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[tryrar]

Protip; I you absolutely cannot for the life of you dock, go to kerbal spaceport and pick up the RCS autopilot+docking assistant. Makes docking maneuvers so much smoother(and if nothing else, it's worth it just for the docking camera!)

[Pyre]

Gotta say, I'm liking this version a lot.

Spoiler: !!Airplane!! (click to show/hide)

[Twi]

Gotta say, I'm liking this version a lot.

Spoiler: !!Airplane!! (click to show/hide)

That's a lot of intakes. I'm almost surprised it doesn't flip out.

[tryrar]

Quick question: Is it possible to transfer crew between craft? I'm thinking of having a robotic command ship for my Mun Lander to cut down on crew requirements, and to be able to ditch the lander upon re-entry

[Sean Mirrsen]

Well, you can EVA them from one craft and climb into the other. No direct transfer yet.

[tryrar]

....about what I figured. Oh well, that'll work as well

[Pyre]

That's a lot of intakes. I'm almost surprised it doesn't flip out.

It does actually. Below 300 m/s it tries to flip upwards, above 300 m/s it noses down. Only real way to stay in control is to use ASAS and adjust your heading as you go.

[tryrar]

Doing a bit of abort sequence testing. After landing in the latest round, I looked around and noticed THIS(hint, look what's impaled in the ground in the background):

[Twi]

Hi there, thing that looks kinda like an escape tower.
Meanwhile, 0.19.1 resulted in a flood of spaceplanery even though it only fixed a few bugs and rebalanced rover wheels! Yeah, I dunno.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I tried to do something like Pyre, but based it on the U-2. Or tried to, at any rate. This revealed one important fact: Red-hot wing-shaped boards look AWESOME.

Then I built the Utsuho II (reinstating the Touhou names), a spaceplane that was sort of like Laika in that it takes off on a rocket vertically, reenters and flies horizontally, and lands vertically again. Unlike Laika, however, it has actual jet engines and very little rocketry, relying mostly on its launch vehicle to get it into orbit. (Which it can, barely..)

Oh, and for some reason it seems to think that two jet engines are massively underpowered. I have no idea WHY they seem unable to get it moving, but such is life. Rapidly pitching up and down still works, though. Yay for KSP aerodynamics!
It also has landing gear in its tail. Check it out!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Sadly, the one on the bottom is one of the few successful landings. I can get it down fine, but then it tends to fall over and fall apart. :V
So have a reentry shot (this is not the one that made it into full orbit, that one was surprisingly tame):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And proof of orbitability!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Putnam]

Are my rockets too simple?

Stage 1: 8 turbojets, each with their own T-200 fuel tank (so as to avoid liquid fuel/oxidizer mismatch in stage 2) to get way up in the atmosphere before starting the stage 2 launch rocket. Wings are on this stage and stage 2 exclusively.

Stage 2: A single mainsail with a single Rockomax 64 fuel tank. Gravity turn to 150,000, then circularize.

Stage 3: NERVA with 3 T200s around an (unused in this stage) T800. This stage can make it to orbit around Eve.

Stage 4: T800 after jettisoning the T200s. This stage was still more than half full while landing on Eve, so I figure I could probably make it to Jool (though probably not land on any of its moons!). There's an ASAS and SAS on this stage.

Stage 5: Just the cockpit and a parachute.

[Twi]

Stage 1: 8 turbojets, each with their own T-200 fuel tank (so as to avoid liquid fuel/oxidizer mismatch in stage 2) to get way up in the atmosphere before starting the stage 2 launch rocket. Wings are on this stage and stage 2 exclusively.

I should totally do that more.

[Putnam]

Yeah, JATO is pretty awesome in this. Ridiculously practical.

[Guardian G.I.]

Stage 2: A single mainsail with a single Rockomax 64 fuel tank. Gravity turn to 150,000, then circularize.

At what altitude do you start the gravity yurn?

[Twi]

Yeah, JATO is pretty awesome in this. Ridiculously practical.

Although one should note that launch clamps+ jet engines= sillyness, due to turbojets needing to spin up a good bit to lift a vessel of that size. Which I realized while making a mockup of the general concept.

Speaking of which, if one was able to make it so that you used a normal jet at low altitude and speed, and then switched to the turbojet as you got higher and faster (say, with bicouplers and action groups), would that be any more efficient and/or worth the trouble?

[Putnam]

Stage 2: A single mainsail with a single Rockomax 64 fuel tank. Gravity turn to 150,000, then circularize.

At what altitude do you start the gravity yurn?

Right before the jets run out of air, which is ~30-35000. The jets save on a ridiculous amount of fuel lost to air-based inefficiencies.

Yeah, JATO is pretty awesome in this. Ridiculously practical.

Speaking of which, if one was able to make it so that you used a normal jet at low altitude and speed, and then switched to the turbojet as you got higher and faster (say, with bicouplers and action groups), would that be any more efficient and/or worth the trouble?

No, not really.  The jets only use about 3/4 of their fuel by the time they become useless.