KSC to ISS in half hour.

[Omhra]

These are a couple of trips up to ISS on the XR2... under 40 minutes...

get them at [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3691"]XR2 to ISS 37 minutes[/ame]

Comments are welcome...
And if it helps any one in figuring out a way to get there... :speakcool:
On one of those my lovely wife distracted me and I coasted off dock... but swiftly recovered... no collisions...

 

[Linguofreak]

Flytandem developed a technique for doing it in around 15 minutes that I've used.

 

[EliNaut]

Fifteen? Gee is it on a thread here somewhere? I'd like to see how that ticks!

 

[Arrowstar]

From what I understand, you go up and immediately run into the thing. Timing is critical and the precision of your ascent must be spot on.

 

[flytandem]

I did the rapid docking with ISS a few times (15 to 18 minutes typically) but found it pretty stressful and actually unrewarding. I would use TransX during the ascent, target ISS, to eyeball as close an intercept as possible. After 9 minutes I was doing a main engine cutoff and was usually about 90 or 100 Km agl and then coasting. It took some rapid changes in plane change (using bank angle) during the ascent to place the node at a point about 13 to 15 minutes downrange from where the ISS was at launch time. And the MECO is usually when the Closest Approach in TransX reaches a minimum and begins to climb again. Often the CL APP is anywhere from 10 to 40 Km from the ISS.

After MECO there is an agonizing coast through the upper air that is still affecting the ship making the prospect of doing a TransX planned maneuver somewhat imprecise, but I go for it anyway. So from MECO I have about 2 minutes to rapidly turn on the TransX maneuver, adjust some amount of each of the 3 dimensions of deltaV including initially setting the date as something with a couple or 3 clicks of Ultra increment to make it 60 to 90 seconds in the future. This maneuver is to drop the CL APP to zero or anything under 1 KM can work at this point. And if all goes well I can have a plan set up with 10 to 30 seconds left to rotate to heading on the TrasX target and burn. (phew). (Neil probably had that kind of focus landing the Eagle, but in this case you don't crash and die if you screw up) Then turn on the HUD and rotate to the velocity vector of the ISS. Massage the LIN in the last couple or 3 minutes to reduce the Cl APP to zero to make it a direct hit or intentional miss of 50 meters if you like. Then some mental estimates of how late you can start the engine burn to not smash your rear end into the ISS yet not waste time floating slowly toward it while still a couple Km away. (distance is square of the remaining speed right?) Burn to a stop just a few meters from the ISS. Then the final "putt" ( a golf comparison) with rotating and finding a place to dock without wasting precious seconds. It's like playing the blue danube waltz on 78 speed. In the end... I rather wish I had taken time to smell the roses.

blue danube on 78 can be found at
http://www.flytandem.com/orbiter/playbacks/fast2ISS.zip
but unfortunately playbacks don't record the way TransX (or any other MFD) is used. (place the files into orbiter folder, it will place the files accordingly and the playback scenario will be in scenarios/playback subfolder.

edit: you can probably improve the time by not having passengers and by only having the fuel needed for the climb to the ISS. (better acceleration) This playback started with full fuel however. My bad.

 

[Usquanigo]

LOL Hell I'm happy when I can do it in less than a full orbit. Only done it a few times, and always sheer luck - but that doesn't count docking time, just getting to the point where I'm a few hundred away and actively docking.

You guys are intense.