Nibb31

Grasshopper is not the F9R first stage, it's a test bed to develop hovering and landing techniques for the F9R. Yes, the reusable first stage carries a rather large payload penalty, because of the extra fuel, the flight profile, and the mass of the landing gear and attitude control equipment. However, it has the potential to drastically reduce the cost of getting to orbit. So instead of building an entire new rocket to launch 10 tons to LEO, SpaceX would only have to charge for fuel and maintenance for 8 tons to LEO. Space will always be expensive, because when you launch a satellite to orbit, the cost of the launcher is only a small part of the total cost, but it has the potential of reducing launch costs by 20%. Back on topic, I'd like to see the Nautilus X, although the DSH would be second best. It's about time we built a space-only spacecraft.

Make a copy the part cfg file in the part folder Open the new cfg file Change the name value to whatever you want. It must be unique. Change the rescaleFactor value to 2.5 or 3.75

Interstellar refers to travel between star systems. Use interplanetary to refer to travel to other planets. If you are running out of fuel, then you are probably carrying too much fuel. Your rocket is too heavy, and goes too slow, so it burns for too long, and runs out of fuel. If you increase weight, you must also increase thrust. Reaching orbit is about getting a good TWR (thrust/weight ratio) and achieving orbital speed, not altitude. In other words, if you add fuel, you have to add engines too.

It was an accident. The reason they are not releasing his name is probably because he got sent to the goulag after the incident...

What do you mean? The Russian government knows his name, because they are the ones who have the records.

Is your problem with docking or rendezvous? Docking is pretty straightforward.

Kerbin isn't tilted, so if you sit on the north or south pole, you will see the Sun rotate around you on the horizon once a day all year long.

Poland contributes to ESA, so it does have a space program: Centrum Badań Kosmicznych

Not much point if you're using infinite fuel.

Assuming you're using the old 1.9.8 version of MechJeb, it assumes that the launch profile is identical to the rocket that was launched previously. If you are using different launchers/spacecraft, the the phase angle will be different.

This PDF provides a brief study of the possible options for deorbiting the ISS: http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/578543main_asap_eol_plan_2010_101020.pdf

The plan is to deorbit the ISS at its end of life. Boosting it to a higher orbit will only postpone the day when it comes down uncontrollably, and to keep it on orbit leaves it at the risk of being hit by MMOD, which would create even more debris.

It's hard to land on the Moon from lower than 10000m. I usually put my pre-landing orbits at 50000m... which is where I would also put my Mun station.

Not really useful. They are require too much fuel to get to. The only real use of GSO is for communication, which is not implemented in KSP yet.

The same happens to most LEO satellites after a while. There are still small particles of atmosphere in LEO which are going to cause some drag. The density of the upper atmosphere varies with solar activity, but it will be enough to pull you down after a while. The other factor is gravity variations. Gravity is not uniform around the Earth like it is in KSP. The Moon also introduces a bit of instability. This means that orbits are going to vary slightly and that you need some sort of station-keeping to maintain orbit over long periods. Note that the extent of the decay phenomenon wasn't well known at the time of Skylab, which is why NASA thought that Skylab would remain on orbit until an early Shuttle flight could reboost it. As you know, it reentered before the Shuttle could visit it, if that capability was ever actually maintained. It would definitely happen if the ISS was left unattended. This is why reboost burns are done on a regular basis to raise the orbit of the ISS. These reboosts are usually performed by a visiting Progress or ATV. Note that the orbit was raised quite a lot after the last Shuttle flight. The reason for its low altitude was mainly so that the Shuttles could reach it. A higher altitude minimizes reboost requirements, which saves fuel.

Due to a bug in Unity, png files take much longer to load, which is why most modders have switched to tga.

Those mods still work AFAIK. I don't see what the problem is.

No, I won't distribute my modded version... unless Lazarus wants it of course. It's not only cfg edits, but also includes some messy hex editor edits to get it work with pngs instead of mbms.

I wasn't born yet, but I do have faint memories of watching the Apollo-Soyuz ASTP mission and the "Skylab is falling" scare.

Try putting a tanker in orbit at your destination. Then your manned mission can refuel once it gets there.

That's how caterpillar tracks are supposed to work.

There seems to be a problem with the APAS-69 docking ports. It's best not to use them.

Bola ships aren't practical for many reasons, but a dish moving in a 20m wide circular rotation at millions of kilometers shouldn't make much of a difference.

Do you mind if we inoculate you with a deadly virus, for science?

You can stick stock KSP in a dropbox folder, it will work fine. I don't know about the new-fangled Steam version.