Spaceplane Launch Anomaly: The "Copernicus Wall"

[Naten]

It was a normal day at Naten Innovations.

Launching the Copernicus spaceplane, its maiden vertical flight. Never before had it quite left the ground. It is a dreamchaser-like spaceplane, mounted atop the Sullivan 1 booster. All went well, but then, a mysterious anomaly encountered the crew.

FLIGHT DATA:

@~12 kilometers

"...Copernicus is experiencing drag issues."

Then...

The ship has expreienced an odd disintegration-like anomaly during the later atmospheric phases of the launch.

Only parts of the spacelpane survived. The strong lifting body and payload bay structure of the fuselage was enough to cuishon the impact, though; and Jeb only had 2 boo boos.

Eager for adventure, the Kerbals once again launched a Copernicus. This one was taken out of the hangar and replaced with the old broken one, to be repaired later.

Jeb periodically took pictures. The anomaly's altitude was approaching.

He took a lot, but this one was the most interesting:

The ship experienced a sudden jolt.

Wait, do you notice anything wrong with the picture?

Wait. The emergency chute I put on there, the canards, and the docking port are gone! GONE! Wait, WHAAAAAAT?

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going to the archived pictures, we see the Copernicus Wall anomaly, named after my adorable spaceplane, has removed some parts of the ship... just... gone. Gone. o-o

I made Copernicus with Procedural Wings. I wonder if it's the mod...

Well, the test launch got into orbit. After a brief timewarp to apoigee, the framerate dropped down to 1-2 FPS...

The debug menu is blabbering about NullReferenceException, wonder what this stuff is about.

I think I found a new species of kraken, guys.

KRAKEN AERONAUTAE

ORDER: Kraken

FAMILY: Kraken Minoris

GENUS: Aeronautae

SPECIES: Copernici

James Audobon, take notes. Get pictures.

Let's discuss these anomalic launch thingies, and your odd encounters, too.

We have to prepare for the invasion.

THEY'RE COMING

[Weegee]

Well that's interesting...

I had a kerbal sink through the Mun once after he fell off a rover, but I usually don't get weird anomalies (Besides a Hell Kraken or two).

[xzxvrx]

Its because you don't have actual doors on there!

[I_Killed_Jeb]

I very much enjoy the debris of the first launch littering the ocean in the backdrop of the second launch with the very same krew

[vexx32]

Is this a stock or modded install? If you grab the output_log.txt file from the KSP_Data folder after a flight with this thing, it should give more detailed reasons as to the actual cause of the NullReferenceException.

[Naten]

It was modded; Procedural Wings, I love 'em...

It seems there's a problem with something, so I'll try a non-P wing version of the craft. I'll have to try that.

(This isn't being submitted as a bug, just sharing my launch anomaly. )

[blizzy78]

Also try the flight (press F3), perhaps there's something interesting in there.

[Naten]

Also try the flight (press F3), perhaps there's something interesting in there.

About 70 structural failures.

[I_Killed_Jeb]

but what's the first?

[SuperBigD60]

This kinda makes me wish the F3 would document structural failures as "Kraken attacks" or something

"structural failure on linkage X" is equally useful as "Kraken attack on linkage X", but not quite as satisfying.