kurohone

Everything is about compromise. I followed foamyesque's advice and stripped out the SAS on the atmosphere-bound booster stages, replacing them with winglets. In not only increased performance, the stability was markedly improved as well! However, I still use SAS on the upper stages to help with orientation in space, particularly on the final stage. I just find oienting a CM/LTF/LFE to require more precision than I can do on my own without that SAS to act as an assist.

Here's something I made for the Kerbal Cup Challenge...haven't had success so far, but that's due to pilot skills, rather than the rocket... First stage is 7 LF plus 6 SRB's which detact when empty. When the 7 main engines burn out, the ring of 6 SRB's at the top fires, destroying most of the empty fuel tanks underneath (1 or 2 centerline tanks usually live). When the 2nd round of boosters goes, then the remnants of stage 1 is discarded, and the payload stage can fire. The communication sat. can be detached, and the crew has a full command and engine stage left for any further activities....such as returning to Kearth!

the real trick you learn is angle management. Figuring out when to make the transition from horizontal to vertical flight is the key to making orbit. too late and you'll end up on a ballistic arc without enough horizontal velocity, too early and you'll end up cutting it too fine, reentering the atmosphere too early. I still haven't managed that trick, so I end up in crazy elliptical orbits that I then have to try to make circular more circular, which wastes fuel. Still working on transfer orbits too. It turns out that rocket science is really hard!

The thing I really loved about WoH is that is really showed the sheer gall of the early space programs on Earth, and it's reflected in their world. This was a time when placing a long-distance telephone call was an iffy proposition, with as many hits as misses, when computer was still used as an adjective much mroe often than a noun....and yet they thought they could just send someone up into the single most hostile environment that can be imagined. Only they weren't actually sure how hostile it might be, cause they barely could get robots and probes up there to check! In a day of focus groups and risk-assessment on EVERYTHING, it's hard to really imagine a place like that existed, here, not very long ago. The other thing about WoH that I remember is that I was left feeling a bit uneasy at the ending....it occured to me as he gave his broadcast that throughout the whole show they had focused so much on the job of getting him UP that there hadn't ever really been a discussion of bringing him DOWN...

Got myself into orbit (very ecliptical to start), and then using the tips in this thread managed to get it nearly circular - apokee 78.779km, perokee 76.160km. However, there seems to be a drift upwards of about 200m per orbit. I haven't added any thrust since getting into the stable orbit, so I'm wondering what's causing the drift?