Molniya Rocket Pack for "Project R-7": Block L, Molniya-1, Luna-9, Luna-10.

[igel]

Today, April 3, marks the important anniversary of the space exploration milestone. On that date in 1966, the Russian Luna-10 probe has entered the Moon orbit, becoming the first lunar satellite. Only two months prior to that, another Russian probe, Luna-9, made history as the first lunar lander.

This date marks the release of the new exciting addon package that will allow you to recreate these remarkable achievements. Please welcome Molniya rocket - an extension pack to the great "Project R-7" addon by astronaut - fully loaded with its most famous historical payloads! This pack is a result of several months of collaborative efforts of most dedicated Russian space and Orbiter experts - I simply can't express my gratitude to all those who helped me with it and made this release possible!

The pack includes:
- Molniya-related additions to the R-7 rocket;
- Block L - an orbital/translunar/transplanet stage;
- Molniya-1 - a communication satellite;
- Luna-9 - a lunar lander probe;
- Luna-10 - a lunar orbiter probe;

Addons in the pack score high level of authenticity in their look, feel and behaviour. They are loaded with sophisticated autopilots, visual and sound effects, nice animations and rocketcam views. OrbiterSound 3.5 addon is highly recommended. All flight sequences are fully automated - from launch to finish! Manual controls and modes are possible as well.

To keep this post short, I only put one picture here. For other screenshots, annotated galleries and complete addon descriptions, see my new orbiter page, http://www.pin-plus.ca/orbiter/ - there is a lot of pictures and related info there!

Download the pack from the link on my Orbiter page, from direct link or from the OrbitHangar (when approved).

Download original "Project R-7" addon (required for Molniya pack!) from the OrbitHangar.

Enjoy!

 

[Urwumpe]

Hey, that looks really great. Let's take a look if I can get something into a Molniya orbit that way.

 

[roblin]

Wow.. excellent! I am in a Soviet kind of spaceflight mood lately so I will definately try these out. Thank you!

/Rob

 

[Notebook]

Excellent work, and your web site is a treat. Good layout, and looks clean, lots of pictures
I suspect you do this for a living?

N.

 

[igel]

Thanks ! Yes, I program for living, mostly desktops, but online stuff too. A web site was long overdue... not anymore!

 

[Xantcha]

I have tried it and i'm very impressed now.

It is very beautifull and historically accurate. Block-L itself looks great, especialy BOZ's flames and smoke. Autopilot works great - it brings station to the moon all on its own and is very reliable at that. (And trying to complete missions manualy is fun and challenging!)

Overall, that's an excellent add-on!

P.S. No bugs encountered yet, everything works fine

 

[Missioncmdr]

Wow! This looks really good. Downloading now. It is good to see more Soviet/Russian add-ons available. Luna 9 and Luna 10 were some important firsts in Lunar spaceflight.

:speakcool:

 

[jgrillo2002]

Oh darn. no Luna 3. ALL HAIL PROBE

 

[Vash]

Now available on Orbit Hangar Mods here:
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3299"]Molniya Rocket Pack (Block L, Molniya-1, Luna-9, L[/ame]

Sorry for the delay in approval. The past few days have been a bit hectic to say the least. I haven't tried it yet myself, but it looks very promising.

 

[igel]

Thanks for all kind words, they are very rewarding!

"Oh darn. no Luna 3. ALL HAIL PROBE"

Not yet. This one is, in my opinion, "the best probe of all times and peoples", surpassed probably only by MERs. And I definitely have it in on radar, when I will be looking to update Vostok rocket the same way I did Molniya. I can only do one rocket at a time - and Luna-3 did not fly on Molniya...

 

[Urwumpe]

I tried the luna-10 mission, but stumbled over a tiny problem - after the first staging, the automatic control stopped and left the rocket pitch down rapidly. When trying to null the pitch and yaw errors manually, I would have had to pitch to 90° up.

I don't think this is related to the Molniya add-on, it happened in the R-7 phase. Also the rest of the mission phases after loading the next scenario had been a piece of cake.

 

[igel]

Interesting problem! Yes, it is in R-7 addon, but still sounds unusual! Never seen anything like that, and never heard any reports from other testers - and we did lots and lots of test launches! Well, at some point R-7 addon will get an update of its own, hopefully with even better stability. Though I am quite happy with its current maturity level!

 

[igel]

One case when no news is very good news! So far only one minor bug report, and only relating to base addon, not the new one!

Now, I have one question relating to sound, but I'll do it as a poll, in a separate post, as it is more generic...