Orbiter Screenshot Thread

[ProAuroraX]

Thermopylae Explosion

 

[Cizurator]

An edited screenshot showing "the Tau Ceti incident" and another space battle from United Systems Fleet addon.

 

[Star Voyager]

Emergency!

 

[N_Molson]

First tests flights of the Sigma rocket Stage 1 have demonstrated a huge potential.

With a dummy second stage of 20 tons and no payload, the rocket easily makes it to orbit.

The extension of the first stage and the induced change of mass reduced the max acceleration to 5.5G. Still a little high for man-rating, but we have only a dummy second stage and no payload. I'm confident the peak G will be smaller than 4G.

Oh, and BTW I found a way to use Martin's Atlantis SRB, while setting more realistic specifications. It saves a lot of time, and it's very much like re-using Shuttle hardware (I took the SSME mesh from the stock Atlantis too)

I'm curious to see how much mass this rocket will be able to haul to LEO & GSO with a functional second stage (J2-X engine).

 

[Relayer91]

Some pictures from the launch of STS-96

Discovery sitting on pad 39-B


On ascent


SRB sep


ET sep


OMS-2 burn (1)


OMS-2 burn (2)

 

[Scav]

this picture is really cool!

Thank you!

Come to realize, of course, that Atlantis just barely clears the XR5's cargo bay. The tip of the tail might actually be in contact with the floor of the cargo bay; maybe there might be a centimeter or two of space in between.

Here's an EVA shot. Shades of Kathy Sullivan's first EVA here.



AND! I have a challenge for you guys. Our intrepid astronaut has completed his closeout procedures for securing the Hubble Space Telescope to the cargo bay, and has been given permission for a free-flight with his EMU. He is currently 1,500' (450 meters) distant from Constitution. The shot is from Constitution's docking collar camera; can you find him?

 

[N_Molson]

SRB separation. Big drop of acceleration, from 5.5G to barely 1G !

Again, I copy-pasted a chunk of stock Atlantis code, hardly modified anything. Summer-lazy-mode on. The best is that it works. Well, the white explosive bolts particles seem a little weird, but when in motion, you hardly notice them, it's a short explosion.

Now time to give a proper existence to the second stage. I'm going to use what I call the "Sputnik-Igel-Thorton" multistage method, meaning that each component of the rocket is handled as an individual vessel in the simulation. It makes the separations much more smooth, amongst other advantages (smaller individual code samples...).

 

[Scav]

SRB separation. Big drop of acceleration, from 5.5G to barely 1G !

"Get ready for a little jolt, fellas!"

". . . That was some little jolt!"

-- Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, q.v. Apollo 13.

 

[N_Molson]

Yeah, that's exactly the scene I was thinking about, when they get pushed in their harnesses :lol:

Here, the thrust suddenly drops from 24 MN to 2 MN. Later I'll try to implement the SRB power curve, it would make the transition more smooth.

Edit : okay, I think I have the final shape of the thing, taking into consideration the volume taken by the propellants. Looks like an Ares-V lite.

The LEO payload capacity will be around 35-40 tons I think (from KSC, to a 51.6° of inclination orbit).

4 vessels in one :

Full thrust ascent :

Second stage ignition (J2-X) :

 

[Izack]

AND! I have a challenge for you guys. Our intrepid astronaut has completed his closeout procedures for securing the Hubble Space Telescope to the cargo bay, and has been given permission for a free-flight with his EMU. He is currently 1,500' (450 meters) distant from Constitution. The shot is from Constitution's docking collar camera; can you find him?

View attachment 7935

 

[Scav]

You've got sharp eyes!

I'm afraid all I've got for you is a pair of Watney's Red Barrels to share, though.

 

[Izack]

You've got sharp eyes!

I'm afraid all I've got for you is a pair of Watney's Red Barrels to share, though.

Thanks! Not a drinker, though...especially after the "Hey-let's-try-some-European-beverages" incident... :hide:

 

[Scav]

:rofl:


My, haven't we all been there!

 

[Relayer91]

The second load of pictures from STS-96

Getting close...


Discovery and the ISS silhouetted against the Earth


Getting closer...


And closer...


Leaving the ISS (forgot to get decent pictures while there too!)


Oriented for re-entry


Last S-turn, coming in HOT! - screwed up my re-entry quite badly, managed to arrive at the Cape with too much energy and too little altitude, since I screwed up my first S-turn, had too high an AoA during the first one and instead of 'skipping' up a little bit, I redirected the force too 'upwards' launching me on a weird parabolic trajectory where I then lost a lot of altitude coming into the cape but still had a good 1200m/s when I hit the HAC.


Flying my 'Franken-HAC' - a massively enlarged HAC I used on-the-fly (a good 2 or 3x the usual radius) with a very shallow descent rate in order to bleed off energy while conserving my very precious altitude.


Limited to 8 files, but nonetheless I made it back to the runway and landed safely. Must be some kind of award for the most badly screwed up re-entry to actually land safely.

 

[Izack]

Limited to 8 files...

Every O-F user has a photo gallery here:
http://www.orbiter-forum.com/gallery/uploadphoto.php

To post photos uploaded there, look in the bottom righthand corner of the post composition area for the "My Photos" box. :thumbup:

This way, you won't use up your attachment limit so quickly.

 

[Wonderer]

Thanks! Not a drinker, though...especially after the "Hey-let's-try-some-European-beverages" incident... :hide:

From personal experience:
"Hey, let's try the Shtrog"
"I don't think that's such a good idea"
*The following morning*
"Blargh youh swoh"

 

[Izack]

From personal experience:
"Hey, let's try the Shtrog"
"I don't think that's such a good idea"
*The following morning*
"Blargh youh swoh"

Something like that, yes. :rofl:
I was happy to be the sober one saying "I told you so!!" the next morning.

Anyway, alcohol is banned in orbit, so back to business - a simple test of CTV Pégase atop a Velcro Proton:

How high can this third stage bring us?

Recovery after a hot reentry:

 

[Spacethingy]

A mission to dump... errr, I mean, carefully place a Carina satellite in Orbit.

I definitely need to work on re-entries!

 

[FeLUX]

working on a High-Res-KSC-Fix for [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3966"]algol's "KSC Canaveral Missile Row Version 2[/ame]".

 

[N_Molson]

Actually, I noticed that the SRBs were left-right inverted... The guys at Vehicle Assembly were obviously drunk !! Fixed.

The fairing (here a short one, 4 meters of diameter) is now handled as two separate ships.

Total vehicle mass is now dynamically updated "from the top to the bottom".