The Final Stretch!

[Nagini]

Woohooo! With team frontier finished, I’ve decided to put a hold on my Mercury exploration to work on Team Hawk! My first mission will be:

2. Build a space shuttle approved by TtTOtW or Blazer. The shuttle must be capable to deploy a payload in LEO. There are no restrictions for the payload door design, but it must dock back to the shuttle. The shuttle must liftoff attached to a “stack”, although not necessarily sideways like the STS, shuttles mounted on top of the stack like the X-37 will be accepted too. The shuttle’s orbiter must also land back on Earth, undamaged (any landing method, that is not a glitch or an exploit will be accepted)
Here it is! Porban I!

We have liftoff!

Stage separation

And orbit!

Payload separation!

With our payload deployed, we redock our door

And here is our shuttle landing.

 

[Pink]

Hey, I love that shuttle!

 

[Nagini]

Thanks! I’m trying to make the booster reusable too, so I can kill two birds with one stone.

 

[Blazer Ayanami]

That’s a good shuttle.

 

[Nagini]

Yayayayayayayay!!!! Thanks

 

[Nagini]

2nd challenge:
4. For base-game players, 200 tons to LEO
Here’s the mission:
We have our rocket, the Brute II.

And here’s proof that the payload is more than 200 tons

Now time for launch! Since my third stage thrust is low, I have a very un-steep gravity turn.

Finally! As you can see, I have a full payload and even a little left over!

 

[Blazer Ayanami]

One more challenge. Go ahead.

 

[Nagini]

The third challenge I have decided to start is
1. For base-game and pre-1.4 players, perform a flyby of all the bodies in the system and return to Earth safely. Orbital assembly as well as Launchpad assembly is allowed.
Welp, the first step to building an all-body-flyby-craft is a small propulsion module. Here we go...

Liftoff!

MECO and stage separation

And... second stage brings us to orbit.

BTW, does anybody know the most efficient flyby order? Or is that confidential info?

 

[Blazer Ayanami]

I’d go for the following order: Venus, Mercury, Mars, Phobos, Deimos, the Moon.

 

[Horus Lupercal]

BTW, does anybody know the most efficient flyby order? Or is that confidential info?

Sorry, but that information is classified.

 

[The epic chicken]

The third challenge I have decided to start is
1. For base-game and pre-1.4 players, perform a flyby of all the bodies in the system and return to Earth safely. Orbital assembly as well as Launchpad assembly is allowed.
Welp, the first step to building an all-body-flyby-craft is a small propulsion module. Here we go...
View attachment 64650
Liftoff! View attachment 64651
MECO and stage separation View attachment 64652
And... second stage brings us to orbit. View attachment 64653 View attachment 64654
BTW, does anybody know the most efficient flyby order? Or is that confidential info?

i'd go mars and down

 

[Nagini]

Sorry, but that information is classified.

Okay, I guess.

I’d go for the following order: Venus, Mercury, Mars, Phobos, Deimos, the Moon.

*gasps* We have a whistleblower!

i'd go mars and down

Two!!! Well, that’s good. Anyway, here’s the second propulsion module. Pretty routine, so I’ll just post pictures.

 

[Nagini]

The final (I hope it has enough delta v) module is finished! It was delivered by my shuttle, since it was the last one.

We get into orbit...

rendezvous and docking...

Now I just rearranged everything.

And land the shuttle!

 

[Blazer Ayanami]

You know, you really don’t need all that deltaV for a full flyby challenge. I’d say you have plenty. More than enough.

 

[Nagini]

You know, you really don’t need all that deltaV for a full flyby challenge. I’d say you have plenty. More than enough.

Okay, then I’ll start! But first, if this is gonna be a flyby of all bodies, I say we need a very generic satellite to do research and stuff! Here is our rocket

We first get into orbit

Rendezvous and docking...

After a little refueling, we are ready to start our grand voyage!

 

[Blazer Ayanami]

Nice. Looking forward to see it.

 

[James Brown]

Okay, then I’ll start! But first, if this is gonna be a flyby of all bodies, I say we need a very generic satellite to do research and stuff! Here is our rocket View attachment 64835
We first get into orbit View attachment 64836 View attachment 64837 View attachment 64838 View attachment 64839
Rendezvous and docking... View attachment 64840 View attachment 64841 View attachment 64842 View attachment 64843 View attachment 64844
After a little refueling, we are ready to start our grand voyage! View attachment 64845 View attachment 64846

Add oil!

 

[Nagini]

Time for Venus!!! I light only frontiers for efficiency, and we’re off!

After a mid-course adjustment, we are exposed to the beautiful, yet deadly glow of our sister planet.

I am soooooo ready for Mercury tomorrow!

 

[SFSAbhishek]

It looks good

 

[Nagini]

Mercury time! I find a nice, low delta v window and start burning.

At mid-course correction I change the flyby to 600m, because... uh... science!

 

[Altaïr]

At mid-course correction I change the flyby to 600m, because... uh... science!

And fun too
A perfect fly-by is a fly-by on which you slightly scratch the paint of your ship.

 

[TtTOtW]

Let's see. Hmmmm. Yes. No. Hmmm...

 

[Nagini]

Mars!! Pretty straightforward!

BTW, how am I supposed to burn to Phobos? I tried using the in-game navigation, but there isn’t a transfer window. Do I have to first navigate to Mars?

 

[Altaïr]

Do I have to first navigate to Mars?

Yes, you have to burn to Mars first. It can look annoying but this is also far more efficient: burning at Mars periapsis will cost you little delta-V to get captured in Mars orbit (you can even aerobrake). If you attempt a direct insertion this will cost you more fuel.

However if you still want to do it that way, you can simply burn for Mars, and then tweak your trajectory until you see it intersects Phobos SOI.

 

[Nagini]

Ok! Redo of the Mars flyby is needed! I load a quicksave and start my burn!

Let’s try some aerobraking! Warning: this is my first time! First, 17km.

Didn’t go so well. My craft barely felt a thing... 15km!

About the same as 17. We need a denser atmosphere!! After a 10km, a 5km, and a 4km aerobrake, I finally decide on a
3km eek aerobrake!

Delta v thoroughly saved.

Now for Deimos!

Yep, another fairly close flyby!

I’d say that’s some thoroughly scratched paint!