Hedvig Mk.II Heavy Launch Vehicle

[Kristian]

Hedvig has grown from a shy little girl into a real woman! The Hedvig Mk.II boasts an initial TWR of 1.4 and an upper stage that has some 4000 litres of fuel to spare after orbital insertion.

Beware though, the first stage needs some serious babysitting if you want it to bring you anywhere near space.

Edited August 4, 2012 by Kristian

[WoodenBiplane]

That\'s probably the prettiest Stock Heavy ever. I LOVE what you\'ve done with the aesthetics of the upper stages. I\'ve been looking for a stock lifter since I\'m using the Orbital Construction mods and this one looks like it\'s got good framerate. Tell us more about the flight characteristics?

I\'ll probably try it out with the TEST WEIGHTS mod when I get home today.

[BlazingAngel665]

*removes sunglasses* mother of god!

That is amazing my friend, simply amazing!

[Kristian]

Reading these comments always puts a smile on my face

Also - it has grown! And possibly visited the gym. The hexagonal lay-out is now kept throughout the entire launcher.

Altso, its thrust to weight ratio is somewhat improved - 1.39, compared to 1.06 - thanks to a new arrangement of engines.

[pebble_garden]

Wow that really is sexy, and all stock parts too. I\'ll have to start using that configuration. Well done!

[austin9898]

Brilliant! I was looking for something to lift a space plane i\'ve been using. BTW, any way you can cap the top off? Seems like it creates alot of drag in the atmosphere, but i\'ll wait until i get home to try it out.

*EDIT* Works great, it can lift my giant space plane with EASE. Good work! Its heavy lifting capabilities are spot on! *EDIT*

[terp]

This might be one of the coolest things i\'ve seen on KSP.

[RayneCloud]

wow, just wow

[gopa4]

Absolutely beautiful...

[WoodenBiplane]

Flight Characteristics:

Surprisingly, this thing crawls slowly off the pad. Yet, since the stage differences are pretty much perfectly balanced, it slowly accelerates, since it\'s constantly losing fuel weight and isn\'t carrying much upstairs as dead weight. The stages run out of fuel at exactly the right timing during your gravity turn and circularization, with just about a half a tank to spare. Surprisingly, the remaing command/service module combo has plenty of fuel for orbital maneuvers. The lack of RCS is worrisome, but I\'m within 200m of my Space Station. Wish me luck on the Crew Exchange.

For a heavier lifting version some SRB\'s with attached drop fuel tanks should give it the boost it needs (I Think).

[Jcinq]

MY EYES! Its.... amazing....

[Commander Zoom]

Very nice. Not surprised to hear how it flies, but that it does at all (and looks so good doing it) is remarkable.

[segaprophet]

Digging the R-7 style primary engine cluster.

EDIT - I just realized that is stock parts - PRETTY!

[Kristian]

Your feedback is awesome

New pictures!

Also, this launcher is too small. Working on a bigger one.

[WoodenBiplane]

Crew Exchange went off without a hitch, the station is now fully manned. The C/SM is sluggish, but efficient, and multiple rendevous after drifting apart was cake even without RCS.

[Ghery88]

I\'m almost speechless, hats off to you sir!

[Darkside543]

>_> Let me preface by saying that I love the aesthetics of this ship, its a beautiful design. That said, I may have taken your design and added more rockets to it because it was going to slow for me. A lot of rockets. It still works out well, but it will slow down a fast computer. At the end of the last booster separation I\'m usually goin about 850m/s. Don\'t panic off the launch pad when ya hear explosions, all is going according to plan! Thank you for this great ship Kristian! (I attached my modded version below, I DID NOT MAKE THIS DESIGN. I only gave it more engines haha) (ps, it is best to run this with mechjeb =P)

[jersey]

This isnt stock, you used mechjeb

[SquirrelMachine]

This isnt stock, you used mechjeb

True, but without mechjeb many smaller computers wouldn\'t be able to handle this thing. The mechjeb unit is the only non-stock part involved, so I would consider the craft itself stock, while the mechjeb is only to make it controllable for crappier computers, such as my laptop. =P

[Newt0570]

True, but without mechjeb many smaller computers wouldn\'t be able to handle this thing. The mechjeb unit is the only non-stock part involved, so I would consider the craft itself stock, while the mechjeb is only to make it controllable for crappier computers, such as my laptop. =P

Maybe you could add a non-mechjeb file to the O.P. So I don\'t need to DL mechjeb again.

(also, so anyone else can dl it with a stock KSP)

[dikkjo]

Wow this design is really cool

anyway the second stage is underpowered for abt 1 minute, during this time it almost lost all velocity ( 300m/s -> 50m/s ).

Since there is mechjeb, during the ascent check the TWR in vessel info.

Also how do you stick the fuselages like that? If I try, i always end up with the black bottom outside!?

[Phoenix Aerospace]

Daaaaaaaaaayyyum. That\'s a nice rocket.

[Kristian]

Darkside,

any plan without explosions is not worth its name

Newt and jersey,

I realised this only after updating the OP. MechJeb was used solely to determine the mass and thrust ratio. Rest assured, it is perfectly controllable manually.

dikkjo,

indeed, it is. Which is why I am revamping the entire vehicle

Also, in order to strap a fuselage onto a surface with its topside facing outwards, exploiting a glitch is necessary. Observe:

Mount a structural fuselage onto the surface of a two-meter one.

Before the glitch can be exploited, the game needs to recognize the part that will be placed around the structural fuselage. Make this happen simply by placing the fuel tank anywhere in the scene.

Ta-da!

This eyesore of a picture illustrates the gust of it.

Now grab the structural fuselage and place it in, preferably, hexagonal symmetry around the core tank.

Go bananas.

[dikkjo]

indeed, it is. Which is why I am revamping the entire vehicle

amazing! thx a lot

[combat squirrel]

:-(_____________)

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