u/WheZzzZ

Konus is a new rocket developed by the space program, based on the Russian proposal “KORONA”.

It launched from Vostochny Cosmodome, after reaching circularization, it deployed the expendable upper stage tug with 4 rassvet-3 satellites. Which then it landed before doing a full orbit to the same launchpad where it was launched.

The mission was meant to add more satellites in the rassvet 3 constellation, as well as replace a failed rassvet-3 satellite.

The current rocket used was in the stack “Konus blok2-blok K”. Konus blok 2 was improved for actual spacefaring operations, coming from blok 1, which was the original prototype.

Images assorted by Moon flyby then earth return, and the launch of the crewed spacecraft PTK “Leped-M-LUN”

Launched from Vostochny Cosmodrome by launch stack “Kometa-M-5CV-Blok VX-H”, then flyby to moon with a return trajectory that changes inclination for better ground track and landing opportunities in Russia. After moon flyby the tug Blok VX-H separated from the spacecraft, spacecraft underwent earth orbit fixing, waited for the landing area, then the capsule re entered. All 4 cosmonauts and the capsule were recovered near Plesetsk Cosmodrome.

This is just an early phase of the lunar exploration, there would be more development from here. This was after an un-crewed lunar flyby.

Images assorted by jupiter arrival, what made it possible, and trajectory explanation and proof.

Launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, using a light rocket, my R-7B-ML, with max tonnage of 8 tons to LEO. Carrying a 3 ton tug and 1 ton probe. Instead of a lunar inclination assist, it used the moon directly to inject halfway to the first Venus encounter, then encountered Venus shaping its orbit for another Venus encounter with a slight Dv spending, before eventually waiting for a good earth geometry to directly inject to Jupiter with 1 earth assist, after one solar orbit.

I forgot to check the terrible COM of the probe and tug, especially my tug with me forgetting to tune it’s engines to be more precise so I enjoyed low isp and high TWR, low burn time throughout the mission, and multiple inefficient burns to correct deviations. Does not matter that much as it only demonstrated a VVE OR VVEE, being “impossible” can actually be done. It’s a rough mission as I need more experience with inner planet chaining, and it’s my first attempt.

If I can do it once, I can do it better the next time.
Images assorted by tour first, what made it possible, and trajectory proof and it escaping the solar system.

This is Polus 2, launched from Vostochny Cosmodrome by “Kometa-M-5C-Blok VX-S”.

It did the usual of lunar inclination fix + assist, but what differed was there was already a trajectory on all 4 gas giants BEFORE going to the jupiter gravity assist, I was simply correcting from time to time, because of how particularly annoying the burn node system is, needing more than 0.33m/s to function properly.

Visiting jupiter, saturn, uranus, neptune, It was a very efficient trajectory to the point unlike Polus 1, It did not need to seperate its main propulsion stage.

Yeah, it’s definitely impossible to chain more than 2 gravity assists.

Images assorted by arrival, moon tour, landing, and what made it possible. And gravity assists at the end showing proof.

Pluton-Grunt and Pluton-Obzor, Launched on Kometa-M-5CV-Blok VX-H’s Debut flight in Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia.

Lunar inclination fix + gravity assist, using residual propellant on the third stage, Followed by a burn to Jupiter by Blok-VX-H, where Jupiter provides a gravity assist to Saturn, which then Saturn provides a gravity assist for a near Pluto encounter. After a few correction burns by the main tug, Blok VIII-T, it had an encounter with pluto with 2.95km/s. It did an orbit burn, to prepare Pluton-Obzor for its moon tour, then seperated the orbiter from the lander that still uses the Blok VIII-T tug.

Pluton-Obzor visited Kerboros, Hydra, Styx, Nyx, and Charon.

After completion of the moon tour, Pluton-Grunt utilized a Charon gravity assist to lower apoapsis, and performed final landing preparations, and successfully landed on Pluto, completing surface science operations.

Image is organized by moon tours first, then what made it possible. Also proof at the end that I know gravity assists despite already showing it in multiple posts.

R-7B, soyuz analog, launched way before it got upgraded to R-7B-M, it launched from Vostochny Cosmodrome, Underwent a lunar inclination fix + gravity assist, then straight to a jupiter assist that directly throws me to , Uranus. without the need for a jupiter burn, as shown in the last image.

It toured; Ariel, Umbriel, Miranda, Titania, Oberon, Desdemona, then Titania 2 times, focusing in gravity assists to get to its parking orbit, has enough margins to do other uranus missions if I ever get interested in the gas giant.

My space program changed its priorities, it’s still focused in growing earth-lunar-mars infrastructure in the main save, but expect more missions in the outer solar system.

Also, I already did a Saturn tour, which pretty much means I did a moon tour of all gas giants with separate probes, and going through all gas giants with a single probe.

R-7B was upgraded to R-7B-M to have more orbital energy for deep space missions, overall became larger and has a bigger fairing.

Uh, yeah so launched from Vostochny Cosmodrome, lunar inclination fix + gravity assist, then mars gravity assist to jupiter, then jupiter moons tour, except I was gambling with physics, destroying my sanity, and grown a few gray hairs during the mission.

It went to all jupiter’s moon on the following order, trying to both maintain an apoapsis for cheap Dv change, and trying to kiss the surface of the moon;

Callisto, 50km asl, high apoapsis

Ganymede, 800m agl, low apoapsis

Europa - 1200 agl, moderate apoapsis

Europa - 600m agl, low apoapsis

Callisto, mainly gravity assist, high apoapsis

Io, 84m agl, needed to fire thrusters a few times to avoid the ground. Low apoapsis

Io, mainly gravity assist, high apoapsis

Io, 100km asl , low apoapsis

Mission concludes at 11% fuel.

The probe was blessed by babushka so that it does not crash on the moons.
No probe was DEFINITELY harmed during the mission :)

A station that took 21 in game years to build. After multiple, unscheduled delays of station modules, Roscosmos-Energiya Orbital Station (Previously Yedinstvo Station), was finally completed. It has (1 core module, 1 utility module, (first generation of the station)), (4 Science modules, 1 habitation docking module, 2 super large arrays, and 2 robotic armed Spacecraft (Remontik), (Second generation of the station)). It is meant to be capable of having no humans and still function and be maintained by the robotic spacecraft, or both.

The station is on a 59.97-59.9 Inclination, meaning it’s no easy feat to dock onto it, and I need to dogleg many of my docking procedures. Compared to just having a perfectly equatorial station, although a benefit of this is that I can launch from any of my cosmodromes and still dock to the station.

For the Leped-M however, it is an improved and cleaner version of my Leped spacecraft. It can dock, while its service module with its pressurized cargo aft, can seperate and dock its rear to the utility module. The Leped and Leped-M uses descent automation to land within 14-17m/s on land, meaning I just watch it land itself without worrying for the safety and timing of the landing phases.

The near last 2 images is the Remontik armed spacecraft working when the station was still incomplete.

The last image was when Leped Spacecraft was tested to the Core module of the Station, before additional modules were added.

I could’ve added more modules but dear god Its VERY laggy.

Visited all of Neptune’s main moons in Realistic Solar System. Launched from Vostochny cosmodrome, and not in an equatorial launch center like Cape Canaveral. I used the Soyuz-analogue because it’s a capable rocket, and relatively cheap.

R-7B orbit insertion stage raised apoapsis to 12Mm using its remaining fuel to assist the tug and the probe for a moon inclination fix+gravity assist, after the flyby it burned earth periapsis, discarding the expendable tank of the Tug, on way to jupiter where it performed a gravity-assist periapsis burn all the way to Neptune. After coasting to Neptune, Tug burned for a highly ellpitical orbit, where the it seperated from the probe, and the probe underwent a moon tour. After reaching triton, it used triton multiple times to lower apoapsis cheaply. Then the mission stops as it becomes part of Neptune, with margins to conduct another moon tour or orbit changes if needed.

Volkov II, partially-reusable rocket, its one of my older rockets meant for droo. And the probe is one of my older droo satellites modified for gas giant tours, and purposely nerfed from 2-3km/s Dv, to 1.8km/s Dv for this mission. I did not expect it to be relatively easy, considering I only play in realistic solar system.

And yes my probe looks basic, because basic styles really fit droo system well compared to RSS.

Launched from Chernomorsky Cosmodrome from a Moshnyy-SHLV, gained an apoapsis of 600km, and continually controlled its trajectory to re enter and land at vostochny cosmodrome, approximately 6000km apart.

It survived re entry at a peak temperature of 10000+*C, at mach 26+, or 10km/s. Thermal performance and ablative degradation was noted.

It took about 6 different flight tests, flight 1 just tested a basic 6km/s re entry, landed properly. Flight 2-5 became fireworks. While having improvements on performance like the shape of the nose, how heat flows to the front of the craft, and slightly changing the geometry of the front. Flight 6 was the first successful flight on 10km/s re-entry, although it still needs improvement in geometry and attack angle to improve thermal performance.

Rendezvoused to a 678km Comsat, Launching from Chernomorsky Cosmodrome (my custom cosmodrome at the black sea), via an air launch system with Bogatyr-R. It repaired the old comsat with its built in arm. Since it had moderately high LEO, it needed to aerobrake and lower its apoapsis. It then re-entered at a somewhat shallow angle, minimizing maximum re entry temperature, slowly bleeding off its speed. and doglegged during re entry to aim its trajectory to Baikonur Cosmodrome. It landed with near zero remaining fuel and rcs.

As usual, launching from baikonur with a bad inclination, a lunar inclination fix assist, then an earth assist, Direct 10km/s Venus re-entry, agonizingly slow descent, and landing.

One of my hardest missions yet, A tour of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and a Neptune solar system escape. All in one launch, one probe. I used an older heavy lift rocket, which is far weaker than the super heavy lift I used on both my first Jupiter probe, and my Saturn probe.

Although my rocket is remarkably weak because of its earth orbit priority, I managed to build a continuous chain of gas giant gravity assists, using each encounter to shape the next assist under limited visibility and partial alignment.

Using all my momentum from all the other gas giants and the assists they gave me, I pushed the spacecraft one last time in Neptune to fully escape the solar system.

Upvotes will be appreciated

i will give out the data for other people planning to land on venus, because I got surprised too.

You do not need a parachute. A simple metal umbrella can do.
No need for beefy landing legs, a simple wide platform can do.
My Venus in rss has a part of the atmosphere that the air is so thick it’s a lot like liquid, but it’s gas. I landed at -4899meters, at a rate of 5m/s.
Pressure and heat is the problem, the wide platform can help your external instruments from exploding in descent.
Max temperature is at 460*C +

Take note of where you are landing, Venus rotates very slowly.

I originally made it with beefy legs to survive landing at 30m/s with no parachute, Venus said otherwise and all that over-engineering went to waste.

Don’t be scared to land directly, the atmosphere is so thick it’s going to slow down your descent module, I re-entered Venus at 10km/s and survived.

And please do not send humans.

Thats all, use the information for your future missions!

A perfect korolev cross. Anyway, I do not usually do showcases as rockets for me are mainly workhorses for something greater. Nevertheless this is the R-7B, My medium tonnage launcher with a max of 15 tons, relatively cheap at just 25 million. It’s very flexible in different earth orbits, Could even do Specialized earth and moon orbits like Polar, Geo-Stationary, LEO to HEO, Molniya, all from Baikonur, Plesetsk, and Vostochny Cosmodrome, with the use of an additional upper stage, which is why it is my favorite workhorse. However, I not use it on crewed missions.

On this mission it just send a more advanced GEO Satellite with some military use, to replace the older GEO satellite that ran out of propellant adjusting it’s orbit for over 15 years.

Right now its continually falling, the moment I touch saturn’s surface it became pitch black with a crown’ish lighting below. It survived re entry by using physics.

I do not know or why under the surface its like that, but I will continue staying with the probe to see what happens and how lighting changes over time

The shuttle launched from baikonur, as usual. A 48-50* Inclination is not very kind to interplanetary missions, so I used a moon gravity assist to fix my inclination and take advantage of the oberth effect. The shuttle was stretched of its expected LEO performance, with an apoapsis of 30Mm, assisting the Upper stage + probe in the moon burn, after inclination was fixed the upper stage did a direct Hohmann transfer to mars, and barely went into orbit before the Relay+Mapping Satellite fixed its orbit to 500km circular.

During the trip to mars shuttle stayed in orbit testing how long it’s life support could last unmanned, due to having about 15% fuel and the high eccentricity orbit of the shuttle, it could not land directly at baikonur, so it did aerobraking multiple times to minimize apoapsis to a meaningful altitude, before eventually going back to earth, using its lift to turn to baikonur while re-entry, It landed safely and was recovered

In total, it was 11 gravity “assists” not to increase speed, but to shape my orbit and inclination. I launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome with a 50ish degree inclination, using the gravity assists, I obtained a phasing rendezvous with the moon with 0 inclination, and when I entered the Moon’s SOI, My m/s difference is so low I just needed to nudge retrograde from periapsis to finalize the orbit