The Orbitor Series

After Failing to get Bob into orbit (see the Humble Beginnings post), I set about to create a design that I could get into orbit. Welcome to my Orbitor series.

The first in the series was aptly named the Orbitor1. The first stage is three LV-T45 liquid engines under FL-T800 tanks. The second stage is one LV-T30 with a FL-T800 tank.

When I first created this ship I promptly dropped it in the ocean shortly after launching. I really thought it was under powered. Today, three months later, I easily put this in orbit. Hint: Make sure you press 'T' before launch to engage the SAS. This will greatly help you maintain control. The real problem with this rocket turned out to be I was too inexperienced and needed to log more flight time.

The Orbitor1

The next evolution of the series, the Orbitor2, was to simply place the Orbitor1 atop a monster orange tank surrounded by 6 RT-10 solid boosters. The boosters fired first and once ejected the Rockomax Skipper engine took over. Except it didn't. With insufficient thrust to carry the upper stage the m/s quickly dropped until the vessel plummeted to the ocean. I could not think quick enough back then to shutdown the stage and jettison it so the upper stage could keep going.

The Orbitor2

In true Kerbal tradition the Orbitor3 added more orange tanks, engines, and wings. My early attempts were all done in Kerbal Space Program version 0.23. This version routinely resulted in poor connections between tanks and engines. This causes the craft to wobble severely. I added struts trying to control the wobble and even reduced the throttle level (the ctrl key lowers the throttle). No matter what I tried the ship eventually shook itself apart. The explosion was nice.

The Orbitor3

Orbitor4 took a step backwards. I used Orbitor2 but swapped out the Rockomax Skipper with the Mainsail, the thrust monster of version 0.23. I should have stopped there but in further Kerbal tradition I added more boosters. There are 8 solid boosters around the orange tank. Only 4 fire at a time. After they are jettisoned the next 4 light up. The mainsail was not used until after the boosters. The problem I encountered was roll. For mild roll, it can be controlled with the Q and E keys. Not with this vessel. Until the boosters were gone there was nothing that could be done to stop it.  

The Orbitor4

Since learning today the Orbitor1 was capable of attaining orbit, that means all of these ships had the potential of doing the same. Of course none of them accomplished the mission until today. Don't be afraid to fail. It is how you learn. Keep trying. It is how you gain experience.   

Did you notice I didn't use any launch stability enhancers with any of these vessels? They were not saved down with the craft file and it appears they don't really need them.