[1.4.X] Commonwealth Rockets - Tea Powered Spaceflight!

[CobaltWolf]

So, a while back myself, @Beale, and some other modders wanted to create a pack centered around @Beale's now-retired NLV rockets, which in turn were based on the real life Blue Streak and Black Arrow launch vehicles. It's only been about 10 months since we decided to do it and we finally have something to show for it! Trying to keep the scale manageable has been hard (turns out there's a ton of cool British rocket and probe designs, let alone the Europa stuff), but we'll hopefully be able to keep it together. This project has been a great opportunity for myself and @Beale to experiment with new techniques and incorporate each other's styles. We'll probably force @Jso to balance and configure it. Expect this to get made into a proper thread OP over the next few days, but for the time being here are some screenshots to give y'all a taste of where we're going:

edit: First.

 

Edited June 5, 2018 by CobaltWolf

[DeltaDizzy]

ooooo, this looks neat. 

Spoiler

#FirstPost

 

[steedcrugeon]

Yay! It's glorious! Can't wait to put prospero into orbit 

[TheRagingIrishman]

!Njce @MrMeeb

[Daishi]

Rule Britannia 

[Sudragon]

18 minutes ago, Daishi said:

Rule Britannia 

And launch from Australia! 

[Probus]

Beautiful!  Looks great!

[CobaltWolf]

Emissives on Blue Streak are go! Can't wait to see this in game with RealPlumes!

[Cheesecake]

This looks like the Engines for Europa 2-TA with Boosters.

[Benjamin Kerman]

If you are using tea for fuel...

Edit: im deving mod with tea atm, we should talk. 

Edited August 13, 2017 by Benjamin Kerman

[CobaltWolf]

W

16 minutes ago, Cheesecake said:

This looks like the Engines for Europa 2-TA with Boosters.

Well Blue Streak IS the first stage of Europa. Will we make parts for that? Idk yet. We really want to but I'm trying to take things one part at a time atm, otherwise things might spiral out of scope.

[Cheesecake]

19 minutes ago, CobaltWolf said:

W

Well Blue Streak IS the first stage of Europa. Will we make parts for that? Idk yet. We really want to but I'm trying to take things one part at a time atm, otherwise things might spiral out of scope.

Yes, I know. This wasn't a question to make a Europa from my side. I saw the skirts on the sides of the Engine. They are heatshields for Boosters. As I know Bluestreak was never planned with boosters but there where plans for an Europa II with Boosters.

[CobaltWolf]

34 minutes ago, Cheesecake said:

Yes, I know. This wasn't a question to make a Europa from my side. I saw the skirts on the sides of the Engine. They are heatshields for Boosters. As I know Bluestreak was never planned with boosters but there where plans for an Europa II with Boosters.

Gotcha. The phrasing was ambiguous and I interpreted it as you not knowing that Blue Streak and Europa were closely related. My apologies.

If we are getting technical, Blue Streak never existed as a launch vehicle at all, only as a first stage to other rockets like Europa and Black Prince. However, adding side boosters was one of the main things looked at for upgrading Blue Streak derived vehicles, either through off-the-shelf solids based on MRBMs or some form of liquid booster modules.

I didn't note it here yet, but the smooth sides on the engine are toggled separately from the heat shield shrouds. No real reason for that, I just thought there might be use cases where aesthetically you'd want that flexibility.

There's a ton of fun stuff to be found looking through spaceuk.org, for anyone that wants to see some of the ideas we have on back burner for this.

[CobaltWolf]

Forgot to mention it earlier, but big shout out to @Nertea for making our emissives not look dumb.

[MaverickSawyer]

Ooooh, watching this one with interest.

[Daishi]

19 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

Forgot to mention it earlier, but big shout out to @Nertea for making our emissives not look dumb.

Hot damn that's hot

10/10 would spontaneously ignite

[Beale]

Progress continues on Black Arrow rocket. 

[ArtemisAZ]

I can hear Pomp and Circumstance playing somewhere in the ethereal distance.
Absolutely spectacular seeing the Black Arrow getting the love it so desperately deserves.

[MaverickSawyer]

Has the Blue Streak engine with the updated thrust vectors been made available yet?

[CobaltWolf]

15 hours ago, MaverickSawyer said:

Has the Blue Streak engine with the updated thrust vectors been made available yet?

Should be, I made some Github commits yesterday. SPEAKING OF WHICH.

Blue Streak engine in game with emissives and RealPlume.

[klgraham1013]

Why do you keep bullying the stock art assets?  That poor oil drum has been crying in the corner for a week now.  Maybe you could try to be less good.  That way the stock parts could feel better about themselves.

[Beale]

6 hours ago, klgraham1013 said:

That poor oil drum has been crying in the corner for a week now. 

It should learn to take helpful feedback and improve itself.

 

@notJebKerman To answer your question from the Tantares thread, yes! The WaxWing is planned, among other things.

 

A few vanity Black Arrow shots.

[/not/pol/]

im going to make a tea crate payload so i can drop it off into the water off the coast of the KSC

Edited August 16, 2017 by /not/pol/

[Bottle Rocketeer 500]

Wow, looks amazing! Can you please make the fuel a mixture of tea and oxidizer?

Also, can you make the tops of fuel tanks less flat?

Edited August 16, 2017 by Bottle Rocketeer 500

[CobaltWolf]

Was able to squeak in a bit of time, worked on polishing the first adapter (1.5m, for BDB compatibility and for making the canon Europa) and created the outside of the 1.875m fairing base