Happy holidays Everybody

"Spy shot" :)
I'll be back after Christmas

Centaur on Krispy kreme doughnuts

I had planed to make the LEO elements first, But in order to make the launch site, I needed to have a rough idea of how tall the lunar Kondor version would be. LockMart's proposals for a wide body centaur will serve as the upper stage for the Kondor. It should work out real nice, Since I can just stretch and shrink the centaur to the size needed for the mission. CECE engine(s) will be used instead of RL-10's, for commonality with the landers.
Centaur 6X + Centaur 1.5X
Kondor-1 + Centaur 1.5X
Kondor-3 and Kondor-7 have the boosters angled correctly now
The Lunar kondor-7

Configs are done for the LEO versions of the Kondor
~payload
Kondor-1=33,000kg
kondor-3=104,0000kg
kondor-7=220,000kg
-180x180km orbit, ISS inclination,
-5000kg, 18.5x7m fairing(atlas 5 fairing 23x5.4m =4019kg)

Kondor-7 isn't doing as well as I had hoped, But it still delivers better performance than I need(60-75t TLI mass)

Up, up and away

I did a bit of crude performance testing tonight of the Kondor. Performance is roughly in the same ballpark as what's described on Astronautix.com, But really won't know for sure until I get the configs done.

Size comparison of Kondor-1(RLA-120) with atlas 5
Kondor-3(RLA-135)
Kondor-7(RLA-150)

Flight of the Kondor

Venera-D has been updated . I added an aerobrake to the lander, and updated its config. Landing speed is now below 10m/s. I figured out how to make better looking parachutes today, Made a new one for Venera-D :)

I've decided to call the RLA series rockets the "Kondor" launch vehicle

I did some more texturing and had the first flight of the Kondor today, using Mark Wades specifications(archive of the old astronautix). It was right the money, had no problems hauling 30t to LEO

Venera-D is finaly done

Venera-D is done and released at Orbithanger, Turns out the problems I had with it was a bug with spacecraft3 or Orbiter, not my launch dates. If its not too much trouble I might update the add-on with a new lander that has an aerobrake,

Last summer I flirted with the Idea of starting SimRoskosmos, a counterpart to SimNASA. Since then I have given up on the idea. But I still plan to make some of the add-ons I thought I would need to pull it off. My idea was to use existing technology, and be as modular as possible. Start with LEO ops, but design everything with growth potential in mind, for lunar and beyond missions.

The key to pulling off something like this is having the right Launch vehicle. Originally I had planed to use Angara, but quickly realized it was to small. After searching Encyclopedia Astronautica, I decided on the RLA series, as the Launch vehicle of choice for this en devour

RLA-120- 30,000kg to LEO
RLA-135- 100,000kg to LEO
RLA-150- 250,000kg to LEO

I started making textures for them today
I overhauled my Fregat mesh and added new textures, for Mustards Soyuz(or anyone who needs a Fregat

Real men don't need instruction's

Just need to make an instruction manual now for Venera-d, Then its finally finished :). I flight tested, tweaked and made scenarios for Venera-D today, which took at lot longer than I had expected. Admittedly it is a difficult flight to complete, unless you cheat and use unlimited fuel, On the flight towards Venus, you really have to be careful on how much fuel you use, the fregat burn has to be almost perfect, if you use more than 10% of Venera-d's fuel for course corrections you won't be able to get into Venus orbit. and then there is the difficulty of trying to land and insert the orbiter into orbit. If you use the scenarios I made, they set you up for a polar landing close to the north pole, right on the edge of sunrise, and polar orbit for the orbiter.

edit:
I have a feeling I have screwed something up, venus express is in a 24hour orbit, the best I can get the Venera-D orbiter in is a 500km x 375millionkm orbit, they both have similar fuel ratio's and ISP, so I figure my launches are screwed up, because the Venus encounter is happening way to fast. I'm going to try running the mission with the Venus express mission event dates, and see if that solves things