Satellite retrieval with Space Shuttle

[SnakyLeVrai]

Hi all,

Here is a picture report of my last mission, a training at satellite capture with a Space Shuttle. That will be useful to me later, as a probe will return from Low Kerbol Orbit with a lot of science, and the probe couldn't survive reentry.

Main mods used are:

• Infernal Robotics
• KAS & KIS
• Kerbal Engineer Redux and other helpful sciency indicators
• ... but I use stock aerodynamics.

I have made a launch tower too, using Infernal Robotics to fold the catwalk and KAS to move a lift up & down, so the Kerbals can get into the shuttle...

 

 

 

I use the awesome Trajectories to help pin-pointing the landing. It works well for ballistic reentries, at little less well when you fly a spaceplane... It's still guesswork for me now. Then the landing was unfortunately not on the runway... But another version of the shuttle made it (a crew transfer version).

 

 

[Geschosskopf]

Very nice!  I really suck at shuttles with all their asymmetries.  Nifty robotic arm, too.

[Raptor9]

How did you get that view inside the flight deck: centered and facing back, is there somewhere you can click with the mouse for that?

[SnakyLeVrai]

3 hours ago, Raptor9 said:

How did you get that view inside the flight deck: centered and facing back, is there somewhere you can click with the mouse for that?

Double click here:

[Raptor9]

Awesome, thanks. 

[SnakyLeVrai]

You're welcome  Also if you click above the heads of the two Kerbals at the back, you can see through the 4 little windows, two of them looking inside the hold, the two other in space

It also works with other cockpits. The Mk2 cockpit "click zone" is at the base of the black border, between the two front windows. There is another one behind the left seat, so you can see the two Kerbals from behind

[The space freak]

Hey which mod did u use for the launch tower?It looks cool!

[DunaRocketeer]

Cool Shuttle, it has been a long time since I've made a gantry but I think you've inspired me to come up with something.

[SnakyLeVrai]

2 hours ago, The space freak said:

Hey which mod did u use for the launch tower?It looks cool!

Thanks  I've used mostly stock parts and there are mainly 3 mods:

• Infernal Robotics's hinges parts to fold the catwalk before launch
• KAS' winch for the lift (the lift consists in a Hitchhiker module, it's as simple as it gets)
• Tweak Scale to double the size of the beams, for the structure of the tower -> the big delta wings are hiding this in the screenshots. There are long beams to make the supporting skeleton of the tower inside, at each corner. You can see it in action here, I've made a video of it (you can skip to 1:30 if you don't want to see the rest - it's an older version of the space shuttle here) :

 

38 minutes ago, DunaRocketeer said:

Cool Shuttle, it has been a long time since I've made a gantry but I think you've inspired me to come up with something.

Thanks  I've found long and thin SRBs to be very good structural parts for such purposes. I've made a long spaceship with several satellites side-attached to a long "structural booster" that is much less wobbly than a attaching 2 or 3 beams on top of each other.

[The space freak]

Well your shuttle is a great piece of architecture!!