The implications of the new modular Facility design...

[Technical Ben]

... are now becoming apparent. From the wiki:

Space center facilities can be destroyed by crash-landing onto them, and fixing them will cost money

So in the future updates we will have to pay for those "landings" from Jeb, Bill and Bob!

The Facilities in v0.22 are now arranged in a hex/grid pattern. Now I know why!

[thestookem]

Hopefully we'll get more science the closer we land to KSC. That why there would be a tangible risk to the facility.

[Godot]

The reason why I in the last versions have gotten into the habit of doing the first few degrees of the gravity turn already halfway through the burn duration of the first stage instead of at at altitude of 10km (despite this being inefficient in terms of fuel usage).

Hopefully gets the booster rockets to land at the beach instead of the launch platform

[rodion]

The reason why I in the last versions have gotten into the habit of doing the first few degrees of the gravity turn already halfway through the burn duration of the first stage instead of at at altitude of 10km (despite this being inefficient in terms of fuel usage).

Hopefully gets the booster rockets to land at the beach instead of the launch platform

I try to do this too. Doesn't have any effect on the game but it assuages my...conscience?

[sickboy]

Yeah that means i'm gonna have to be careful to drop my stuff only when i've started my gravity turn so it lands in the water

[DevoidLight]

The reason why I in the last versions have gotten into the habit of doing the first few degrees of the gravity turn already halfway through the burn duration of the first stage instead of at at altitude of 10km (despite this being inefficient in terms of fuel usage).

Hopefully gets the booster rockets to land at the beach instead of the launch platform

Good point. I think I might just start loading my boosters with parachutes as a habit.

[possum]

I like pitching 5 deg's at about 250-500 meters. It is just something about dropping stages on the pad.

[Dkmdlb]

How about everyone just don't drop anything until the 2.5km limit will prevent them from landing at all?

[thestookem]

How about everyone just don't drop anything until the 2.5km limit will prevent them from landing at all?

Asparagus staging is extremely efficient and requires dropping the first stage pretty low.

[Carthaginian]

Asparagus staging is extremely efficient and requires dropping the first stage pretty low.

The veggie-lovers might have to try something new, it seems.

[Scotius]

Vegetables are good for your health I love all things green, and i love my asparagus'ed heavy lifter. 70 tons to LKO, baby With only 7 Jumbos and Mainsails.

[Burninate]

Onionsparagus staging: The first stage is the entire outer rank (or perhaps most of the outer rank), which crossfeeds using two-way connections until it's all empty at ~3km, then begins asparagus staging.

[Garek]

How about everyone just don't drop anything until the 2.5km limit will prevent them from landing at all?

I think for this system to have practical implications for anyone besides asparagus builders they will calculate crash damage even if the KSC is already unloaded when the debris comes down. Maybe they will partially simulate the crash/landing instead of things just disappearing, so putting parachutes on your boosters actually makes sense.

[Godot]

The veggie-lovers might have to try something new, it seems.

It is not just the Veggie lovers ...

SRBs have a burn duration of just 30/45 seconds ...

so, unless they considerably increase the burn duration in future updates,

anyone who uses SRBs as his first stage will have to think about ways to avoid that they hit the launch platform / Kerbal Spaceport after Separation

[Kerbart]

Not to mentionâ€â€strictly hypothetical of courseâ€â€a complete blowup of your 750t vehicle at launch, spraying 200+ parts everywhere.

[Dweller_Benthos]

I wonder if / when they enable the monetary system that there will be a recovery cost for parts. Not only can you damage the space center by dropping stages on it, which costs money to repair, will it cost more money to recover a spent stage if it's further away?

For instance, your first stages will probably drop pretty close to the KSC, for an easy recovery. If you don't do a gravity turn early, or a very gentle one, and had chutes on all your lower stages, for a soft, ground landing near the KSC, recovery could be very simple and inexpensive. Later stages that drop in the ocean would probably be considered a loss, even if you had chutes on them and some way for them to float, sending a recovery ship out to get them might be more expensive than they are worth to replace.

Then there's the cost consideration of recovering Kerbals as well. You're probably going to want to get those guys back, but I can see it now, "Recovery cost for Bill Kerman, stranded at the north pole because he made a pilot error will be 10,000 kerbucks" - "Ehhhh..... Bill can sit it out for a while, I need the money to launch a new Mun mission"

Or, even this, if recovery isn't automatic and in the background, with just a button push, but you have to build something to go pick up whatever you want recovered and justify the cost.

[thestookem]

Not to mentionâ€â€strictly hypothetical of courseâ€â€a complete blowup of your 750t vehicle at launch, spraying 200+ parts everywhere.

I'd be willing to bet that once building damage is implemented people will be having contests to see who can cause the most damage with their rockets, both on take off and landing.

[Kerbart]

I'd be willing to bet that once building damage is implemented people will be having contests to see who can cause the most damage with their rockets, both on take off and landing.

Especially if they don't simply disappear but turn into smouldering ruins.

[CoriW]

Here's my "Launch Checklist"

• Launch
  
• Wait 5 Seconds ... 90 Degrees, Pitch 2 (88)
  
• Keep Surface Velocity < 200m/s
  
• Altitude 10000m ... 90 Degrees, Pitch 45 (45)
  
• Throttle 100%
  
• Apoapsis 32500m ... 90 Degrees, Pitch 70 (20)
  
• Apoapsis 65000m ... 90 Degrees, Pitch 85 (5)
  
• Apoapsis 75000m ... Throttle 0%
  
• Wait Apoapsis T-15 ... 90 Degrees, Pitch 90 (0)
  
• Circularize
  

EDIT: Note the almost immediate 2 degree pitch east...

Edited October 16, 2013 by CoriW

[Scotius]

Especially if they don't simply disappear but turn into smouldering ruins.

Danny2462 will have a field day

[VaporTrail]

I've been in the habit of putting parachutes on my SRBs for quite some time... Radial chutes near the bottom of the booster, activated on seperation. It helps a little with seperation (pop, yoink...), if positioned correctly, and generally prevents them from slamming down too hard.

Also, I've started setting my MechJeb launch guide for a 40% gravity turn @ 1000m. Generally that starts dropping SRBs far enough downrange that they're not a threat to the launch facilities.

Chuting larger boosters is a more daunting proposition... most of the time my designs wind up disintegrating on chute full deployment.

I'd like to have more control over debris' chutes after seperation. Immediate deployment might not be ideal, and deployment at reentry after a suborbital trip might not be either. Perhaps a version with setable drogue/ full deployment altitudes?