kurgut

It's going pretty faster than what I was imaginating! You did a third of the work, great

First Kerbal in Orbit, the Vostok Program Our chief engineer, Serguei Korolev, is working hard to satisfy the polit bureau requests, but by the way, accomplishing one of his child dream, send a Kerbal in Earth Orbit. So he designed the Vostok spacecraft, a simple spherical capsule capable of 0.75 kerbal rated living space (well, 1 kerbal). To launch it in orbit, the R-7 rocket was upgraded, as its upper stage. First launch, Youri Gagarine is starting his way to get into the capsule: Then, he take the launch tower's elevator , and, waow, that's high! Now, we're ready to launch: But, a RD-107 booster failed to ignite, dammit! That was so fast we didn't had the time to engage the Abort sequence (crew ejection), but hoooopefully, Youri was safe: Second try, ouf, all the engines seems to be nominal. But not Youri because he's now so afraid. Ookay, now booster separation: Then, the upper stage ignite 2 seconds before the core one runnout of fuel, and can then be decoupled: Hourra! Youri is: in orbit, and alive. Absolutly great. He'll stay some 9 days in space before doing the return burn for reentry. Few seconds before entering the upper atmosphere, all unwanted stuff (the service module) is decoupled from the Vostok descent module: Barbecue reentry time: Drogue chute time: Main chute time: And vacation for Youri, well, he splashed in th Pacific Ocean, just near Hawaï, so as he's here, he'll take his vacations there. This is an historical day, for us, and for entire world watching the event. 3 other Vostok missions were launched, and were all succesfull. Now the Vostok program is closed, letting great knowledge about human reaction in microgravity environement. Meanwhile, our engineers started the rocket assembly for the Venera Program freshly designed, which will explore the inner planets: Mars, Venus, and Mercury.

[RSS/RO/RP-1] Haha, I'm doing Luna mission (uncrewed landings/orbits), and for the last, I saw that an anomaly was in my trajectory, so decided to precise land there, and just look at what was there.. A Neil Amstrong memorial!! This excit me to found all others anomalies in RSS

First Moon attempts, the Luna program The space race continue, and know, the entire world turn its eyes toward the Moon. There is strating the Luna program. For that, the venerable R-7 rocket was uprgaded, adding a translunar injection stage, and better boosters/core stage engines. The goal is to explore th Moon, by impacting it, so we can studie the space around it from different altitudes, and learning sweet amount of science data that will help us understand more our natural Satellite. First attempt is Luna-1, an impactor. The Luna probe has quite a lot of science experiments on it, some solar panels, and antennas of course. Let's launch! Waiting to have correct relative inclination to launch: Achieved orbit, now the core stage can be jetisoned, as the luna fairing. Then, plotting a Hohman transfer to intercept our target. Luna block burning during TLI: After about 3 days of travel, the probe arrive to the Moon, transmitting as fast as it can that great science data we need a lot! Few hours later, luna-1 impacted the Moon lowlands, and became the first human made stuff to reach a celestial body. Then, Luna-2 was launched, here no impact, just a kind of free return flyby that will make the probe passing above the far side of the Moon, and for the first time, taking some pic of it! Those images provoked world excitement, and the NASA deception seeing their space program ridiculness compared to our. Glorious. By upgrading the R-7 to reach the Moon, that means it could also reach some inner planets, well, Mars and Venus. So our engineers and scientits start working hard on the Venera program. Also, we launched the Kostov mission, designed to be the first spacecraft to come back from earth orbit, with nice valuable experiments (Imaging data, mass spectrometry , and biological sample data) Here, the spacecraft at its Apogee (Geostat ap: 35000km), Earth looks beautiful from here. Reentry after have jetisoned the experiemnts from the return capsule: And safe! By showing that reentrys are possible, and survivable, the Kostov mission opened the path to the Vostok Program that will send a Kerbal in Earth Orbit.

[RSS/RO/RP-1] First flight of the Vokhod spacecraft, carrying for the first time 3 crew into Earth Orbit, and also the first ever astronaut EVA! It's launched with an upgraded R-7 rocket, with greater boosters/core stage engines, and a big upper stage. Standing by to launch: Lauunch! Pride of the russian nation, the beautiful booster separation: Then, the upper-stage fire few seconds before the core stage runnout of fuel, and then separate: Orbit! Extending radiators, antennas, and the inflatable airlock Then, Gherman Titov is preparing to go outside: Here we are! Youri Gagarine took a nice photo from the Voskhod module, where we can see Gherman outside By the way, we broke also an crewed altitude record of 7OOOkm, Earth looks so beautiful. But now, time to fire the retrorocket, after decoupling the airlock, to aim Pe at 68 km for reentry: Few minits before entering the atmoshpere, the descent module separate from unwanted stuff during reentry: HOOOT: And back, we splashed west of Miami

nice! When you will be done, next challenge could be to do a poe2pole challenge, in Real Solar System! As I think to it, it would be veery nice, with a life support mod, this will force you to resupply your rover time to time. And your rover should have the ability to go as ship too f course, or deliver the ship when needed. Bonus points will be given, if the route is passing by the top of the Hymalaya mountain..

Sputnik program, first artificial satellite Great excitement and tensions are going between the USA and the USSR, who we'll launch the first satellite into orbit? Well, us Serguei Korolev imagined and designed the R-7 rocket, long lasting Launch vehicle design, at first of course, planned to do intercontinental missile stuff. But, the polit bureau wan't results, more of that, fast, and without good founding: budget restrictions applied to well, all stuff, engine tests, etc.., whereas our vodka budget remains higher than our engine budget.., hmm ) So, yes, the 2 first sputnik attempts exploded a few meters above the launchpad, due to booster engine failure. But finally, third attempt was the good one! And the contract gave us good amount of founding and reputation! First attempt, booster failure few meters above launchpad, good bye R-7: Now, the good one! Launch: Boosters separation, forming nice Korolev cross Core stage finishing putting Sput' into orbit Sputnik released! Bip..Bip..Bip.. Then, excited by this accomplishment, it was decided to send a kerbal in Earth orbit, and, great idea, to get him back! So after some redesigns to lower the pogo effect, and the g forces, sputnik-2 was launched, with the first dog in space (survived just 6 hours in earth orbit), Laïka! Laïka just in orbit (lower right of the pic), the spacecraft was let attached to the core stage. Proving by this, that some manned orbital missions would be possible! And finally, we launched Sputnik-3, now with a bunch of experiments on board (some camera, radiation sensors, micrometeorite sensors, pressure, temperature,..) Sputnik-3 just released in orbit: We are feeling glorious, and looking closer at our natural satellite, the Moon! Soon we'll launch the first missions of the Luna Program

Youri's selfie from top of Hymalaya during his extreme conditions survival training to prepare for manned missions:

The Bayan program, first manned suborbital spaceflight The russian engineers developped a variant of the K2 rocket, that can bring a Kerbal safely into a suborbital trajectory, and, incredible fact, bring him back safely! First, the polit bureau had to select a group of 4 astronauts: Youri Gagarin/ Valentina Tershkova/ Gherman Titov and Pavel Popovich. They started a hard and intense training to prepare for their missions (one almost died!) First training was a simple validation of pilot skills, flying a nice little plane: Easy! But then, astronauts had to test their G force resistance and endurance, here it becomes hard: G force resistance test: max G: 18 By the time, testing ejection devices that will be installed in the Vostok spacecraft, so Youri was ejected, and landed safely on the ground: Then, G force Endurance test, here the dispositif almost exploded! But hopefully, nobody died Then, last thing was training to survive in extreme environement conditions, here Youri Gagarine climbed at top of the Hymalaya mountain! NOW WE CAN LAUNCH! First Bayan mission, crew: Youri Gagarine, first Kerbal to reach space. Backup crew: in vacation. After reaching space, the first stage is jetisoned, and the spacecraft separate from it: Then, Youri is deploying the Drogue chutes to slow down the thing, and avoid burning up! Coooming back: And safe, finally! Glorious. We now need to continue, and avoid the americans send a satelitte in orbit before us, so, Serguei Korolev, is working on a new rocket, the R-7! Coming, the Sputnik program.

Real Solar Sytem / Realism Overhaul / Realistic Progression 1 Kurgutovich Space Program, the Soviet way! Career mission reports Summary Early launches One of the first missions, a jealous copy of the V2 rocket, the K2. After WW2, well juust after the capitulation, a race occured between URSS and USA to found the V2 factory and learn about it, also, found its creator, Werner von Braun, but Americans were first! It was maybe the very beginning of the space race before actually doing it in space So the engine here is a early RD-100 (copy of the V2 engine) burning Lox/Alcohol: The goal is simply to learn about rocket guidance and rocketry in general (engines), by the way we also added some temperature and pressure sensors to studie the upper atmosphere, and the space border. Launch site: Baikonour cosmodrome max Altitude: 160 km (suborbital) Then, with this good knwoledge, we upgraded the engine to RD-101 for increased performances. This rocket was also fully recovered, to studie the reaction of a spacecraft after exposure to space environement. By the way, this was the first ever recovered object after reaching space. Morning launch: After reaching the space limit, deploying Kevlar drogue chute to start safely slowing down the rocket, until the main chutes deploy few hundred meters before the surface: And landed! From what we see, the rocket seems to have been exposed to very high radiation level, that confirms our scientists predictions (to celebrate that, they will simply take a vodka bath in the R&D center) Then, still upgrading the initial RD-100 engine, the K2-c rocket now allow a heavyier payload. So a mission was launched, to bring back the first earth photographs from space! Farings jetisoned, taking photos.. Released the return camera, it landed safely in the Kazak' desert. And finally, last upgrade of the K2 rocket, that broked an altitude record of 550 km!! Now, the polit bureau wan't to impress the world with its puissance, so they idea is to send some Kerbals up there.. This will be the Bayan program!

[RSS/RO/RP-1] Spuuutnik! Launched with venerable R7 rocket. Was quite (as hell!) expensive, and I had 2 rocket exploded due to engine failures (due to polit bureau budget restrictions applied to well, all stuff, engine tests, etc.., whereas our vodka budget remains higher than our engine budget.. ) But third attempt was the good one! And the contract gave us good amount of founding! First attempt, booster failure few meters above launchpad: Now, the good one! Launch: Boosters separation, forming nice Korolev cross Core stage finishing putting Sput' into orbit Sputnik released! Bip..Bip..Bip..

My RO/RP-1 Career is going very well, I'm in 1990, so doing late stuff, but I have so much things going, like 5 interplanetary missions (3 with gravity assists!), so to "relax" a bit, I just started a new career (RSS/RO/RP-1), but all in soviet way, so will launch from Baikonour, and use soviet launch vehicle, spacecrafts, probes, as much as I can. One of the first missions, a copy of the V2 rocket maid by the russian (after WW2, well juust after the capitulation, a race occured between URSS and USA to found the V2 factory and learn about it, also, found its creator, Werner von Braun, but Americans were first! It's maybe the very beginning of the space race before actually doing it in space ), and so the engine is a early RD-100 (copy of the V2 engine) burning Lox/Alcohol: max Ap: 180 km And happy because, as I start knowing quite well US rocketry/history, it's not the same for russian, so a lot of stuff to learn about, great!

For TWR, you could try reducing the thrust limiter on castors, so they last longer, and your sustainer stage will feel better, but depending of your initial TWR, you can manage it. For me, it's Titan IV and atlas V (heavy too) mostly now (rarely doing saturn launches, to much expensive), most of them have Centaur upper stage. ATlas V: Heavy (Inital TWR not good here, unfinished rocket): And saturn:

Here is a little patch that will allow you to store experiments with all parts that have a command module (do probes/capsules), should work on KSP 1.3.1 to 1.4.* Simply put it in your game data folder here the link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TVGuyNhvY40tl6axra6yR0xzOangePAA Say me if it works!

Haha, don't say me that you docked a multy tons ISS module using the MMU? good kerbal work

Lunokhod, first lunar (and extrabody) rover ( hitorically launched in 1969). Launch Vehicle is Titan III-E, upgraded version with 2 solid boosters. The lander is propelled by 1kn engines, with a probe core and antenna on it to maintain communications with the rover, and earth. Launch: The centaur stage (2 rl 10 engines), is doing the transfer burn, circularization, and initial descent on Moon. Laaanding: Get rid of those fairings And now travellling a 10 km around the moon surface, transmitting imaging and surface sample data. This was also our first targeted moon landing Kind of real replica Also launched 2 orbiters to Mars and Venus, to start mapping the surface (polar orbits) and using them as relays for further missions.

[RO/RP-1] Just finsished Ulysses mission: Ulysses is a probe intented to orbit the Sun in a near polar inclination (80) thanks to a Jupiter gravity assist. Launch Vehicle is Atlas V: first stage is RD 171, second stage is Centaur T (2 rl-10), transfer is done with centaur, and 2 kn engines (aerozine/nto), also used to perform deep space maneuveurs. Launch: Centaur stage separation Plotting gravity assist, final orbit will be the green one (I achived finally 71 sun inclination, not 80 as the real ) Also planning a Phobos Sample Return mission, spacecraft is based on a modified version of the Mars Sample return spacecraft that I already launched, now, waiting Mars window to launch Phobos return spacecraft: Barely the same as the Mars one, just removed the Mars first ascent stage, fairings and chutes: And finally, I sent a TDRS in Geosat orbit (relay): @Zeiss Ikon Is that you new career you started? Nice Launch Vehicle

Meanwhile, 300km above Earth water, two Gemini spacecrafts flying together, Start of the Gemini program! First Earth rendez-vous contract completed, launched with Titan Launch Vehicle. Neil Amstrong's pics from command pod: Just as the real pic :

First Mars Sample return, and by the first probe to return from any interplanetary body landing. The MSR spacecraft is launched by Atlas V rocket (with boosters augmentation), first stage is RD-170, and Centaur upperstage (2 rl-10). Lauunch: First stage separation: After Centaur Stage finished orbit, the MSR spacecraft is released. The transfer stage (3 AJ-10) doing, well, transfer burn : After midcourse correction burn, arriving finally to Mars: Reentry (almost burned up!): Chutes, landing gear deployed, and descent stage firing: Landed! The parachute fairing is then jetisoned, all experiments experimenting and transmitting sweet science, and of course taking surface samples, and biological sample too. After that, take off! The ascent stage (six 2kn engines burning aerozine/NTO) fire letting the lander on Mars surface (as apollo LM): Upper stage separated, finishing orbit, and waiting 1 year to execute transfer burn to Earth: After some hundred days of travel, coming back to home: Return capsule separated, fairings jetisoned, and chute armed:

First Moon Flyby (Crewed!!). The rocket is called T(h)rusty, because it has juuuuust the right amount of deltav to do a free return moonar flyby: when achieved orbit, had 27 dv left, and after lunar transfer, well 0 dv left, (had to finish with RCS). The rocket is a Titan (AJ-7) and centaur upper stage, transfer stage is AJ-10 (advanced) with restart capacity. First stage improved with 2 early Titan solid boosters, which raise the launch mass at 510t, and initial thrust is 5 MegaNt! Crew: (always) Youri Gagarine, maybe his last mission, he start getting old and will retire soon. Pre-launch: LAUNCH! LES jetisoned (with some unplanned nice explosions.. ) Centaur stage getting hard to finnish this orbit: T(h)rusty spacecraft separation: After transfer burn and 2 days of travel, arrived at Moon, Youri is so gloriously happy Aimed return periapsis at 71km, to capture first and second reentry to land (precaution, and had some life support left) BUT: After what seems to be a bad design from Werner Von Braun, the antenna decoupler, under which is packed the main parachute failed to decouple (I put it the wrong way whe designed.. ), letting the chute blocked.. so had to quicly get out of that pod with the science and using EVA personnal chute to land. Fiouuh! Safe, finally Youri splashed in Indian Ocean, near south west India.

First Venus (soft) landing! the Venera-4 mission launched by Titan-Centaur Launch Vehicle, Transfer stage is AJ-10 advanced version. Lander separation, chute armed and programming the flight computer since I will not have working connection during reentry and landing. Reentry, hot hot hot! Final descent. And, our scientist were wrong, Venus surface is not white, those are clouds that oclude it! how stupid! () It's hot here, the whole thing almost overheated, but was fine finally. Have to wait 50 days to have connection and transmit the herculeous amount of science gathered. One thing sure, we'll not send any kerbals here, but wait, why not?

After had done this kind of early Nasa Gemini stuff,... ...I decided finally to go for the real (sooo much expensive) one: I will do others remaing contracts (this one was targeted moon landing, remaining is moon landing with maned rover deployement) and will then close apollo program since it is too much stress, too much expensive, and long time to build (3 years for each Saturn V ! ), and hopefully I didn't have engine failure on those launches (only with Saturn IB unmaned, and loss of thrust with apollo earth orbit mission and testing), I don't want apollo 13 to happen In my game!

I've just upgraded my Titan LV in AJ-7 configuration (1964 tech), now burn Aerozine/NTO, and added great Centaur upper stage with restart capacity, making payload to orbit about 7 t. I've also unlocked lunar rated heatshield, meaning I can't return from the moon (what I did, with unmanned orbiter, but not landing), and land at Mars/Venus! Also unlocked the gemini stuff, so preparing for Gemini missions Preparing to launch: Inititial ascent Second stage (LR-91) firing Centaur stage finshing ( the whole thing take 11 min to make orbit!) Here I launch a probe to a Vesta flyby (Vesta is kind of big Gilly protoplanet orbiting in the asteroid belt) Also my third Mariner mission arrived to Mercury, goodness, it's hot here; just to see I put a maneuver node to see how much it takes to circularize, .. and was about 10000 d/v needed = not for now Very low flyby: Good bye Mercury: Lot of science gathered, and we have good research points in VAB/R&D.

First Saturn flyby! After about 7 years deep space travelling, and after have flybyed Jupiter (using gravity assist with correction burns to go to Saturn), Voyager-1 is encountering Saturn for the first time, with a very close flyby. Hello Saturn: Closing, clooosing Earth looks, well... at least far from us now We discovered some new moons, and learned a lot about this planet, its rings and general composition. Now good bye Saturn With this close flyby, Saturn's gravity is just pulling us out of the Solar system. Good bye Voyager

No problem