Flight Question Help needed with Atlantis

[Andreh]

Hi, what is the correct launch window for a launch of Atlantis to ISS. If I launch with ISS directly overhead, the relative inclination of the ship orbit and ISS's orbit is over 5 degrees, and I don't have enough fuel to align orbits and do everything else that needs to be done. In the Atlantis to ISS tutorial, the rel incl is about 0.8 degrees (I think) when Atlantis gets into orbit and the pilot goes straight to synchronization, skipping alignment completely.

Perhaps there is another tutorial out there for this. I have searched the web but cant find any tutorials for the stock Atlantis. I found some other tutorials for addon fleets but I cannot find the addon sites...??? I know I'm confused...:facepalm:

Thanks

André

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Hi Andreh, welcome to the forum!

I'll have to admit that I have not flown the stock Atlantis in over a year. I generally use the Shuttle Fleet, by David413. You can find it if you do a search for "simviation shuttle fleet" (my work computer won't let me go to the web site to give you a direct link).

Another thing that can help you out is LaunchMFD. You can enter your target (in this case the ISS) and it will give you a countdown timer for a good launch window (from earlier in my Orbiter career I learnd to launch at 350 seconds out to get really close, thanks to Tex and OFSS missions). Once the shuttle rolls over (heads up) you can watch AlighPlanesMFD and nudge the nose left or right with the rudder to minimize RinC, I typically get it down to around 0.02 to 0.05. Then it's just a short burst at a node to get it perfect.

The stock Atlantis isn't very nice to fly once you've gotten the Fleet. Plus you'll get all the Orbiters, plus some (Constitution, Intrepid, Enterprise, etc).

 

[Andreh]

OK brilliant. Thanks PhantomCruiser. I'll have a look for the fleet and the launch MFD.
Andre

---------- Post added at 10:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:23 AM ----------

I have now downloaded and installed the Shuttle Fleet as suggested but now I cannot call the ISS as a target on any of my MFDs. Anyone have any ideas what might have caused this?
André

 

[Loru]

Depending on scenario you've chosen, ISS may not be in orbit yet. Is it in scenario editor?

 

[Andreh]

Thanks Loru but the ISS is not in any of my newly installed Shuttle Fleet scenarios. It is, however, still in the stock Atlantis scenario.
A

 

[Thorsten]

If I launch with ISS directly overhead, the relative inclination of the ship orbit and ISS's orbit is over 5 degrees

Launch with the 'align planes' FDM open, and just use your thrust vector during ascent (after clearing the atmosphere) to align the plane so that relative inclination is close to zero when you reach orbit. Works perfectly fine.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

You'll need to "write in" or spawn the ISS into your scenario.

Add these lines...

ISS:ProjectAlpha_ISS
  STATUS Orbiting Earth
  RPOS 6604547.60 32785.98 -1288983.25
  RVEL 431.660 -7419.871 2010.494
  AROT 110.00 -10.00 80.00
  PRPLEVEL 0:1.000
  DOCKINFO 1:0,STS-101
  NAVFREQ 0 0
  XPDR 466
END

Drop that right after the line

BEGIN_SHIPS

in your scenario and presto! ISS is in orbit. Wait until you've got a good launch window and go for it.

Don't get discouraged, it takes patience, and practice, practice practice.
But the first rendezvous and docking is an adrenaline pumping joy to remember for years.

 

[Andreh]

Thanks for that, PhantomCruiser.
Andre