I don't really understand orbital mechanics but...

[Carmen A]

I've been playing Orbiter on and off since the early days but the recent upgraded ships such as the XR series really impressed me.

I thought I'd drop by and see if anyone likes to do aerobatics in Orbiter while playing unfitting music in the background

 

[Rtyh-12]

Welcome Carmen! Always nice to see new members around!

 

[Spacethingy]

Yup, did loop-the-loops in an XR5 around KSC to Song Number 2 by Blur on a Friday night.

Now THAT, my friend, is unfitting

 

[Carmen A]

The mental image of an XR5 doing aerobatics reminds me of a C-17 on an unrestricted climb

 

[Izack]

Barrel-rolled a Space Shuttle Orbiter over the TAL runway at Zaragoza into the tune of Bang On from Propellerheads. It was very, very fitting.

 

[Carmen A]

Lol! That might score low on passenger comfort lol.

Oh yeah some years back inspired by one of the James Bond movies (Moonraker) which had a shuttle actually take off (stolen) from the back of the 747 carrier plane. Evidently the director never knew the shuttle needed the ext fuel tank to fire the main engines.

So I tried to see if I could fly the shuttle horizontally in atmosphere with the tank still attached. Was not pretty. Lol.

 

[Tex]

Hi Carmen, welcome to the community!

 

[N_Molson]

Welcome to the forums !

 

[Carmen A]

Thanks guys

 

[dbeachy1]

to Orbiter-Forum!

 

[Carmen A]

Yay! Did my first launch to orbit today

Although it was an easy one - Brighton Beach to resupply a freighter (Arrow) flying overhead.

 

[Rtyh-12]

Did you do the docking? If yes, that's not an easy maneuver, well done!

Also, well done for reaching orbit!

 

[Carmen A]

I can't read the orbital instruments yet but the lunar orbit is low enough that I can intercept by eye. Let me see if I can post a video of this first mission of mine by tonight

I couldn't dock the shuttle A to the Arrow so I got the main docking bay open and landed the ship on the lower hull (yes there is no collision detection, match the velocity precisely!), detached the freight and loaded the freighter by EVA and grappling.

---------- Post added 01-03-11 at 00:36 ---------- Previous post was 01-02-11 at 22:34 ----------

And here it is, my first flight in space

 

[GoForPDI]

This thread reminded me of this video

 

[Carmen A]

I just realised the Buran has a pair of jet engines for atmospheric flight.

If someone ever did a presentation of the history of the deltaglider, well, the Buran can be the great grandfather lol/

 

[Urwumpe]

I just realised the Buran has a pair of jet engines for atmospheric flight.

That is not really correct, there are different variants of Buran. One is the orbital version, that has no jet engines (jet engines are pretty much a waste of mass on a spacecraft), and a training version, that has three jet engines.

 

[jimblah]

I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a little boy...

...but asthma kept me out of the military. I stumbled onto orbiter after long use with Celestia. One of my biggest gripes was that I couldn't fly a ship.. ha ha
I'm going to build a machine just to run Orbiter. I haven't been this excited
since I built my first computer.

 

[johan]

Carmen, that's a brilliant movie! The concept has story potential too

What ever could have gone wrong on such a large, well-equipped freighter, that would have it arrive in lunar orbit and then start transmitting an SOS signal?

 

[Carmen A]

Carmen, that's a brilliant movie! The concept has story potential too

What ever could have gone wrong on such a large, well-equipped freighter, that would have it arrive in lunar orbit and then start transmitting an SOS signal?

Ghost freighter?

Two words: Event Horizon

The movie was just a random plot to justify my low lunar orbit activities, normally known as a huge waste of expensive rocket fuel.

I've since made more videos from Orbiter multiplayer, a couple of which are featured on Altea Aerospace.

 

[webtek]

to the forums!