So there I was...

[TMac3000]

Major disasters, close calls, victorious moments, or just fond memories: post your favorite Orbiter stories here!

So far, one of my favorite moments was launching the space shuttle to the Southampton theme from Titanic. Trey dramatic!

Other great memories were landing on Mercury (I take that back; it was disappointing before I got the textures leveled up), and landing on Europa.

 

[Loru]

When I was reaching orbit my brother started to watch Star Trek:Next Generation and I heard famous line: Space. The final frontier. Just coincidence but quite fond memory.

 

[Blacklight]

I was flying the space shuttle up in orbit and just as the sunrise started, the main theme for 2001: A Space Odyssey started playing.

My first rendezvous and docking with the ISS will always live in my memory.

 

[Bj]

This kind-of doubles as a biggest disaster, I had TransX loaded and ready to ship to Mars I think. Anyway, wasn't watching out the window and suddenly my trajectory starts shifting, I slow down the time accel and nose down just in time to see the moon. Nothing I could have done. *smack*

... What are the odds?

 

[Brycesv1]

that seems to happen quite often. maybe the moon has jealousy issues?

 

[jinglesassy]

i did a trans mars injection then i slungshot around the moon and came back to earth then i started laughing at that navigation issue but what luck lol

 

[flytandem]

I usually fire up orbiter with a scenario that has no date so it always starts at the current date. Provides variety.

One day I have started Earth and have gotten into orbit and was doing a long 2 day chase to the ISS. I had warped ahead probably a day and for setting up a TransX maneuver I slowed the time to real time and I noticed I was pointing at a rising sun. But it didn't look normal. There was a black dot in the center of it. I immediately knew it was a solar eclipse. I quickly did a save and noted the date. Shut down orbiter and googled solar eclipse and the year and month. Sure enough it was a full eclipse that was going to go across the Atlantic and the Sahara Desert. What a strange bit of luck.

It caused me to play for a while at using Orbiter and the camera "from" and "to" to predict eclipses, both lunar and solar. And in a short time I had a lengthy list of eclipse dates which I verified later by googling.

---------- Post added at 07:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:47 AM ----------

i did a trans mars injection then i slungshot around the moon and came back to earth then i started laughing at that navigation issue but what luck lol

ouch, i shouldn't eat so fast, i think i just bit my tongue

 

[unknown_orbiter]

Most memorable Orbiter moment...
It has to be when I did a blind landing at KSC. I de-orbited from the ISS using only the Map MFD. I ended up about 10 KM away but I was able to boost some to make my first ever re-entry landing. I then discovered Aerobrake and BaseSync MFD... -.- *facepalm*

 

[Bj]

Most memorable Orbiter moment...
It has to be when I did a blind landing at KSC. I de-orbited from the ISS using only the Map MFD. I ended up about 10 KM away but I was able to boost some to make my first ever re-entry landing. I then discovered Aerobrake and BaseSync MFD... -.- *facepalm*

Actually for a while when I first started that's how I thought you where supposed to do it. In the stock glider, I would keep that dot right on cape and I would adjust my pitch to keep it there. I just skipped two or three times before sinking like a rock over cape.

With DGIV I got pretty good at guesstimating where to engage the auto-reenter so that I would come close to (2-15Km) from Cape.

Now though I just use Aerobrake, but it was a little more interesting the last way.

There was a black dot in the center of it. I immediately knew it was a solar eclipse.

I did that once too by pure accident. Actually I was in Atlantis just about ready to dock with the ISS and switched to external to get a view of the docking and there was the eclipse.

ouch, i shouldn't eat so fast, i think i just bit my tongue

Don't do that

 

[cessnapilot]

Hmmm... I know it's a month old, but I find this thread interesting. I thought I would share a couple of my interesting moments, most of which are due to bugs.

3) On my first trip to Mars, I attempted to land on Deimos. Imagine my surprise when I descended through that lump of rock and landed directly on the the epicenter.

2) After downloading the Outer Planets and Moons add-on, I began moon hopping around Jupiter with IMFD. There was this one moon that seemed to continue to move away from me, forcing me to do massive correction burns. I never could get to it. So, using IMFD Map mode, I time warped and realized that moon was not moving with the rest of space. It remained fixed.

1) My favorite, which happened to me just the other day: While moon hopping around Jupiter, I encountered the ISS orbiting Jupiter. :lol:

 

[Scruce]

There was a black dot in the center of it. I immediately knew it was a solar eclipse.

I have noticed Mercury through its pass a number of times.

 

[kevin580]

1) My favorite, which happened to me just the other day: While moon hopping around Jupiter, I encountered the ISS orbiting Jupiter. :lol:

I, too...
And, I started playing Orbiter in(I think)October 2010(late)
I've got a Netbook and there is no numpad
I bought a joystick, ok, not easy, but at the 2nd of December I had my fist orbit...

My first Space Shuttle landing ended in deep space
My first Space Shuttle launch ended in the ocean, around 10km from KSC

 

[Keatah]

Getting a moody night cruise around the moons of Neptune going and having the entire crowd (from the party) just enjoy the magic of deep space travel. Quite unlike anything they'd ever seen before. Especially on a 70" screen in our chillout room. Really quite extraordinary with the lights turned low.

 

[Nazban]

For me my best time ever was when i did my first docking with a DG to the ISS.
Nothing compares to that moment when i heard the capture and dock sound with orbiter sound, yeah i heard it plenty of times before, but when you actually do it properly and fully, the feeling is AWSOME!

 

[Izack]

Hmmm... I know it's a month old, but I find this thread interesting.

It's more than a year old.

 

[DanM]

This isn't really a good memory, it's a sad one. When I was about to complete my first docking and rendezvous with the ISS, my mom just got off the phone and told me that a friend of mine who I knew since first grade just died. We were only 13.

But on the good side, I was practicing dockings, and An der schönen blauen Donau (Blue Danube) came on.

 

[Spacethingy]

This isn't really a good memory, it's a sad one. When I was about to complete my first docking and rendezvous with the ISS, my mom just got off the phone and told me that a friend of mine who I knew since first grade just died. We were only 13.

But on the good side, I was practicing dockings, and An der schönen blauen Donau (Blue Danube) came on.

Wow. I think that probably beats anything here!

I have strong memories of chilling out from very stressful school coursework sessions with Orbiter.

Serene blue views + infinite blackness + spaceships = perfect remedy to stress...

 

[cessnapilot]

It's more than a year old.

Darned time machine... set me off by one year. :beathead: Maybe it's time to recalibrate the plutonium crystal alignment again. :thumbup:

 

[Graeme]

Cant beat getting into your first real orbit, when you actually crack it.

Had many orbits by quicksaving and reloading, trying different burns and pitches and getting lucky without knowing what Id done or being able to repeat it. But when you actually crack it and go from launch to orbit is a sweet moment.

 

[Ark]

This one time (at band camp), I flew an Orion to Titan with a couple of SP2.0s docked to it, an external cargo rack UCD'd on, and a LER rover UCD'd. I lacked a way to bring the cargo and rover to a soft landing at the surface base, so I decided on a different tactic. I manipulated my orbit until I was directly over the base at an altitude of around 300km, then I applied retrograde delta-v until I was essentially stationary over the base. Then, I release the cargo and accelerate back into orbit. The rover and cargo drop 300km strait down into Titan's thick atmosphere, and come to a perfect landing right next to the base.

Heath shield? We don't need no heat shield.