Race Into Space 2020 Mission Report Thread (RSS/RO/RP-1)

[capkirk]

Race into Space 2020 is a new series of Race into Space (original thread here). Using the Race into Space mod by @soundnfury, Race into Space is an Asynchronous multiplayer mod for Realism Overhaul/Realistic Progression 1. Each player chooses their launch site, and must compete to set milestones as quickly possible, and then sync their games through the Race into Space mod. Submissions are closed, but further details on RiS and RO/RP-1 can be found in the RO Discord server here.

[soundnfury]

Our players and their launch sites are:

• Tyaedalis: Cape
• Teykn: Xichang
• soundnfury: Kodiak
• Falcon: Brownsville
• Marsh: Tanegashima
• user1453: Kourou
• MPGPT: Wenchang
• norcalplanner: Satish Dhawan
• Kirk: Hammaguir
• Pap: Uchinoura
• Elouda: Svobodny
• Jceratops: Wallops
• Anomaly: Baikonur
• wrobz: Mahia

I'm documenting my career with the help of Encyclopædia Kerbonautica; my EK server can be found at http://jttlov.no-ip.org:8084/ and my logo/flag is here.

Edited August 6, 2020 by soundnfury
Late entrant II electric boogaloo

[capkirk]

I'll start this off with my space program, based at the French Interarmy Special Vehicles Test Centre, located in Hammaguir, Algeria.

Like so many RP-1 playthroughs before, this one starts in early March, 1951, at the small concrete pad that is the current launchpad at Hammaguir. The Agate 1, named following the French tradition of naming rockets after precious stones, is a fairly primitive vehicle. Its first stage is a Tiny Tim rocket booster, little more than a steel tube packed with nitrocellulose, and the second stage is a WAC corporal, a simple pressure-fed rocket running on a mixture of Aniline, Furfuyl alcohol and Nitric Acid.

Spoiler

With a roar and plume of smoke and fire, Agate 1 hurtles skyward

Less than a second later, the Tiny Tim burns out and the Agate pulls free on its WAC sustainer (I had to use better time warp in slo-mo mode to get these shots, its over in under a second)

Unfortunately, it clipped the launch clamp on the way up, and a stiff breeze pushed it over even more. Agate 1 has deviated significantly from its planned trajectory, but is still fairly stable. It's avionics core has no control circuitry in it to even attempt a correction, so we just have to ride it out

Agate 1 tops out at around 60 km, not as high as planned, but still high enough to collect some valuable data from the upper atmosphere. The location of Hammaguir means that despite the trajectory issues, Agate impacts nothing but North African desert.

 

Next up is the X-1A, completed a few months later in May 1951. Using a pair of Derwent V jet engines provided by the British, it intends to perform a sustained supersonic flight and high altitude performance testing. Although the Derwent is certainly not optimized for supersonic flight, a very well designed plane can still break the sound barrier with them. The X-1A is just that, trading just about everything in exchange for lower wave drag in order to break through the sound barrier. Despite its resemblance to a lawn dart (or the yet to be designed F-104 Starfighter), it flies very well, and is the among the fastest jet aircraft in the world at this time.

Spoiler

 

Baking in the desert sun on the runway

Despite a slight tailwind, it lifts off easily

Banking north. Along with the supersonic tests, this mission also plans to gather science from the Grasslands, Shores and Ocean biomes around the Mediterranean

Climbing to an altitude of 15 km for the tests

Flat out, it easily breaks the sound barrier. The altitude is needed to keep the temperatures of the Derwents under control, its early turbines can't handle the heat from sustained supersonic flight at low altitudes.

Supersonic test run completed and Desert Biome science collected, it drops to 12 km and 200 m/s to cruise north

Mediterranean visible on the horizon

About 40 minutes later, we reach the Mediterranean and begin collecting all the science we can

Following the shoreline

Strait of Gibraltar

Mission complete, our pilot decides to have a little fun, firewalling the throttles and dropping through the cloud bank

 

A sonic boom echos over the Strait as the X-1A screams overhead at only 3 km

The alarmingly rising temperature of the Derwents puts an end to our pilots fun, and he begins the decelerate

We don't have the fuel to get back, especially not after that burst of speed, so we're landing in Spain

Just pretend there's a runway here. With a 6 m/s headwind and flaps fully deployed, the X-1A practically floats above the surface.

Touchdown

And a complete stop. Time to convince some very annoyed Spanish authorities to give us some fuel.

 

Finally Agate 1B is rolled out to the pad in June of 1951, to complete what its predecessor failed at. With the launch clamp issue hopefully resolved, and the weather relatively calm, Agate 1B should be able to break the Karman line.

Spoiler

Uhh, ok KSP

The launch clamp issue resolved itself, and Agate 1B hurtles skyward

A split second later the booster separates

It still got buffeted around a bit by some high altitude winds, but this time its staying mostly straight up

We have reached 110 km and broken the Karman line. Sensors report that there's still a bit of atmosphere up here, but its very thin

Back down we go

This time, the much faster trajectory is too much for Agate 1B to handle. Its fuselage crumples under the dynamic pressure at around 15 km, and its remains are scattered across the desert. But, its not like it had a parachute anyway, and it has returned some of the first scientific data from above the Karman line.

That's all for today. This ended up taking a bit more time than I expected so I couldn't get to the end of 1951 like I had planned, but I've made good progress so far. Now, time to get humiliated by the Veteran players.

[user1453]

1951/01/01-A new Dictator Gains control of French Guiana, he claims to be the reincarnation of Napolion and declares that he shall build an empire not by conquering other countries but by concoring the heavens. He funnels all of the nations funds into CORE aerospace A selection of American and German WW2 parts are locked in a warehouse with the coutries top engineers. "you may not leave until you have created a plane that breakes the sound barrier"

1951/02/18-First test if the X1, powered by 2 Jet engines, the plane breakes the sound barrier on the testflight and hits 15Km altitude, Sergei tries higher but nearly passes out. Unfortunately due to a peperwork mixup mission control was only able to credit this as a first flight

1951/02/19-Having remembered to file the appropriate paperwork, the X1 flys again, this time completing the Crewed supersonic and Xplanes low contracts, 4 days behind a competing spaceagency at brownsville mabey we need to feed the engineers more Pizza

Spoiler

 

Edited August 5, 2020 by user1453

[Teykn]

Hello, Teykn here, with two mission report highlights. As soundnfury said above, my launch site is in Xichang, China. You'll see a rocket that reflects the location of where it came from.

First up, the 3Mm Downrange contract. (Launch month and year lost due to a launch failure. This is the 2nd attempt. China don't censor me! incompetency.) 

Spoiler

Downrange Rocket HeR-1 stands on the pad. The 1st stage is a standard, tried and true RD-101 engine borrowed from the Soviets and a XASR Aerobee 2nd stage stolen from the Americans.

Nominal ignition and burn so far.

2nd stage ignition 

From this point, the contract was complete. The aerobee stage will proceed to blow up. It is currently reentering the atmosphere.

Big explosion!

Last up is the First Orbit contract, completed in October of 1954.

Spoiler

Ox-Class Prideful Needle ignites on the new 60T pad, using improved technology developed locally, featuring an RD-103 engine 1st stage again borrowed from the Soviets. Stop covering me up!, 2 Aj10-27 Aerobee engine 2nd stage, and the Last stage consisting of the XASR Aerobee Yes I understand that you love the Aerobee engine series but we need to be honest.

Nominal flight so far

Stage Separation of the 1st stage. The RCS quads ignite to provide control and ullage, due to the Aerobee's lack of gimbal.

Nominal ignition of the 2nd stage.

2nd stage burn has completed, and the 2nd stage hangs on for a little longer in order to spin stabilize the final stage.

Final stage ignition. This is the final burn before Low Earth Orbit is achieved.

Orbit successful! This Ox-Class Launch Vehicle (OCLV) is the first of its kind, but it will be short-lived. A few more missions are planned, including a Scientific Orbit with advanced science instruments.

 

[Elouda]

Greetings Comrades.

For your information, presented here is a summary and some highlights of the operations at Svobodny Cosmodrome for the during the first years of the program. Today we will cover the first 4 programs undertaken at this site.

As some of you may be unfamiliar with this fairly remote location, Svobodny is located in the far east of Russia, in Amur Oblast, at 51.8°N, 128.3°E.

 

1951 - The Dart

Spoiler

Part of the goal for the Svobodny Aerospace Research Agency was experimentation with high speed flight, and to that end the first project undertaken by our engineers was the design and development of an aircraft which was hoped to be capable of supersonic flight.

Together with the newly founded Myasishchev Experimental Design Bureau, designs for an aircraft to meet these specifications were created. Designated the M-5, the aircraft gained the nickname of Drotik (Dart).

Empty Weight - 3370kg
Loaded Weight - 4450kg
Max TWR - 0.94
Maximum Range - 1400km

The first flight of the M-5 took place on the 15th of March, 1951, and was intended as a short duration flight test for the aircraft.

M-5 Drotik on the Runway shortly before takeoff

Performing low altitude maneuvering tests

The pilot for this first flight was Senior Lt. Valeriya Tsvetnova, who flew transport aircraft during the Great Patriotic War, and one of the two pilots assigned to the program here at Svobodny. After a series of flight tests within close proximity to the Cosmodrome to ensure the aircraft was performing as expected, the flight and aircraft were considered a success.

The second, and more significant flight took place the following day, with Lt. Olga Kolosova as pilot. This flight would attempt to test the aircrafts ability to break the sound barrier, along with high altitude performance.

The performance of the aircraft was better than expected, and with a reduced fuel load it was capable of accelerating in a 40 degree climb from sea level, and attaining 377m/s speed over ground at 10-11km, and a ceiling of 16km.

M-5 in a Mach 1.22 powered dive from 12km

In total, the M-5 would go on to fly a total of 4 more missions, including long range cruises for scientific study, before being transferred to another agency. Considerations were made to keep the vehicle around as a trainer for new pilots, but due to the manpower and budget constraits facing the agency, it was deemed unfeasible.

 

 

1951/52 - Flight of the Sparrows

Spoiler

As flight testing on the M-5 was underway, the first rocket designs were being drawn up at Svobodny.

The first rockets to be built were designed to launch small sounding and scientific payloads in the upper parts of the atmosphere, and hopefully beyond. The first design, designated Izdeliye 2-1, was the first of this family, which would be launched under a program known as Vorobey (Sparrow).

Built around a central core powered by 3 RB-5A engines with a total of 22.5kN of thrust, and with a pair of small solid rocket boosters attached to provide initial speed, the design was expected to reach altitudes of over 140km.

Vorobey I on the pad before launch

Vorobey was produced in 4 different variants;
Izdeliye 2-1 - Vorobey 'A' - Initial variant, scientific instrumentation
Izdeliye 2-2 - Vorobey 'B' - Same as A, but with biological sample capsule
Izdeliye 2-3 - Vorobey 'C' - Engines changed to 2 RB-10A (10kN) along with a longer central core. biological sample capsule as with B.
Izdeliye 2-4 - Vorobey 'D' - Final variant, improved RB-10B engine (18kN), but recovery equipment and science equipment removed for sounding payload in the nose.

In total there were 5 flights in the program;
Vorobey I - May 28th 1951 - 'A' Variant - Succesful launch, loss of engine thrust towards end of flight resulted in maximum altitude of only 101km. Successful recovery.
Vorobey II - July 1951 - 'B' Variant - Successful launch, no engine failures. Maximum altitude of over 160km. Successful recovery.
Vorobey III - October 1951 - 'C' Variant - Successful launch, premature shutdown on one engine forcing the other to be shut down. Successful recovery.
Vorobey IV - December 1951 - 'C' Variant - Succesful launch, no failures. Reached over 200km altitude. Successful recovery.
Vorobey V - October 1952 - 'D' Variant - Successful launch, no failures. Vehicle destroyed at over 200km after mission completion.

 

 

1951-53 - A larger Dart

Spoiler

Even as the M-5 was recovering from its early test flights, a series of design studies to improve its performance was undetaken by Myasishchev and the engineers at Svobodny. While the aircraft had met its design goals, it was felt that it could be pushed both faster and further.

Designated the M-7, the 'second Dart' was built on a similar airframe with some modifications. The elongated nose and adjustments to the wings reduced the overall drag of the aircraft, while the additional engines doubled available power. Additionally, provisions were made for much larger fuel and electrical storage onboard.

Empty Weight - 4640kg
Loaded Weight - 6140kg
Max TWR - 1.44
Maximum Range - 2300km

Performance was excellent, able to climb at near vertical with reduce fuel loads. At an altitude of 14km, a speed of over 470m/s over ground was sustained (Mach 1.6). At reduced thrust, the aircraft was capable of cruising at Mach 0.95 for almost 2 hours. A series of flights took place during 1951 to 1953, completing high-speed research along with long range scientific flights as far as the Kamchatka peninsula, and deep into Mongolia.

M-7 shortly after takeoff

M-7 on final approach

 

 

1952/53 - The Crow takes wing (Part 1)

Spoiler

In addition to the atmospheric and biological research that had been taking place, the Agency was tasked to develop a rocket that would be capable of longer range flights. This program would be known as Vorona (Crow).

Izdeliye 4-1 was the first two stage vehicle designed by the Agency. It was designed around a modified version of the Vorobey core as an upper stage, along with an entirely new 1.5m lower stage.

The lower stage is powered by a single RA-400B with 410kN thrust, and has avionics for guidance. The upper stage is powered by a single RB-10B, which is the same 18kN engine that flew on the Vorobey D variant. The upper stage is designer to hotstage about 1-1.5s before the first stage burns out. In a slight design flaw, despite removing the parachutes for recovery from the Vorobey upper stage, the decoupler for the nose portion was still left in the design.

Vorona I launches

The first flight was a complete success, with the vehicle outperforming its design target by almost 40%, reaching an impressive 4200km before breaking up in the upper atmosphere.

While further development and applications for the design were handed off to another part of the government, the Vorona would see continued service with some modifications as a launcher for high altitude camera payloads.

With the upper stage removed and the tank on the lower stage modified slightly, the vehicle would fly another 3 successful missions for the agency. Another improvement was the change to the more powerful RA-400C engine with an uprated thrust of 433kN.

Sadly we were not able to provide images of the later Vorona flights as pictures of the camera equipment was deemed too sensitive for security reasons.

Vorona was produced in 2 different variants;
Izdeliye 4-1 - Vorona 'A' - Two stage, long range variant
Izdeliye 4-2 - Vorona 'B' - Single stage, with recoverable camera payload

In total there were 5 flights in the program;
Vorona I - May 1952 - 'A' Variant - Succesful launch, full burn on both stages. Burnt up downrange after achieving mission target distance.
Vorona II - May 1953 - 'B' Variant - Successful launch, engine suffered performance loss towards the end of the flight. Successful recovery.
Vorona III - May 1953 - 'B' Variant - Successful launch and recovery.
Vorona IV - July 1953 - 'B' Variant - Successful launch and recovery.

 

 

A follow up briefing covering the next programs will be due in the near future.

Edited August 7, 2020 by Elouda

[user1453]

1951-03    tiny tim/wac SR fails due to engine failiure 
1951-04    tiny tim/wac SR completes karmen uncrewed
1951-05    RD100/WAC unguided sounding rocket completes 3000kkm downrange
1951-06    2xtiny tim/2xwac completes sub orbital return contract
1951-08 2xtiny tim/2xwac completes Low space Bio 1
At this point there was a lull waiting for more paperwork capacity
1952-04-Bio 2  3xtiny tim/3xwac,Bio 3  3xtiny tim/3xwac, Photo 1 RD102, Failiure of RD102/AJ10-27 due tio engine shutown
1952-07-Failiure of RD102/AJ10-27 due to wind
1952-10-Photo 2 success RD102/AJ10-27
It was obeserved that in gerneral a crosswind was preferable
1952-11 Altitude 1 2xtiny tim/AJ10-27
1953-01-FO attempt caveman 1-fail due to rd102 suffering loss of performance 10s early
1953-04-FO attempt caveman 1-fail due to insufficient RCS to correct spin
1953-08-conracts for FO and FSO expire
El presidente is ousted, having bankrupted the company, the new presedent vows to exploit the oil reserves of south america to make them great again
.

[Teykn]

A LOT of progress has been accomplished. Presented are 4 mission report highlights of a Lunar flyby/impactor, a Lunar Orbiter, an Entry, Descent, Landing Bio Package (EDLBP), and a Venus Flyby!

Presented first is Chang'e's Beryl Tiger, a Tiger-Class LV.  

Spoiler

The LV stands proudly on the launchpad Striped Tiger (which is limited to rockets that are 60t or below)

Nominal Ignition!

Liftoff!

The Lr79 first stage burnout complete, and the 2nd stage decouples fine. It coasts for around a minute (not captured. The Japanese interfered). Shown here is the Aj10-37 engine ignition if it fails you're fired

After a nominal burn out ok you're getting a raise the Impactor's antenna extends, and LEO is achieved.

TLI stage, featuring a XASR Aerobee (Spacebees are love, Spacebees are life). Shown here is the Ignition.

With a nominal burnout, the probe is on it's way to murder a Lunarian. The moon-dwellers be damned.

Terra, Luna, Sol, and the stars. Space is quite magnificant isn't it except for those damned Lunarians.

Approaching the Moon. One murdered Lunarian coming right up!

This is a gorgeous shot of the moon, don't you agree Chang'e?

Falling

A Lunarian be damned! A successful hunt! A Lunarian and his rabbit have been successfully exterminated. Mission Success, Impact achieved. 2 more shall suffer.

Presented next is Chang'e's Beryl Tiger Eye, so we can keep a track on the Lunarians' population. They must be eradicated. The mission is to send a scientific probe into orbit of the moon.

Spoiler

Lunar Orbit is harder than murdering a Lunarian so presented is a stronger LV, with an uprated Lr79 and an Aj10-42.

Burnout of the S-3D Lr79 and stage seperation

Ignition of the AJ10-42

Burnout successful. LEO achieved

Due to some horrible negligance you're under arrest for sabotage , There're no images of the Aj10-27 aerobee TLI stage. What's presented next is after the burn was completed and the orbiter was seperated.

Arriving to spy on the Lunarians

After a successful burn (unluckily not captured due to the negligance by the employee that shall be executed soon for treason), Chang'e's Beryl Tiger Eye now spies upon the evil Lunarians.

 

The EDL mission, launched on the uprated LV used for the Lunar Orbiter, has not been properly documented due to the importance of dealing with the Lunarians. The EDL also occured during the night, which makes for a horrible missionreport. What's presented next is very poor, something China's pride would never allow. Nevertheless, here is the EDL mission:

Spoiler

Successful landing.

Finally, the mission China has the most pride in so far: The Venus flyby, with advances in Communication and Solar technology, and the necessary advance in Avionics technology, since we can know fully control probe beyond Earth. The Probe was launched on a new LV: Leaping Rabbit. 

Spoiler

Leaping Rabbit on the pad. First stage composes of 3 Single-Chamber Lr87s, burning Kerosene and LOX.

Ignition!

For the first time in a LV past the Sounding Rocket Era, the 2nd stage Lr91 necessitates the usage of hot-staging, due to the lack of power from the RCS. Nominal Ignition is shown here.

LEO successful. 

Seperation of the TVI stage. The engine being used is one someone found from the scrapyard. It is the Xlr81 Agena engine. Our tests show that it has a worse failure rate than the aj10-37, which is notorious for being an unreliable engine. Despite this, use of it was necessary due to the lack of power from the Aj10 engine series.

Successful ignition!

Burn Complete. This Scrap engine will never be used again, until it no longer is scrap.

Probe seperation. The 2 solar panels shown are the first solar panels to be flown into space. What's also new is the better antenna, running on the new S-Band. This new band is a lot more efficient, but is solely for Beyond-LEO missions only.

The probe in front of the sun. It is on a 160d transfer to Venus.

After time passed, the probe arrived at Venus, and completed it's mission of a flyby. Interestingly enough, this probe, if it survives, will encounter Venus in the next 6.5 to 7 years.

 

I hope you guys are enjoying this RiS. While there've been spots that have been demotivating, it's certainly been interesting learning new things. This is my first time playing Rp-1 on ROKerbalism and RealAntennas. Hopefully I don't drop out.

[Marsh]

With the end of the official sounding era in December 1955, the engineers found themselves with some free time, so they decided to make some dioramas to honor the rockets that came before. All of the sounding rockets got an "S" as a part of their name, and a number which signifies the order they were designed and intended to be launched, although this order could change after the naming was complete. Let's go over the dioramas!

S1 and S2 (shown below) were Karman Line rockets, 0.3m Aerobees. Both succeeded in their mission.

Spoiler

S3 and S5 (shown below) were early return missions. They are powered by the A-4 and are 1.4m. They use the science core from the above rockets. S3 had an engine failure and only hit 102km.

Spoiler

S4 and S6 (shown below) were 3000km downrange attempts. The first stage is powered by the XLR41 and is generally similar to the above rocket. The second stage is similar to the early Aerobees with spin stabilization added. S4 had an upper stage failure and only hit 2800km.

Spoiler

S7, S8, and S9 (shown below) were bio return missions. They used an upgraded Aerobee design which was 0.38m. All were successful.

Spoiler

S11, S12, and S14 (shown below) were film return missions. They're powered by the XLR43 and have derpy 1.8m tanks. The nosecone is hollow and obscures the film equipment, which is ejected once in space. The fins were all-moving to maintain ballistic stability after the engines shut down. A secondary mission goal of these rockets was flight testing to improve the reliability of the XLR43. Also of special note is S13 and S17, which were downrange payload missions which used a similar rocket. All were successful in their missions, but S13 had an engine failure.

Spoiler

S10 and S15 (shown below) were altitude payload rockets. They used an upgraded Aerobee of the 0.380m size similar to what was used for the bio returns. All were successful, but S10 had an engine failure.

Spoiler

S16 (shown below) was another altitude sounding mission that used a further upgraded Aerobee of the 0.420m size and the new Nike SRB. These designs would later be used for the early orbital missions. It was successful.

Spoiler

S18, S19, and S20 (shown below) were large sounding rockets to send Tanukis into space to determine if Kerbals could later go there. They were powered by the NAA75 and were 1.8m in size. All were successful. No Tanukis were harmed.

Spoiler

 

Edited August 12, 2020 by Marsh

[soundnfury]

Herewith, a summary of the first five years of the Snowbird Space Programme flying out of Kodiak, Alaska (which in my alternate history is part of Canada, because everything's better with Empire).  Follow the links (into EK) for the screenshots.

After the standard pootling about with sounding-rockets (Kármán line was passed on 26^th May 1951, by James 11), the sound barrier was broken on 1^st October 1952 by Jeffrey Cunningham in the "Bertie" rocketplane (of course, around the world superjunkers had been flying past Mach 1 for over 18 months, but we chose not to sully ourselves with such ungentlemanly contraptions).  Further Bertie flights (shared between Jeffrey and our other pilot, Laura Peters) continued to be interspersed with bigger and better sounding-rockets built around the LP series of ethanol/LOx engines, until disaster struck on 14^th June 1953 when the ninth Bertie flight crashed on landing, killing Jeffrey.

Undaunted, our rocketeers continued improving both our technology and our ground facilities, paving the way for the twin-engined Percival 30 to place our first satellite, the onion-shaped Sapphire 1, into a polar orbit on 1^st April 1954.  This was followed by a new rocketplane, Bertie II, with an improved pressurised cockpit, which reached 50km on its first flight on 29^th May.  A scientific satellite, Sapphire 3, launched on Percival 32 on 18^th November; its few hours of battery life were enough to detect the Van Allen radiation belts.

We lost another pilot on 24^th November 1954 when Bertie II crashed in a cross-wind landing.  With Laura dead, crewed flights stop until the time comes to put capsules into space.

1955 was mostly a sequence of unexceptional satellite launches (with some engine failures thrown in), but Percival 35 did succeed in sending Pyrope 1 to an orbital-speed re-entry (despite a partial engine failure on the second stage), achieving this feat on 9^th October — which may turn out to have been a first, since competing programmes mostly focussed on sending probes to the Moon, something which we hope to do during ’56 with the newly-designed KR and PKV engines.

 

I look forward to the confusion that will inevitably result from both @capkirk's rockets and my payloads being named after gemstones.