[1.8.x - 1.12.x] US Rockets (Aerobee/Vanguard/Scout/Juno II/Thor-Delta/Titan 34D-III Commercial-IV) - 8-26-21

[raidernick]

Found a couple more rockets I could quickly do by extending a single part, Delta E to J:

[raidernick]

Star 37D to go with the Delta rocket as the upper stage:

[raidernick]

UPDATE v0.3

* Added X-405 engine
* Added AJ10-37 and AJ10-104 engines
* Added Juno II rocket
* Added Thor-Able I, Thor-Able II, Thor-Delta, Thor-Epsilon, Delta A-J and Thor-Burner I rockets
* Added Altair upper stages and Star 37d SRM
* Some rockets have multiple textures on parts that use firespitter to change them

WARNING: These parts are most likely NOT balanced properly for stock. I made them for RO and gave quick stock configs as a courtesy using procedural tanks for weight and fuel amount estimations and random numbers for prices. I asked for help several times and got NO responses, so I DO NOT want to hear any complaints from anyone. If you have time to complain you have time to fix the configs and make a PR on github.

https://github.com/KSP-RO/USRockets/releases/tag/v0.3

 

Edited February 29, 2016 by raidernick

[Cheesecake]

Wow. I played a long time with your Launchers and I was waiting all the months ofor this Pack.

But I have a question. I found no Main Fuel Tank for the first Stage of Vanguard!?

[raidernick]

In the OP is says the vanguard is still a WIP and is not done yet.

[CobaltWolf]

Out of curiosity, where was the name 'Thor Epsilon' ever used? I see it listed as one of the names on wikipedia, but I've never seen that elsewhere. Is there any sort of distinction?

Also, since you seem to be a bit better researched than me - what is the distinction between Able/Ablestar and Delta? My (probably wrong) understanding is the Delta A-D is Able, and Delta E-J is Ablestar, but Able/Ablestar flew concurrently with their respective Delta versions?

[raidernick]

@CobaltWolf It's actually very confusing. The USAF designations are Thor, Thor-Able, Thor-Ablestar. NASA's first few flights used leftover Thor-Ables and were called Thor-Able. Later flights they modified the launch vehicle and started calling it Delta A,B,C etc.... Thor-Epsilon is the NASA version of the Thor-Ablestar but since the first flights used the leftover ablestars from the USAF they called it thor-ablestar not epsilon. Delta A used the thor-able upper stage. Delta B-D used an extended version of the thor-able upper stage. Thor E-N used an extended ablestar upperstage called epsilon. It also doesn't help that the USAF had their own Thor-Delta that was not the same thing as the nasa Thor-Delta.

Edited February 29, 2016 by raidernick

[CobaltWolf]

21 minutes ago, raidernick said:

It also doesn't help that the USAF had their own Thor-Delta that was not the same thing as the nasa Thor-Delta.

Ugh. Reminds me of trying to straighten out the various things named 'Juno' and 'Jupiter'. Thanks!

[MajorLeaugeRocketScience]

Yay! I can't wait to play it later!

Eventualy, I could do stock configs, but it'll take a few months because of real life. I'll probably just do it, actually.

[raidernick]

As a fun side project to this mod I decided to do a few sounding rockets that will be available to use in RP0. So far I have the aerobee 150 mostly done. I plan to do the entire aerobee and astrobee series.

These rockets will be very simple, low poly, low texture size in comparison to my other stuff. I want to keep it simple and less resource intensive, and these rockets are generally much simpler than what I usually do anyway, they are basically large model rockets.

 

Edited March 2, 2016 by raidernick

[BakerNator]

Fantastic!  Much like everyone else that plays RO I've always "hodged" a sounding rocket together with procedural parts and such, so this will be a lovely addition indeed.

[raidernick]

Aerobee 150A is done, it is identical to the regular 150 except it has 4 fins instead of 3. I will make an alternate texture for the 150 next.

This rocket has about 2500DV. It cannot be controlled, you need to aim it where you want it to go. The "white" area near the nosecone is the battery and control section. The nosecone has a bunch of experiment modules in it.

[raidernick]

Aerobee 150 and 150A are done. I had to redo the way the fins attached.

[raidernick]

Finished Aerobee 300 and 300A

[raidernick]

Finished Aerobee 170/170A:

This also includes an optional rcs de-spin module for the 150/170 series rockets. You can see it here in the picture just below the copper color section. The small white rcs jets.

Edited March 5, 2016 by raidernick

[raidernick]

Made a parachute module for the Aerobee. Now you can recover your Rhesus monkeys and lab mice in one piece.

 

 

Edited March 7, 2016 by raidernick

[raidernick]

Finished Aerobee 100, last will be the 350 then a release.

[raidernick]

Here is the last rockets, Aerobee 350. It is about 3x the size of the others and has 4 main engines. Expect a release in the next day or so after I finish testing.

[raidernick]

Here is a lineup of all rockets for size comparison

Edited March 9, 2016 by raidernick

[lextacy]

Holy mothers of russia! Its great to see someone working on vintage space !!  When I was doing 1946-1978 I had to rely on stock-alike parts or KW to fabricate the old Delta and Thor series rockets. They were of the sadest times! OMG OMG SOUNDING ROCKETS!!  I cant wait to start a new career this winter with these rockets! Sadly I must wait untill Novemeber. If you still need a config writer I will gladly help in Novemebr 2016. I hope you dont get too far ahead? HAHA

 

ps any additions to the probes packin the future?

[raidernick]

I will probably move back to US probes next. I am getting tired of doing rocket parts. I still need to finish vanguard but I'm having a hard time finding the drive to actually do it. That will get done eventually though. The sounding rockets were just a "for fun" side project I felt like doing.

Edited March 9, 2016 by raidernick

[VenomousRequiem]

17 hours ago, lextacy said:

Holy mothers of russia! Its great to see someone working on vintage space !!  When I was doing 1946-1978 I had to rely on stock-alike parts or KW to fabricate the old Delta and Thor series rockets. They were of the sadest times! OMG OMG SOUNDING ROCKETS!!  I cant wait to start a new career this winter with these rockets! Sadly I must wait untill Novemeber. If you still need a config writer I will gladly help in Novemebr 2016. I hope you dont get too far ahead? HAHA

 

ps any additions to the probes packin the future?

Oh, boy, if you like stock-alike vintage rockets then do I have a mod for you!

[CobaltWolf]

16 minutes ago, VenomousRequiem said:

Oh, boy, if you like stock-alike vintage rockets then do I have a mod for you!

I think the point was he didn't like stockalike parts

[lextacy]

25 minutes ago, CobaltWolf said:

I think the point was he didn't like stockalike parts

yea those were the .25/.90 years I was doing stock-alike stuff. This year and next will be replica years and mirror NASA/Roscomos. Im in the big leagues now

[Pappystein]

On 2/29/2016 at 2:57 PM, CobaltWolf said:

 

Also, since you seem to be a bit better researched than me - what is the distinction between Able/Ablestar?

Since this part of your question has not been answered yet.   Able was developed as a second stage for early Atlas test flights.  It was used to test the Reentry Vehicle for the Early Nuclear warheads.   In a nearly un-modified form it was added as a 2nd stage to Thor (Thor-Able)  Ablestar is an Able with a larger diameter fuselage for more fuel tankage and added restart capability.  The Particular AJ-10 engine used in the Able had more thrust than was needed and Ablestar was derived to take advantage of the higher than needed thrust.   Remember Able was developed to POWER a warhead test device through a high speed decent to simulate a Full ICBM flight without the ICBM leaving the general Area of North America.   It was later proposed to use Able to initiate FOBS (Fractional Orbital Bombardment System.)

Per Wikipedia:

 Two versions were built; the Thor-Ablestar 1, with a DM-21 Thor, and an AJ-10-104 second stage engine, and the Thor-Ablestar 2, which had a DSV-2A Thor first stage, and an uprated AJ-10-104D engine on the second stage.^[1] Thor-Ablestar 1 launches occurred from LC-17 at Cape Canaveral, and Thor-Ablestar 2 rockets were launched from LC-75-1 at Point Arguello, which has since become part of Vandenberg Air Force Base and is now designated SLC-2.

 

I have not found much info on the Delineation between a DM-21 Thor and a DSV-2A Thor but by my experience DM-21 would be a Demonstration Model (following USAF/NASA practice in this timeframe) and DSV would be a Dedicated Satellite Vehicle.  Again not certain on this last part it is purely speculation at this juncture.