Tutorial Stock Atlantis launching to ISS and returning to KSC // Video tutorial [EN & RU]

Tarantul

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Below you can find a video tutorial, describing procedures of launching Atlantis to ISS, docking and then returning back to KSC and landing.

A few notes:

1. I know that my English is silly and I often forgot the right words. I haven't much verbal practice recently. But I hope I was able to explain (and to show) some crucial things. And my Russian language is much more fluid of course, so I decided to made a Russian version as well, for russian-language users. I want to improve the describing functions of this video in the future - add subtitles and text notices, for example. But as I don't know when it could be ready, I decided to publish videos "as is". I think in this case something is better than nothing, keeping in mind that currently not so many addon ships is made for a new version of Orbiter and some peoples can give Atlantis a second chance. ;)

2. For a generic "tutorial" this flight is not completely perfect, but still I decide to use it for two reasons:

a) For this video, whole flight was done in one try without editing, and it's a good illustration for some people who think that Atlantis is so difficult and frightening that you can only use it with constant "save-load-save-load" strategy.
b) It is also eliminates the myth that Atlantis left no room for errors. Initial RInc isn't perfect? Reentry overshooting? Landing at nightside? No problem, just do it! I'm pretty sure that all my actions was captured good enough on video and everyone can repeat this flight so I still count this as tutorial.

3. It's not completely "stock" situation since I used ReFuel MFD (download page: [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=4725"]ReFuel MFD[/ame]). But as I said in video, if you can do more precise maneuveres than mine in this video, then you can make this flight without refueling from ISS. And also, if it was reported that stock Atlantis is overweighted, then it could be a pretty fair trade-in to use just slightly more fuel to compensate this.

I hope this helps and Atlantis fan-club will grow up, because it's most beautiful stock ship to relax orbiting while listen some music and watch rising Sun paint it pink. ;)

Atlantis tutorial (EN)



Atlantis tutorial (RU)
 

Donamy

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Below you can find a video tutorial, describing procedures of launching Atlantis to ISS, docking and then returning back to KSC and landing.

A few notes:

1. I know that my English is silly and I often forgot the right words. I haven't much verbal practice recently. But I hope I was able to explain (and to show) some crucial things. And my Russian language is much more fluid of course, so I decided to made a Russian version as well, for russian-language users. I want to improve the describing functions of this video in the future - add subtitles and text notices, for example. But as I don't know when it could be ready, I decided to publish videos "as is". I think in this case something is better than nothing, keeping in mind that currently not so many addon ships is made for a new version of Orbiter and some peoples can give Atlantis a second chance. ;)

2. For a generic "tutorial" this flight is not completely perfect, but still I decide to use it for two reasons:

a) For this video, whole flight was done in one try without editing, and it's a good illustration for some people who think that Atlantis is so difficult and frightening that you can only use it with constant "save-load-save-load" strategy.
b) It is also eliminates the myth that Atlantis left no room for errors. Initial RInc isn't perfect? Reentry overshooting? Landing at nightside? No problem, just do it! I'm pretty sure that all my actions was captured good enough on video and everyone can repeat this flight so I still count this as tutorial.

3. It's not completely "stock" situation since I used ReFuel MFD (download page: ReFuel MFD). But as I said in video, if you can do more precise maneuveres than mine in this video, then you can make this flight without refueling from ISS. And also, if it was reported that stock Atlantis is overweighted, then it could be a pretty fair trade-in to use just slightly more fuel to compensate this.

I hope this helps and Atlantis fan-club will grow up, because it's most beautiful stock ship to relax orbiting while listen some music and watch rising Sun paint it pink. ;)

Atlantis tutorial (EN)



Atlantis tutorial (RU)

The shuttle never launched on a descending node.
 

Tarantul

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The shuttle never launched on a descending node.

You mean, it was supposed to be launched at this point...

an.jpg


...instead of this?

dn.jpg
 

Enjo

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Yes, because it would have to fly over non-US territory, dumping the boosters.
 

DaveS

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Yes, because it would have to fly over non-US territory, dumping the boosters.



Not only that, there's no Transoceanic Abort Landing (TAL) sites on the southern hemisphere. Shuttle Launch Commit Criteria (LCC) requires at least one TAL site with a acceptable weather forecast for a launch to proceed.
 

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It's a simulation in which you can dump your boosters onto the White House without bad consequences, and if you enjoy realism, I don't think you should fly stock Atlantis in the first place.

Nit picking on realism is always very easy to do, yet in my view a poor reward for taking the time to try to come up with a usable tutorial which acknowledges the spacecraft 'as is' in Orbiter (not sure whether you have all you need to do a TAL aboard stock Atlantis anyway - has anyone ever tried?)
 

Tarantul

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Thanks for info, I didn't knew this. Well, it's good that we don't have state borders in Orbiter. ;)
BTW, speaking of falling paths, it seems that in Orbiter for ISS rendezvous it's better to launch shuttle to ascending though the southern hemisphere, because in this case external tank falls somethere in Atlantic Ocean. And in case of northern ascending path, extermal tank will falls... in Greece!
In real life, AFAIK, ET burns up somethere over the Indian Ocean.
 

PhantomCruiser

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I'd wondered where the ET would wind up if it didn't burn up in the atmo. That's kind of neat to know.

Great job on the video! I flew a manual reentry a few nights ago. It wasn't pretty and I am really out of practice.
 

DaveS

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Thanks for info, I didn't knew this. Well, it's good that we don't have state borders in Orbiter. ;)
BTW, speaking of falling paths, it seems that in Orbiter for ISS rendezvous it's better to launch shuttle to ascending though the southern hemisphere, because in this case external tank falls somethere in Atlantic Ocean. And in case of northern ascending path, extermal tank will falls... in Greece!
In real life, AFAIK, ET burns up somethere over the Indian Ocean.
Indian Ocean was only for the early flights which did two OMS burns to get into a stable orbit (OMS-1 at T+10 mins, 35 seconds to raise the apogee and OMS-2 around 40 minutes to circularize the orbit, this was called Standard Insertion). Starting with STS-6, they did away with the OMS-1 burn did only the OMS-2 burn as the launch put the apogee at the mission altitude instead of the OMS-1 burn this was known as Direct Insertion. ISS missions were all Direction Insertion launches.
 
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GLS

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Indian Ocean was only for the early flights which did two OMS burns to get into a stable orbit (OMS-1 at T+10 mins, 35 seconds to raise the apogee and OMS-2 around 40 minutes to circularize the orbit, this was called Standard Insertion). Starting with STS-6, they did away with the OMS-1 burn did only the OMS-2 burn as the launch put the apogee at the mission altitude instead of the OMS-1 burn this was known as Direct Insertion. ISS missions were all Direction Insertion launches.

STS-41C
 
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