KerbalX

Context

Launched on November 20th 2020, Return to Sender was the 16th flight of Rocketlab’s Electron launch vehicle, delivering 30 satellites to a 500km sun-synchronous orbit for a range of customers including Valve who mounted a mass simulator of Gnome Chompski - a gnome from the video game Half Life 2 - to the kick stage in order to raise money for charity. This was also the first mission that Rocketlab attempted and succeeded to recover their first stage by splashing it down into the Pacific ocean, making it the second ever recovery of an unmanned orbital class rocket after SpaceX in 2015.

Details

• Type: VAB
• Class: probe
• Part Count: 1000
• Pure Stock
• KSP: 1.10.1

Flags required! Download here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Kjz6pZRAxHAnymcZ6yWdhBSC9bCnzJ_u/view?usp=sharing

Flight Profile

1) Enable ignore max temperature for the best launch experience (not required but more fireworks will be shows during launch this way)
2) SAS on, AG1 to retract the strongback
3) Stage to activate engines, throttle up
4) Stage to decouple from the launchpad
5) Stay pointed straight up until 8km, at which point you should gradually tip over. Fight the trademark 1.10 phantom lift bug by gimballing towards prograde when drifting away
6) Once at 30 degrees pitch, hold steady
7) After burnout of the first stage, stage to release the second stage and ignite the engine.
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NOTE: Without FMRS you cannot fly both components, you must choose one!
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If you choose to stick with the second stage:

a) Stage off the fairing once at 60km
b) Make orbit
c) Stage to release the kick stage and activate RCS
d) Place kickstage into required orbit (500m/s available)
e) Stage to release the satellites
f) Point retrograde and de-orbit the kick stage
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If you choose to stick with the first stage:

a) Enable RCS and point retrograde
b) Coast back down while holding retrograde
c) Stage to activate the parachutes
d) Once the main parachute is deployed, press AG2 to dumb excess fuel and cut the drouge chute. This is important for landing
e) Land your booster! If you splash down then the stage might flip over and hit the water hard, breaking a few things, but it should remain mostly in one piece

Action Groups

1 = Retract launch tower arm (strongback)
2 = First stage landing prep (enable after main chute deploy)