Thread

1. Symmetry · 1790600339 · focus · HN ↗

   They seem to have reached near-orbit with one vacuum engine failing. Lets see if they decide to go all the way to orbit or if the failure causes an abort.

   1. motionlessveloc · 1790600455 · focus · HN ↗

      Abort confirmed :(

      Update: Or maybe not? They're reviewing the status now.

      Update 2: Go for orbit!

      Update 3: Orbital insertion complete!!

      Update 4: First Starlink satellites successfully deployed!

      1. billfor · 1790601366 · focus · HN ↗

         What was interesting is how short the single engine burn was to bring it from suborbital to orbital. It was just a few seconds. I'm not even sure I saw the altitude change.

         1. rtkwe · 1790601587 · focus · HN ↗

            Orbital insertion burns do not have to change the current altitude, their only required role is purely about adding speed to the orbit bringing up the altitude of the orbit's periapsis (lowest point of the current orbit) from inside the atmosphere to roughly the current altitude (or above).

            1. philistine · 1790602283 · focus · HN ↗

               Yup, Kerbal teaches you that very quickly. At the right spot in an orbit, the difference between touching water and infinite falling is very small.

               1. rtkwe · 1790604744 · focus · HN ↗

                  Yeah it's a great way to learn a small bit of the unintuitive aspects of spaceflight. Though real launches follow a much more refined trajectory than most KSP but yeah the basic steps are still the same, though often blended together IRL due to limits on deep throttling and available relights for real rocket engines (though with mods you too can experience the need to do that in KSP, along with fun problems like ullage burns to settle fuel).

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