Kerbin - Mun fuel station mission. Establishing K.G.01 and K.G.02

[Icegrx]

Fantastic work, I love seeing it all come together. Once the station is fully fueled up. I’m excited to see how you use all that hydrogen. I haven’t come up with any good builds for hydrogen/nuke engines yet. 

In my exploration game, I just made a small station so that I could run the medium sized crewed orbital science module thing. I ended up over building it for its job, yet it’s still much smaller than yours. I’m impressed your PC can handle all the parts up there in orbit. Mine with graphics set to low, is at its knees while docking everything. I built a medium and a large tug similar to yours for station keeping and hooking up modules.

I ended up building a small glider similar to your emergency escape one as well! so that I could shuttle crew to my station, and bring home the science samples from the orbital science module. Its maiden voyage completed its mission fine. Took two kerbals to the station, got a quick refuel, loaded the kerbals back up with the science and got them home safe…    

However, my glider ended up in the ocean rather then KSC runway. It entered the atmosphere beautifully, very stable. It was even stable in the atmosphere. It just dropped way faster than expected with no real “glide” I’m thinking I need bigger wings for more lift. 
 

I took screenshots of the whole bit, but they look terrible with the low graphics, and I’m unsure how to get them in the post other than just a link.

[BechMeister]

3 hours ago, Icegrx said:

I’m impressed your PC can handle all the parts up there in orbit. Mine with graphics set to low, is at its knees while docking everything. I built a medium and a large tug similar to yours for station keeping and hooking up modules.

Oh I can tell you my frame rate is not great either. This is very much a "do a maneuver - drink coffee - come back and do next maneuver" game for me. I think my pain tolerance is like 15 fps - but since I added the escape shuttles I believe my station is like 5 fps or something. It's been a while since I've had a FPS counter.

I game on a Lenovo Legion gaming laptop:

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9750H CPU @ 2.60GHz   2.59 GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 TI
RAM: Ram: 16,0 GB

Something that can ease the suffering:

I often time warp when I'm on the KSC menu. you know, were you can pick the VAB, Launch site etc. As then you can time warp fast without it lagging a lot, which some times makes timewarp feel like it's slower than actual time. (Mostly when KSC is in the dark - I hate landing at night as I can't see my aiming landmarks)

Also I have gotten precise enough that I match target orbit sub 100m from target. (its also easy when its only 23m/s that needs to be canceled out). Then there is less fiddling with RCS thrusters. I just have to be mindful of the size of the station as its XXX distance from the target center, not the parts that stick out x). I once had an approach that was 30m, i'm pretty sure I scraped some paint of the glider hitting the fuel tank array  So No closer than 50m on the approach now.

You can fine tune the rendezvous point A LOT using the RCS thrusters right after your intercept burn has been complete:

As you can see here the rendezvous point is almost 2/3 on the other side of the Kerbin. If you hover your mouse over the "Target & Intersect [2]" (as shown here on the screenshot) you can fine tune the intercept point with the RCS thrusters - I usually just manipulate H, N, J ,K ,L and I in accordance of what button press produce a lower "distance from target" number.

I dont know if this can help you... But I find that the closer I am to my station once all relative speed has been killed. the faster you get to the docking port you need to connect to... and the less patient you have to be, spending time in lag x)

3 hours ago, Icegrx said:

However, my glider ended up in the ocean rather then KSC runway. It entered the atmosphere beautifully, very stable. It was even stable in the atmosphere. It just dropped way faster than expected with no real “glide” I’m thinking I need bigger wings for more lift. 

Maybe, or you just need to "aim better". You can figure out how "bad" your glider glides by testing it on the runway. I always do a lot of testing to figure how well it glides. Thas what I have this winged behemoth engine for:

Its just an engine that gets the glider up to a few KM altitude so I can see how well it glides. The glider is all emptied of the fuel it wont have on return (I usually just test the dry mass to be sure, but if you know you have methalox or Monopropellant as ballast to balance the craft, just use that) 

Then I test at what pitch angle the craft stalls in. My best gliders had a pitch angle of ÷10° from the horizon.. and my worst (the Heavy Tanker, which obviously glides like excrements) wont pitch beyond ÷80° 

I also found it help full to make the little aiming drones on the run way and landing pad - just so i can set it as a target and see if I can point prograde at it.

May I ask how much Δv you spend on your deorbit burn? Maybe you just reenter at a too shallow angle. 

Any way - before making the wings bigger I would test its stall speed and angle over the runway. Making the wings bigger can really create some challenges of getting the glider up into space - especially if you do like me were you put the most dragious part on top of the rocket xD (but to me it was better than balancing a shuttle style rocket)

4 hours ago, Icegrx said:

I took screenshots of the whole bit, but they look terrible with the low graphics, and I’m unsure how to get them in the post other than just a link

Dont worry. I still play Morrowind from time to time.. and the graphics there has not aged like wine - I can handle it  

I use a program that is called "ShareX" - When ever you take a screenshot it upload it to imigur and provides a link for it. If you upload that link to your forum post it automatically imbeds the picture into the post.

[Icegrx]

Here's some shots of my Station mission that was inspired by yours.

The goal: Build Station, Get OSL-25 "Starlab" module into orbit, Crew the Station, Get the science home safe. 

 

Notes: The build & Docking of the station itself, I have no pictures of. I didn't think to record my progress as I wasn't sure the station would be a success at all. 

Docking went really well, better than expected actually. I only had one failed rendezvous, this was due to lack of planning.  I didn't time my launches, and if I had I would have saved a boat load of Delta-V. I did build all my rockets and tugs with way more Delta-V than needed however so no real issues here. I launched my Monoprop tanks at a particularly bad time, so rendezvous was going to take way too much time and Delta-V for meetup, so I opted to de-orbit it and try again. 

The rockets themselves were designed to be as "realistic" as possible. I know the payload mass is way heavier than anything in real life, but I think I split up the load in a real enough way. I absolutely despise one launch SSTO style stations. The tanker launch was a bit silly though, and I should have launched them empty and forced myself to refuel them. I may dump the fuel later and fuel them up manually for the "roleplay" of it. You’ll also notice I “cheated” by attaching a large tug as the second stage to each rocket. I probably could have gotten them up without it, and did a proper handoff, but this gave me more control and allowed me to be lazier with launch timing. 

The bad... Three times while docking, right before the craft docked my ship would fling itself in a random direction at 500+Ms. Quick saving/loading was the fix for this. Other than that, my PC itself became the main issue. Once the station was complete my frames took a dive. I planned on extending the solar arrays out with another set of trusses on either side, but may not do that now. There were to be two medium tugs attached to either side of the solar arrays, however I parked the single medium tug back on the cupola after securing the solar trusses. My pc does not need another vehicle up there.. I may de orbit the medium tug anyways, as the large tug is more than enough for station keeping. I may even de orbit the large tug and replace it with one that has less lights.

 

Quote

May I ask how much Δv you spend on your deorbit burn? Maybe you just reenter at a too shallow angle. 

A little more than 200 to get into the atmosphere from the station, the rest I spent in a desperate attempt to get me closer to KSC after I had already entered. I think I just need to plan the atmospheric entry closer to KSC itself maybe. 

Quote

Maybe, or you just need to "aim better"

This is likely true!

 

 

The build and breakdown in VAB

Spoiler

The medium tug attached to the top of the cupola is temporary and will come off along with the docking port once the station is aligned and fully assembled. A second medium tug will join this one, and they will eventually live out on the small docking ports on the ends of the solar panel trusses. I may also upgrade the solar trusses from x2 to x4 as it looks much better.  

The Build Crew.

The Build Crew without Fairings.

Station Built & Orbiting

Spoiler

Note the tiny docking port peeking out the backside of the crew module, this will be a problem part later. 

After the station was built, I immediately regret the "color" Its way too reflective and shiny. Also, note that I used too many lights on my large tug, leading to more shiny and extra loss of performance for no reason. 

Crewing up!

Spoiler

Mini crew shuttle glider, I LOVE how this thing looks.

Did a quick save just to get the navigation lights on the wings to work.

Tiny docking port, Monoprop tanks, SAS wheels, extra methalox. This was as much to extend the delta V as it was to move mass towards the nose.

 

The Approach

Spoiler

Alignment... Do you see the issue here?

Glider tail fin is clipping the "Starlab"  Will have to re-dock with the nose pointing down. Will launch an extension to the tiny dock to fix this later. 

Running the "Starlab" module for science! I LOVE the look of this while its running. Neat lights, and antenna extend out of it.

Not much clearance without an extension. 

The Drive Home

Spoiler

Back to Kerbin

Entry Effects

Missed my mark by a longshot, coming down in water.

Landed safely with samples aboard!... I think if there was a runway under me, I could have successfully landed it. Angle and speed seemed nice. 

 

This was a super fun project inspired by yours for the need to get every bit of science in my game for unlocking more parts. I hope you didn't mind me sharing on your post. 
Now I will go plan a crew mission to the Jool System. 

Edited January 29 by Icegrx

[BechMeister]

13 hours ago, Icegrx said:

A little more than 200 to get into the atmosphere from the station, the rest I spent in a desperate attempt to get me closer to KSC after I had already entered. I think I just need to plan the atmospheric entry closer to KSC itself maybe. 

200 Δv seems fine - I always aim at having about 300 Δv. Then Im sure I wont bounce off the atmosphere. I make sure my craft is empty once the final burn has been done though. dry mass vs fueled mass is a big difference. and you glide a lot better if your vehicle weights nothing.

13 hours ago, Icegrx said:

This is likely true!

I usually aim here:

What makes aiming super tricky is how far the planet has rotated before you get bellow 70km. 

Now you can extend the glide a lot in the 70-40km by holding a pitch 10-20° Angle of Attack. I've sometimes gotten "stuck" bouncing off the Stratosphere (the ~40km mark) until you bleed off enough speed to enter. If you manage that you can really extend the glide. 

The 30km to 40km is your last chance to extend or shorten the glide. Once your below 30km, depending on your glider.. you only have 20-40km you can travel. If you haven't seen it, I can highly recommend the video about landing a shuttle that Sylvi linked on Tap 3. 

I made a habit of quicksaving before doing the deorbit burn. See how far I could glide and adjust until I knew where to start the burn to line the runway up propper.

13 hours ago, Icegrx said:

I didn't time my launches, and if I had I would have saved a boat load of Delta-V.

I never time my launches x) I just time warp and wait for a good window to arrive:

The old method your vehicle orbit time is slower than the target. So at some point you will get a window that is less than 10.000km - although I think I have corrected as big margins as 20.000km. But the new method is always the same... once you have your ~10km orbit bellow target. you just have to wait until your directly beneath it. then burn about 10 Δv to rendesvous with it and then another 10Δv to match the orbit. I might start wait for good windows with this method.. as a bad window can leave you in time loop for a while x) but still.. the consistency in how much Δv you use is nice i think.

But my station is only at 100km - I think you can make it easier by just reversing.. method one, you know AP at 200 and PE at a 100 or so? I dont know how well method two is at more than 10km difference in orbit. Aaand I can imagine at 190km the orbit period is quite extensive.

13 hours ago, Icegrx said:

Notes: The build & Docking of the station itself, I have no pictures of. I didn't think to record my progress as I wasn't sure the station would be a success at all. 

I strongly believe in documenting your failures too - it gives you some data to theorycraft with x)

13 hours ago, Icegrx said:

“cheated” by attaching a large tug as the second stage to each rocket.

Well my large tugs were also the second stage - no reason to not use perfectly good vacuum optimized engines

13 hours ago, Icegrx said:

Glider tail fin is clipping the "Starlab"  Will have to re-dock with the nose pointing down. Will launch an extension to the tiny dock to fix this later. 

you could also go for a split wing tail - man 1.900 Δv is a lot! You are also a lot higher up though. My station is at 100km It may be easier for you to aim your decent if you start by getting down to a 70-80km orbit and then do the final deorbit burn from there. Makes aiming a lot easier. 

13 hours ago, Icegrx said:

Landed safely with samples aboard!... I think if there was a runway under me, I could have successfully landed it. Angle and speed seemed nice. 

Yeah. Its hard to gauge from a screenshot. but with your angle of attack at 20° and a speed of 39.5m/s I assume you should be able to land it no problem.

13 hours ago, Icegrx said:

Entry Effects

My gliders never produce that... I simply go through the atmosphere too gently. Any way.. I can see you also re-entered following your prograde. meaning you get the shortest tour through the atmosphere as possible (except for if you entered at 90° ofcourse). With a Angle of Attack (AoA) on 0° you cant extend the glide. The danger of flipping is also none existent. 

The shuttle re-entered with a 40° AoA for instance. I find with a AoA on 10-20° you can have trouble re-enter the atmosphere. You can experiment with that.

13 hours ago, Icegrx said:

This was a super fun project inspired by yours for the need to get every bit of science in my game for unlocking more parts. I hope you didn't mind me sharing on your post. 

Not at all. But if we are going to make a habit of it. I think a private threat would be a better option. (just to keep the already bloated thread on topic ) 

I hope my thoughts and comments will help you in your future endeavor - I have contemplated starting a For Science Campaign.. but I think there are enough avenues I can explore just in sandbox mode.. before I need other things to entertain me.

btw I took an FPS count last time I was at K.G.01.. its not flashy:

So I guess I am also just a very patient person x) 

Edited January 30 by BechMeister
Fixed poorly written section

[BechMeister]

MISSION_ACOMPLISHED

The last Hydrogen glider on reentry after a succesful refueling mission to K.G.01

Foreword:

I embarked on this journey, with 80h of gametime under my belt little over a year ago. At the time I had only achieved 3 visits to the Mun (1 planned mission, one rescue mission and a rescue mission for the rescue mission) and the construction of K.G.01v1.

I really hated getting rockets through the atmosphere due to its soupy nature, amplified by spaghettiness of the rockets. So I thought it would be easier just build two space "gas stations" I could do interplanetary missions from - thus bypassing the atmosphere... With the first iteration of K.G.01 done I suspected K.G.02 would have been finished soon after...Little did I know how wrong I would be.

Never would I have expected. That, 775 recorded hours in the game later, would be when I finished the project.

I guess it's a small consolation that Its 775 hours at, at most 15 fps - and at the lowest 5 fps. Meaning that no, it's not really 775h of active play. A lot of it was just drinking coffee, chatting with my kid while the game ran in the background doing its things. How ever.. Finally. After designing and redesigning, I have achieved what I set out to do the 27th of Match 2023. 

Build a LKO station, that would be the first stop of getting resources into space - and then a station in Mun orbit, that will serve as the gateway to the rest of the Kerbol system. As well as all the vehicles needed to service such stations. 

I would like to thank everyone who had the endurance to follow along on the process, as well as all the advice and encouragement.

Without further ado. Lets get through the last triumphs.

 

 

Mission Task: Refuel K.G.01 with Hydrogen.

 

Refueling K.G.01 with the H.T.V.:

Now even at this last stage - there would still be a few iterations to the vehicles. Namely the H.T.Vs. 

I had gone with a 3 leg 3 engine config on the 1st and 2nd stage for this vehicle. But with how tomblesome the LT-3 Wallaby Legs are I had to change the design a bit. Even though I carefully tried to land the 1st at less than 5m/s (which I find is really hard to do, since 1-2% of thrust means a lot.. and you end up spending a lot of time hovering over the pad.. wasting fuel) I would still experience this:

That one leg simply boke off. It was frustrating.. and even if I liked the look of the 3 legs 3 engine symmetry. I knew I needed 4 legs to help it not lose legs or fall over so easily. I really wish we had some better large legs

The final design ended up looking like this:

It looks alright - It's just more busy. Any way it means that the rocket reaches 900 m/s a lot earlier than before - SO I also have a lot more Δv to land again.  I could maybe push for a heavier methalox load? - or cut on the 1st stage fuel level even more? Not to mention.. I have not used this rocket since the update to v0.2.1 - and judging from the fact that my hydrogen glider uses 200 less Δv going through the atmosphere now - I suspect that I can tweek the heavy vehicle even more.

But I won't have to do that before I've spend some of all the methalox and hydrogen I've now gotten into orbit.

The State of K.G.01 Docking tower:

As you can see - the deterioration of the docking tower has accelerated a bit. Vehicles can still dock with the station and not explode. So for now I wont change it.. I dont have to look at it if i rotate the station - but at some point I need to fix it... as it annoys me  

As I can understand - this was also a issue in KSP1. Where you would have vehicle warp over time. It's a thing I hope they can fix in KSP2 at some point. With kolonies etc. I suspect ships can have a really long life span.. but if they deteriorate like this, that's a serious issue in my opinion.

Hitting the Mark:

By taking a screenshot of "where" the 35km mark "is-ish" on the path down - I have been improving my "hit rate" of KSC - Now I land within the mountain range that KSC resides. Since I bleed of all the energy between 17 and 35km. Knowing when you hit this spot means a lot when guesstimating how much "lead" you need to have on KSC for it to land propper.

If your curious its here:

What I do now is decreasing my orbit to around 75km - This means that planet rotation will have as little influence as possible. Then I aim for the 37km mark to be a little behind KSC. With K.G.01 orbiting at 100km it means somewhere between 1/4th and 1/3rd from the ground and K.G.01s orbit path. Not a perfect system.. but its easier to use with how much variation I have in Δv and speed coming down again.

I really wish that there were markers on the path or something to indicate when you hit the atmosphere of the body. Since the path is only "true" on bodies with no atmospheres.

Any way It means I now land within the KSC complex.. 

Refueling the last 5t Hydrogen with the Hydrogen gliders:

The revamped atmosphere had 2 positive effects. 1. The glider now produces reentry flames. And boy I think its satisfying to see them trailing off the rocket - Showing the AoA in all its glory and giving a sense of the direction. 2. as mentioned earlier. My rocket spends a lot less Δv getting into space? I had to use m/s as my staging mark now ~1100 m/s. which is around 1800 Δv 

Considering that before the patch I had gone from 1800 Δv to 1600 Δv with the mass added to fix the glider.. and now im back at 1800Δv again... using m/s seems like the right choice. 

For more re-entry flame pictures see spoiler section:
 

Spoiler

I really dig the look of the reentry flames - and look all of the speed was bleed off without crossing the 35km mark. I am really happy with this glider now.

Moving Forward:

I think I'll be taking a short break from KSP2 now - After that a short tour to Minimus to square off Kerbin SOI, before venturing into out to other bodies in the Kerbol Sytem.

I feel a bit ridiculous having almost 800h ingame.. and never leaving Kerbin SOI (Unless you count me graveyard parking a few empty stages in a Kerbol orbit.)

 

Any way. Thank you for staying with me all the way.

 

 

Bechmeister Signing Out.

 

 

Edited February 2 by BechMeister

[Sylvi Fisthaug]

On 2/2/2024 at 1:14 PM, BechMeister said:

Bechmeister Signing Out.

Oh no! Is it the end of the blog as we know it? Thank you for contributing to the forums, I believe you have written one of the most influential blogs from KSP2 yet! 

[BechMeister]

17 hours ago, Sylvi Fisthaug said:

Oh no! Is it the end of the blog as we know it? Thank you for contributing to the forums, I believe you have written one of the most influential blogs from KSP2 yet! 

You're words a very kind Sylvi  - I feel though that the more this blog got "bloated", the more it required of the readers to read it, the less actually payed attention?

Judging from the likes of different characters etc. It seems that some people followed a long the first half, and then was exchanged by other people on the second half.. It would be interesting if there were tools to check for readership.  - you have had a special kind of stamina keeping along the entire journey xD

I only really knew if people were into what I was blogging, when they left a comment or a like. I mean... IceGRX making a profile to comment is like the most flattering thing I've experienced yet. But I think It was good that I did this for myself first, and viewership second.. if that makes sense? Or Maybe this is just the good old "Janteloven" suppressing me taking in the compliments x) As a fellow Scandinavian I am sure you know how we tend to act around compliments hahah.

Any way.. thank you for the kind words x) - and Dont worry I intend to make a new blog. I am currently doing the Duna Mastery Challenge that OTJ started a year ago or so. I wanted to make a blog about going about with that... Just so I can continue the highly detailed format there, and not bloat the challenge site... How ever, I dont want to steal viewers for the challenge, So I have asked OTJ if it is okay for me to make a blog about that before I start. - I am currently waiting for him to answer. We'll see when he tune in to the forum again.

Also after this - I am taking a little KSP2 break. In the end, I was kind of forcing myself through it.. and every updated that created a setback was very demotivating. 

Redesigning the glider over and over, demanded some soul searching for it to remain fun. I do like crunching problems though. So figuring out to use the aero breaks as body flaps was nice. but the lead up to that was pure tedium.

Any way.. I could rant for ever. 

Long story short - This is not the end of my blogging. If you dont follow me, I will advertise the next blog in this one once it goes live x)

 

Edited February 6 by BechMeister

[BechMeister]

I'm advertising here:

My next Mission Blog is up!

 

[Sylvi Fisthaug]

On 2/6/2024 at 1:03 PM, BechMeister said:

Or Maybe this is just the good old "Janteloven" suppressing me taking in the compliments x)

Ah, the good old "janteloven"! Hated by most, lmao. But yeah, the blog amassed quite the readership! Also inspired me to do my own lil blog, which I haven't updated in a while, haha. When all the docking bugs are ironed out, which I hope will be for colonies, I'll continue building stations I think. 

[BechMeister]

8 hours ago, Sylvi Fisthaug said:

Ah, the good old "janteloven"! Hated by most, lmao. But yeah, the blog amassed quite the readership! Also inspired me to do my own lil blog, which I haven't updated in a while, haha. When all the docking bugs are ironed out, which I hope will be for colonies, I'll continue building stations I think. 

It seems to me that they have fixed all the bugs? The shielded and inline parts no longer break when load the game.

Yeah - there are quite a few views.. but I wonder how many of them are just me looking and updating xD

Edited February 24 by BechMeister

[Sylvi Fisthaug]

35 minutes ago, BechMeister said:

It seems to me that they have fixed all the bugs? The shielded and inline parts no longer break when load the game.

Other docked parts pop off when I dock something to space stations, and some parts "shift" like you have experienced on K.G.01 as well... I needed a station to put stowaway kerbals in for my science save, after some launches I gave up and ended up teleporting it into orbit instead x)

[BechMeister]

interesting. I've had no issues on my Minmus mission.. and that was crashing my game left and right.. because I dont know when to stop putting parts, engines and docking ports  xD

[Jantee]

Hello Bech,

I spent the last few weeks reading this entire thread and it has helped me in my own KSP2 experience. Thank you for your thorough explanations and ideas!

 

Janet

[BechMeister]

Thank you for taking your time to leave a reply @Jantee

I am glad I could inspire and my mistakes etc. Could help you with your own projects ^^

Edited March 3 by BechMeister

[BechMeister]

/////////////////////VEHICLE_UPDATE\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Foreword:

On my Minmus mission 2 vehicles from the K.G.01 - 02 vehicles package proved to need a update.

The MLKOs were struck by a bug that apparently damages RCS thrusters around fairings and engine plates:

 

The SSTO Space Plane also needed a bit of tweaking after v.0.2.1 - the fact that the plane had not been flown post For Science! meant that I was quite sure its flight characterstics would be off. Since the Multi Fuel Glider needed a complete redesign to work. 

For the details - look bellow:

 

MLKO:

old MLKO and New (version 3) side by side for a comparison view.

I have come to dislike the 4 by 4 RCS thrusters - I only use them on tiny crafts where I cannot use the point RCS thrusters. The fact that you cannot control which thruster is firering at what time is annoying to me. But I also find that the point thrusters in general bugs out much less.

I got two chances to test out the re-entry characteristics of the capsule. One time with the 1st version, where I decided to de-orbit the craft once I learned half the RCS thrusters didnt work - The updated version I accidently got to test because of a brain fart with a rendezvous that got into the atmosphere of Kerbin.

 

Video of the uncontrolled re-entry of the capsule. The parachute was primed at separation (which is why they deploy as soon as the heat is gone)

Even though I did not think it to be truly necessary with a probe core  (The M.T.Ds could connect the MLKOs to the H.T.Ds) I decided I would add a medium sized probe core. It would give the craft a bit more EC and RCWs as well as removing the step of having to dock the MTDs. It also provided a anchor point for the RCS thrusters pointing retrograde - meaning I could avoid the bug that plagued the build:

two images showing one MLKOv2 (left) and two MLKOv1 (Right) - notice the difference in the gap between the H.T.D and MLKO is extended. 

The accidental de-orbit of the v2 version showed another weak spot - namely the Clamp-o-tron at the front of the vehicle - had it been a shielded clamp-o-tron.. I could probably have saved the vehicle. Although I could probably have saved it regardless as I could cheese the heat mechanics by flipping the vehicle and alternating between roasting the engine plate and the clamp-o-tron. But the last change between the MLKOv2 and the MLKOv3 was that I gave it a shielded port (now that they are no longer bugged I have started to use them again) - and I gave it a decoupler between the capsule and the heat shield.

With 3 parachutes it still falls with 11 m/s - and I figured I could reduce that number by dumping the heat shield. (they are quite heavy after all)

Crew SSTO Space Plane:

Space plane v.2 (front) and v.1 (back) at display at KSC

As mentioned the space plane needed some minor tweaks. I dont know if RCW has been boosted in energy consumption, if the MK2 cockpit has been nerfed in EC or if the small OX-STAT solar panels has been nerfed.

In any case - the vehicle had gone from having enough EC last time I flew it - to having a way to small battery package and power generation. I decided to add two bigger solar panels and a small battery. The RCW also seemed too weak - at least it annoyed me. I added 2 small RCW and reduced the Monopropellant to counter the weight gain somewhat. Lastly on re-entry I had trouble keeping control of the plane in the thicker parts of the atmosphere.

Even though the problem was that the nose only wanted to point prograde (the reversed problem of the Multi Fuel Glider that wanted to present its rear on re-entry) I still added the "body flaps" 

I recall them having a weird balancing effect on the glider - even when not deployed. The changes came to look like this:

The two RCW are the silver part on the two wing mounted engines - the little white extension on the back engine is the battery.

Conclusion:

The vehicles are now up to date with the current build of KSP2. If you want to read more about the mission, you can find the info here: