Mantis
Member
It's almost strange how much of a sense of accomplishment I feel after doing this but I have to admit that I feel great. I just completed my first complete take-off to splash down Apollo mission using Orbiter 2010 and the wonderful Amso 1.19 addon by ACSoft! The visuals of this incredible addon are absolutely stunning and the use of AGC style autopilots for complex tasks such as lunar landings and lunar orbit rendez-vous are very helpful.
I launched the Apollo 11 mission right on time and after achieving orbit, I used the default Transfer MFD to get me to the moon. I successfully separated the CSM then docked with and extracted the LEM. After a couple of mid-course corrections, I arrived in a perfect retrograde orbit at the moon aligned with Tranquility. At that point, I activated the LEM and used the built in autopilots to land perfectly. After messing around on the surface, I once again used the built in autopilots to launch and rendez-vous with the CSM in lunar orbit and manually docked the two spacecraft together. After separating from the LEM, I used the lunar transfer mfd to get me back to earth. It was the first time that I had successfully flown a complete Apollo mission and my first lunar return flight. I had previously mastered getting to the moon but had never successfully made it back.
One oddity, I did a course correction on my way back to earth and I think I made my entry corridor a little too shallow and as a result I re-entered quite deep into the atmosphere which effectively aerobraked me into a slightly eliptical Earth orbit with a PET of about 30km. After completing that orbit, I re-entered again and landed very close to the carrier!
Thanks to all who developed these wonderful addons! It was a great way to spend a lazy Saturday afternoon/evening.
I launched the Apollo 11 mission right on time and after achieving orbit, I used the default Transfer MFD to get me to the moon. I successfully separated the CSM then docked with and extracted the LEM. After a couple of mid-course corrections, I arrived in a perfect retrograde orbit at the moon aligned with Tranquility. At that point, I activated the LEM and used the built in autopilots to land perfectly. After messing around on the surface, I once again used the built in autopilots to launch and rendez-vous with the CSM in lunar orbit and manually docked the two spacecraft together. After separating from the LEM, I used the lunar transfer mfd to get me back to earth. It was the first time that I had successfully flown a complete Apollo mission and my first lunar return flight. I had previously mastered getting to the moon but had never successfully made it back.
One oddity, I did a course correction on my way back to earth and I think I made my entry corridor a little too shallow and as a result I re-entered quite deep into the atmosphere which effectively aerobraked me into a slightly eliptical Earth orbit with a PET of about 30km. After completing that orbit, I re-entered again and landed very close to the carrier!
Thanks to all who developed these wonderful addons! It was a great way to spend a lazy Saturday afternoon/evening.
