KerbalX

Description

A stock rocket called Trailblazer 0. Built with 49 of the finest parts, its root part is probeStackSmall.

My recreation of the Pioneer 0 lunar orbiter, the first attempt by anyone to launch a space probe to another celestial body, which was launched on 17 August 1958 but was destroyed in a launch failure 73.6 seconds after liftoff.

Pioneer 0’s Thor-Able launcher is recreated at least somewhat faithfully. The Trailblazer 0 first stage consists mainly of a single Reliant engine fed by two FL-TX1800 tanks (plus aerodynamic fins for flight control and adapters to neck down the stage at both ends), the latter of which (Kerbin being much much much easier to get into orbit around than Earth) I had to take down to about half-full in order to keep the launch vehicle from having way too much Δv; the second and third stages are the same as on the Globus-Capable, with a Cheetah-powered Capable second stage and a Mite kickmotor for the third stage. (No surprise there, given that the Thor-Able and Atlas-Able - the real-life counterparts of the Trailblazer 0’s and Globus-Capable’s launchers, respectively - both used the same Able upper-stage system.)

The probe itself is mostly composed of a Steadler RGU, a Mite orbital-insertion motor, a short structural tube, and a couple of structural adapters; there’re also a few antennae (two Communotron 16-Ss, plus a pair of Communotron 16s which can be extended once all of the motor burns are over and done with), and a decoupler which holds eight velocity-adjustment motors (severely-nerfed sepratrons, with both the thrust and the fuel supply dialled way down), just like on the real-life Pioneer 0.

It doesn’t actually have any scientific instruments yet, but you can easily add some.

Built in the VAB in KSP version 1.10.0.

Details

• Type: VAB
• Class: probe
• Part Count: 49
• Pure Stock
• KSP: 1.10.0