Introduction and some pressies!

[Elmetian]

I\'ve been playing on this thoroughly addictive game for a few days now, so I thought I\'d introduce myself with a few spacecraft

The first is my heavy lifter: Sun Probe (Thunderbirds reference ofc). She\'s capable of reaching the Sun. She has lots of small, multi-layered stages, so if you get the advancement correct she\'ll accelerate smoothly all the way up. Here\'s a pic, the .craft file and some staging info:

• 
  [li]Engage SAS and thrust to max before ignition.[/li]
  [li]Release fins (first stage) after clearing tower.[/li]
  [li]Advance stages just after the previous one runs out of fuel. Solid following solid, liquid following liquid, so make sure to check which one is which.[/li]
  [li]The last solid stage has to be ignited separately so that it doesn\'t cause the previous solid stage to crash into the liquid fuel tanks.[/li]
  [li]Ignore all overheating warnings until you\'re in space. None of the stages burn long enough for it to become a problem[/li]
  

The second is my latest two stage mothership and rocket plane: Mother and Baby 2. Baby can reach orbit quite easily, and I\'ve put her into a circular orbit of about 230km without too much trouble.

• 
  [li]I engage SAS first because Mother\'s a bit twitchy. After you reach 100m/s on the runway she\'ll pull up, so disengage the SAS and then re-engage once aloft.[/li]
  [li]I let the SAS do the work once airborne, turning it off to change pitch. You\'ll have to keep your finger on \'S\' at all times to stop Mother\'s nose from dropping.[/li]
  [li]The Mother\'s ceiling is about 14km, and I usually release at about 400m/s. Release any lower and baby will stall.[/li]
  [li]Go vertical after release, then pitch down after you\'re 30-40km up and track the prograde marker (or just above it) until you reach the desired projected apoapsis, then burn again at apoapsis.[/li]
  [li]I can\'t quite fit another SAS on her so you\'ll have to fly unaided once out of the atmosphere, though it\'s not too difficult.[/li]
  

Bother are made with vanilla parts. I\'m sure they could be improved upon given more time, but I kinda went for aesthetics as well as functionality. My heavy lifter might take another three solid fuel boosters on the first stage for example, and the Mother could probably benefit from an extra fuselage-mounted engine. It took me a while to balance them both though, so adding extra components might make them less stable.

EDIT: uploaded a new .craft for Sun Probe, as the last stage was too large. The new one has one less RCS and small liquid fuel tank.

[Tim_Barrett]

Awesome first post! 8)

[Elmetian]

Thanks Tim

I\'d love some feedback on my spacecraft if anyone has the time to check them out btw. I found the spaceplane especially hard to balance, and it\'s still not as stable as I\'d like.