Hello, various questions based on experience I got from my OrbiSondas project, wich one can say is (was, as now it is halted but I am keeping its website/socials except Twitter online) the first Spanish VSA, and maybe also the first european one.
- How are your missions run? I read on your website that you did around 150 missions in a span of 6 years; we at OrbiSondas did 29 missions from 2009 to 2016. How was that big number of missions possible?
- I see that you have IVAO and VATSIM there on your website, and I think that is for an idea we also had, to make atmospheric flights on those networks also, to transport cargo and personnel to the different facilities for a mission. Why no X-Plane?
- Do you sim an MCC? That was our major goal, to run missions in almost real time with an MCC system that we developed with help of OrbConnect. We used TeamSpeak for real time communications. On later missions we even had a Ground to Space and Ground to Ground communications channel.
- What are the reuirements for a new member to join? We distinguish positions between astronaut, MCC officer, Flight/Launch director, PAO, Atmospheric pilot. Different requirements apply to them: But bassically, some knowledge about the simulation world and to offer commitment.
- Do you have a training program? We had an academy where we teached Orbiter almost from scratch, and also flight simulation.
On my signature is the website, but I also leave you the OrbiSondas´s youtube channel, and specifically one video that shows a little bit our MCC clients:
Best regards,
Good afternoon and thanks for your inquiry. To answer your questions directly:
1. At the time, a decent multiplayer was just a "wish" so we couldnt truly perform multiplayer missions where multiple astronauts could control one vessel, and I still dont think such an add-on has been created (much to my shock and suprise), so we would assign astronauts specific duties. The commander and pilot would be the ones to execute burns and maneuvers and if there were additional astronauts part of the mission, they would simply perform the tasks they were assigned with. We streamed a good portion of our missions through live screen capture directly from our website since Youtube was in the early stages of live streaming.
In terms of the number of missions we conducted, most of them were unmanned or simple tests. And a great number of us were in our teens so we had PLENTY of time on our hands to dedicate to flying missions. There was a core group of maybe 20 or 30 of us we were online almost 24/7 so that wasnt a problem. I dont suspect we will fly even a fraction of that many missions over such a short time span now, unfortunately.
2. VUSSP always utilized Microsoft Flight Simulator as I initially was part of the Virtual Airline community and wanted to expand on the concept of VA's and create a VSA, but our astronauts werent required to speficially have or use MSFS. For our pilots who came from the VA community, they simply racked up flight hours and went through a series of flight tests and ranked up and eventually would be allowed to become an astronaut if they preferred to go through that way. All others that didnt use MSFS and were only using Orbiter would undergo a series of tests to prove proficiency and then be inducted into the astronaut corp. VUSSP 2.0 will follow a similar track in regards to astronaut training and selection. As far as X-Plane, VATSIM and IVAO do support X-Plane, though we dont and most likely wont focus on X-plane as a platform unless there is a large enough number of people who are actively and regularly using X-Plane.
3. VUSSP always simmed MCC. At the time the only software available to do so was vMC, which worked amazingly well and we just utilized Teamspeak for our comms and even allowed the public to listen in to MCC-Astronaut communications throughout the entirety of the missions.
4. There werent any requirements for people to join. We welcomed all, and on initial registration everyone would have to select what they wanted to do within the organization and they would be put into a training program for their choice. Once members gained proficiency in their selected position, they would then be allowed to gain proficiencies in other areas so they werent stuck only doing one thing within the organization. They could participate in multiple areas. This allowed our members to really find their niche and find what they really loved to do, while also increasing their chances of being selected for new or special projects that popped up rather regularly.
5. Towards the end of VUSSP's initial run, the idea was put in place to create an academy but I closed VUSSP prior to that idea taking off because it blended in with my vision of a more hands-on and education focused organization and I realized (at least at that particular time) that the changes that I wanted to make were too drastic and would change the entire scope of the organization. VUSSP 2.0 will utilize an Academy (VUSSP Academy....very unoriginal title, I know lol) and everyone would be required to go through VUSSP Academy regardless of what department you are in, to learn the basics of the area you are going into or to get cross-training in another area that you may be interested in. MSFS pilots will have to go through the same academy to be able to rank up as well.
I hope this answered your questions and if you have any others, please feel free to ask.
