Gentlemen, a short view back to the past...
It's been more than a year since I first flew gattispilot's STS2016 addon, and I am now at 84 completed space flights with the shuttles. I thought I could share the screenshots of my first ever shuttle flight, SSM-1, which took place on the 18th of July 2022.
Space Shuttle Emerillion was the first shuttle I created. It's my Columbia. And, it would be the shuttle launched on SSM-1. The goal of this mission was to visit the International Space Station, put into use the lessons I learned with the Deltaglider and see if I could flight a Space Shuttle from start to finish.
There were two main objectives:
- Rendez-Vous with the ISS and dock.
- Land the Space Shuttle on a runway.
It might sound trivial, but I never did either of them. I had known how to rendez-vous for some time by then, but only learned recently how to land a spaceplane on a runway. And it was all learned with a Deltaglider, which has a much larger margin for error.
Here is Emerillion on the launchpad for its first ever launch. (The mission badge was only made very recently)

The launch took place in the middle of the night.

SRB Separation!

Emerillion arrives at the ISS for the first time!

Docked!

After a short stay in space, Emerillion leaves and return home.

Emerillion on it's first reentry.

And Emerillion did reach the runway and land!

Parked with the Deltagliders that taught me everything I needed to know to fly the shuttle.
So, was SSM-1 was success? Yes... and no. As you can see, the shuttle did reach the Kennedy Space Center and land on the runway. That was indeed a success.
However, there is something I did not mention earlier. The rendez-vous? Yeah, I failed it. I learned with the DG, and the DG has a much larger margin for error. So, I overestimated the Space Shuttle's capacity to rendez-vous, and ran out of fuel before I could reach it.

I had to fill up the thanks twice with the Scenario Editor before I reached the ISS.
But it was a very learning experience. The following flight, SSM-2 with Space Shuttle Adventure, had the exact same objectives, and accomplished both without needing to use the Scenario Editor! But, I failed again on SSM-3, Emerillion's second flight. SSM-5, my next rendez-vous, was a success, and so were all the following rendez-vous.
While SSM-1 did fail at its main objective, it was a stepping stone to the following eighty flights I did, and I look back fondly on this first flight despite its failure.
