Inside the loop or outside the loop.

[KerbMav]

OK, well - question first:

Does a (real, non-KSP) rocket during its gravity turn tilt slowly from vertical towards parallel relative to earths surface?

If it does, then the thrust vector of the rocket is changing, and so is the acceleration vector.

Never did I state that the crew of the ISS would be pushed to the "ceiling" of the station while orbiting, they too are in freefall, sure!

But the ISS is not accelerating by itself in any way - a rocket does as long as the engines are burning.

Coming back to my first post, the original question was, do astronauts experience g-forces like jet pilots do.

When a jet pilots pulls up, the plane changes its flight vector - due to the engines pushing into a different direction and more so due the wings angle towards the original vector. While the plane goes from flying horizontally to flying vertical in a steep climb, both pilot and craft are experiencing g-forces depending on velocity and the rate of turning. As soon as the former forward velocity is canceled out by drag, again only the acceleration of the plane along its flight vector is felt - plus maybe gravity ...

So, if the rocket is tilting - ever so slowly - it is changing its velocity vector and therefor similar forces should act on craft and astronauts too.

Bringing us back to the question if the orientation of the astronauts is relevant or rather are these forces strong enough to even make the question relevant, are they even strong enough to have a physiological effect on the astronauts (like they would on a jet pilot).

[Eric S]

Bringing us back to the question if the orientation of the astronauts is relevant or rather are these forces strong enough to even make the question relevant, are they even strong enough to have a physiological effect on the astronauts (like they would on a jet pilot).

Not in any significant way. A small amount of vectored thrust gradually rotates the craft a degree or two, gravity does the rest, unlike a jet where the entire turn is caused by the force of lift from the wings and engine thrusting farther off from the direction of travel.

As for the comment about the ISS, the point that I was trying to get across is that the various forces involved in an orbit cancel each other out from the point of view of someone floating in a tin can, since the tin can is following the same trajectory. A rocket launch is the same thing, just with one force not entirely cancelled out. If KSP has taught you anything, it should be that you're either on the surface or in an orbit at all times, just not necessarily a stable orbit (due to escape from an SoI, aerodynamic drag, or collision with the ground). Go fly a plane in KSP and pull up map mode, you'll see an orbital projection. Mind you, that projection is only accurate if you killed the engine and stopped getting lift from the wings and didn't suffer from aerodynamic drag.

If you're thinking that real life gravity turns are done like in KSP, I can see where the misunderstanding comes from though. Real life gravity turns are very delicate and gradual, not the "Now go this way!" that they often are in KSP. As I said above, the rockets only turn under their own power a degree or two, gravity handles the rest of the turn by bending the trajectory, hence the term "gravity turn." This is done early in the launch, before the velocity is high enough for facing the rocket in a direction other than pure prograde to become an issue.

I try to do gravity turns a little more realistic than typical KSP launches, but it's not easy to do in KSP since the amount of the initial turn needs to be fairly precise. Turn too far, and you're soon find your prograde vector pointing horizontally or even downward before reaching a sufficient apoapsis, not far enough, and you reach your target apoapsis height long before you come close to orbital velocity and you wind up needing a long circularization burn.

[therealcrow999]

I'm not sure about the Gemini and Apollo era rockets. I don't think it'd matter too much in terms of +or- g on the crew in a capsule since they're directly over the thrust vector.

I do Know that the Shuttle rotated to be heads down or inside the loop as you put it almost immediately after launch.

Yeah I think the Mercury and Gemini rockets didn't worry about it too much like you said. I know for sure the Mercury V Apollo rockets had to do inside loop. I think at some point, probably when they are coasting to the AP they roll over up right.