Korolev Shuttle & Rocket Missions - Sandbox Mode Energia Style!

[General Rarity]

NEW UPDATE! 4th April 2015

The Korolev Shuttle is a Buran-Style Reusable Space Shuttle designed and used in my custom Sandbox game. DRE and FAR compatible, I can give a list of the modlist and the .craft if people want to use the shuttle.

I have 3 shuttles currently named, 2 of which are built.

1: Shuttle Korolev, named after Sergei Korolev, famous rocket engineer. Space-Proven! More payload than von Braun, less crew.

2: Shuttle von Braun, named after Wernher von Braun, famous rocket engineer. Unflown. More crew than Korolev, but less cargo room.

3: Shuttle Goddard, named after Robert Goddard, a true pioneer of rocketry. Unflown. Ability to adopt a Science Lab and ferry 12 crew to a station. Little to no cargo.

4: ???

5: ???

The plan is to have a fleet of 5 fully functional shuttles, each with their pros and cons.

My current save uses a variety of mods, but a few major ones are:

B9 Procedural Wings

FAR

DRE

Procedural Fairings

Procedural Parts

Tantares

AB Launchers

Suggestions are always welcome!

MISSIONS:

XM1: Test of Korolev, see if shuttle can make it into orbit, dock, and make it back. Unmanned. In Progress.

M1: First manned flight of Korolev IF everything goes to plan. Planned to expand the POLYGON A Space Station with a habitation module. Unflown.

Here's a few pictures of the shuttle program before my install died on me.

Here's a few pics of the almost undocumented first 3 missions, STS 1, 2, and 3...

http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/37488065379874587/34C969597DE8C944373E8B0FB74DE2D197E218AD/

STS 1 with the V0 Energy lifter.

http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/37488065379899694/78C0379E1FE50BEED2174DA64C328B3A817316F9/

STS 2 with a K1 sat for a contract and to test payload release. This is Korolev before Endurance was competed.

http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/37488607866040820/EB98C3EE9AA067B2C324F3ED0A79C7B57EAD32E3/

STS 3 with a station hub for Sunce. This was a mission to test the manipulator arm (KanadArm ) and to test docking. This is the redesigned Korolev with 4 crew members instead of 8.

http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/37488607881315934/5E8EA21E0B42C2EC552704D50FE28946D1F64CB8/

Stats and etc.

These first few missions were literally tests and paved the way to the remade shuttle fleet.

MISSION LOG:

STS 1 - Payloadless test of the Shuttle and lifter, used Korolev.

STS 2 - Payload test of Shuttle, used Korolev.

STS 3 - Docking and Arm test of Shuttle on Sunce, used Korolev.

STS 4 - First flight of Endurance and added a station tug to Sunce, used Endurance.

STS 5a - Use Korolev to deliver 2 Hitchhikers to Sunce. Use robotic arm to berth. Unlaunched.

STS 5b - Launch a science lab to Sunce. Probably going to use Endurance. Unlaunched.

Edited April 5, 2015 by General Rarity

[Aethon]

Nice to see it come together! Thanks for sharing.

[General Rarity]

As promised, STS 4.

Launch! With 8 Kerbals. Crew: Jeb, Bill, Bob, Jenwin, Munemy, Melfrod, Cambart, and Ronzar Kerman.

Booster sep goes perfectly. These boosters are recovered thanks to StageRecovery. Please ignore the bugged nosecone, I have no idea why it did that.

After ET sep and burning to rendezvous with Sunce, Endurance slowly approaches the station.

On approach, Endurance releases the Tug and Bill remotely controls the Tug while the newbies watch.

After Bill docks the Tug, Jeb uses the RCS to thrust towards Sunce and slowly approaches for docking.

Docked before sunset!

Endurance undocked and leaving Sunce.

After a few orbits, Endurance prepares for reentry.

Jeb was slightly worried about this amount of plasma.

Endurance turning after overshooting KSC.

Prepping for landing!

Touchdown!

Safe and Sound.

[Specialist290]

Nicely done! I like seeing things like this where people share things that "might have been." The Buran shuttle concept has always fascinated me somewhat.

[lajoswinkler]

You make it look like it's easy. Good work.

[General Rarity]

Nice to see it come together! Thanks for sharing.

Nicely done! I like seeing things like this where people share things that "might have been." The Buran shuttle concept has always fascinated me somewhat.

You make it look like it's easy. Good work.

Thanks for the kind words!

Having some life in the way atm, currently hoping to update thread soon.

Edited February 20, 2015 by General Rarity

[inigma]

Neat series! You are welcome to use the STS Space Shuttle Intrepid on loan from NASA as a thank you to the Russians for keeping ISS running. Can lift 42 tons to 300km if needed. Comes with subassemblies you might find useful for the rest of your fleet. See link to the STS in my sig below if intetested!

Edited February 13, 2015 by inigma

[Kosmonaut]

Nice job! I love seeing historical recreations, especially of the soviet space program. Just an FYI, Buran had two jets where the Space Shuttles OMS's where, to help with landing.

[Sampa]

Very cool ship/orbiter!

[Wabbit]

This is cool, I wish I could make shuttles... Or anything ​with Mk.3 parts for that mstter. Will stay tuned!

[General Rarity]

Nice job! I love seeing historical recreations, especially of the soviet space program. Just an FYI, Buran had two jets where the Space Shuttles OMS's where, to help with landing.

Buran didn't have two jets. The one that had jets was a glider test prototype. On it's first and last mission, you can see that Buran had no jets.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikxwNCcKREY

This project has been put on hold for a while, I'm having issues with my current KSP install with this shuttle on it.

[General Rarity]

Well, this sucks.

The install I have for this save is broken. No, the save isn't, the game is. Probably my fault for removing some game files to keep the RAM usage low.

Hopefully I can use DDStoKSP on the new install instead of ATM to save MOAR ram and to install some new mods.

[General Rarity]

4/4/15

Korolev Shuttle Revived!

In the morning light of the Kosmodrome, a shuttle looms at Launchpad P.

A voice is heard throught the Kosmodrome, counting down to the launch of Korolev.

"5,"

"4,"

"3,"

"2,"

"1,"

"Engines Start..."

"Liftoff! Shuttle Korolev takes off on it's first flight from the Kosmodrome. Although unamnned, Korolev will pave the way for future missions for our motherland."

"Zenith boosters sep, 100% thrust."

"Energy core depleted, seperate. Open bay doors..."

"Looks like a clean sep."

The shuttle is set to go to Salute 1, the first of the Salute stations.

Soon, after a few burns, Korolev arrives.

After some 'careful' maneuvers, Korolev is docked.

To be continued...

shuttle totally didn't blow up on re-entry because I didn't configure some parts for DRE yet.

[Sampa]

Hey, just wondering...from what mod did you get the nose RCS ports from?

[General Rarity]

Hey, just wondering...from what mod did you get the nose RCS ports from?

Here. Pretty nice mod. Be wary, nosecone blows up in latest Deadly Reentry unless you modify it.

[Sampa]

Thanks and thanks for the warning!