Speeding Mullet

You can have a raise if you Stayputnik. Do you have the Nerv?

Banned for offline Minecraft Server.

HAHA Yes, mission passed!!! That's a novel and fantastic way of dealing with the landing. I am honored to present the Flight Director's badge to you. I would rotate it 180 degrees due to your landing as a special badge just for you, but the flight director badge will have to do instead, and is a rare thing anyway: . I was wondering what the bottle nose on your shuttle was, and with the explanation I was wondering why you hadn't disabled crossflow on the docking ports, but a solution is a solution! Ahh Moonraker, classic bond! Also you are right the STS fuel pod challenge does say "and back" but I don't think anyone's actually done that at this point. That's the wording, but it's a little bit odd if that's actually what it means! SM

thanking you very much indeed! It's definitely WIP, mostly in terms of cosmetics, but I think the re-entry could do with some work. It uses quite a lot of mono to keep AoA on re-entry. I'm loathed to slam 50 torque wheels in there, but I managed to make my Buran without a torque wheel so I'm hoping for the same with this one! Haha yes it is very Kerbal indeed. Pressing the big red abort button definitely results in a rapid planned disassembly (mostly), but the main objective of the crew compartment surviving is fulfilled every time. From what I can see the sepatrons basically melt the main body of the shuttle when they fire off which is fine, but I could probably clean up the process and inject more force in there to provide a pad abort capability. Might look at that down the line. SM

Even though I just banned you for eccentricity of orbit I can't help but find myself giving you a high score for this one. 7.5/10!

Banned for eccentricity of orbit.

JSC SHUTTLE IIC I've been spending quite a lot of time with shuttles recently, and having really tested my Buran thoroughly with every single mission profile in the STS challenge, plus using it to collect and land an asteroid, I thought it was time to look at a new design. STS seemed a little obvious, but while browsing shuttle concepts I found the JSC Shuttle IIc and was instantly hooked on the retro-futurist look of the shuttle. Pictures vary but basically I had to make this when I saw it. I'm sure you'll agree it's a mean looking shuttle. And here's my version. It is a work in progress (largely cosmetic), but is already pretty refined and capable of full mission profiles (and full mission failures): The shuttle is 192 parts and 268t on the pad without a payload. I think the side view is really elegant, and I'm pretty pleased with the over all look compared to the original mock ups, especially considering this is total stock. It's got pretty much a full length payload bay apart from the reaction wheel and senior docking port, which mean that while it can take the inigma fuel pod to orbit it's a bit of a squeeze, and I could do with moving the reaction wheel to make space. Hey it's a work in progress, so there's a snagging list. What I am particularly proud of is the escape system. The JSC Shuttle IIc was in design study when Challenger was lost, and crew safety was top of the consideration list. Consequently the crew cabin was designed to separate in emergency and return from orbit on it's own: Thinking about how to design this was pretty difficult, especially to make it look like a seamless join in the shuttle, so this is what I settled on: As you can see I've used two Mk3 engine mounts reversed to each other with the gaps made up by radiators positioned to look like the skin of the shuttle. It's pretty seamless and provides just enough space for the emergency separation mechanism. It's not quiiiite powerful enough to save you from an on pad failure, but it can abort to orbit above a certain height, and is extremely versatile during re-entry calamities. Any angle, rotation, you name it, the separation mechanism does and wonderful job and allows the crew a safe landing on land or water as we can see here: The front end of the shuttle is explosively separated from the body of the shuttle and set up so it will always immediately find prograde even if the abort is completed at a funny angle. The front end is capable of water based as well as land based touchdowns, and can abort to orbit, abort de-orbit with its RCS engines, or just handle those harsh re-entry meltdowns. Now under normal flying conditions the Shuttle behaves very well indeed and while re-entry could do with some refinement it's perfectly happy returning from a 500km orbit. It's rated really for a 10-15t payload as normal maximum to that altitude, but with jigging about it would probably cater for a lot more. Here's some photo's of a typical mission without the need for the crew cabin ejection: This is a work in progress, so I'd expect much like my Buran major deign reviews will take place, but I'd invite you to download the craft file and have a go yourself. I'm certainly open to any advice or feedback on this one, it's been a very challenging build and for sure there is improvements to be made. SM

@FCISuperGuy has authorised me to temporarily admin this challenge while he is away, to keep the ball rolling on the challenge entries while he is away. While I cannot update the OP leaderboards I can pass or fail missions, and hand out badges! Without further ado: Congratulations! You have passed the STS commander rank 1, and with 500km too! Great Buran repro!! As I said I cannot update the OP with your placing, but feel free to collect your Flight Director badge and wear it with pride: I'm going to pass this one, as I think it will encourage you to develop this shuttle that's showing early promise. Even though you lost an engine, and nose cone, and a wing part you still fulfill the basic STS pilot requirement of "Build a shuttle complying to the above space shuttle definition and fly it to orbit, then deorbit and land. Land anywhere you want." Wear your badge with pride and go forth and prosper with your shuttle, and enter more of the challenges with it I don't think I can find an emoticon fitting what I think of this. is the closest I can get as my jaw just hit the floor! Inigma Fuel pod to eighty thousand km orbit.....WOW!!! You sir shall wear your badge with pride, and when OP returns you will no doubt take top spot on leader-board of leaders . Here it is: I've certainly wondered following flicking through this mission whether my Buran might be capable of a similar feat. I highly doubt it without modifications though. Wow again well done!!! Sorry the post would be huge if I copied all those pictures in, but wow what a beautifully smooth mission and how cool is it seeing those awesome @inigma comsats spin out of the cargo bay!! You Sir are STS Commander - Rank 2 and here's your badge to prove it: Again I won't copy the pictures across but despite Rodon's best efforts the crew performed a very nearly flawless mission, and deployed the Hubble space telescope with much aplomb. It's a great mission and your Buran once again proves it's worthiness with great gusto! Here's your badge to wear with much bragging: Oh my. Oh my oh my oh my. That is one of the more unconventional shuttles I've seen haha. It's an absolute beauty!!! I presume the maimed duck is the carrier vehicle rather than the orbiter? Now. I've had a very very close look, and from what I can see you have paid very clear attention to the rules, despite appearing to flaunt them, which I like. alot...This rule " boosters may be attached radially on the Carrier Vehicle (no other attachment location is permitted) for additional thrust" at first had me going, but on closer inspection your engines are definitely radially mounted, and there's no rule about vertical take off so this is a brilliant way of approaching the shuttle problem. Did you model it on anything out of interest? Now, to the mission itself is where as interim admin I really have to (as much as I hate myself for doing it) apply the rules to the letter. Where as "Pilot - Rank 1" might allow for some lee-way with slightly botched landings, the Inigma industries payload challenge is a measure of "the ultimate display of piloting and engineering prowess and skill". Since I can only go off my previous fuel pod mission where my craft came apart on landing due to the Kraken inhabiting KSC and FCI's adjudication at the time, I hope you won't hate me for applying his exact wording in this instance: "Very nice! Unfortunately, to be fair I have to ask for a successful landing. However, due to the successful nature of the rest of the mission. if you could fly another shuttle (can be empty) up to the same altitude and demonstrate a reentry, that would be awesome". Sorry, sorry and sorry again, if there was a bravado badge you would win it for returning the fuel pod to the surface. Besides, chuck some wheels on that thing and land it at the runway for ultimate bragging rights! Oh yes, you don't need to return the fuel pod to Kerbin, but that's extra impressive and shows a very well balanced shuttle!! Hope all are happy with my adjudication. SM

Possibly Routine Mission Manager or Mission controller 2 but I can't exactly peg it from what your saying. Do you have to design your own missions and then fly them, or do you just do whatever you want and it figures out something based around that automatically? This is possibly the one you are looking for: It was updated to 1.04 but not sure if would still work with 1.05... Edit: Gallery: SM

I would, but it's genuinely Uranus. Genuinely. SM

Predictable thread. So many ways to play it, Become the Mechjeb.

That's exactly the shuttle that I am working on at the moment - well spotted!! SM

Developing a new Shuttle as a follow on from my Buran and experimenting with enhanced capability launch failure systems, mostly because I have to. The shuttle as it stands is absolutely perfect apart from one critical step; re-entry, as you can see: The front end of the shuttle is explosively separated from the body of the shuttle and set up so it will always immediately find prograde even if the abort is completed at a funny angle. The front end is capable of water based as well as land based touchdowns, and can abort to orbit, abort de-orbit with its RCS engines, or just handle those harsh re-entry meltdowns. SM

Banned for incorrect use of comma.

Banned for referencing out-dated meme.

I'm trying to get round to installing this and giving it a really good work through. In the meantime thanks for the credit in the OP, and I will have a good go very possibly this weekend, or as RL allows! I can tell that you have put a huge amount of work into this! Looking forward to future input! SM

I just sat down and read through this whole story so far, great detox from a day at the office! Will enjoy keeping up with the latest. That's one hell of a contract you just picked up, best luck with that!!! SM

Ah gutted. I thought I'd gone far enough away during testing to make it unload and reload, but maybe not.. If you need to look at a different design I can try again, to try and make "mostly" always! SM

Ah ha! I've been waiting for another one of these gems to come along. What happened with the wing-suit one, is that scheduled for later development? Anyway, I've designed a barn and tested it for you. It uses a stayputnik as requested, and is 72 parts only. That's about as low as I could get it without it being a) rubbish, b) too small, or c) not referencing the fuel tanks which I wanted to do. They haven't exactly been moved to a safe location though haha! CRAFT FILE Hope that's a good starting point - It's just small enough to be challenging, but just big enough to be absolutely doable. I tried from IVA, external view, slow, and at ludicrous speed. Nothing wobbled or fell apart, and I managed to barnstorm successfully many times. I also failed a lot, so it's a good mix... SM

Any chance you can launch the largest tail plane ever seen in KSP in time to meet the re-entry? I just landed a class C and went through exactly the same issue as you. In the end I just went for 37Km from interplanetary space and rode the tumbling potato right in at 3.2 km/s. It was carnage, but the critical parts survived, which brings me to what I did in KSP today(ish): SM

Let me know when you hit 1024! I have just the thing for that major milestone! 1024 seats... 568.76t landed at the island runway. I believe I have now taken the Stupor Krumbo to the logical kerbal limit. The slightest wrong move results in, well let's just check out the mission report: Congrats on 1000 posts!!! SM

Kuttzer is tardy. @Yukon0009

There was a great challenge pre 1.0 that was flying around but never took off. Weywot8 was going to reboot it but last activity from Weywot8 was August last year so might be worth having a dig into the challenge and seeing if you can draw some inspiration to bolster your challenge OP. This is one I would enter given a decent set of rules, awards etc. Good luck! SM

Not sure if this will merge with the above post, but I used the same ship this evening to try out a class C that was discovered slightly earlier. Here's the report! So the ship concept is sound, it's just horribly designed. I think the control modules need to be squat and wide rather than tall and thin. Everything was a little wobbly, but the point is it worked! SM

Right! I had another decent go with the Show Stopper - I launched the ship unmodified but this time I selected a mid size (class C) potato and decided to fly the mission as well as I possibly could. In the interests of time and bandwidth I'll slightly condense the pictures this time. It still contains all the relevant and exciting bits however. Time to check in with the crew to see how we got on: Relevant scores this time round are as follows: Awards (Pending OP Approval) Asteroid Lander - Managed a soft landing of a Class C asteroid at under 10 m/s Simple Rockman - The Show Stopper Launches as one ship Heavy Duty - Asteroid weighs 85.10606t Elephant - 116.67t landed - 85.10606t for the asteroid = ~31.56t landed. I presume you mean landed rather than takeoff weight? If you meant takeoff weight then 1560.48t (671 parts and 73.5m height) My Rock, My House - Landed a base with solar panels, antenna and batteries, and two hitchhiker modules containing 8 kerbals, all survived re-entry! Award Fails Nothing that I was going for, although came close to Armageddon! Mission Factoids Asteroid Mass on landing - 85.10606t - A decent sized potato! Explosions had - many explosions - the batteries really go off with a bang Panic had - medium levels of panic on re-entry, but otherwise a calm mission Kerbals lived - All of them! Mirllian, Melfal, Hanory, Morina, Daphie, Thompoly, Haylina, and Lincy survived the perils of asteroid base re-entry. Stock - Yup, and hand flown (You can really tell lol) Fun had: 10/10 would land Class C again. Another fun time had with the challenge, surprised more people haven't entered to be honest. Now I've got the hang of asteroid interception and a handle on what it takes to move them around I think I'll have a go at some of the more "extreme" awards. I learnt also that the klaw and tall modules = very wobbly so I'll cut down the length of the modules in the future and go for squat and wide. SM