1.0 Re-Entry - Help!

[Fizbanger]

I have the same problem as a lot of posters here. Attaching a material bay to the bottom of a capsule will always result in the craft flipping head first during re-entry resulting in explosion and death. I have tried both steep and very shallow re-entry attempts and there is no way around it. The only way to avoid fiery death is to fire the parachutes which immediately kills all velocity (without damaging the craft) and flips it back around the right way. This is obviously silly.

I think people are playing the game slightly differently and thus not encountering the problem. For those who are playing it mostly in the science mode there's a need to carry the material bay to orbit, mun, minmus, etc and bring it back safely to kerbin for recovery. This is currently impossibly without using the above parachute firing trick and it would be nice to know if we are just doing something really stupidly wrong or if it is indeed a glitch that needs to be polished out.

[Cebi]

Well belive me or not i landed safely after returning from Mun without heatshield (heating stock 100%). Only Mk1 pod and mk16 para. Service bay/material bay i would happily leave in orbit anytime. Gagarin almost died becouse his service module didnt separated completely. Unlock EVA and colect sience before reentry.

edit: Deployed para at 900 asl speed < mach1. Old habits from FAR/DRE

Edited April 28, 2015 by Cebi

[Kurld]

I played with both capsules yesterday. The 3-man capsule does not have this problem. The 1-man capsule seems to have its center of mass in the wrong place, and will tumble out of control without user input. Using just the chute, capsule and heat shield, SAS was enough to hold its orientation. The 3 man capsule flew as always without needing any SAS.

[federicoaa]

i found that deploying the chute at 50km automatically stops the pod to 400m/s with ~20g peak. I believe it's kinda bug/exploit since the deployed chute does not burn

[Keldor]

As far as big, bulky science modules are concerned, remember that you can EVA a kerbal and have them retrieve the science from the modules and stash it in the command pod. This frees you from having to recover anything else.

[Emilio]

If you really need to recover this kind of heavy payload, maybe splitting it in multiple reentry vehicle would work ? Or if you build long ships put as much drag at its top so that it stabilizes the craft during reentry - use airbrakes so that they don't offset your balance on takeoff.