"Retirement" of the Kerbin SpaceLab (large screenshots!)

[sporkafife]

After over 7 years in orbit it was time to retire SpaceLab, my first Kerbin space station. As the longest ship that was still active in my save file, I thought I'd give it a fireworks display to say thank you for the years of zero-G scientific study that it allowed. Of course that meant sending it tumbling into the atmosphere

There was room for expansion so it wasn't completely necessary to retire it, but it was already starting to get laggy as I approached if for docking, probably because it was so inefficiently built with many needless parts. It will make way for a station in a more efficient lower orbit (this one orbited at 250km) and will hold much more fuel (I'm thinking 6-8 orange tanks), as it will be the launch platform for many future interplanetary missions. It will also have a counterpart orbiting the Mun and/or Minmus. I have just installed the Kethane mod, so these stations will store the fuel mined on the surface of the moons and regular transports will take the fuel back to the Kerbin orbit station ready to fuel future missions... this is an exciting time for the people of my Kerbal Space Program as they move away from simply exploring the Solar system and focus on harnessing it's resources

I was originally afraid to install the Kethane mod as it would be replaced in the next update by resources, but hearing that it has been pushed back and could take a few updates to implement I decided to bite the bullet and go for the Kethane mod. The mod has opened up a whole new bunch of possibilities and really rejuvenated my interest in the game!

[tstehler1]

That's a beautiful-looking station. Like you, I'm also in the process of designing and implementing a new orbital friend, as I retired my previous one a few days ago. Mine orbits at about 350k, will hopefully have 2-4 orange tanks, and will serve as a launch station for future missions (I use nuclear engines for all interplanetary missions, no exceptions). Right now, the station can only hold 6 kerbals, but I'm hoping to raise that to 14 this weekend.

Just felt the need to rant to a fellow kerbonaut with similar objectives. Best of luck to you in your new designing, testing and resource collecting process!

[Kromey]

I was originally afraid to install the Kethane mod as it would be replaced in the next update by resources, but hearing that it has been pushed back and could take a few updates to implement I decided to bite the bullet and go for the Kethane mod. The mod has opened up a whole new bunch of possibilities and really rejuvenated my interest in the game!

Wait, what?

I only just recently re-discovered this game (first played it about 2 years ago, for a brief time), and while I've known of the Kethane mod I've avoided installing it for the same reason -- I was looking forward to the next update (0.20) bringing in the same functionality!

That's been delayed now? That's news to me, where did you hear that? If that's the case, I may just have to go ahead and install Kethane after all...

By the way, nice station you had there, shame it had to be retired. But I totally understand needing to retire "pretty" in favor of "functional".

[sporkafife]

That's been delayed now? That's news to me, where did you hear that? If that's the case, I may just have to go ahead and install Kethane after all

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/content.php/164-Update-on-the-0-20-Update

This post is HarvesteR's latest "update on the update" and he says at the bottom that resources will take a couple of updates to fully implement, purely because it's such a huge thing to put in the game.

[zekes]

I deorbited my Station of 25 years because it got so big that i couldnt appraoch it with any type of resupply craft....

[Tristavius]

Wait, what?

I only just recently re-discovered this game (first played it about 2 years ago, for a brief time), and while I've known of the Kethane mod I've avoided installing it for the same reason -- I was looking forward to the next update (0.20) bringing in the same functionality!

That's been delayed now? That's news to me, where did you hear that? If that's the case, I may just have to go ahead and install Kethane after all...

By the way, nice station you had there, shame it had to be retired. But I totally understand needing to retire "pretty" in favor of "functional".

I just did exactly the same as you two when I found out .20 was delayed.

[Kromey]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/content.php/164-Update-on-the-0-20-Update

This post is HarvesteR's latest "update on the update" and he says at the bottom that resources will take a couple of updates to fully implement, purely because it's such a huge thing to put in the game.

Aw, that makes me sad! I mean, being a software developer myself I completely understand when things like this turn out bigger than anticipated and have to get pushed back. But still makes me a sad Kerbalnaut.

Although I wonder if the new parts loader database he mentioned will mean that larger, laggy stations will be less-laggy because of the game's better handling of parts? It really depends on what exactly they're doing under the hood...

Oh well, guess I'll go install Kethane until 0.22 or whatever ends up giving us resources in vanilla.