[0.90] Vostok

[sgt_flyer]

So, after i remade a few weeks ago a Sputnik launcher for 0.90,

i decided to step up a bit, and rebuilt a Vostok using the R-7 booster i made for the sputnik as a base

here's the result

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Given the amount of parts of the launcher + the launchpad, i've put two separate downloads

the vostok.craft is the full thing, rocket + launchpad, a bit more than 1200 parts of engineering

the vostok lite.craft is only the rocket held with launch clamps, and a detachable lander can so you can make a kerbal climb into the vostok's pilot seat. ('only' around 700 parts ^^)

operations advices :

for using the elevator, once jeb took place in the elevator's seat, stage once to separate the elevator from the rest, and press 'S' to make the rover climb up simply activate the parking brakes once you reached the platform, so the elevator remains in place.

the rocket has largely more than enough fuel to do the mission, so i'll leave to you the way to orbit (i had around 1000m/s of delta-v remaining in the upperstage after circularisation when i made the mission album )

the spacecraft's retrorocket has around 100m/s of delta-v with it's separatron engine, but you still have some RCS fuel if you need to nevertheless, try to keep under a 100x100 orbit to be on the safe side and be sure you'll be able to deorbit the spacecraft

the ejector seat works... most of the time ^^ it's generaly more reliable during ascent than on the pad simply hit the abort key, and the hatch will be blown off the capsule, followed by the kerbal (even with the fairing still in place). i've used the COM shifting of the ejector seat so it's flight makes a 'S' shape - as the CoM of the seat shifts from one side of the CoT to the other during the separatron burn. press 0 to deploy the parachute in case of abort (or mash space through the stages )

the ejector seat has it's own parachute, (and the normal staging is made so jeb can eject to land separatly from the capsule)

i had to keep the core stage's gimbals active on the MK-55 engines - unfortunately, the fairing creates enough lift to overcome the capabilities of control of the 24-77 engines - so using the core stage's gimbal compensate (though it makes the rocket a bit wobbly) - you can activate or desactivate the core stage's gimbals with the actiongroup 1 (generally, once you discared the fairing)

here are the .craft files have fun !

normal version : http://www./download/5bqya3oufrkjup1/Vostok.craft

'lite' version without launch pad : http://www./download/2w12jkyatv59xxz/Vostok_lite.craft

[Yukon0009]

Wow! Very impressive!

[Guest]

Incredible work here! How long did it take to build? (Please round to full years)

[sgt_flyer]

@Kerdinand

Weeellll - i've built stock R-7s before , but i've built this one from scratch after 0.90 was released, - thanks to the offset tool

I first had to toy around a bit with the new offset tool to see how much we can take it (allow me to create the gap between the upper stage and the core stage )

Then i built the sputnik i linked above (this one took several week ends - as i wanted to have a R-7 capable to be upgraded with various upperstages - plus the 0.90 version of the pad)

then i toyed around the rounded capsule + ejector seat concept over a week-end - once that got done, i could start building the vostok and the upperstage - then i only needed to reuse the sputnik's booster and pad. Afterwards, adding the elecator platform and finetuning everything took me two more weekends

Soo, all in all, if you account for the sputnik devellopment, that's roughly 7 weekends worth of work - so around two weeks

Edited March 5, 2015 by sgt_flyer

[Columbia]

Oh, this looks amazingly impressive. With so much faithfulness to the real thing, with ejection seats and all that, I am speechless.

Have some rep! Hopefully, this will be more recognized.

[Majorjim!]

This is really impressive indeed! The ejection pod is amazing. You really make some of the best KSP craft man.

Good work.

[Flixxbeatz]

*urge of dloading the craft and firing the srb ramp just to see what happens*

[Roflcopterkklol]

Was this built in the SPH the VAB or a combination of both?

Great work btw man.

[sgt_flyer]

@Roflcopterkklol

it was built in the VAB but now you can switch between radial and mirror mode at will (which is quite useful ^^)

@flixxbeatz, the long SRB is emptied and thrust set to 0

it's used as an articulation point for the elevator platform retractation

those long SRB's are useful, because they are among the longest parts in the game , plus 1.25m wide and rounded - so it makes a nice structural part

Edited March 4, 2015 by sgt_flyer

[Wallygator]

Holy Crap! My jaw dropped when viewing the pics. Amazing work. Really amazing!

[DarkStar64]

Glories!