Olvirm

Is there a plan to implement contracts where a company will ask you to launch a satellite (that they've premade) into a specific orbit around a planetary body? Say you accept it and it, you get the satellite somehow (maybe under sub assemblies or saved crafts) and then you build a rocket around it and launch it.

I am currently doing a research paper on the space race for my history class. I am mostly finished with it but I haven't been able to find any information as to why the Soviet Union was so much further ahead of the United States during the early stages of the space race. Does anyone here know? Thanks!

From what I remember there used to be a bar telling you the reaction force the SAS and ASAS were providing, it's pretty useful to know if your SAS/ASAS isn't providing enough force to keep your craft stable

Because they actually display(ed) useful information? As far as I know the pod doesn't actually tell you anything

In the video before they finish sending the spacecraft off to mars they put it in a spin. Why do they do this?

As far as I know it does that until you begin mission (press space). In order to decouple the pod/activate the ion engine he would have had to stage and therefore start the mission

I would use it all the time

Elements of randomness when it comes to malfunctions is terrible. I would rather know that my spacecraft isn't working because of my mistakes rather than it isn't working because of some probability that I fell into

which parts are you having difficulty with? I can't think of any parts where I didn't know what it did

Engineer works

I guess for me it would be any reason to go to other planets. I've tried Kethane but I'm so bad at it. Stuff like data collection, mapping, perhaps having to discover the planet, etc. That is what I desire.

are we going off of this? http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Planned_features

I think the image is his, I could be wrong though

wasn't the moon landing on the 20th

So if I was to use FAR and aerodynamic rockets I should follow a more real life launch profile?

How close is the typical launch profile in KSP that I have seen (grav turn at 10km, keep pitching over, burn until desired apoapsis, coast till apoapsis, circularization burn) to real life ones? From youtube videos it seems that the gravity turn starts very early, and they seem to reach their desired orbit without any coasting (unless the coasting and circularization is just cut out). I was just wondering if anyone could describe to me the typical launch profile of a real life rocket.

If we don't know where they are how are we expected to launch a probe at them

I know it was supposed to make it easier, just made it ridiculously easy

Depends I believe, the vanilla model has it so every part adds drag, so adding a nosecone actually makes things worse. FAR if you add that nosecone it reduces drag by a ton. I'm not sure if rockets w/o nosecones are worse in FAR than they are in vanilla. There are some other things that make it harder, if you stray too far from your prograde marker when launching a rocket you will flip out so no straight up to 45° gravity turns.

a single stock large srb gets you halfway to the mun

It's just kinda rediculous

Is it just me or does Feram Aerospace make rockets really powerful? I can get a probe into orbit with a nose cone, single full length KW Rocketry 1.25m fuel tank, and the Vesta engine. Feels a little weird

Is it known if any companies are actively trying to complete this?

I believe it's just windows, could be wrong. Double clicking any window in IVA gives you an out the window view

if you don't want to bother the ratio is 4:1 (doubling the radius quadruples the area)