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[TheBronzePickle]

The smart ones would be prepared for that and already have their ejection seats primed to the same button that releases the rocket from the plane.

PS: Thinking about how the future game will (supposedly) have a space-race type scenario between two or more Kerbal nations, I wonder if there will be a way to launch rockets at the same time? Were that the case, I'm quite sure that more than a few "spacecraft" would "veer off course" into the path of the much more valuable rockets being launched by the other nations.

[breadbocks]

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/index.php?title=Planned_features

Enjoy.

[rutsber]

The smart ones would be prepared for that and already have their ejection seats primed to the same button that releases the rocket from the plane.

PS: Thinking about how the future game will (supposedly) have a space-race type scenario between two or more Kerbal nations, I wonder if there will be a way to launch rockets at the same time? Were that the case, I'm quite sure that more than a few "spacecraft" would "veer off course" into the path of the much more valuable rockets being launched by the other nations.

Are you proposing sabotage, dear pickle?

[TheBronzePickle]

I wouldn't put it above some. But, of course, I'm certain anyone who realized the...ruthlessness of their fellow man would of course have contingency plans set up in case such an unfortunate event were to occur.

[Stargrasper]

I wouldn't put it above some. But, of course, I'm certain anyone who realized the...ruthlessness of their fellow man would of course have contingency plans set up in case such an unfortunate event were to occur.

I'm reminded of this UserFriendly.org strip.  Be nice if we could extort funds from local and foreign governments like that later on.  Who needs magma when I've got a few dozen ICBMs?

[Deadmeat1471]

'Plane launch'?

It works in real life.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I've never heard of a rocket being launched from a plane into orbit, These little theoretical commercial planes, yes, but a real one? I don't see it.

[Vattic]

Managed to orbit the planet for the first time. Went around once. Launch to landing: 41 minutes. I overshot the launchpad and landed in the sea. I thought the parachute was never going to open.

Spoiler: Sunrise with half a tank left (click to show/hide)

It might not be much but I'm pleased.

[sluissa]

I don't know if it's been mentioned, but the wings provide a surprising amount of lift. I made a single tank, single stage, liquid fuel rocket to play around with, added 8 wings. I had a hard time controlling it myself, but for some reason, on my nose dive back towards the pad, after I ejected the capsule from the rocket, the rocket's speed and the lift from the wings caused the remains of the rocket to nose up and fly a surprising distance horizontally.

[kilakan]

It's amazing because who would have thought that wings provide lift?  :p

[sluissa]

It's amazing because who would have thought that wings provide lift?  :p

It's not surprising that they do, just surprising how much.

Somehow I managed to get the rocket to do a slow loop around the launch pad, then let my capsule fall off and activated the parachute. My capsule with it's huge parachute hit the ground before the gliding rocket did.

[breadbocks]

I recall hearing that you could get a SAS in flight by putting a bunch of wings on it.

[BloodBeard]

Wait, what? Was the rocket firing at the time? Because they do a lot of sky writing if left to fly around on their own. The winglets are basically large tail fins, which shouldn't provide any lift but keep the rocket steady from changes in yaw and pitch. I'm thinking it just appeared like they were providing lift.


I forgot about that point that 1-time rockets cost less then reusable  . I could be wrong but going up in a plane would probably still be more cost effective then 1-time boosters, depending on the size of the payload.  Still, there's that problem of what happens to the plane after you launch the rocket. AI taking over is the only viable option I can think of. I don't know how safe it would be to put a plane on auto-pilot, fly your rocket into orbit and switch back to the plane in time. That would be awesome though.

[sluissa]

Wait, what? Was the rocket firing at the time? Because they do a lot of sky writing if left to fly around on their own. The winglets are basically large tail fins, which shouldn't provide any lift but keep the rocket steady from changes in yaw and pitch. I'm thinking it just appeared like they were providing lift.

Nope, I had shut the engines down and was simply trying to get it to glide.

[TheBronzePickle]

An AI could easily land itself. You simply give it a waypoint at the far end of a runway, then give it a series of waypoints with directions to guide it into landing. Admittedly, I doubt that the developers would really care that much about coding an AI algorithm.

[Vattic]

If you get to design the plane perhaps a parachute would work?