Pappystein

You know, the Funny thing about Solid rockets... If the Rocket is Unitary.... Pogo isn't much/any more of an issue than it is on LF/O rockets of any fuel type.... Assuming they are not Hypergolic.... Lookin at you LR87! It is the Segment "flaps" that are used to keep the propellant in the segment and SLOW the burn rate down that create most of the vertical acceleration oscillations. Oh, and without those flaps... gaps form in the grain between segments leading to a faster burnout and higher temperature and pressure.... SO AJ-260 or BUST for Apollo! AKA SATURN INT-05A

14 months ago according to Github and he hasn't been on for only 2 months

But.... But.... But..... I wanna! I am half way through editing a "real history" of the early Centaur Flights. This is the pre-production centaurs and what plans they had... Kinda to set the record, a little straighter, kinda cause it was something to do

Given what Friznit says above, I would suggest using the BDB Extras Saturn MLV tank stretches that I developed several years ago. Then It is 4 UA1207s on the 1st stage. Most MLV document used a Payload fairing that included the Centaur stage inside the Payload fairing (so no procedural fairings needed, just use the Saturn 3.75m Fairing.) Friznit would have to answer but it looks like their Centaur in that picture is Increased diameter (one of the so called "Big Centaurs".) None of those, except the original PRE Lewis stretched proposals ever saw the light of day... in any form. The Centaur Stretch would latter happen with Centaur D.2 (AKA Centaur II)

I am actually starting to pull my docs together for a "History Wiki" much like how Friznit does the "Unofficially Official user manuals." Sadly, there are two reasons why I don't create my own thread. 1) I can't control who posts, making my documents no easier to find than they are here in BDB. 2) I am very BDB focused and I actually know less than most about say, the Russian/fSoviet space programs. I have some Hurdles to overcome yet, but soon(tm).... yes soon(tm)

You were fine. You completed your job of communicating your point/thoughts. Heck, I am a native speaker of the Statesman (American) dialect of English and I have problems with it! .... Without Beer!

GLAD to be of Help! the Intermediary Saturn Rockets (the ones described above,) can be some of the hardest to find good data on. So I wanted to try and do it some justice.

Stages of Centaur is a good short PRIMER book on the history of the Centaur program. However, if you used just that book, you would still be making the Wiki pages a mockery of the real history. Those pages would be 100 fold more accurate than they are now but still very wrong. The authors of Stages, in my mind, seem to have ignored facts/sources or just contradicted them for the sake of their already planned-out narrative. Also, prior to the Lewis Research Center's involvement, Centaur C was the stage for Saturn launches, Centaur D was to be Atlas launched, and Centaur A and B were test series (as in more than one launch) of ever-increasing complexity. The failure of the first Centaur lead to an almost immediate re-assignment to Lewis, and THEY, that is Lewis, changed the nomenclature. Many MSFC/Redstone Arsenal papers and Convar(GD) papers on the Saturn Centaur predate the first Centaur failure that confirms this. There are others that frequent these forums that actually have more data on this than I do. Wow, I am triggered on Centaur these past two days, huh?!

Thanks! Yes I typed it, mostly from memory. (I am blessed & cursed with an above average memory) I did piece together data from various sources (both on and off the NASA NTRS servers, 3rd parties like AIAA and mounds of data from NASASpaceFlight's L2 and Open forums. I also utilized Astronautix for tables because it is easier to find them there than in the source materials while on the "fly" as it were. The place I spent the LEAST amount of time on (only because too many people make it too confusing and get things messed up there.) any of the Wikis including Wikipedia. A perfect example of why NOT to go to Wikipeida is the Centaur Rocket stage VERY poorly done, few facts and many MANY issues. Just scroll up a few posts on this page for proof of that!

Given the headache that has been Agena, I thought I would snap out a simple and quick article on the history of the Post Apollo Saturn to LEO portion of the "Modified Launch Vehicle" program from 1964-68. The MLV program was designed as a way to "modularize" the Saturn rocket so that the best compnents could contine to develop and thrive. Basically it was a "we already know how to manufacture this stuff, how can we make better use of it" program. Saturn I MLV proposals, The LEO INTs: So this is as comprehensive of a list of all the various Saturn IB proposals under the MLV study as can be easily surmised. Early on, those rockets based on Saturn I flight profile (LEO only) received INT-x designations. Those designed for beyond LEO received MLV-x designations and are almost exclusively Saturn V derivatives. Knowing this, we can quickly break the INT series into three basic Rocket types. They are the direct Saturn I replacement, the Saturn II based on the S-II stage from Saturn V, and the Saturn V S-IC derived LEO Rockets. For clarity's sake, Rockets are denoted with the old C series designations (C-1, C-5, etc.) The reason becomes important when you add the un-built C-2, C-3, C-4, etc., to the mix as they all had stages of the same name even though they were rocket specific. Unless specifically denoted in the variant, any reference to a MLV stage eg MS-IVB, is for the standard tank but strength optimized stage. No stretches should be assumed here. The EXCEPTION: There are calls for a S-IVC on some of these proposals. To be clear this is the ACTUAL ORIGIONAL S-IVC not the awesome twin engine Earth to the Sky S-IVC (for clarities sake lets call that an ES-IVC.) Stage 1: Cluster's last stand (for real this time?) Stage 2, Saturn gets FAT: Stage 3, Big, Dumb and Uglyish: Here ends the role-call for all the Saturn Derived Saturn I replacements at the end of the 1960s. A further major series of studies were done for NASA in the 1970s but most of that was focused on technology growth for STS rather than actual all up rockets for Saturn Replacement.

WHICH Centaur D? There are 3 of them in BDB! Centaur D.1, Centaur D.2 and Centaur D.3 Oh I am so sorry. ULA renamed the latter two when they took over Centaur management from NASA And yes Centaur II = Centaur D.2A, and Centaur III = Centaur D.3A.

Given the percentages of sr management at Boeing that are former McDonnell Douglas execs vs pre transition Boeing Execs...* You could almost call this the McD Spaceliner. Or Gemini's great Grandson Factual but tongue in cheek comments aside, Nice Capsule! The McD err SORRY Boeing Space capsule built family tree: Mercury-Gemini-BigGemini-DCx-Starliner and Off in left field a shirttail cousin NAA/Rockwell STS SpaceShuttle

Flying through the Air

I have to say, an impressive series of launches... and your station has reached completion

Green Appears to be the most common color for Aviation grade GRP in Russia. GRP=Fiberglass for those not in the know Colors other than Green did not exist in large production quantities, that I can verify, prior to the MiG-23 fighter (1971ish.) While the MiG-23 is a 50 year old fighter design, Manufacturing supply Inertia has kept Green as a common color in Russia through the early 1980s at least. Mind you have have no first tier sources to this... mostly second hand western works. So please take this with a grain of salt... and I know a lot of people who live in Russia or one or more of the former Soviet republics are in the forum and can possibly provide more concrete data.

Neat! And the use of any of the mods you listed in the end is not just for the less than average pilot. They dramatically ease workloads on a game that wasn't designed as a flight sim but rather a Rocketish sim Did you fly this with either SOCKS or Kerbolrise on the 2nd stage (for the full Shuttle + Flyback booster experience?) If so how did it fly?

Also or in lieu, have you made certain every part is "Auto-strutted" to either the Core or Heaviest part? I alternate between the two personally. I have had so many problems with KJR and KJR continued that I don't use them any more. Autostrut may take a bit of work (since you have to open every context menu on every part) but it works as well other than the time sink in my opinion

So to put a final nail in the coffin as it were. I found some source materials on the Saturn MLV program from 1965... It is a composite done for Congress (I believe given the lack of major technical details and high level overview) of the entire MLV program to date (focused on Saturn V only) Here is the Summation of the HG-3 engine: Clearly the HG-3 was a "Placeholder" as as way to conceptually work through the technology needed to bring a small (80 inch max diameter) 400klb thrust Hydrolox engine into existence. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19650020081 HG-3 is dead, RL20 is king, all hail RL20

So I figured since this engine has become a Workhorse for me.... Picture tax time: And NO I Ignored NLS and moved right on to important launchers Stage 1) LRB for the Space Shuttle Enterprise: Titan V(CH4) First itteration: Titan V(CH4) Final Production form (in this form with either 4 GEM-63 or 2 SRMU it has launched every component to the ISS except a couple Russian Segments as well as one of the PMAs) Sorry I have no good (no HUD/UI) pics of the Rocket on the ground I have flown the first stage with the "upper" 2nd stage tank as a "tank stretch" I have flown this Rocket with SMRU-2.5 and SMRU-3.0 (2x) and I have flow this Rocket with ACES From the Vulcan mod. Some comments: Make your BDB-LDC derived LRBs for your shuttles shorter than mine. They were disposed of with about 10% fuel remaining. The Drop Tank was ditched with 15% fuel remaining (to safely de-orbit) 125km orbit with a Russian DOS (Zarya in fact) on board. Titan V(CH4) core stack is 3.5-3.25 PLF fairing base, LDC Avionics, Stage 2 tanks 1 and 2, 2 engine mount with LR87-LH2(Vac), Solid LDC Inter stage, Max length upper and lower LDC first stage tanks set to CH4... LDC 1st stage engine mount set to 1 with the STME set to BOATTAIL. I have three Titan V variants. Titan V(RL20) Titan V(LR129) and the (CH4) The CH4 is the most efficient (best over all ISP) But the RL20 version is more controllable. All launches depicted here were to support either my First attempt (crashed and burned literally) and now my second attempt at making a Full up ISS to original specs (so 4 or 5 extra Russian modules and 3 extra International ones IIRC.) Oh, just looked over the thoughts and plans for this mod. I am looking forward to your J-2L for my Saturn Rocket flights! Whoops sorry you have it listed as LTBE

in the Search type E1 Alternatively SEarch for Saturn

Nice Standard ISS! I am going for a heavily altered one based on the fully proposed but not built ISS. Using BDB, Habtech2, Tanteres, and both SOCKS and Kerbalrise for shuttles (not that I use them for much... Everything you see was launched on Saturn INT23, Titan V(LDC Titan with CH4 engines) or various modifications to the Angara A5. I am planning on introducing all of Earth To the Sky's Space Station Freedom to the ISS (currently have Skylab up but not the addendum modules) While I can make a valid UDM and DSM with Tantares parts, the SPP as well as RM-1 and RM-2 are a bit tougher. I would have preferred to make the Russian Segment out of SSTU's DOS parts but A) not updated for current KSP versions and B) follows too strict of scaling (rather than expanded scaleing like BDB and Tantares are now using, All the docking ports would be either tiny or HUGE) The Launchers are from BDB: Delta IIH-HOSS (delivers small items only), Delta IVH (one launch only just to experiment), Titan LDC (Titan V CH4 with STBE from Rocket Motor Menagerie the bulk of the station including Zarya) And Saturn INT23 for Skylab (the anchor part to this floating asteroid target!) Eisenhower Astronautics: Angara A5+ and A5++ (A5+ has RD-191V for 2nd core stage instead of RD-124 and A5++ is like A5+ but with core first stage stretch and CASTOR 2 SRBs) SOCKS: US Style "Moonraker upgrade" Shuttle fleet, including Enterprise, Columbia, Discovery, Endeavor, Explorer, Independence... and well MANY more :D. All shuttles have upgrades structures and launch on an All Liquid launch (two LRBs based on Titan V LDC with STBE engines above from BDB and RMM) Alternatively the USS Enterprise is flown on the Tantares Energia (as described below) Kerbolrise: KR1 and KR2 family of Shuttles are used in conjunction with Tantares Energia that is stretched with the aft RD0120s cambered to center up COT with COM Tantares: Given I have been unable to orbit anything except Energia in JNSQ play-through Energia is the only LV from Tantares I use..... Shuttles quickly took a back seat to Transtage and other stowable fuel tugs given my PEBKAC issues with robotics. But I will be still using them for supply runs.

Got Bob to the station to fix the broken solar wing. Good news too only 4 eva parts (IE it was totally destroyed as 4 is the max you can use) But as you can see both my cobbled together Russian SPP segment is up and the solar wings on the the Skylab are down. Meaning my patch worked (Thanks @Zorg for the shove.) I sort of crashed my Original "Full ISS" Friday... Didn't even realize it until yesterday when I was loading up and getting ready to launch one of the Truss parts... The ISS was Already starting Atmo. I saved half of the crew on the BigG (the station broke up before I could save everyone.) Rage quit and start a new career... the above is where I am currently at! I really messed up the re-positioning of Z0 and S0 Trusses to cause that Fully synopsis here:

So I finally settled on a configuration using Tantares Parts for the SPP section of the Russian Segment of the ISS... Has become: Yes that is a standard ISS Solar Wing on-top of a REALLY stretched TKS and it is inline instead of on-top of the Russian Segment. The Key to why I did this was there are no solar arrays small enough that are dual axis tracking that would fit on what would be a 1.5m hull form. And yes the Part at 90 degrees to the rest is the UDM (Universal Docking Module) I have 2 of the missing ISS parts already in orbit.... Just need to finish the truss, launch the already completed DSM and then figure out RM1 and RM2. Because of ETS Spacelab + the SPP my layout is changing from the full proposed ISS layout a bit to make more room for docking. Full walk-through of this Station is on the Habtech2 forum:

Yep THAT is the real color of Altas Tanks For the most part (some did have paint on them but that was mostly for test launches and NEVER White unless it was a contrast color to black)

So I totally destroyed my first "Full" ISS build. Had my second COVID Shot on Thursday.. Friday while attempting to fix my Backwards S0 Truss I crashed the entire station into the Atmo.... I am blaming the 102.1 fever I had when I did it I never noticed Periapsis was below 80km... SO Attempt #2. I am hampered by the lack of suitable parts to make the SPP for the Russian/European Segment. The GOAL: The Progress: Future plans: Build the Port and Starbord trusses and add the two additional Solar Wings to each Truss, Launch the ETS European Lab and dock it with the Skylab core: Launch the DSM (likely the first thing I will do) re-Layout the rest of the International Segment to better make room given Skylab + full Russian Segments. Oh and PS: I got the Truss and the Z Node correct this time (along with their attending compartments!)