GeneCash

Well, KSP does have a style, and it's the slightly-cheesy '60s "artist's interpretation" done with a cartoonish flair. Why cartoonish? Because KSP has a sense of humor (unlike games like Orbiter) and so when Jeb dies for the 6th time in your career game, you think of Kenny in South Park or Wile E. Coyote instead of Gus Grissom in Apollo 1. You need a bit of a laugh when your 6th attempt at an orbital design has just flipped again and ended up in "an ocean-synchronous orbit" I hope it keeps the attitude of "moar boosters or moar struts" and doesn't start taking itself too seriously. OTOH I'm torn, because those beautifully rendered parts are really dang pretty...

My "problem" (if any) is that they're TOO realistic. KSP is supposed to be just a bit cartoony and these don't fit.

Oh the Russians love that sort of thing. Do a Google image search for "Russian rocket engines" and those stencils aren't just for display models, I've seen them on Atlas V rockets being assembled for launch. If you look around the bottom of the S-IVB stage, you will see a circle of spherical bottles. These aid in the restart of the J-2 for TLI by spinning up the turbopumps. The S-II's J-2s don't restart, so they don't have 'em.

I hope Squad battens down the hatches for Hurricane Newton, which looks like it's heading right for Mexico City. As a bloke in Florida, I know that hurricanes are usually not that much to worry about, but when they do hit, they hurt. Hope ya'll come thru safe!

Yes, I'd buy a disc. The sole reason I didn't get the Gamer's Edition was because it didn't come with a disc. Since I didn't have Steam, a Steam key would have been useless. I finally have Steam working, but it's such a hassle that I don't use it. I want a disc for the same reason I bought a KSP t-shirt and all the KSP Shapeways figures (except Val, and I need to rectify that)

Don't forget, Minecraft on a console (at least the XBox) is a bit different from the PC version. For example, you don't have to remember "recipes" (how to make stuff) as the game has a menu-based system that guides you through it. I know when the Achievement Hunter guys switch between PC & console, they get caught out by gameplay differences. It makes me wonder just how different KSP will be. Also, while you can mod Minecraft, it's not as central to the experience like it is in KSP. I wouldn't start a career game without Kerbal Alarm Clock, and I'm too much of a spaz to play without MechJeb. So a console game w/o mods wouldn't attract me. I know Bethesda is having serious problems getting Fallout 4 mods working on console and they're far bigger than Squad. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTSWZyhj3nM *MY* main worry is that if the console version goes down in flames, then the reputation hit takes a toll on the PC version too, in a "eh, KSP suxorz" attitude.

Nitpick on a typo: "space telelscope"

I like better this way, as it's right next to the other time warp controls.

WHOA. I deleted my KSP_linux dir, unpacked 1.1.3, and IT KNEW MY GRAPHICS RESOLUTION. Usually I get this tiny little window and I have to manually set it to 1920x1200. That was quite an unexpected surprise.

If you suck at building rockets, that causes you quickly lose interest. Failure after failure on the way to orbit just causes me to close KSP and fire up Minecraft. I sucked at rendezvous despite being a "space geek" for 30 years. I installed MechJeb and spent a couple hours watching it rendezvous, going "ok, WTF is it doing now?" a few times, and figuring things out. Now I don't need it, but it was an invaluable learning tool. If you don't add it as an in-game mechanic, then Squad should add a more basic rockets to the sandbox, such as "here's a small rocket to get one Kerbal to Duna and back" like they already have the satellite launcher. Something a bit bigger than the Kerbal X or the PT Munsplorer. That way, you could implement this just by clicking "[x] allow stock vessels" except for the "design fee"

Eh, on most forums, I use something like http://lmgtfy.com/ (or if it's really dumb http://justloveinggoogleit.com/ ) as a gentle poke to make them a little more self-sufficient. Those are only for the really obnoxious and simplest of questions. I'd say the forum could use a FAQ. They're the best solution to that problem since the days of USENET. That needs someone to create & maintain it, though. You could say the wiki serves as a FAQ, but it's hard to find. I didn't know about the wiki for a while when I started. And it doesn't really answer things like "what to NOT ask the KSP devs" up-front.

And apparently it's a "mixture ratio control valve that had Total Inability To Support Usual Performance (TITSUP) http://spaceflight101.com/cygnus-oa6/atlas-v-mrcv-valve-cuplrit-in-oa6-anomaly/ From what they say, it mostly shut off the fuel flow.

Dang. I didn't know that... that was just before I started. I thought this was the first time for the game-engine-upgrade pain.

Yeah, I did buy a GTX-960 specifically for KSP, and went thru the pain of installing beta nvidia drivers on Debian before they became part of non-free. (actually I bought a GTX-750 Ti, then my watercooling leaked on it - oops)

It's an ego thing. For example, notice the Lunar Module Pilots (LMP) never piloted the LM, the commander did. The LMP title was just to soothe the ego.

If you don't paint metal exposed to seawater, it's not metal for very long. It's interesting to see how dark the booster is. I wonder how much of that is from re-entry heat, and how much is from exhaust blowback?

Apparently not... The next Atlas V launch (MUOS-5) has been put on indefinite hold until they figure it out. http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/organizations/ula/muos-5-mission-delayed-indefinitely-due-problems-encountered-oa-6-mission/

Seriously?? I'll be updating as fast as I can click the store download button! I've pretty much stopped playing, waiting for 1.1 to drop. Back on topic... you should be able to pick your craft's icon in the VAB, maybe next to the name. No need to have code auto-select one.

Hm. Really good point... I didn't think about that. I guess the differences between launch vehicle manufacturers are a lot like the differences between KSP players!

I think it survived because basically the Atlas V/Centaur does indeed have a buttload of extra ΔV lofting the Cygnus to ISS... In this case, they just used it all. Remember how much ULA boasts about having a full hour launch window. I think anything else, including the Falcon 9, would have reached "ocean-synchronous orbit" instead.

From http://spaceflight101.com/ula-narrows-down-cause-of-atlas-v-performance-anomaly-in-recent-cygnus-launch So it sounds (to me) like yes, that was a mixture ratio change significant enough to show up as a change in the plume. I'd think that's a pretty hefty mixture change since they don't usually show up like that. SWAG, of course. I wonder if the computer went "oh sh*t, we're running out of O2! do something!" And yes, the US Navy pretty much instantly asked for an investigation and delayed the MUOS-5 launch at least a week until it's figured out. The USAF is participating because they've got all the range data and telemetry.

Well, ULA has always made a huge deal every Cygnus launch saying "we've got so much extra margin, we've got a full hour window! Unlike those SpaceX losers!" So this time they pretty much used it all. I'm hoping some sort of post-mortem comes out, but I'm also pretty sure it'll be kept under wraps as proprietary or ITAR secret information. Also, it's interesting almost no one is covering this story. As far as I know, Spaceflight 101 is the only one that went "hey waitaminnit, those numbers don't match! Summat's WRONG!" and did any digging. I'd love to see URLs of other stories on this.

The Atlas V first stage cut off 6 seconds short, and the Centaur thus had to burn another minute and two seconds. Also, the first stage RD-180 went to a fuel rich burn which dropped the ISP about 2.5% while raising the thrust. This means the Centaur got dropped off "low and slow" and it had to pitch way up to fight gravity losses. The Centaur was supposed to do an 11 second half-throttle retrofire to deorbit, and end up having a couple tons of propellant left over. Instead, it ran out of propellant 3 seconds into the burn. This means it had about 1.08 seconds of burn time left at MECO. If the first stage had shut down 1 second earlier, Cygnus wouldn't have made the planned orbit. If it had shut down 1.3 seconds earlier, perigee would have stayed in the atmosphere. Oops. See the numbers here: http://spaceflight101.com/by-the-numbers-how-close-atlas-v-came-to-failure-in-this-weeks-cygnus-launch/ More info at: http://spaceflight101.com/potential-performance-hit-suffered-by-atlas-v-a-closer-look-at-the-data/ This also means MUOS-5 gets delayed a week while ULA and the Navy go WTF? http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/organizations/ula/oa-6-anomaly-causes-delay-muos-5-mission/ Just goes to show even the big boys using full MechJeb have their off days...

Better than that! More good developers. That's the hard part to do... congrats to 'em both. Well deserved.

Yes, the experiments airlock in the Japanese Kibo lab works like this. It's pretty big too! See http://space.stackexchange.com/questions/9809/how-was-the-airlock-for-the-iss-minisat-launchers-installed and "The outer hatch can be opened and closed electrically, but the inner hatch is operated by hand" according to http://iss.jaxa.jp/iss/kibo/develop_status_07_e.html There's actually a movie on that page showing how it's operated and it DOES have sound of people discussing things and giving commands in Japanese. It looks really simple. You just move a lever about 20 degrees. A lot simpler than the mechanisms on the airlock hatches and hatches between the modules in the rest of ISS, and most US manned spacecraft I've seen.