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[PanH]

There's greens and pink markers. But they're explained in Orbit 101.

[Chiefwaffles]

So just now I did the orbiting and Mun tutorials.

Good grief. They were useful.
Time to get a circular orbit without mechjeb, and then orbit the Mun!

[alexandertnt]

Spoiler: I know its cold Bill, but are you sure that thing is safe? (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Oh no (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: You win again, Newton (click to show/hide)

[alexandertnt]

Based on the discoveries of my previous post I present:...

The Cannon:

Spoiler: The cannon, with victim making his way up (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: WWWWEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: World record! (click to show/hide)

[Twi]

So I did some messing about with mods.
Most notably, Faring Factory! Because reentry. It even has a pitch-black heatshield texture option.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Tiny rocket plane is more rocket than plane, but I couldn't fit jets or reasonably sized wings because I hadn't yet figured out how to zoom out in the Faring Factory site. When I did, I immediately made a much bigger faring for much bigger planes:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This one flew much better, aside from me forgetting the fuel lines from the central tanks. Also, the rear tank (with landing gear) and engines randomly ripped off when parachutes deployed fully. The rest landed safely, mind.

Camden Kerman is best test pilot, yo.

[Girlinhat]

Got the core of my space station into orbit today. Sadly, that was the only thing that went right.

Multiple attempts to get a couple of orange fuel tanks and some scientific equipment up to the station ended in failure, all of them before the ship even left atmo. Whether they failed to leave the launch pad, overheated, or simply went kablooie when attempting a gravity turn, not a single ship made it above 30km.

Then I tried to go smaller: single-man rockets to practice docking. Couldn't even get within 20km of the station, despite my map and maneuvers assuring me that I'd end up within 4km or so.

Finally, I decided to give the Mun landing scenario a shot. First go: as the scenario loaded, the landing legs snapped off instantly despite being in stable orbit. Second go: Failed to slow down sufficiently. Jeb and Bill became stains on the Munar surface.

RAGE QUIT.

You can do these things manually, but if you use the Starport option, go through and download Mechjeb, and Protractor.  Mechjeb is "Mechanical Jebediah" from the days when it was Bob, Bill, and Jeb every time, with Jeb being the awesome one.  It's essentially an automated rocket addon, it lets most rockets ascend to orbit and manage the gravity turn and acceleration perfectly, as well as things like changing orbit and preparing to rendezvous with an existing spaceship.

Protractor is mainly for going to other planets.  You can get into orbit 'by hand' and even to the Mun by 'eyeballing it' but if you want to go to Minmus or a different planet, you really have to get science involved.  The Protractor tool basically does the maths for you and lets you know "This is the direction you want to face and the time you want to burn to reach this other planet." by comparing your facing angle and your relative speeds.

[Skyrunner]

The maneuvers feature lets you plot paths to other planets in-game, though perhaps not as precisely as Protractor.

[LoSboccacc]

Finally managed to get a ssto plane, the breathing engines push me at 22km - 1500m/s and two lfe do the rest.

I still have to work on reentering, when low on fuel is barely controllable.

[alway]

Finally managed to get a ssto plane, the breathing engines push me at 22km - 1500m/s and two lfe do the rest.

I still have to work on reentering, when low on fuel is barely controllable.

Could be your fuel reserves depleting moves your center of gravity. The most simple front to back emptying will do that Routing fuel through some tanks up front near the center of gravity should help with that a bit.

[ank]

I find the easiest way is to centre the fuel tanks centre on the centre of mass... CENTRE!

[Sean Mirrsen]

Best way to keep control of an empty craft is make sure there is something dragging the tail of the plane back. If you lose control after you activate the airbreathers and intakes, it could be because of a typical design choice - all or most SSTOs have a lot of intakes up front. Open intakes generate a lot of drag, so if you open all intakes at once you're going to have a big problem when the craft is lightweight. If your craft has lots of intakes up front, see if you can add a few intakes in the back, and add an action group that closes all front intakes, leaving back ones open. This can help your craft to control better.

Another common problem is simply moving too fast. When you've got a craft meant to lift two hundred tons of weight at takeoff, and end up with just shy of sixty tons of empty fuel tanks and engines on reentry, then going over mach two will flip you out. Slow down as much as you can first, then the craft will control much better.

[jocan2003]

There is a mod that adds air-brakes, might want to take a look on those and add lots of them in the back, but not too much or you will rip apart. Usufull to counter reentry drag problem since you can generate lots of drag in the back preventing a flip, but again entry too fast or to many of them and you will rip apart. Also if you have VFS fuel transfer system, you can set some automation to transfer all fuel in a specific tank from all other, forcing the engine to use fuel from the tank you want.

I.E.: Your engine suck up fuel from tank from the center first but you would like it to suck it from wing fuel mount first. well simply set the VFS to out from those tank and in from the center tank and press start transfer, then close the window, it will keep transfering fuel non-stop untill you either run out of fuel or stop it yourself. Very usefull in mass center management, with it you can also completly stop using fuel transfer line as the mod will transfer it the way you set it too, no more ugly yellow pipe coming from akward direction. Just dont forget to set it the way you want! (Also when you place your mouse cursor over a tank in the menu it will highligh in bright blue the corresponding tank in real time.

Hope these tips/mods helps you.

[Girlinhat]

Otherwise, why land on your wheels at all?  There's multiple parachutes available, combine a few (especially the BIG one for slowing down from orbit, then little ones to slow inside 500m) and just set the craft down lightly.  Yeah, a little bit 'cheaty' for a spaceplane to parachute landing, but you know what they say.  The simplest option is usually the best.

[Twi]

Otherwise, why land on your wheels at all?  There's multiple parachutes available, combine a few (especially the BIG one for slowing down from orbit, then little ones to slow inside 500m) and just set the craft down lightly.  Yeah, a little bit 'cheaty' for a spaceplane to parachute landing, but you know what they say.  The simplest option is usually the best.

That, and tailsitter planes are cool. Most of my planes that go to space end up landing like that.

Admittedly, I still can't get a stock SSTO to work. I might have gotten a modded one once, not quite sure.

[Skyrunner]

SSTOs ;_;