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@Fraktal posted this in the old thread: Welcome to this new thread! From what I read here you are quite an experienced flight-simmer, and I understand your frustration. From what you describe I think you play with SAS on, as you describe some of the very behaviours that I outlined in my previous post. KSP, especially if you play with mouse and keyboard as I do makes it almost impossible to fly a plane like you would do in other flightsims (or when flying for real, for that matter), by giving small control inputs. If your approach speed is 150 m/s while your take-off speed is 80 m/s your approach speed is way too high, and a flare at that kind of speed will result in overshooting the runway, simply because the plane will keep on flying. And if your flare results in a stall 30 meters above the runway you started the flare too early. I'm sorry if this sounds blunt, but that would be no different in a real airplane. Perhaps you don't give yourself enough room to get your airspeed right? Have you tried doing an extra long final approach where you focus on getting the glideslope and approach speed correct? Problem with KSP is of course that you have no real way of knowing what the correct approach airspeed is for your aircraft design, and what glideslope you need to maintain that speed, so you'll have to do some testing. With SAS off it is possible to side slip in KSP, by giving opposite rudder and stick inputs, and it will slow down your plane. If I have the time I will make a video with an example. Thanks for the link! I use pitch trim to fine-tune my ascent with a spaceplane, and leave SAS off. With SAS on it feels like I am fighting the SAS system instead of flying the craft.

This started as a feature request for a longer runway, but evolved into a discussion on how to take off and land airplanes in KSP. To prevent us hijacking that thread, I made the current one. In order for this to become a bit more general, it seems that many KSP players have trouble taking off or landing airplanes on the KSC runway, to the point that they believe that the 2.5 km stock runway is not long enough. I haven't had this experience: my 40 ton Shuttle is able to land on the KSC runway (and, in a pinch, the Island Airfield) just fine, even loaded with 80 tons of cargo, or with an asteroid on its back. And my hope would be that players with lots of experience with airplanes in KSP - perhaps including me - can answer questions of less experienced players and help them on their way to become better aircraft designers and pilots. Ok, that being said, how to go about designing, testing and flying your own airplane designs in KSP? I believe this is one of the hardest things to do in the game. The reason is that your job is a combination of two things that are both seen as very difficult in the real world: aircraft design and test piloting of high performance aircraft. Here's a few tips that I gave in the previous thread: One tip that I want to repeat because I think it is a very important one and it is in danger of disappearing in the mass of text is this one: If at all possible, fly your plane with SAS OFF. SAS will try to keep the nose of the airplane pointed in a fixed direction in space. This has a couple of unwanted consequences: * It is virtually impossible to make fine course corrections, as you are in effect fighting the SAS system * It makes it impossible for the plane to find its own balance, often forcing the plane into a slip (which means that it flies with the nose of the plane pointing to the right or left instead of straight ahead, adding extra drag) * On long overland flights, it forces your plane to climb ever faster, which is due to the curvature of Kerbin. SAS keeps the nose of the plane in a direction which is fixed in space. * It appears that SAS is momentarily switched off when you are giving control inputs. This has the rather nasty consequence of nullifying pitch trim when you give small roll or yaw inputs as course corrections, often dropping the nose of the airplane. If this happens on final approach, you are in real danger of crashing your plane. Seriously, SAS is a lousy autopilot. I only use it for long overland flights. But enough from me for now: I'd love to hear your tips and tricks, as well as your questions and any problems that you might have in flying or landing your airplanes. And maybe someone is able to answer a question of mine:

In my Shuttle challenge series I repeatedly landed a 40 ton Shuttle on the runway, at various times with 80 tons of cargo or an asteroid on top, and I have never needed more than a fraction of the runway length. I also landed my Shuttle's flyback booster on the runway numerous times, and despite it being considerably bigger than the Shuttle, it also never needed the entire length of the runway. Hell, I have landed both shuttle and booster on the Island runway a few times after I overshot the KSC. But there is one thing I would like to see: a full length taxiway alongside the runway, with a couple of additional runway exits. Especially for a Shuttle with flyback booster, it would be nice to be able to vacate the runway at various points along its length after landing the first one, to make room for the second landing. For people who have a hard time taking off from or landing on the runway: Add enough wings to your craft that it is able to fly at a reasonable speed, no more than about 100 m/s. For comparison: touchdown speeds of real-life high performance aircraft vary from about 70 m/s (F-16) to 100 m/s (Space Shuttle), 105 m/s (X-15) with 123 m/s (F-104 with its blown flaps inoperable; with these flaps touchdown speed was 85 m/s) the maximum I have been able to find. Don't have the nose of the craft pointed down too much when it is on the runway. That way it will be hard to lift the nose (a maneuver called "rotate" in aviation) and get the wings to generate lift. If the wings point downwards with respect to the airflow, you are generating downforce. Useful if you are building a Formula 1 car, not so much for a plane. Put the main landing gear slightly behind the center of gravity. If the landing gear is too far back you will not be able to rotate. I see a lot of spaceplanes that are only able to take off by running off the end of the runway, and often the problem is that the landing gear is too far back. A good test is to do a high speed taxi on the runway, and see if you are able to rotate. If your craft is well-balanced you should be able to taxi your plane a considerable distance on the main gear alone at a speed just below touchdown speed. A high speed taxi run also enables you to test the brakes. Try to land with as little speed as possible while still flying. Approach the runway somewhat above this speed, and once you reach the runway threshold (at about 20 meters altitude or so), pull up slightly to lose more speed - this is called a flare. If done correctly you will start losing speed without gaining altitude. If you do gain altitude when flaring, try again with a lower approach speed. A more general tip is to try to design aircraft that are able to fly with SAS turned off. With SAS turned on, a KSP plane does not fly like a real plane at all, as the SAS will try its best to keep the nose of the craft pointed in the same direction, whatever you do. Learn to use pitch trim (Alt-S for trim up, Alt-W for trim down). Pitch trim is used in real aircraft to keep flying level without applying any force on the flight controls. The higher the speed of your craft, the less pitch trim you will need. And another general tip: consider playing a different flight sim to learn to sim-fly. I for one can't wait for MS flight simulator 2020. Building and flying planes in KSP is in some respects much harder than, say, sim-flying a Cessna in MSFS: in KSP you take on the roles of aircraft designer and high performance test pilot, two jobs considered very hard in the real world. Whereas the flight characteristics of a Cessna are very well known, the performance of any KSP airplane design is anyone's guess untill you start flying it.

Some progress: I have reached LKO and gathered all In Space {Low | High} science from Kerbin. I have also designed a rocket that is capable of reaching the Mun, although that one has not yet been successful: I have reached the Mun's SOI, but was unable to harvest any science as my craft had run out of electricity... Next time don't forget to switch on hibernation on my probe core. Space is hard, especially for Cavemen. My LKO craft. Piloted by Jeb, with Bob in the second capsule. Before launch, Bob performs an EVA and relocates to a ladder inside the structural tube directly below his capsule. Note the gap: I haven't found a way to keep Bob safe without leaving a gap. The gap itself is made simply by first connecting the structural tube to the capsule and then moving it down. Bob doing the science dance in LKO. My current science archive. I have gathered all possible science from Kerbin. Next up: the Mun and Minmus My Munar rocket. I have substituted Jeb with a probe core, which lightens the craft considerably, for a significant increase in delta-v (and a much harder ascent, as the best probe core available to Cavemen lacks a prograde hold autopilot - I learned that I am not very good at flying rockets manually). I have ascertained that this craft is capable of reaching the Mun's SOI, but I haven't done any science with it yet.

I like it a lot! Much more evocative than the old Mun badges. Also an interesting contrast between the featureless Mun in the foreground, while Kerbin has details in the background. It reminds me of the business-like description of the Moon by the Apollo 8 crew in contrast with their delight at seeing Earthrise with their own eyes.

I have since completed all remaining surface experiments (mainly the Splashed science in the Southern Ice Shelf biome), as well as collected all Flying High science. This has netted me about 115 additional science. In itself this is not very noteworthy, but it implies that completing a Moderate difficulty Caveman challenge should be possible without entering space. My current science status. I cannot unlock any further nodes in the tech tree under Caveman rules, but I can still gather more science points. This excess of 164 science points would be enough to unlock all tier 1 science in a Moderate difficulty setting.

Thank you! One minor point: could you please correct my name in the hall of fame by replacing the 6 with a 9?

Thanks! Although I'm sure I've seen a non-space Caveman before, I just cannot find it anymore... Mine started as an attempt to visit every biome on Kerbin and collect all the science. On the way I realized that it would be possible to finish a Caveman playthrough with just the surface science, if it would be possible to get the splashed science for all biomes as well as the landed science on the water. I found some old threads on this forum with possible "splashed" locations, and some of them turned out to still be valid for KSP 1.8.1.

Is this challenge still alive? I completed a Normal difficulty Caveman challenge with no contracts. My strategy was to gather all of Kerbin's surface (Splashed and Landed) science, as well as the Flying Low science. I completed the challenge without going more than 9000 meters above Kerbin's surface. Mission report here:

In this thread I am going to document my career mode game in which I attempt to Finish the Caveman challenge. Perform all tier 1 experiments (i.e., those experiments that can be unlocked in a Caveman game - Crew Report, EVA Report, Goo, Pressure, Temperature, Materials) in all situations in all biomes of selected bodies to gather enough science points to unlock the entire tech tree. I will not actually unlock the entire tech tree, because I will do all this according to Caveman rules - so no upgradess of KSC buildings and hence no unlocking the tech tree beyond tech level 5. Complete the no-contract challenge, also under the Caveman constraint. In other words: I will attempt to gather enough credits, just from automatic contracts, to be able to upgrade the entire KSC to tier 3, without actually doing so. I will play this career at Normal difficulty in a KSP 1.8.1 game with no mods whatsoever and no DLC, that I specifically prepared a while back for the Caveman challenge. So far I have completed 1, and without going above 9000 meters above Kerbin's sea level. I visited all of Kerbin's biomes, including all mini-biomes (the KSC ones, the Island Airfield and both Baikerbanur mini-biomes) and performed all the tier 1 experiments in all possible situations up to Low-level atmospheric flight (except splashed down on the Southern Ice Shelf, as it turns out you don't need absolutely everything to complete the Caveman challenge). Full report here: https://imgur.com/a/1hHxkGr Some highlights: Proof that I started a Normal Difficulty campaign in an unmodded KSP 1.8.1 install with no DLC The infamous tech level 1 science roller - which I absolutely detest even though I recognize it can come in quite handy. My way of getting the Landed on Water science: I drove a barge into the water with a science lander attached. Once in the water I detached the lander, which gained the Landed situation due to being landed on top of a barge. That the barge is Splashed does not matter as far as the game is concerned. Other people on this forum suggest "landing" on the sea floor with a submarine or finding a small piece of ice shelf that is inside the Water biome, but I think the current solution is much more practical. Visiting remote locations by plane and landing in the water to get the Splashed science. Many thanks to the KSP forumites who scoured Kerbin in its entirety, in search for places where you can land on water in all the different biomes of Kerbin. See this forum thread for a list: The Caveman challenge completed: all tech up to level 5 unlocked. The next step will be to complete my investigation of Kerbin (visit the aforementioned Southern Ice Shelf, and repeat Goo and Materials in a couple of biomes to get the maximum science from those experiments). After that I plan to visit Kerbin's upper atmosphere and Kerbin orbit (using the Caveman ladder trick to get the EVA reports) to unlock all remaining Kerbin science. If I am still motivated after that I plan to visit Minmus and the Mun next, harvesting all science from those under Caveman rules. And after that, who knows? I might visit Gilly, Duna, and/or Ike. I don't think I will do Jool - judging by the awesome Community Caveman Jool-5 mission on this forum, doing this by myself may be a bit too much. Landing on and returning from Eve under Caveman rules has a certain charm as well...

Sweet! One question: why only silver star variants for the STS-1b and STS-2b missions? I've done combined STS-1a/1b and STS-2a/2b missions at the commander level, and I would like to be able to show off the gold stars of those missions as well as the piping in a single badge, if possible.

The new badge looks very nice! Could you please post a CDR unmodded badge as well? I'd like to see how different the new gold badges are from the silver ones, as I found the old ones very hard to distinguish (it honestly took me a few missions before I even spotted the difference between modded and unmodded badges). If possible I would like to see a more pronounced colour difference between silver and gold - I like the stars in the existing test mission badges more than the CDR level badges, as the colour of the stars in those is easier to distinguish from the silver ones of the PLT badges. You could also make the badges a bit smaller: the current ones are 130 pixels, but that is a bit too tall for the maximum allowed picture size in a signature (which is 125 pixels according to the HTML code of the signature bar).

Hitting an object several kilometers long is not the same as hitting an object a few meters in diameter, as you should be well aware. I suppose you could spawn a rover on the runway, drive the rover to the known impact point of a previous attempt and then launch a missile at it, but that would go against the spirit of the challenge. In my opinion this challenge should be to spawn a capsule on the runway or the launchpad and try to hit that.

I put a spacecraft on the Dessert airfield launch pad to get a precise measurement. How did you get the launch azimuth as accurate as that?

I got to within 4 kilometers north of the target. This is the limit of accuracy for my unguided missile: If I turn the missile by the minimum amount in the VAB it will miss the target 5.4 km to the south. The only commands I am giving it are to launch and to separate the warhead once above the atmosphere. I don't give any other inputs and leave SAS off. My missile on the launch pad. Its warhead consists of 5 tons of napalm rocket fuel inside a protective fairing My warhead about to impact close to the Dessert Airfield

Ooh, more shiny badges! I wants them, I needs them! Seriously, thanks for looking over my missions. I realize I have been giving you a lot of work the last few days by pumping them out like crazy, but that is because I have to go back to work next week. My completionist self wanted to finish the entire Shuttle challenge before that. And as promised, my STS-3T mission report: https://imgur.com/a/3LyQN4J It includes some pictures of the spacecraft at the end, to prove that it fulfils all the detailed requirements of the mission. Some highlights: Huygens probe on Laythe Pol flyby Vall flyby The end And with that, I have completed this entire set of challenges. I have enjoyed them very much - it was great fun to design and build my own Space Shuttle, and to keep tinkering with it to make it do ever more complex missions. Frankly, I am amazed at what my Shuttle design has shown itself capable of. My initial design goals were rather modest: to build a shuttle that (a) was capable of placing two Mulletdyne probes into LKO (to fulfil STS-1b in style); (b) had an appreciable amount of in orbit delta-v; and (c) was a little bit different from other people's designs. On top of that I wanted to do a live booster landing development program, akin to what SpaceX has been doing with its Falcon 9 rocket. From the start the goal has been to design a booster that was fully reusable and capable of returning to the tarmac in front of the SPH. I am very proud to be able to say that my Gemini design delivered all of this and then some. I also very much enjoyed designing, building and operating the various payloads for these missions, among them my favourite object that I have ever built in KSP - I'm of course talking about my space telescope. But also the other payloads, big and small, that taken together give a fairly complete overview of what you can do in KSP. I also liked that this challenge invited me to research some of the more obscure bits of KSP, such as the possibility to control a probe remotely. THANK YOU, @sturmhauke, for running this awesome set of missions. And THANK YOU, @michal.don, for running the previous installment of this challenge. These missions have been excellently designed, and in my opinion, would not be out of place as the main campaign of a commercial Space Shuttle simulator game built on top of the KSP engine. There was a time, some 10 years ago, when the Orbiter spaceflight sim was my all-time favourite game. It has now been superceded by this campaign. I cannot recommend it enough.

And I have finished STS-3T. After the initial ejection burn, which was spot-on given that it was a single stage solid rocket motor, and a minor course correction I had an encounter with Laythe on the initial pass through the Jool system. Not only did that encounter put me into an elliptical Joolian orbit, it was also just right for deploying the Huygens lander. It aerobraked in Laythe's atmosphere, which was very violent, but the probe survived intact and sent experimental data from numerous science instruments both from the atmosphere and the surface, with Cassini functioning as relay. I then had an encounter with Pol followed one orbit around Jool later by an encounter with Vall, which sent me straight towards an encounter with Tylo. While fine-tuning this encounter (I managed to get to about 40 km from Tylo's surface) I noticed that the trajectory would intersect Jool directly after that. The probe then burnt up in Jool's atmosphere as planned. I feared that the specified amounts of fuel would not be enough, but in the end I need not have worried: I used about 1/3 of the fuel in both tanks. Full report tomorrow, I'm off to bed now. My encounter with Tylo. I managed to get within 40 km of the largest moon in the game before plunging into the green depths of Jool

I completed STS-4T, Skylab rescue. I used the Skylab version that is included in the challenge description and flew the required two missions: the first one added a docking port and propulsion module, while deorbiting the solar panel array and the hab module. And the second one added a new solar panel array, a new antenna mast and a new hab module, as well as a 4-Kerbal crew. Both missions then landed the shuttles and boosters. This did not go without a hitch: one of the shuttles missed its touchdown point and ran off the runway, while one of the boosters crashed. The immediate cause of the accident was a severe imbalance due to lack of fuel to pump around. But ultimately I blame overconfidence and lack of sleep on my part. Fortunately, the test missions don't have a requirement that the shuttles land on the runway, so I think I'm good. But if required I can do the landing again. Although the craft was out of balance I think it should be possible to land it properly with a bit of practice. Full mission reports here: https://imgur.com/a/SrhC2Nd (first flight), and https://imgur.com/a/jwJRA5J (second flight). As part of the first Skylab flight I also deployed my version of the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft for the STS-3T mission. It has successfully performed its ejection burn and is on its way to Jool. I'll write a separate mission report once that mission is complete. Some highlights: End of Skylab mission 1. Solar panel array stowed in the starboard cargo bay; hab module in the aft position of the port cargo bay. Forward in the port cargo bay some extra living quarters and a docking port for connecting with the space station. At the back of the station a propulsion module has been added. Skylab in its final form at the end of the second flight. New solar panel array, new antenna's and a new, larger hab module.

I finished STS-9. I was unsure if this would even be possible with my shuttle design, as with a single asteroid in one of its cargo bays the craft would be severely asymmetrical. I even made contingency plans to capture and land with two asteroids, but in the end that was not necessary. I landed the shuttle on the KSC runway. As usual I landed my booster on the KSC runway as well. Almost nothing of this mission went according to plan. My careful encounter with the asteroid missed it by 15 thousand kilometer once the asteroid had finished a flyby with Kerbin. Apparently the Kerbal astronomers in my employ don't know how to properly predict minor solar system bodies' orbits. I also encountered this bug with the asteroid mass: https://bugs.kerbalspaceprogram.com/issues/24855 which turned my 2 ton class A asteroid into a 150 ton monster, and which I had to fix by manually editing the save file as well as one of the game's config files. I then had trouble getting an equatorial encounter with Kerbin, which I solved with a brute force low Kerbin orbit plane shift burn. Landing the Shuttle went surprisingly well despite the asymmetric loads, but I almost lost the booster because when trimming the CoM I accidentally pumped all the remaining propellants to one side. It then started flying sideways, something I had never seen a booster do before. It most certainly was not the pleasant, stress-free flight that I had envisaged, but I managed to solve all these problems and complete all mission objectives. Full report here: https://imgur.com/a/x3Ml35V Just a single highlight this time: One space potato, coming your way! @sturmhaukeWould it be ok if I combined STS-3T with one of the STS-4T flights? The idea would be to lift Kassini-Huygens in one of my shuttle's cargo bays and some new Skylab components in the other one. This would save me some time as it eliminates one shuttle and booster landing.

I finished JOOL STS-1. And I did not use a paradrop as that was deemed too unreliable. I did a direct Laythe aerocapture and landed near the old landing site from my Jool-5 mission. I then flew a recon mission with a small airplane while refueling the shuttle using the ISRU unit. I took off from Laythe using ramjets and plotted a course back to Kerbin. Since I had quite a bit of fuel remaining I performed a hefty braking burn prior to Kerbin aerocapture to prevent overheating my craft before landing on the KSC runway. I also landed my booster, but it landed on the island runway as I overshot the KSC. This has turned out to be the most difficult shuttle mission to date, by a considerable margin. I had all kinds of problems getting my shuttle to take off from Laythe, prompting a complete rebuild as the old model had lots of "built-in headwind" due to questionable construction techniques. I also had to spend a full day designing the landing gear of my recon plane, to prevent it from tipping over during landing - I simply did not want to run the mission with a plane that was almost impossible to land. And I had to spend considerable time getting to grips with the ISRU system: it turned out to be quite hard to design a reliable system that (a) fits inside a cargo bay; (b) can be deployed from that cargo bay and (c) is able to move under its own power. Full report here: https://imgur.com/a/QNfeyWi Some highlights: In flight over Laythe prior to landing, with the remains of my Jool-5 mission in sight. I landed to the left of here, where there was a large, flat, promising landing site. ISRU unit deployment using sepratrons. It then landed next to the shuttle under parachutes. I named the drill operator Rockhound Kerman, after that terrible movie with Space Shuttles and drill crews, Armageddon Deploying Jeb's Ride, my recon plane. Jebediah Kerman specifically requested to go on this mission as he wanted to be the first to take off in a plane from Laythe. I deployed Jeb's Ride simply by having it fly vertically out of the cargo bay, as you can see here. Jeb's ride is a terrible aircraft, its only saving grace being that it fits inside a cargo bay. It is barely controllable unless you enable SAS. I dislike flying planes in KSP using SAS as with SAS on planes do not tend to fly naturally. Laythe takeoff, powered by 4 ramjets. Despite rebuilding my entire Shuttle from scratch, these ramjets were the only addition. Apart from the ramjets my new shuttle uses exactly the same elements as the old one, but it is constructed much more cleanly. With the ramjets, my shuttle is also quite a capable SSTO when taking off from Kerbin. Landing on the KSC runway. The new shuttle build flies substantially better than my old design.

I tried that yesterday, but did not have much luck landing the isru in one piece. Needed lots of chutes, landing legs to cushion the shock, as well as wheels to drive around to the shuttle. All that takes a rather large payload hit. I did not think of using the LES but I think it is much too heavy. (Checks) Yeah, at 1.125 tons you can have lots of sepratrons instead. But the bigger problem with my shuttle turns out to be lifting off from Laythe. My shuttle is really good at aerobraking / aerocapture / landing but it isn't much of an SSTO. I've made an entirely new version of my shuttle that is much cleaner than the old version while looking exactly the same. The old one was glued together with cubic octagonal struts - it had lots of unexpected aero drag. Funny thing is that the new design is harder to land because it does not stop as readily :). I expect that with a center mounted cargo bay with doors on the bottom it is relatively straightforward. With my shuttle design it is really dicey to pull off. During a drop the CoM shifts sideways, unless you drop 2 packages at once from both cargo bays. I needed lots of spare fuel to pump around during a drop to keep the CoM centered. I even tried flying upside down during a drop, but that did not work so well. Getting into a steep dive turned out to work most reliably.

And there goes my plan for deploying the ISRU unit on Laythe as well: I've been practising paradrops this morning specifically for that... Things get interesting when doing cargo drops with payload bay doors on top and side-by-side payload bays, only one of which contains cargo to be dropped. Oh well, time to think of something else. Thanks! I just had a peek at your Duna insight challenge, and it looks very interesting. I may well try it at some point (possibly with my Shuttle, even - it has proven to be quite a capable design to Duna). And I think I have a suitable idea for the level IV rank. But I'm going to do JOOL STS-1 first since it is already in an advanced planning / test phase.

I completed DUNA STS-3. I once more went to Duna, this time to deliver a lander. I performed another aerocapture before docking with my orbital outpost. I then deployed the lander and landed next to my surface base, picking up the 4 Kerbal base crew. I then returned the lander to orbit and docked with the outpost again. After transfering the base crew and the 2-Kerbal outpost crew to the shuttle, it then departed for Eve, where I set up a gravity assist back to Kerbin. Once inside Eve's SOI i deployed two relay satellites, on in a high polar orbit, the other in low retrograde equatorial orbit. I then aerocaptured at Kerbin before landing on the KSC runway. As usual I also landed the booster on the KSC runway. I had the option of using the remaining fuel that was left in Duna orbit by the DUNA STS-2 support mission, but I chose not to use any, as my Shuttle had enough fuel of its own. Full mission report (warning: it is a long one, as this is a very complex mission): https://imgur.com/a/Ae2gnVp Some highlights: My lander, landing almost on top of Deimos base.Its landing point was less than 600 meters from the base, which I think is quite good for a parachute landing. One of my relay satellites aerobraking at Eve Resulting relay satellite orbits. One is in a retrograde equatorial 100 x 100 km orbit, the other in a polar 5700 x 5700 km one. Shuttle on final approach to the KSC runway after a lengthy, highly complex and completely successful mission

DUNA STS-3. MIssion not yet complete, but satellite deployment around Eve successful! Although it might help to read the mission requirements carefully: Yup, I mixed them up, and I'll just have to do this again. Hopefully, now that I know it works, the second time around will be less stressful, as this ranks as one of the most difficult things I have ever done in KSP. Two aerocaptures in Eve's hellish atmosphere within minutes of one another, no knowledge at all whether the delta-v of the relays would be sufficient for circularization afterwards (is it even possible to use the cheat menu to set up a flyby trajectory with your ship at the SOI entrance? - I have been unable to find if it is and hence was unable to test this set of maneuvers before the mission) and a near miss between one of my relays and my shuttle due to a mistake in the shuttle's attitude at satellite deployment. And all that while doing a gravity assist with the Shuttle - something I have never done successfully before, even though I have been playing KSP for years. Edit: and we finished the mission! It took a few tries to get the Eve constellation right but the gravity assist went well, as I got a Kerbin encounter without any difficulties. Report later.

Cool challenge! I'll do the Dynetics one, as I already made the lander. When I first saw it I simply had to make it. Mine is virtually the same as Rhomphaia's, but I have another idea that I want to try as well.