What will you do with cargo bays first?

[Hotblack Desiato]

YO DAWG

I hear you like cargo bays so I put a cargo bay in yo cargo bay so you can transport while you transport!

reminds me of this:

and X37 has its own cargo bay.

[Superfluous J]

Research them.

No really, that's it. I have no actual plans to use them right now.

[DerpenWolf]

I wonder what the drag-less payloads mean for Eve craft? Could we finally make a Eve SSTO by sticking a thousand fuel tanks in a single cargo bay to make it so we can pretty much negate any atmospheric affects? Can't wait to abuse this!!!

[Friend Bear]

Use the shuttle to place satellites in orbit for Remote Tech. If I get enough Kerbals in there, I can control them from the ship while I deploy them.

Plus...a return craft giving me back a ton of my money instead of multiple launches

[cesarcurado]

First I will make a bomber

then I will try to make a spaceplane capable of delivering satellites, which I will probably fail at

[Friend Bear]

First I will make a bomber

then I will try to make a spaceplane capable of delivering satellites, which I will probably fail at

You won't if its a spaceplane that delivers bomb-ready satellites!

Edited October 1, 2014 by Friend Bear

[mike9606]

I will probably make a bomber, and use it to destroy the KSC and admire the destructible buildings effects, and by "use it" I mean probably miss with the bombs and then crash the plane into the VAB.

[Francois424]

A space bus to bring about 16 kerbals (excluding the pilots) in one go to my Orbital Station.

Then possibly a self-sufficient, small Kethane rig full of parachutes to drop on Duna in prevision of a Base there.

[Aragosnat]

Depends on how big they are. But, likely try to use it as a probe deliverer and maybe a rescue the Kerbal craft inside it ot a crew tranfer system.

[dryer_lint]

Wait a second. If you catch something in the cargo bay, like a Kerbal or a small probe, but you don't dock it, what happens when you recover the craft?

[cantab]

The held object, not being physically connected, is a separate craft. A Kerbal standing on a landed craft is themselves considered landed, so you should be able to recover them separately. If you were to fly them after recovering the cargo bay from around them I guess you'd just see them spawn in mid-air and promptly fall to the ground.

[merendel]

I wouldn't dare tell people how to play KSP or what they should do. And this might be an unpopular opinion but... Kerbals are generally pretty dumb and happy. The idea that they would wage war (and therefore need bombers) seems a little sad to me.

On the other hand kerbals seem to like seeing things blown up (with a few baddass crazies seeming to like it when the explosions are attached to their vehicle) There's nothing saying a bomber needs to be a tool of war. They could build and utilize them just for the boom factor applied to various areas of the terrain.

[xtoro]

I will put a smaller cargo bay in the cargo bay. Just because.

[Spatzimaus]

Why wait? Just download SP+ or B9, and use them right now.

[Wanderfound]

Most likely, I'll spend a great deal of time explaining to folks new to SP+ that just because you can get the cargo to go in there while in the SPH, doesn't mean that you'll be able to get it out again in orbit.

Do not allow your cargo to clip through the bottom of the bay, unless you want it as a permanent feature of the craft.

[Frank_G]

I will... transport cargo.

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

1) A bomber

2) A bomber that doesn't crash 2 seconds after takeoff

3) A bomber that's more powerful

4) A bomber with cluster bombs

5) A bomber that drops Kerbals

6) Something useful

All the above

[Wanderfound]

I won't delete them, but IMO, those cargo bays are like having a 0.5 person car: what's the point?

They're big enough to take a Munar lander, an interplanetary transit stage or a dozen small satellites. As usual, y'just gotta build 'em right.

See http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/90747-Kerbodyne-SSTO-Division-Omnibus-Thread?p=1431743&viewfull=1#post1431743 and:

[magnemoe]

I won't delete them, but IMO, those cargo bays are like having a 0.5 person car: what's the point?

You can fit parts up to 1.25 meter with some extra room on the sides. has three standard payloads,

Most common is the life suport paccages even I I have started to strap them under the wings.

one is the mapsat probe who is 0.65 meter core the kethane detectors fit in the wider part on side and I can have an 1.25 liter tank. on top for more reach.

Last is 4 rescue pods the MK1 pod, two lifebelt tanks an 48-7S some struts as landing legs and radial parachute.

[GusTurbo]

Space shuttle. It will be glorious. No more ridiculous kludge cargo bays.

[timsfitz]

I don't normally mod my game, but when I heard about SP+ being officially added I downloaded it. I love the cargobays, and having access to them has changed the way I build my ships.

I have an amazing little RCS lander that has landed and returned to the ship's cargobay from the Mun, Minmus, Duna, Ike, Pol, Bop, Vall, Dres, and Gilly. It fits nicely into the admittedly small cargobays, bit has been a blast to use. Also, my ships look much sleeker and more futuristic now.

[Spatzimaus]

I won't delete them, but IMO, those cargo bays are like having a 0.5 person car: what's the point?

They're a fantastic way to launch small satellites. Sure, you can just stick the decouplers on the outside of your vessel and get the same effect, but that's very... inelegant, especially if you're waiting for a more advanced drag model. For instance, here's my small spaceplane design:

It's an 8-9 ton vessel, capable of putting a 2-ton satellite into a circular, low orbit. It's the half-length cargo bay, incidentally, so you could carry something much bigger if need be.

The satellite in question has ScanSat sensors, a Kethane scanner, plenty of batteries, and an ion engine with 18km/s of dV (enough to go anywhere in the system from Kerbin orbit). It BARELY fits inside, as you can see from the picture, but that's just fine.

The point is, in stock at present there's no use. But if you believe there will someday be a real drag model, or use a mod that adds aerodynamics, then holding things internally makes a BIG difference, and the bays in question can hold some very useful things.

[NecroBones]

I probably won't do anything with them right away.

That is, right now I'm in "MAKE ALL THE PARTS" mode rather than "FLY ALL THE SPACEPLANES".

[briansun1]

Why does everyone think we're getting cargo bays? Is there some secret area where new features are announced and listed?

Yes there is. Here's the link. Also here.

[zeel]

It looks like the perfect place to store a K-Drive to me.

Or perhaps a whole rocket. Take of in space plane, and do a mid air launch.

Also, I might EVA a bunch of Kerbals inside of it and see what happens.