[18 Rockets and Counting!!] Early Rockets - From V2 to Atlas B

[Mulbin]

UPDATED 3rd August 2013 - Added Hermes and R5-Pobeda

Here are a few rockets I've been thinking about making for a long time... I hope to recreate every historical rocket eventually!

To begin with three iconic rockets from the early days of White Sands. Each rocket should have more or less the capabilities of the original.

The files

V2

WAC Bumper

Aerobee

Hermes

Viking

R5-Pobeda

R11-Zemlya

X-17

Jupiter C

Thor PGM-17

Jupiter PGM-19

R7 Semyorka

Atlas SM-65A

R12 Dvina

Sputnik 1 (opens separate thread)

Sputnik 2 (opens separate thread)

Juno 1 / Explorer 1

Vanguard / Vanguard 1

Thor Able / Pioneer 1

Atlas B / SCORE

Pics and more info...

V2

Captured German V2s (and the captured scientists who made them) performed the earliest American launches in the space race. The V2 was also the first rocket in space in 1942... although no-one realised at the time as the definition altitude of space had not been defined!

Flight instructions...

1. go straight up.

2. scrape the edge of space.

3. fall back down!

WAC Bumper

Want your V2 to get even higher? Bolt another rocket to the top! The Bumper consisted of a V2 as the first stage and a WAC Corporal sounding rocket as the second.

Flight instructions...

1. Launch vertically (and stay vertical).

2. When second stage is empty hit stage to launch the WAC (ensure you are over 24km first or chute will deploy)

3. immediately switch focus to the WAC ("]" or "[" key) before it gets too far away!

4. WAC has no core so cannot be controlled by should hit about 80+km before descending and making a parachute landing.

Aerobee

The Aerobee was a small sounding rocket capable of sub orbital flights. It has a solid booster as well as a liquid rocket.

Flight instructions...

1. Launch.

2. Jettison booster/ignite second stage.

3. adjust attitude to either leave atmosphere or fly through upper atmosphere (depending on what you science bods want the rocket to do today!)

4. When fuel runs out hit stage to jettison nosecone and deploy chute.

Hermes B1

Built with a modified V2 as the first stage, the Hermes had a winged second stage propelled by ramjets.

1.Launch

2.Separate second stage when first stage cuts out.

3.Fight to keep the second stage on course!

4.An optional parachute is fitted for part recovery.

Viking

Built as a replacement for the V2, a single stage sub orbital sounding rocket.

1. start engines

2. full throttle

3. launch

R5-Pobeda

The Soviet Union's first medium range missile, capable of reaching targets throughout Europe. Test model with dummy warhead.

1.Launch

2.Separate dummy warhead when first stage cuts out.

4.An optional parachute is fitted for part recovery.

R11-Zemlya

The first of the notorious "Scud" missiles. A medium range Soviet rocket.

1.Launch

2.Exit atmosphere... Re-enter atmosphere..

3. Crash!

X-17

The X-17 was used to test the effects of high speed re-entry on warheads and space capsules, the rocket consists of three sold fuel stages. Stage 1 is sufficient to get the craft to an AP in excess of 85km. Once at AP the rocket tilts its nose fully toward the surface and begins free fall, once well within the atmosphere the second stage separates and fires propelling itself vertically downwards toward the ground, shortly after the third stage separates and fires raising the speed even further.

1.Launch

2.Exit atmosphere

3. Point nose straight down

4. Re-enter atmosphere

5. When speed reaches 900m/s fire second stage straight downward

6. Fire third stage straight down

7. watch the pretty flames!

Jupiter C

The Jupiter C was a sounding rocket from the Redstone family. Designed to completely leave the atmosphere and re-enter third stage to test nose cone configurations.

1. Launch

2. Fire second stage when first stage burns out

3. Fire third stage when second burns out

4. Re-enter atmosphere

5. Open chute at low altitude to recover nosecone

Thor PGM-17

The first of the Thor rockets, the PGM-17 was a single stage intermediate range launch vehicle initially used to carry a warhead

1. Launch

2. Once outside atmosphere jettison reentry nosecone

Jupiter PGM-19

Similar to the Thor, the Jupiter was a medium range launch vehicle. The Jupiter however has a powered "second stage" nosecone.

1. Launch

2. Once outside atmosphere jettison reentry nosecone and continue burn.

R7 Semyorka

The worlds first ICBM. The most recognisable and successful rocket of all time, the R7 is still in use today as the Soyuz launch vehicle.

1. Launch

2. Once outside atmosphere jettison reentry nosecone and continue burn.

SM-65A Atlas

America's answer to the R7, the Atlas was plagued by launch failures throughout the space race. This is the early Atlas "A" with two boosters and just a single stage.

1. Launch

2. Once outside atmosphere jettison reentry nosecone.

R12 Dvina

The missile that caused the Cuban crisis and the forerunner of the Kosmos booster.

1. Launch

2. Once outside atmosphere jettison reentry nosecone.

Juno 1 / Explorer 1

Americas first successfully launched satellite.

Vanguard 1

The second US satellite into orbit... Vanguard 1 is still in orbit today, 55 years later!

Thor Able (Pioneer)

The largely unsuccessful launch vehicle for the early Pioneer missions.

Atlas B (SCORE)

The first Atlas rocket to use the "Stage and a half" system where two out of three engines are jettisoned. This is the SCORE satellite variant (the first communication satellite). The entire body of the rocket formed the satellite.

More rockets to follow!!

Edited October 4, 2013 by Mulbin

[Affan]

Cool missiles there. Really keeping a high standard of detail in all your ships!

[Rune]

I like the historic taste very much! How is the flight manual for Munbug going, BTW?

[ethan829]

More great work. Nice job getting back to basics.

[bellino]

Very neat

I love the idea of early rockets instead of just "S@TURN V!!111" while i admit it was a very historic rocket, people have done so many

[ethan829]

Upon testing, it appears that I cant launch the Bumper without exploding on the pad. Anyone else having this problem?

[Mulbin]

This is getting very weird, it's almost as if something happens to the craft files when they are uploaded. The copy on my computer works fine, but the copy from mediafire blows up!!

Will re-upload and see if it fixes the problem.

[Mulbin]

Try downloading again, I just uploaded it again and then downloaded the file, seems to be working!

[ethan829]

I'm still having the same problem. I'll try again without mods, but right now all I have is Chatterer and MechJeb so I don't think that's the issue.

[Mulbin]

This is really weird... it's as if the process of uploading it to the internet is somehow corrupting the file. at a bit of a loss what to do as there's nothing actually wrong with the original craft file.

[Mulbin]

Ethan could you try something for me? Can you change the staging slightly on your version... separate the engine to its own stage.

So stage one just starts the engine, stage 2 decouples the launch stand. Let me know if it still blows up!

[Mulbin]

Ok now I'm getting the explosion sometimes, and launching fine at other times. Seems to be a random bug. I'll try adjusting the rocket when I get a chance.

Another thing to try - leave the default staging as it is. Load the ship, then quicksave and quickload. see if it works then.

[ethan829]

I tried staging the engine and decoupler separately but it didn't help. Quicksaving and loading seemed to fix it though. Thanks!

[Mulbin]

Glad you got it working seems .21 has brought a few new physics bugs!

[Mulbin]

UPDATE!!

Added the viking rocket to the downloads.

[Mulbin]

UPDATE!!

Added Hermes and R5-Pobeda.

[ethan829]

When I tried separating the R5's payload, it shook itself to pieces and ended up like this:

[Mulbin]

When I tried separating the R5's payload, it shook itself to pieces and ended up like this:

I just took it for another test flight and it seemed to separate ok for me... it is slightly clipped so there may be some physics issues... have you flown it more than once?

If it only happens sometimes I'll probably leave it as it is. Early rockets should fail now and again

[Maxthrust]

When I had issues like exploding rockets, I completely reloaded the game. No save files, no mods. I then loaded back stuff one thing at a time. (I never did put back in my save file and I think that was the corruption that was causing my issues.)

[ethan829]

Early rockets should fail now and again

Good point. Call it historical accuracy.

[Mulbin]

UPDATE!!!

Added the R11-Zemlya and the X-17 to the collection, downloads and images on the main post.

[Mulbin]

UPDATE!!!

Added the Jupiter C and Thor PGM-17

[trippytripp]

Amazing detail, I love the simplicity.

[Cupcake...]

Sounds like they're as reliable as the real thing!

Cupcake...

Upon testing, it appears that I cant launch the Bumper without exploding on the pad. Anyone else having this problem?

[Mulbin]

Amazing detail, I love the simplicity.

Thanks The simplicity actually takes quite a lot to achieve... The Thor for example actually has 394 parts!

Sounds like they're as reliable as the real thing!

Cupcake...

Yep I've deliberately not tried to fix some random bugs! A couple of the ships may or may not explode depending on how KSP is feeling that day! All of the ships in the thread work... just not every time...