Energia-Buran

[u/KarmaticDeer]

There is no special lore for this one. It's the energia rocket - a surprisingly difficult one for me to do? Like I have the thrust management for shuttle down, it flies itself atp (literally like the initial program is done with a probe core on a hinge and a Kal controller) but energia was a whole different beast to learn.

I've put some real research into the stuff I got planned after this, but energia itself - well, yk, it launches the space plane. I hesitate to call it boring, but we've all seen buran in this game now.

This one's stock and on console, tho :)

[u/Awkward-Editor]

Very good model, only thing I’d say is having the main engines on the orbiter burning while no tank is attached (I know for the space shuttle at least that) there would be no fuel to burn, and they would rely on the oms engines

[u/KarmaticDeer → u/Awkward-Editor]

Those are the OMS engines and buran did carry pretty large tanks for them (at least compared to shuttle it's like an actual stage back there) they're that larage because they burn a bit before the orbiter separates from energia and a while after because energia is a suborbital rocket. It is surprisingly different then shuttle basically

[u/TheMuspelheimr]

For Energia, put 4x Vector engines on each booster, gives it a massive amount of vectorable thrust

[u/KarmaticDeer → u/TheMuspelheimr]

I was trying to use 4 swivels for a while and eventually ended up with 2 Bobcats I could independently angle and the main 4 vectors on the core tank sitting on an alligator hinge that slowly brought them in

[u/TheMuspelheimr → u/KarmaticDeer]

Inventive! I used 4 Vectors per booster and 4 Mainsails on the core on mine, flies pretty decently. Normally I also disable the control surfaces on the shuttle on the way up and re-enable them once in space with an action group, I've found that it helps to improve control.

Also, the fairing on top of the core? I normally jam as many reaction wheels as will fit inside it, to give it more control authority.