EtherDragon

Actually, go whole hog and make it ONE more tank taller - then attach four "Hammers". If you fly it right (and don't flip it) you can reach orbit!

SSTO Spaceplanes Possible?

Ok first, start off by Reading This Tutorial. Seriously read it, love it, understand, then read it again. Here is the main reasons your finless rocket flips over: Center of Mass is near the tail. Thus any Drag on the Nose has more Leverage than Drag on the (finless) tail. Also, the greater your speed, the more air-resistance - hence more drag - hence more flippiness. Here are the solid recommendations for those who are allergic to fins. Get an epee pin, and stop being alergic. If that doesn't work, then do this instead - go slower. Speed = Drag = Torque = Flip. If you must launch a rocket without fins, because it's "National Don't Use Fins Day" where you live, then you must follow this procedure: Turn down your thrusters. Going too fast will kill you so don't. Keep yourself nice and slow-ish about 350m/s until you are way up there (like 30km way up there) On the way up, do your gravity turn very very gently. If your nose deviates more than about 5degrees from our flight-path you will flip. And here's a big tip on speed - going slower at first, actually helps you have a more efficient gravity turn. Your goal is to aim for 45degrees by 15km. So go slow enough to give your rocket time to arc over. Once at 45 degrees and 15km and climbing you can throttle up. But make sure you keep your nose pointed strait at that Surface Mode Prograde Marker! Launching a finless rocket on "National Don't Use Fins Day" requires precise control. Good luck! (I prefer to call in sick on "National Don't Use Fins Day" and stay home until the next day, so I can use fins to keep my rockets stable.) Also:

I used to auto stage my chutes as well. As of 1.0.1 and 1.0.2 no more! If they open prematurely, they just blow up.

The short answer is, those fins don't produce enough torque to counteract the nose heavy drag you see with that rocket. Here is a Tutorial, in the Tutorial section of the forums that explains why.

Depends on what kind of orbit you are looking for. Most people like "circular" orbits that have low eccentricity - aim to have their AP and PE as close in height as possible. As shpaget mentions, so long as your Pe is above 70km, you have a stable orbit. If you're interested in why all this is like it is check my sig for a good video.

Here are some snaps of the two different SSTO designs I mentioned earlier - both in orbit: Both are meant to dock at a space station to take on fuel. I imagine keeping the Space Station fueled is up to a standard heavy rocket with an orbital tug attached.

I have two successful SSTO designs now, even with 1.0.2. A single seater snub ship; It looks super slick. And a six seat SSTO CTV.

I'm glad they gave us these little fins in the first node. Even if people don't use them at first, it helps train new players why certain rocket designs are flight-stable and others aren't.

Man, you guys makes such cool looking stations! Whenever I try to plan out and build a station in space it looks like it was built by Beavers*. *Beavers, good at dam building, terrible at space-station design.

This was the shortest #Hypetrain ride ever! Good thing the ticket was only 2funds. There wasn't even a hill!

Welcome! I don't use mods, but do like seeing others use mods - especially on YouTube. Hope to see some of your work!

You can reach orbit with just the Tech-2 Nodes: Video Proof:

That's a really great insight! Velocity is the thing. Drag and Mass make it harder to get more velocity. In fact - "Delta-V" is mathematical notation (in Latin) for a "Change in Velocity."

Greetings! Check out the many cool videos over in Live from Mission Control!

In order to see the buttons, you have to have: A Probe Core attached - the level of the probe core determines which buttons are available. This is true for all game modes. OR A Pilot on board. Your Pilot's level will determine which buttons are available. In Sandbox and Science Mode, all Pilots are Level 5 - so you see all the buttons. In Career Mode, your Pilot has to reach Level 1 before any buttons show up. Also, they only appear when you have SAS enabled ("T" Key)

Meithan, you are correct - the fins produce lift. That lift in turn becomes Torque on the tail - much more torque than on the nose.

Hi Rdkelly8 the fuel consumption for an engine is constant - it never changes (It used to, but that is now corrected in 1.0). The Thrust is actually what changes based on the atmosphere.

I wonder if that's a bug - shouldn't it be the other way around?

I should point out that I just released an amateur review myself! I gave the game an 86 out of 100: Game Play - SOLID, a solid and consistent experience (18/20) Controls - EXCELLENT, but can't edit in game (18/20) Challenge - HIGH, lacks guidance at times (14/20) Presentation - SIMPLE, but good (16/20) Unique Elements - ONE OF A KIND (20/20) TOTAL 86/100! Video: Other review sources: Gamespot User Score 8.5

You'll have a lot of the weaker parts explode off your ship - which is why cargo bays and fairings become useful. I wish that the two Command Pods had ablation built in. But as soon as they get 1.0.1 out the heat shields should no longer flip your stuff around on reentry.

Welcome! To be fair, we're all new to the updated (more accurate) aerodynamics. Friend or Rivalry I choose, Friendly Rivalry!

EPISODE 2! Time for some new Plane flying with the release version of aerodynamics! The Episode: The Build:

Sure! I used paint.net which is free.

It is not as critical to watch out for terminal velocity. What has become more cumbersome is torque in the nose of a rocket from induced drag - particularly when the rocket is not headed directly into the air-stream. Without tail-fins this torque is strong enough to overwhelm any control input flipping your rocket over. Also note, the torque increases with air-flow (i.e. velocity). If you don't have tail-fins keep your nose pointed into the wind! ALT-F12 brings up the debug menu, which enables options to see the heat. It was going to be, but they ran out of time and released without it. It may still appear in a future update.