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In addition to the cargo bay being 3% oversized, I find that the entire Atlantis mesh is offset about 5 cm along the X axis (Orbiter's coordinate system). The docking port, docking port camera and cargo bay attachment point are all properly located on the Z axis, at X=0. But the keel line of the...

I always thought the Cvel Titan yaw problem just me! Sometimes staging is as smooth as glass, sometimes not. It's nice to be in good company. I'm pretty sure the X-20 addon uses the Cvel Titans, not Velcro.

Thanks to both of you - that answers that. The photo from STS-41 is a little freaky - it looks like a billowed sail catching a stiff breeze. Don't let the conspiracy guys see it ;)

I am pecking away at a Skylab Reuse addon, based on the actual proposal made in 1978. That scheme included a "power module" added to Skylab with two 104 foot long solar panels. The proposal's very small scale sketches give the impression of paired panels extended by a central telescoping mast...

Another giant leap for man... um... robotic-kind. All this accomplished on a budgetary shoestring compared to ISS and STS. Imagine what sort of planetary explorations we could have had by now if JPL had gotten the really big NASA bucks. How many more "proofs" are needed before NASA scales...

I would add: 4. Theory Fourth. Blindness: We are not the One, or the Few, we are just one of many but our technologies are still to primitive to see them, or we are looking in the wrong places, or at the wrong frequencies, or distances are too great and "the many" too scattered in a galaxy...

Having done the minutes and minutes of researching "the internets" I come up with this: http://www.rfreitas.com/Astro/FermiHowler1984.htm Just one of thousands of Fermi Paradox "con" sites. The bottom line is that currently there is no bottom line! There is so little actually known that one...

It's worth noting (and this also relates to your latest comment) that the two fatal accidents were administrative screw-ups, as much as technical/engineering failures. The technicians knew that the SRB o-rings were sensitive to cold temperatures, but their caution was over ruled by higher...

and also, The length of your posts must violate some Forum rule or other. They are consequently inadmissible. Thus, I win this debate! Although childish, I hope you appreciate the lawyerly nature of my rejoinder - when all else fails, fall back on the strict form of the law, or resort to...

I am skeptical of any formulation that renders humanity "unique" or "special" or "exceptional," simply because such formulations always crumble as our knowlege expands: We are not the only tool-using species, we are not the only spiecies capable of language, our planet does not occupy the center...

I also get low frame rates on the Saturn/Skylab combination. I guess it's the size of the meshes. Skylab weighs in at 30,174 triangles, the Saturn first and second stage meshes are 14,005 and 12,904 respectively. Taken individually, these are not huge. But when you combine them into one vessel...

Congratulations! You took the big leap! This really is an extrodinary addon, permitting nearly unlimited combinations, not just with the parts in the Velcro "kit," but also with other addons. It's a bold move because the possiblities for conflicts are also unlimited! I hope you aren't...

Thank you, Sputnik! The Saturn family finally gets the full treatment it deserves! I notice that the download includes my Skylab1973 Sun/micrometeoroid shield meshes and textures, but the Skylab Launch scenario does not make use of them. So, I am attaching my own launch scenario that...

That's an interesting point - and not at all hard to believe when you see the two vehicles side-by-side. So, how can anyone ever have imagined that a reusable cargo plane could compete with an expendable launcher? With the expendable launch the payload is the entire weight delivered to orbit...

As work progresses on an update of Skylab1973, I am exchanging e-mail with a couple of folks producing addons for the Saturn INT-21 launch vehicle, a Saturn V variant having just the first and second stages. This vehicle lifted Skylab whole into a high inclination, 430km altitude orbit. It...

That's fast service - my request granted before I even made it!

All I recall is that there was a scandal. If the motives really were entirely noble then it seems there would have been prior publicity of this fund raiser and no scandal at all. Evoking widows and orphans, especially after the fact, please... :dry:

This looks great! And I agree that it could be a nice alternative to the Spacecraft3 RMS, but.... Could you do a smaller version, with arm sections only 1 to 2 meters long? This would be handy for use on smaller, unmanned satellites - picking up Martian rock samples for return to Earth, or a...

I am at work now (stealing some e-mail time from the boss). I will send you the shields and some info about them this evening. Due to design and installation errors the shields were ripped off by aerodynamic pressure about 60 seconds into the flight, exposing the gold foil "underskin." The...

This looks like a good project! As I understand it, NASSP is open source under a GNU v2 license - you should read it over before you issue your addon. Here's a link: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.txt Under the terms of this license you can use any part of NASSP you care to, without any...