Kuiper_Belt

I spent a day in Paint 3D a while back and with at wonderful PDF with all the Shuttle Exterior Markings for each mission. Literally just as I went go find it on google to link in this post I found another wonderful PDF for the SRBs and ET! So with the shuttle marking guide I sat down and made a bunch of flags that looked similar to the various markings to get closer and closer to realism. Subsequently I realized that I needed those gold umbilicals.I made them as flags from screenshot of the side of the aft fuselage part. I personally plan on releasing them but I have to sit down and make an American flag at the correct aspect ratio at some point so I don’t need to keep carefully clipping two flag conformal decals together. I might also make some more decals but who knows !

Watching this mod being developed has been fantastic. I really appreciate the frequent updates! The work you've been putting out has truly been stunning! I do have a couple questions though, Are you designing this with KSRSS at 2.5x Kerbal Scale or normal Kerbal Scale? What are the clouds looking like at lower orbits? I curious because, generally fool around in LEO at 300 kilometers above the surface with the Shuttle and ISS so this would be the regime where I would hang out the most. Is this going to be like the wild texture overhauls in PRVE like this or a more scaled down less intensive version? I've prefer the nutso realistic texture but completely understand if you bias toward performance. I'm not a modder and my lack of understanding of making a mods, makes watching this mod come alive all the more impressive. Can't wait to eventually play with this!

STS-9B - Expand The Lab - June 1980 Authors Note: This will be a modified version of NASA's plan to revitalize Skylab for the Shuttle Program. This is Episode 2 of 4 As I 've already conducted Skylab Reboost. Perhaps I'll expand on the idea of Shuttle Skylab, but I want to first conduct the missions NASA had planned, the delivery of the Nodal Module, dedicated refurbishment missions, and the power module. I personally plan to deliver the power module and then conduct refurbishment missions as to allow Skylab to be at full power. Bottom line, real -ish Mission, modified for artistic liberty . Enjoy! After a resounding success with STS-2A, and the Teleoperated Retrieval System, Skylab was now safely in a higher orbit and NASA had a station with nearly 12,500 cubic feet of pressurized volume and a reusable space truck at their disposal. It isn't all good news however. Skylab has been in orbit for more than 9 years and it solar panels have degraded significantly. Compounded with the fact that Skylab lost its port solar array, Skylab had a serious lack of power preventing it from being simply reactivated. The solution was to add an additional power module with two massive solar array wings. Preceding this addition, Skylab would first be outfitted with a Nodal Module, proving both adequate clearance and compatible docking hardware for the Space Shuttle. Now far a beyond traditional probe and drogue port of the Apollo Era, the Space Shuttle sports the new Androgynous Peripheral Attachment System or APAS-75 docking port created jointly by the Soviet Union and the US for the Apollo Soyuz Test Project. 5 days prior to launch. Houston released the latches and allowed the TRS to undock from the forward port of Skylab. After backing off from the station, Skylab was ready for the guests. Flown by Challenger STS-9B tucked away in the payload bay sits the Skylab Docking Module, featuring 1 Male Apollo Docking Mechanism to attach to Skylab's forward port and then 1 APAS-75 docking port 1 facing forward. Radially 4 APAS-L ports (This is not a real port just one I "invented” for the sake of the design) A stripped down version of APAS 75 strictly for berthing components. In addition is a Spacelab Pallet, carrying four docking adapters each featuring APAS-75 and APAS-L ports. With a crew of 6, mission control stood by for the liftoff in the evening. With a target inclination of 50 degrees, Space Shuttle Challenger is in the" heads down wings level" position on the launch azimuth, next phase being booster separation 2 minutes 7 seconds into flight, after which for 6 minutes it will use the 3 main engines to coast the rest of the way to orbit. After reaching orbit, the STS-9B crew conducted burns to perfect the rendezvous course with Skylab. After completing maneuvers the crew situated themselves to retrieve the SDM from Challengers payload bay. After berthing the SDM to the Shuttle Docking System, the crew can begin attaching the docking adapters to the radial ports. Now the the SDM was completely outfitted with its docking adapters, the crew now coasted until they met up with Skylab. After two days in a rendezvous orbit, Challenger's crew could clearly see Skylab through the windows and now began approach and docking procedures. Lets listen in. Houston. we are 75 meters out. Rodger, Challenger. Proceed past the hold point. Houston, Proceeding past the hold point. 50 Meters out Houston, 10 meters out, holding. Challenger, remain holding for a moment, you will be entering a brief blackout period. Rodger, Houston. See you on the other side. ~143 Seconds Later Challenger, this is Houston, you may resume your final approach. Rodger, Houston. Resuming Approach Houston, Soft Capture Confirmed. Challenger, prepare for Probe Retract and Hard Capture. Welcome to Skylab. After Skylab 4's departure in February of 1974 STS-9B is the first manned Spacecraft to dock to Skylab in 6 years. However, due to Skylab's power deficit, the crew will not be entering station as Life Support systems have been long deactivated. The crew however will demonstrate pressurizing the intermediate space between the APAS-75 ahead of actually entering the SDM on future mission. The next scheduled mission to Skylab, STS-16C will enter the SDM but not enter Skylab itself, saving the grand reveal for STS-21D. However, the crew of STS-9B does get one nice surprise. A 1 man EVA to establish connections between the SDM, docking adapters, and forward Skylab port. Lastly, the crew of STS-9B will verify joint control between Skylab and Space Shuttle Challenger, affirming the ability for possible reboots using the Space Shuttle Orbiter itself. No longer compatible with the current TRS stationed in orbit, a mission will be launched with the express purpose of replacing the current TRS with a new model with an APAS-75 port, then recover the old TRS for refurbishment. After exhibiting complete control authority over Skylab, Challenger repositions Skylab in its normal orientation and prepares to undock. Challenger and the crew after backing away reorient for an OMS burn to lower the orbit for reentry preparations over a two day period. After closing the Payload Bay doors, Challenger prepared for it entry burn to land at the KSC, in an hour's time. Challenger landed after spending 9 days in orbit, landed at Kennedy Space Center's Runway 33. Challenger would be refurbished and see several missions before its next flight to Skylab in early 1982. Hope you liked this installation of Shuttle Adventures! I plan on covering the Shuttle-Skylab more especially with the focus on the Skylab IVA by Zorg! The next mission I conduct will be presented in a less worded format, only having a brief introduction and conclusion section. I'm thinking a Shuttle Mir mission, its been too long since I've flown to Mir . Until then, So long!

Can't Have Too Many Ports! The Skylab Docking Hub Coming Soon!

STATIONS STATIONS STATIONS!!!!! Space Stations are going to be a focus of the next couple missions! I'll be working on Shuttle Skylab Missions, Shuttle Mir Missions and a Shuttle Salyut mission in the near future. I'd like to thank you for responding to the poll! It's good insight that people do in fact like the more information based missions They are my preferred mission type to make as I love reading about the details myself but I there is a significant amount of votes for more imaged based works is important. The way I'm probably going to proceed is do a Shuttle-Skylab mission which was only proposed and not actually flown in a more image based way, and then conduct a Shuttle-Mir mission which did happen in an information based way. Afterwards depending on how I feel I'll probably bias to one way or the other. I'll probably stick to more information based both due to poll results and my preference but who knows! I am willing to accept any feedback you'd like to offer in fact if you do have any ideas or suggestions please do speak up! Anyways life permitting, I hope to have more missions coming soon! Until then, so long!

Revitalization of an Oasis Among The Stars: Featuring Space Shuttle Challenger Can't wait to fully conduct the Shuttle Skylab missions with these wonderful parts! The question is, do the Shuttles take the classic shuttle stack or a Saturn-Shuttle to orbit?

Modular Skylab I think its beautifully cursed! Can't wait to send the Shuttles to Skylab with that bad boy! Those parts are beautiful! Fantastic work as always!

Seldom do I find myself as excited for a mod than I am for this! I played with Ad Astra prior to moving to KSRSS a little over a year ago and I always missed the legendary visuals I had left behind. I cannot wait to play with this!

A wonderful mod called Waterfall and Rocket Motor Menagerie! The SSMEs from RMM are 25% too big so I scaled the rocket plumes down accordingly. Using Tweak Scale it goes from 1.25 to .938 and the SSME waterfall config goes from 1.33 to 1. I also clip two of the scaled SSMEs where one would reside to correct for the thrust lost. Hope this helps!

Go for it! Can't wait to see it! As for the other questions, I am certain Lemon's tank is a custom creation made of Restock bits but as to wring wear on the Shuttle that something I am not aware of . P.S. I've been loving your thread!

You’ve got it right. It was quite a wacky process! As to convert over previous saves, they load fine but the .25x RSS Earth is slightly bigger then 2.5x Kerbin KSRSS, Atmosphere size follows that same trend. So currently all my LEO craft are screwed in old saves but with some tweaks in the sigma rescale configs I could probably do it. I’m also fine with starting a new save as mine was rather cluttered in LEO . I’m still having a little trouble with the local terrain near The Cape but it’s a small price to pay for my Venus and Titan being intact !

The X-38 Crew Return Vehicle - An ISS Blueprints Special The X-38 CRV was a component planned to be provided by the United States to act as an escape pod in the event of an emergency on the Station. I've documented its history and its planned mission and demise in Shuttle Adventures! You can find parts 1 and 2 below. I am quite proud of these missions and I believe the CRVs significance to the ISS warrants them being linked here! Check them out if you’d like and I'll leave you with a nice picture of the ISS in the CRV timeline prior to the deliver of the CRV:

The X-38 Crew Return Vehicle: Part 2 - STS-136 - April 2007 In the beginnings of the program, the X-38 was scheduled to have an orbital test flight in 2001 but after several delays the craft would launch aboard Space Shuttle Discovery to be integrated with the International Space Station. Classified as an Assembly Mission, the CRVs test was one of the final Scheduled missions for the stations assembly, falling behind only the Centrifuge Accommodations Module. Discovery and the crew stood by at Pad-39A awaiting the window to launch for the Orbital Outpost. Prepare to be spammed with images. Information on this mission is quite sparse and that will be explained later. So instead of giving detailed information about mission timeline, I'll have pictures and intermittent procedure information. Lemon_Cup's plumes are flexing their muscles here! Absolutely Fantastic! After the 8 minute ascent and orbital insertion burn, Discovery prepares to expose the Crew Return Vehicle to vistas of the Cosmos. V-201 sports an addition that the previous vehicles didn't, The Deorbital Propulsion Module, meant to deorbit the CRV. Space Shuttle Discovery isn't equipped the the Canadarm as the CRV takes up space where the Canadarm would normally reside. In addition the Crew will continue procedures to Rendezvous with the International Space Station. Over the coast of California, Approximately 2 days after launch, Discovery, The CRV, and the International Space Station drift together and dock, marking a major milestone of STS-136's mission. Crew aboard the Station monitor the docking through the the Cupola and then begin to prepare to berth the CRV to its designated Adapter. After being berthed, the crew entered via Tranquilities Starboard hatch to examine the spacecraft and begin its long duration test. First spending 3 months docked to the ISS then autonomously undocking deorbiting and landing. For now ,the joint ISS and STS-136 crew would conduct experiments and maintain the ISS before Discovery undocked. After backing off from the Station, Discovery prepared to deorbit and land at Edwards Airforce Base. After landing at Runway 22 at Edwards, Discovery flew back on the SCA, leaving the place where the CRV took its first flights, after delivering the CRV to its first stay in space. Back at the Station, the CRV is awaiting its first departure and deorbit. The CRV would back off from its docking port, then weave in between the large S1 Radiator array, then slowly drifts from the Station. then the CRV would coast to the point in which It would deorbit, using the DPS and then jettisoning it, reorienting and preparing for reentry and landing at Edwards. After being recovered, the CRV would be returned and eventually be crew rated and launched again to support the ISS. I am not sure whether it would have flown on an SCA but I think it was too cool to pass up on! Additional Use Cases and Fate of the Crew Return Vehicle The Crew Return Vehicle had no reason to be an STS exclusive. With additional modifications including a launch escape system and a new service module, the CRV was studied as being used with the Ariane V: and Delta IV as a crew transport. But unfortunately this would never come to fruition. It is important to know that the Crew Return Vehicle was placed under the budget of the International Space Station and as the budget grew out of proportion, Congress deemed that things needed to be cut to save money. Along side the Habitation and Centrifuge Accommodations Modules, the Crew Return Vehicle was cut from the project. To add insult to injury, V-201, the orbital prototype was 90% complete at the time of cancellation. Finally, less than a year after its cancellation, Space Shuttle Columbia would tragically be destroyed after being struck by Foam from the External Tank and burning up on reentry, resulting in STS-136 being cancelled along with most other missions on the launch manifest prior to the disaster. The Space Shuttle Program would eventually come to a close at STS-135, NASA just clawing that back from the jaws of Congress with them initially only funding through STS-134, making STS-136 sound a bit off. An echo of what could have been. Something that puzzles me personally is that Scaled Composites, the Company that manufactured the Prototypes didn't throw their hat in the ring for the Commercial Cargo and Commercial Crew contracts. The closest thing we have to the X-38 now is the Dream Chaser, the modified design of the HL-20 that lost to the X-38 prior. It may have lost the battle but it will win the war once it docks to the ISS in the coming years. I loved making this mission! It was a long time in the making and the part lag was awful (ISS + Shuttle + CRV was approximately 600 parts) but it sure was worth it. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I did making it! More missions coming soon and I'll leave you with a picture of two Shuttles on SCAs right next to each other! So long!

The X-38 Crewed Return Vehicle: Part 1 - The Dryden Tests - 1997 - 2001 The Genesis of Space Station Freedom along with immense excitement and inspiration came concerns, chiefly, return of the crew. Initially, the idea would be to leave the crew on orbit with no vehicle docked to the station. In the event of an issue, a Space Shuttle would be launched to return the crew. In the wake of the Challenger Disaster, it was understood that this was not a solution. Space Station Freedom needed a dedicated Escape Pod. Now Space Station Alpha and eventually the International Space Station, the problem had not changed. Several designs has been considered with two major differentiations, Capsule or Plane. Capsules had several ideas behind them, first being based around the Viking Probe Heatshields followed by Apollo derived capsules, and lastly the Russian Soyuz space craft. Then in the Space Plane division the HL-20 was considered (Which would evolve into Dream Chaser) and the X-38. When considering the possibility of injury, the space planes would apply less load on passengers than a capsule, leading to the X-38 selection. The X-38s design can be traced back to 2 major projects in the 1960s, the American X-24 and the Soviet Spiral space plane. All being Lifting body designs the X-38 would follow in their footsteps. The X-38 was an exception in many ways to the X-plane program as it included the European Space Agency and the German Space Agency. In addition the X-38 was originally designated the X-35 but redesignated to avoid confusion with the Lockheed Martin X-35 the precursor to the F-35 Lightning II. The X-38 was designed to fit into he Space Shuttle Payload bay and return to the Earth as a glider, eventually deploying the worlds largest parafoil prior to touchdown. The X-38 underwent several tests amounting to the first drop tests in 1999. Bound to a B-52 the X-38's V-131 V-132 and V-131-R would be deployed at 45,000 feet and near transonic speeds to then glide to a runway at NASA Dryden at Edwards Airforce Base. Deploying the parafoil the X-38 would be guided autonomously with a backup ground based pilot ready to intervene. With successful flights under the programs belt and the design being refined NASA began the exciting prospect of X-38 Vehicle-201 the Orbital Prototype. Part 2: STS-136 Coming Tomorrow!

A Trip Home On Demand! The Cancelled Crew Return Vehicle & STS-136 Coming Soon...

Now We're Cooking With PBAN! Many Thanks to Lemon_Cup for their fantastic work with the SRB Waterfall Configs! Boost phase has never looked so great!

Launch Complex 39B - A Beautiful Legacy and Future The LDC parts were great for the Ares 1X Second Stage! TUFX's affect on the visuals are profound for screenshots! P.S. Happy Roll Out!

As a Delta IV lover I am absolutely ecstatic that LC 37 gets the treatment it deserves! Can’t wait to play with the update!

Looks absolutely amazing! I'm happy you've made a black variant for us EFT-1 lovers! Delta IV + Orion = Forever . Cant wait to give it a spin! Happy Rollout Day!

Engine Swap! - An Update of My Activities! Hello! I wish I could say I've been making progress on upcoming missions but I regret to say I haven't . But I can explain myself. First, some exposition. I had conducted all of my missions in KSRSS at 2.5x Kerbal Scale and used KSRSSVE for most of that time. Well, while snooping on the forums, I discovered a mod called KVE, which modifies the textures of Earths Surface and Clouds and makes them look absolutely stunning. When I tested it I was hooked. But all good things come at a cost. For some inexplicable reason, to not only me but the mod author as well, Venus and Titans atmospheres were altered. Some examples are included after their respective correct counterparts. Venus is my favorite non Earth planet and Titan is my second favorite moon (after good ol Luna) and I was not about to give them up. I was also not going to give up that fantastic terrain. After snooping in the KVE thread and noting that the Mod author had not solved the issue and had not been on the forums for a while I elected to try and fix it myself. Nothing seemed to work including me deleting Venus and Titan, copying their assets into a separate mod I structured in such a way to isolate them from KSRSS and KVE. Granted I'm no mod expert so I probably did something wrong or stupid . So after a bit of time defeated I came up with one final plan. Swap out KSRSS with RSS! (While finishing up I thought of the RS25 swap on SLS so that's the title explained!) Of course downscaled to 2.5x Kerbal Scale. After installing RSS, having issues with KK not playing nicely and repositioning the Katniss Cape ground, I am fairly confident I have won the battle between me and modding! It isnt exactly the same and I am working to continually refine it but I hope that this will be the last modding complication for a while. Here are some results! I think it was worth the time! Some very exciting things are about to happen! SLS roll out, wet dress, and hopefully a subsequent launch! I plan on covering the SLS launch vehicle in the thread here but I am considering making a dedicated thread for the Artemis Missions! Covering launches such as CAPSTONE, Gateway and subsequent assembly and resupply missions, obviously the landings, and other things! Tell me what you think of this and where I should start? All they way back to OFT-1 and Launch abort tests? Start with CAPSTONE? I am all ears. Lastly, the missions I currently have planned in no particular order, Solid Rocket Booster Segment Derived SDLVs, X-38 and STS-136, Shuttle Salyut Program, The First Hubble Servicing Mission STS-61, and last but certainly not least, STS-51A. Sorry for the delay in reports, more missions coming soon!

Exceptionally excited for this! Realistic screenshots will continue to be pushed further! I believe that the Japanese H-II mod, Gemstone LV and Knes would be mods worthy of your treatment. Can't wait to watch this mod develop further!

Space Shuttle Advanced Boosters - A Series of Investigated Upgrades to STS The Space Shuttle's Solid Rocket Boosters accounted for 85% of the lift off thrust, and 69% of the lift off mass on any given mission. The SSSRMs were the largest solid rocket boosters ever flown and helped push the Space Shuttle to contribute all of its missions, except for their only failure during STS-51-L more commonly known as the Challenger disaster. Before and after Challenger, studies were conducted on the replacement or modification of the boosters to provide more payload to orbit or cheaper flight costs. Detailed, are the Recoverable Liquid Booster and Filament Wound Booster Casings. Eventually I will cover the modification of existing booster casings such as the 5 segment booster, SRB-X, and other varieties. Recoverable Liquid Boosters When the Shuttle had just left the ground on the Approach and Landing Tests, NASA already had plans to replace them with the Space Shuttle Recoverable Liquid Boosters. These unlike the solid counterparts could be shut down midflight in the event of a failure providing a Shuttle better abort modes to save the crew on ascent. The Liquid Boosters would be powered by a special variant of an RS-25, a model with an expansion ratio of 35 instead of the standard 69. This is due to the fact that the boosters would be only flying in the dense atmosphere thus the over expanded nature of the Standard SSME was not necessary. After the Boost Phase and Booster Jettison, they would fly much the same path as the standard solids. With an eventual destination in the ocean the engines would be covered with an inflating hemisphere to shield the engines from the corrosive sea water. It was hoped that with he new liquid boosters, flight safety and cost per kilogram of payload could be improved allowing for more flights for the Shuttle program, permitting for novel new payloads. Filament Wound Casings The USAF was a major component of the design of the Space Shuttle contributing heavily to the shape of the orbiter and the addition of a second launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base. But the Air Force could not beat the physics involved with there plans. Launching satellites to polar orbits necessitates you loosing all horizontal velocity east to west, including that provided by Earth. Since you are spending precious fuel to cancel out Earths rotation, you lose payload mass to compensate. So the only way to gain back more payload it to lower the dry mass of your rocket. The Space Shuttle Solids, were made from steel casings allowing for some margin to be made by remaking them with Carbon Composites, allowing for heavier [REDACTED] to be deployed into high inclination orbits. At the locations of the mounting points to the ET, steel is kept for addition structural support, in addition to the normal Avionics, Aft Skirt Section, and Parachute cone. FOIA request of such a mission provided by the USAF - Totally 10000% real This was a fun one to make! Special thanks to @lemon cup for their awesome work on the Solid Rocket Plumes! I plan to show them off more with the segmented boosters installment. Life's been rough schedule wise so I hope to be more frequent here in the future, life permitting . More missions coming soon ! I had been cowering the web for the mod for a while but then some KSP YouTube video had it in the description! You can find it here!

Hello, I have been playing around with a mod called KVE for another mod, KSRSS but keep experiencing a problem with atmospheres of Venus and Titan. The mod author has seen this problem and hasn't found a solution so that why I've come here. Here's the issue with KSRSS and KVE: And here's what they normally look like with just KSRSS: What's odd is that Venus and Titan aren't meant to be affected by KVE but still are and that Mars is left unaffected. Here is the log with KVE and KSRSS and the log with just KSRSS. I've done a little experimenting and I've found that when the modified KVE Clouds.cfg is installed, it bricks the atmosphere of Venus and Titan but the standards KSRSS Clouds.cfg leaves Venus and Titan fine but bricks earth. I presume this is due to the fact that KVE introduces new textures for Earths atmosphere and terrain and cant be handled by the original KSRSS Cloud.cfg but why it breaks Venus and Titan is a mystery to me. I don't really understand much of anything about module manager . Hopefully this is all the information you need and if you need anything else I'll try to get it to you as fast as possible. Thanks!

MOAR BOOSTERS! Space Shuttle Booster Upgrades Coming Soon!

Well I can give you instructions on how I did it but whether its properly implemented is up to the eye of the beholder! Without further adieu: Spawn in a craft and then open the cheat menu or hyper edit and set yourself to Edwards Airforce Base's Location 34.9240° N and 117.8912° W. Open your Kerbal Konstructs Menu (CTRL+K) and navigate to find "Edwards Land" and spawn it in. Set the Scale to 15 (I decided this by eyeballing the runway scale with the a SOCK Shuttle's Wingspan) and then find a nice place to put it down and then put it down You now have your very own Edwards Airforce Base! You could go through and line up structure with the correct orientation so the runways actually line up with their correct headings but I haven't done that as if yet. I'm not sure if they're already lined up or not... You can now enjoy landing your Shuttles on the sweet lake beds of California. And for viewing pleasure, some pictures of an STS-114 landing I did before I realized they landed at night . Hopefully this helps you out!