AdrianDogmeat

SSA-2 - PART III | STATION OPERATIONS After a successful docking of Node-A to the aft docking port of Space Station Beta [Aquarius], Mission Control alongside the teams at Rockwell Aerospace and Lockheed Martin will continue to monitor both the station and the Autonomous Maneuvering Vehicle, performing a series of pre-planned flight events - including a Station Reboost maneuver. AMV-1 will separate from SSA after four weeks from initial docking, re-entering over the designated disposal zone over the Pacific Northeast on March 11th, 2007 at 11:35 PM EST / 4:35 AM UTC "First Orbit Pass, thirty five minutes away from Station Reboost" "Thirty minutes in, All systems report nominal readings" "Standing-by for Station Reboost burn startup - Auxiliary Thrusters Firing" "Station Reboost burn startup" "L-plus one hour post-reboost - Space Station Beta now at an altitude of one hundred and ten miles above Earth" [...] "Standing-by for AMV Separation" "AMV Separation Confirmed - Guidance Systems now taking over Phase II of the mission" "Flip-up Maneuver initialized" "AMV now eighty feet away from the Station" "AMV now twenty five feet from the Station - Strobe lights Activated" "Contact - Docking port hooks now retracting" "AMV-1 approaching Orbit Disposal Maneuver - Standing by for Separation" "AMV-1 Separation Confirmed - Thrusters now firing away from the Station" "L-minus fifteen minutes away from Disposal Burn startup" "Disposal Burn startup" "Scheduled data-link blackout - AMV remains on a Nominal Entry Inteface Trajectory" Post-Flight Analysis: SSA-2, like its predecessor has now proved again the reliability of the next-generation Saturn III+ Rocket yet again, flying in a "light" configuration (150, no S-III+ required). Furthermore, it accomplished the first-ever docking of a fully-autonomous Spacecraft to a Space Station overseen by NASA, certifying Rockwell Aerospace and Lockheed Martin's Autonomous Maneuvering Vehicle [AMV] for future station assembly flights, in addition to demonstrating Satellite Maintenance by performing a docking maneuver using an unpressurized variant of the NASA Docking System [NDS] also known as International Docking System Standard [IDSS]. With that being said, the first crewed expedition to Space Station Beta [Aquarius] carrying four astronauts should occur no later than Q2 2008 - Marking the first fully operational flight of CEV Odysseus by a crew. However, NASA is currently looking for different alternatives to lift CEV into Low Earth Orbit alongside Saturn III+ 100 Series, opting for a modified United Launch Alliance Atlas V 500 as the primary lifter. Modifications will be made to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 41 including a Crew and Servicing Tower to accomodate future CEV flights into LEO.

SSA-2 - PART II | RENDEZVOUS Now at a safe distance from Space Station Aquarius, AMV-1 carrying Node-A will enter a closed-loop system granting the spacecraft full autonomy over final Approach and Docking, using the Forward NASA Docking System [NDS] / International Docking System Standard [IDSS] port found on PMA-3, connecting the Station to Node-A "Serenity" If everything goes to plan, A successful Docking should occur on February 16th, 2007 at 1:37 AM EST / 6:37 AM UTC, with a station reboost maneuver planned in advance as part of AMV's mission profile [Switchover from Mission Control to NASA Narrator] "AMV-1 Now seven hundred feet away from Space Station Aquarius" "AMV-1 Now within two hundred and thirty feet away from Space Station Aquarius" "AMV-1 is currently now within one hundred feet away from Space Station Aquarius" "AMV-1 Now twenty feet from Space Station Aquarius" "Docking Confirmed, 12:37 AM Central Time 1:37 AM Eastern" "The Docking ring on AMV-1 is being retracted [...] To provide the final latching between the two Spacecraft" "The Mechanical Maintenance Systems Officer here in Mission Control reports that the final hooks are driving closed" "The final hooks within AMV-1 are now closed." Post-Docking Briefing: And there we have it, the first module of an ever-growing Space Station! Flight Control in Mission Control are now monitoring Station Systems for a set of checks in preparation for a Station Reboosting Maneuver Demonstration. AMV-1 will remain attached to the station for ten days, performing a controlled Separation & Re-orientation to the Station's Forward NDS/IDSS Port as part of the planned "Satellite Servicing" Demonstration AMV-1 will separate on February 26th, aiming for a De-orbit trajectory sending it right over the designated NOTAM/NOTMAR Corridor established over the Pacific North-West by the FAA.

Yeah I figured since the ISS used the callsign "Space Station Alpha", I went for the best logical decision by naming it "Space Station Beta" internally

SSA-2 - PART II | RENDEZVOUS Following a successful Orbital Insertion, AMV-1 alongside Node-A are now in a stable 125km x 134km Parking Orbit, Mission Control back at Houston, TX will continue to monitor all spacecraft systems while it performs all the required rendezvous steps autonomously Rendezvous Timeline of Events: - Orbit Raise Maneuver (Aux.) - Inclination Change Maneuver [ICM] - Second Orbit Pass - Target Retrograde Maneuver [TRM] "Controlled Attitude Adjustment - Startup" "Attitude Adjustment Complete, AMV reports nominal data downlink" "Standing-by for Re-orientation Command for the First Inclination Adjustment Maneuver" "Re-orientation Complete, AuxiliaryThrusters now firing up in preparation for ICM" "ICM Burn Startup" "Two Good Engines, Spacecraft Orientation Nominal" "Shutdown - AMV now in a corrected 48-degree Orbit around Earth" "Second Orbit Pass" "Second Attitude Reorientation Complete" "Standing-by for TRM burn startup - AuxiliaryThrusters Firing" "TRM burn startup" "Engine Shutdown - AMV-1 now floating 300 meters away from Space Station Beta"

SATURN III+ 150 | NODE-A "SERENITY" [SSA-2] With Vehicle Assembly done alongside shipment of Rockwell Aero, Inc's AMV for its maiden flight on top of the second-ever produced Saturn III+ line-up of rockets, A New rollout date has been set for January 29th, 2007. Mission Profile: SSA-2 will follow a similar launch trajectory to its predecessor, aiming for a 46.5° parking orbit around Earth. After Orbital Insertion AMV-1 will assume control of fine-tuning rendezvous approach and perform a fully-autonomous docking with Space Station Aquarius [Space Station Beta]'s Aft port - The first of its kind to do so without any input from the crew, something that was sorely lacking on the US side compared to their Russian counterparts using Progress After initial docking, AMV-1 would reboost the station via a short reaction thruster burst, then remain attached to the station for 4-5 days. Then proceeds to undock from the station reorienting itself vertically to use the Nadir extendable NDS/IDSS port - Demonstrating the ability to service other spacecraft on its own without requiring additional hardware. Deorbit is scheduled 10 days ahead of second docking, re-entering over the Northeast Pacific Ocean on a controlled trajectory that ensures proper disposal. NOTAMs/NOTMARs will be issued ahead of time A launch date has been set for February 15th, 2007 at 10:35 AM EST, lifting off from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39B (LC-39B) [...] "T-minus Thirty seconds The handoff has occured to.. Saturn's onboard Computers" "Twenty five" - Mission Control "T-minus Ten, nine, eight, seven, six.. Go for Main Engine Start" [...] "Four, Three, two, one, zero" "And liftoff of the second Saturn III plus rocket, continuing to bring Unity and Serenity to our new home in Space" "Houston Now Controlling the Flight of Saturn III+ as it heads back into Orbit [...] "..Rolling onto the proper alignment for the nine minute ride into Orbit, taking aim on Space Station Aquarius for docking" "One minute eight seconds into the flight, Saturn III plus already nine miles downrange" [...] "Standing by for the throttle-up call from Mission Control" "Two minutes into the flight, Saturn III plus currently travelling almost two thousand eight-hundred miles per hour sixteen miles in altitude twenty miles downrange from the Kennedy Space Center" "Saturn III plus flying straight as an arrow Four minutes twenty-three seconds into the flight Standing by for Solid Rocket Booster Separation" "Booster Officer confirms staging, a good Solid Rocket Booster Separation Guidance now converging" "Coming up on the eight-minute mark into the flight, five good main engines, five good telemetry readouts" "Booster Officer confirms good Payload Fairing Jettison seven minutes forty-five seconds into the flight" [...] "Saturn III plus currently travelling five thousand miles an hour seventy miles in altitude four-hundred miles downrange from the Kennedy Space Center" "Booster Officer confirms Main Engine Cutoff" [...] "Standing by for AMV-1 Separation" "S-IIC Sepration Confirmed, AMV-1 now in its preliminary orbit" "Mission Control now monitoring AMV-1's trajectory standing-by for handoff to AMV-1's internal onboard computers"

NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR AN UPCOMING NEW ERA As the new Spaceflight Initiative for NASA has continued and still continues to evolve, a new means of moving Cargo up-and-down from LEO have been present for decades at this point. However it ramped up significantly after shift in plans regarding In-space vehicles. That's where ACRS comes into play: - For one, all four companies must submit a proposal of a vehicle capable of bringing Cargo to and from SSA, while also being capable of performing other tasks like Station reboosting, In-Orbit Maintenance of other operational satellites (e.g. Hubble). - Said proposed vehicle should also be able to aid in building Ongoing and Future Stations and large-scale Spacecraft, which include (but are not limited to): [Space Stations, Propellant Depots, Interplanetary Transfer Vehicles... etc] And after an extensive review period from 2006-2007, 2 companies were chosen as part of the initial phase of ACRS "ACRS Phase One", which are: Rockwell Aerospace Incorporated Rocketplane Limited, Inc - Kistler Aerospace Corporation Rockwell Aerospace, Inc alongside Lockheed Martin will provide a new in-space autonomous spacecraft for NASA, capable of assembling Freedom/ISS era sized modules required for the ongoing Space Station Aquarius (SSA) Station assembly phase, as well as providing resupply and station-boosting capabilities for SSA. Listed under the name of "Autonomous Maneuvering Vehicle" [AMV for short]. Rockwell Aerospace - Advanced Maneuvering Vehicle Meanwhile Kistler Aerospace, Having been recently bought by Rocketplane Limited, Inc will simply re-purpose Kistler's design for use under ACRS-P1 by also providing a platform for moving cargo up & down from SSA. Even though it doesn't have the same capabilities as Rockwell's AMV, it can still do a multitiude of tasks required under the $900 Million contract. Having secured enough contractors, both NASA and the subsidiary companies are more than ready to continue their work on a cutting-edge Station the size of which is still unmatched, even by the likes of Skylab and Mir. Rockwell Aerospace, Inc is expected to debut their first-ever autonomous spacecraft carrying Node-A dubbed "Serenity" on a Saturn III+ 150 Rocket no later than next year, providing a key element for Station expansions in the near future.

Update: I had previously lost all media on this post (Thanks Imgur) But since then, I've now recovered 90% of my pics, screenshots and posters, so it should be viewable now As for new content, here's something I might want to experiment with again in the coming months:

Well it's a mod for RSS/RO so it's scaled 1:1 instead of the usual 1:1.6

You're looking for US Probes Pack

Alt-Hist Concepts | Saturn III+ with Boeing CEV

Yeah the Vulkan seen here is a bit shorter than its irl counterpart

It's made out of a lot of parts, but here's the ones I can list:

Energia-Vulkan | MKTVA/P "VTOL Shuttle"

Oh it's not an issue anymore, since the license was renewed for another 6 months alongside someone buying the KSP IP from T2

It's surprisingly stable even without fins