Orbiter (Personal) Milestone

[Ben_C]

Hi All,

Today marked the first STS mission I have flown which not only managed to rendezvous with the ISS but I also managed to manually dock. I also have more than enough fuel to actually get back down again too.

Feeling quite chuffed with myself and all the wife could say was 'That's nice dear'. Pffffffft, women.

 

[n122vu]

Congrats, man! That's an awesome feeling. And the wives, most of them don't understand. Was showing my wife a couple weeks ago the ship I've been working on. Didn't get any, 'Wow, that's neat that you can do that,' or 'I'm glad you're getting some use from your programming degree.' What did I get? "Ok, and, whyyyyy are you doing this again?" :facepalm:

Pffffffft, women.

Seconded.

Anyway, congrats again! Now the fun part - reentry. And not just reentry, but ending up where you need to be after reentry. Good times!

 

[Izack]

Congratulations on that!

Pffffffft, women.

:lol: Indeed. Wives are great for some situations...for others you need

 

[Pipcard]

Milestones reached:
-getting into orbit (and orbital mechanics)
-Earth orbit to lunar orbit transfer (either with Transfer MFD or TransX)
-docking to an orbital station
-Interplanetary transfer (with TransX)
-reentry from earth orbit and landing on a runway (with the XR2)

Not completed:
-suborbital flight
-landing on a body other than the Earth
-station building
-any advanced/expert spaceflight scenarios (slingshots, using very limited fuel, "speedrun" flights (e.g. KSC-WIN in 20 minutes), etc.)

Also, I'm only good with flying the XR2. I haven't learned to fly the DGIV, the Space Shuttle, or the XR5.

 

[IronRain]

Hi All,

Today marked the first STS mission I have flown which not only managed to rendezvous with the ISS but I also managed to manually dock. I also have more than enough fuel to actually get back down again too.

Feeling quite chuffed with myself and all the wife could say was 'That's nice dear'. Pffffffft, women.

Congratulations!

 

[Therius]

I'm working on station building in LEO, which I've enjoyed so far. I've also been brushing up on my moon trips with the CTV Pegase capsule. XR2 is cool to fly, but I like the "realistic" ships as well and I'm trying to get more comfortable with them.

In the past couple of days, I flew an ATV2 to moon orbit with Ariane 5 lunar, then with another Ariane 5 lunar I flew the CTV to the moon and rendezvoused with the ATV2. This was the 1st time I had done that anywhere other than LEO. LunartransferMFD was very accurate. I learned a lot on this mission about conserving fuel for a trip. Fuel conservation with "realistic" vessels is what I've been trying to perfect lately.

I've also been trying to discover the best launch windows etc, for low energy missions to conserve fuel. I know most people poke around with LaunchMFD, TransX & IMFD to find the best launch windows, but I'm still struggling with this. I can find any ol' launch window, but I don't know if it is the "best" one.

I think next I'm going to take a look at the Antares craft. Looks very interesting. Also I am inspired to try a personal "realtime" moon mission as well once I feel better about my mission planning accuracy.

So lately, these are my personal milestones. That's why I love Orbiter. Very rewarding and involving.

 

[N_Molson]

Ah, the first successful Shuttle mission. Always a great moment, it mean you understood in depht the complex orbital mechanics concepts and have piloting skills for the reentry & landing. :thumbup:

 

[Ben_C]

Thanks for the comments,

I've flown 'up and down' missions so I'm (almost!) happy with re-entry although I've yet to hit the runway...closest so far was a couple of miles short. I'm happy to be ending up in Florida but need to work on it.

Looking forward to the repeat flight tomorrow and more practice!

 

[n0mad23]

...and so it begins!

You've broken through one of the first veils here, and it's only going to get easier and more rewarding for you now!

 

[MikeB]

That's nice, Ben.

 

[T.Neo]

That's nice, Ben.

 

[Ben_C]

...and so it begins!

Indeed it does! Finally managed to depart the ISS and end up sitting on the runway at KSC.

 

[replicant]

For me it was being able to actually pilot the LEM and land it within 50 meters of the intended touchdown point. Not only doing that but doing it with the limited fuel and not tripping the auto abort.

 

[RisingFury]

'That's nice dear'. Pffffffft, women.

WIN!

 

[mojoey]

they just dont understand....most of them dont.

The closet i got was landing in the SRB turning lake I like capsule launches better

 

[Keatah]

Well, one can look at it two ways. Is orbiter really just a stupid game that wastes time? Or is it something more, a higher pursuit that is only understood by a select and enlightened few?

 

[mojoey]

*cries* that is the most beautiful thing ive seen all day