the bottom, near the centre of mass. If I had placed the thrusters further up the aeroshell they would have had a higher moment of inertia (I think I used that term correctly ) and would have been able to rotate the vehicle more easily. I've never tried an Eve ascent mission, but I reckon that getting an enormous, delicate ascent vehicle to make it safely through entry is a big challenge.

Soyuz is a piece of completely outdated 1960s technology.

8/10 Gotta love Saturn.

Today in my career game my Eve rover arrived at, you guessed it, Eve. However, the entry, descent and landing did not go as well as I had hoped. During Eve entry, the vehicle was behind a 2.5m heatshield and covered by a fairing for protection. I even added RCS thrusters for additional control. However, despite multiple attempts, the aeroshell uncontrollably flipped around during entry, causing the fairing to overheat and explode, followed by a significant segment of the rover. There seemed to be no way around this, so I had to settle for a rover missing half of its wheels. All of the experiments survived, and the vehicle parachuted to the surface successfully, but it was unable to move. At least I got a decent amount of science from one biome. Always remember to test your designs fully before sending them off! In this case, the rover's entry trajectory was intended to be hyperbolic, but I only tested EDL from low Eve orbit, where it worked fine. I think next time I send something to Eve I'll propulsively brake it into orbit before atmospheric entry.

Resurrecting an old forum game! Yay! 0/10 You have no location. We want to know where you are!

Probably not. But the goal of Starship is to be rapidly reusable, so I reckon they're going to try to accelerate test and launch cadence to eventually reach that goal when the full system is operational. Speaking of testing, here's the first flight-proven Starship getting on its taxi back to the build site. In keeping with the flight-proven Falcon boosters I reckon we should now refer to it as SN5.1 Meanwhile, SN7.1 is still in construction, the Super Heavy pad and high bay are progressing, and they may be building a wall at the build site (noooooooo! )

@problemecium Nice work so far! I would never have the patience to assemble such a monster of a ship Also, a suggestion: if you have the spare funds, you should buy the DLCs. Both add really useful things - in particular, Breaking Ground's robotics are helpful in folding things up in cargo bays and deploying them later, and Making History has 5m rocket parts which make excellent heavy-lift launch vehicles. I would highly recommend them

@Weimaraner Have you tried it on a completely stock install? That way you'll know whether it's an issue with your mods.

Speaking of Carl Sagan, I've been re-reading Cosmos. Anyone else want to join my Sagan-worshipping cult?

In my headcanon, thousands of years ago Kerbals were much like us - in some ways, worse. Kerbin was split into more than a hundred nation-states, many of which were constantly at each other's throats. The planet was inhabited by more than a billion Kerbals, the atmosphere was thick with various greenhouse gases, and the threat of nuclear war was constant. A few of Kerbin's largest superpowers did have space programs, but no Kerbal had ever been into space, and rocket technology was entirely geared toward launching military satellites and delivering nuclear warheads. As a result, when a large asteroid on a direct collision course with Kerbin was detected, there was absolutely no way to redirect it in time. As the entire planet's population panicked, nearly every country sank a huge fraction of their resources into building underground bunkers to hopefully save at least a fraction of their populations from doomsday. However, supplies for these bunkers were limited, and arguments between world leaders on their allocation quickly escalated into a full nuclear exchange. Consequently, Kerbin endured a double apocalypse - asteroid impact and nuclear fallout. Only a tiny fraction of Kerbin's population survived, with some bunkers being destroyed outright due to being too close to the surface or having inadequate life-support systems. The mark of Kerbin's Great Impact remains to this day in the giant crater on the planet's equator. When the survivors' remote descendants emerged from the bunkers four thousand years later, they found a planet wiped clean of every mark of civilisation. Resolving to never repeat the mistakes of their ancestors, the Kerbals realised that the only way to truly and permanently protect their species from complete extinction was to expand beyond Kerbin and explore space. Thus they started a space program, and here you are at Year 1 Day 1 of your new career game

It could be the measures they've been putting in place to prevent light pollution. Every satellite on the most recent Starlink launch had anti-reflection sunshades on them.

Agreed. Radially attached heat shields would be nice too.

MOAR cranes (and Starships):

Planet.

Pioneer 11? First probe to encounter Saturn? Not bad, I'll give it a 6/10.

LabPadre stream shows a crane now linked to SN5, which means they're preparing to lift it onto a roll-lift for transport. Perhaps it'll be moved back to the build site for repairs/modifications. Edit: NASA Spaceflight is doing a stream as well! Welcome back to another episode of Texas Tank Watchers!

I will happily consider myself a Blue Origin fan (and get a shirt to match) when they get something into orbit. Don't get me wrong, I'm really excited for New Glenn, and appreciate everyone doing something to further the cause of spaceflight, but surely they could have done it faster? Taking it slow and steady is all well and good, but 20 years without any orbital launch capability is taking it a bit far, IMO. At least we have hardware, which hopefully means something real to look forward to in the near future.

Welcome @Kurbus!

I still think SN5 will fly again; aside from the obvious damage to the legs and heat shield tiles it looks fine. Also, back at the build site SN7.1 is coming together, as well as the new high bay:

Starlink 9, as tater said it's in about 10 hours.

I feel like they might stack that nosecone on SN5 or SN6 for the 2km hop. Nosecones with header tank welds have been spotted - SN8 might get one of those.

IT FLEW! AND LANDED! That's all I can really say. Great job SpaceX, we're one step closer to Mars!