2silverseas

I have been looking on this thread for a while and have notices the lack of support vessels. Although I have not looked at all 119 (as of when I type this) pages, what I have seen mostly seems to be military craft. I have come on behalf of Recreational Spacecraft Incorporated (RSI, not to be confused with Roberts Space Industries) to remedy this with the Starliner Advanced model. If you would like to learn about the history of the Starliner Advanced consult the in-game description. Also, for the record, we don't have a particular allegiance and will sell to whoever wants to buy. That said, I don't think that Hanland would have much use for this particular craft given its non-military nature. The Starliner Advanced is basically a passenger transport. It has 24 PD-10 hitchhiker storage containers, 12 PD-12 cupola modules and 4 MK 2 lander cans for a total absolute maximum kerbal capacity of 116 kerbals, but it would be a bit of a tight fit. The exterior hatches of all the modules lead to an enclosed area with doors at the "top". The cupolas, aside from having a very nice view, also give the craft enough reaction wheels to turn without RCS even though it weighs 230~ tons. The internal tanks (equivalent to 3 Large orange tanks) can hold about 2,500~ delta V of fuel, so it could theoretically get to Laythe on its own but if you want to have fuel to use once there you might want to dock an external Fuel tank to The single large docking port on the front. You should note that the engines cannot take directly from tanks docked to docking ports so you will have to transfer fuel to the built in tanks manually. Now, lest you get bored with all this techno babble and wander off, here are some pictures of the interior. You should be warned that the part count does not quite fit in the 300 restriction. At launch the part count is about 1,150. The good news is that a lot of this is launch vehicle and the final part count is only about 400. This craft is also completely unarmored. In some places there is only a one inch piece of metal between the habitation areas and the exterior. It is also not made to have weapons but it does have docking ports that they could cling to if you want. Ok, more pictures. These are the doors that allow entry and exit from the craft. They are bound to action group 0. This is pretty neat and all but the Starliner Advanced has another trick up its sleeve. Yes that is a hangar and yes there is a shuttle pod in it. The hangar even has fully functioning doors (bound to action group 9): Inside the hangar is one medium docking port and two tiny docking ports. The hangar is 4 meters wide by 4 meters wide by 5 meters deep. Take note though that the entrance is only 3 meters square. You may also notice that there are a total of 8 MK 1 fuselages with jet fuel. These are for refueling shuttle craft (more on those in another post). To get this goliath to orbit you will have to be careful. First select one of the control modules that is facing up so as to get an accurate navball reading. It is best to start your gravity turn at about 12,000 meters. At this point you only want to tilt 10 degrees to the east. Then when you reach 25,000 meters turn another 10 so you are facing 20 degrees east. When you reach about 35,000~ turn eastward so you are pointing 40-45 degrees east. then at about 50,000 point towards your orbital prograde until your apoapsis reaches the desired height. Then just glide up to your apoapsis and round out the orbit. As requested here is the proof of destination: This launch vehicle makes heavy use of asparagus staging. As soon as you see a pair of fuel bars empty and a pair of engines shut off stage to drop them. Another tip; when you drop the first set of tanks you may notice that they are slightly uneven and one will run out a fraction of a second before the other. To get around this make sure you stage just before the first one runs out. It is vital that you get this timing right. If you stage too early then the tanks will still have enough fuel in them that when you release them they will go up and potentially damage the rest of the rocket. If you stage too late the problem will carry over to the next set of tanks. After you have dropped all but five of the tanks and engines the remaining engines are all able to take fuel from all the tanks. The equipment to drop them is still there but they have been hooked up so that even the empty ones can take fuel from the full ones. The engines will still drain one pair of tanks before the other so if you want to drop them you can wait for that pair to empty and then decouple but I would recommend keeping them around for the extra thrust. Once you get to orbit I find it easier to just right click the decoupler to decouple it instead of using the staging. Take note that the starliner's fuel tanks are totally dry. Their fuel was pumped into the launch vehicle to decrease weight. If you want you can transfer some of the remaining fuel in the launch vehicle to the starliner. It will still need a large tanker to completely fill it though. To get to Laythe I used external fuel tanks. You can see them as well as two additional shuttle craft in the following screenshots. And that is the Starliner Advanced. To all who see this, good flying and good luck.