Problem Wheee!! Finally got the DG into a nice, low, circular orbit.

[Pithecanthropu]

I mean, without having to crash back into the atmosphere once or twice, and without ending up with an extremely eccentric orbit that needed a lot of correction. Whoo hoo! For the first time, by flying aerodynamically to about 20km, engaging the scramjet at 3500 m/s, and keeping the AOA low I was able to do it, keeping my spacecraft relatively burn free, although I see from the exterior view that I did burn my nosecone a little bit on the way up.

However.

I noticed that now my exterior view (F1) has become exploded. Is there any way to fix that without scratching this flight? Or is that just Orbiter's way of punishing me for flying at near orbital speeds while still too close to the ground?

FTR I achieved orbit while only 75km above the ground. I doubt this would be possible with any spacecraft we actually have today, given the cost of gaining the necessary speed while working against the atmospheric friction. The apogee is only about 150km or so.

 

[Hielor]

I mean, without having to crash back into the atmosphere once or twice, and without ending up with an extremely eccentric orbit that needed a lot of correction. Whoo hoo! For the first time, by flying aerodynamically to about 20km, engaging the scramjet at 3500 m/s, and keeping the AOA low I was able to do it, keeping my spacecraft relatively burn free, although I see from the exterior view that I did burn my nosecone a little bit on the way up.

However.

I noticed that now my exterior view (F1) has become exploded. Is there any way to fix that without scratching this flight? Or is that just Orbiter's way of punishing me for flying at near orbital speeds while still too close to the ground?

FTR I achieved orbit while only 75km above the ground. I doubt this would be possible with any spacecraft we actually have today, given the cost of gaining the necessary speed while working against the atmospheric friction. The apogee is only about 150km or so.

What do you mean, "exploded"? And you really need at least 120km altitude in Orbiter in order to have a good orbit--below that and the atmosphere will be a drag. At 75km I doubt your orbit would last much more than a couple hours.

 

[Scarecrow]

Exactly what ship were you flying? The stock Deltaglider? The DG-S? The Deltaglider-XR1? DGIV? And about the exploded view, I think a screenshot is in order.

Congratulations on reaching orbit though!

 

[Pithecanthropu]

Turns out the orbit was a little more eccentric than I thought. Apoapsis appeared to be around 250km, and yes, I know that a perfectly circular orbit at 75km would not be maintainable. I'm approaching periapsis now and will see if I can use the atmospheric drag to even out the orbit at the other end--or maybe I'll burn up and crash, but hey, it's just electrons!

It's the standard Delta Glider, having started from the "Virtual Cockpit" scenario that comes with Orbiter.

And by "exploded", I meant that, in the external view, all the external surfaces were pulled apart, the way they would be in an "exploded diagram". The problem solved itself on restart, so never mind about that, I guess.