KSP: The Abandoned ARIANE V Spaceplane Was Actually Pretty Genius 

4:39 : "Just keep trying have some whis-Apple juice to keep you motivated and you'll get there in the end with the power of friendship" Matt you are a legend

Maybe Matt could build this in real life for ESA? Those KSP hours gotta pay off sometime!

most objects out of render do not model atmosphere along their orbit, so space debris will often float around forever, even though they pass the atmosphere. The solution is, go into the tracking center, select the debris, fly it, and as you render it in, on the next pass through the atmosphere, it will actually model the physics, burn up, deorbit and/or explode.

I do miss your SSTO videos, the interplanetary ones, I feel like it's been a while since you did one of those.

imagine being the kerbal crew members walking past matts office and hearing through the door "this rocket will be near impossible to control"

I cried when he said the space dolphins weren't real. Heartbroken, matt. HEARTBROKEN.

it really does look like the dream chaser space craft. Matt you make the best videos of ksp. Keep up the good work!😁

please do another video of blunder-birds or a video where you add the "Nauka" module to one of you're space stations!

4:40 That slip of tongue got me cracking.

Would be nice if Europe had its own manned spaceflight. It's unfortunate they didn't built the space plane

If you ever visit Belgium there is a 1:1 concept model of the Hermes displayed in the Euro space center in the south. You can even see it from the highway as you drive by

I’m french and I’m so happy when someone recreate a french space project in KSP so thank you so much Matt

I agree about spaceplanes! I hope the Dream Chaser flies as planed and convinces others that it's a viable concept.

I forgot is not 5:00 Am in the UK so I’m like “why did he post this now?” 😭😭😭

When you're so early the video still has 0 dislikes. I hope it stays that way

It would've been really awesome for sure. In fact, Hermes was the closest thing to the original Space Shuttle Orbiter.

love your content (i will share with all my friends)

Hello there Discord squad ✌😄

Yay! A new Matt Video.

Petition to donate enough money so he can fly on the virgin galactic ship

Still can't get over that Matt never used the angled nose cones on the SRBs. Just GOD it's like such a design feature on the Ariane 5.

Love the videos Matt! Best Kerbal channel on RU-vid! 😁👍

I must say I blanked out aswel when you were talking about subscriptions LOL😂👍

LOL @ the "Rich and Jeff" bit! :D But yeah, I'd fly Virgin Galactic too. Anyway, it's good to be reminded of the Hermes, that was a nice looking plane. The video turned out to be a very good one too! I enjoyed that.

About Dream Chaser / small space planes not being optimal, it's actually the best way to ferry people to LEO and back again. It allows for easier G loads, it is way easier to reuse. It's way simpler than having a propulsive landing and safer too, take a look at SpaceX's Dragon capsule moving away from propulsive landings. Starship obviously has it because it's supposed to land on Mars. It's even lighter than say a Orion capsule or a Crew Dragon.

Ooo a new vid. I can't watch it right now but have to stop by to like and comment!! 😍

French(Cnes): Hermess is my space shuttle Eu(esa): OUR

Matt Lowne the SSTO God! Thanks for the idea of a small scale space plane 😍

Actually, the shuttle did a similar dive at the end of it's flight. It could correct distance coarsely by zigzagging, but fine positioning was done with a dive.

It’s called Hermies. But all I can think throughout this video is the Martian space ship. Matt you should do a recreation of the Martian Hermies Comand ship

Just saw you in the "Kerbal effect" video from the ksp channel, loving the beard dude!! 😎 Ps; it's nice to hear my favourite ksp youtuber give a shout out to us console players! t's hard at first but you get used to having to dislocate your thumb every 10 seconds to not crash!

Awesome!

Guess the closest thing to this becoming reality is gonna be dream chaser

Yay part 2! Thx matt!

I understand the debris problem. Found that out early on. That's why I have the debris limit amount in the settings at 0. My ingame excuse is that they are laced with a special stable form of solid explodium and once they are no longer needed, the explodium is detonated and vaporizes the stages and debris.

I would definitely watch a stream of Matt 'flying' all the debris back into the atmosphere to save the space dolphins

Did pretty good making it look like the Hermes.

Matt:space dolphins arent real me *having an existential crisis: NOOOOOOOOOOOOO WHY WOULD U DO THAT!!!!!??????

"European lack of experience with space technology" as part of the demise of the concept is actually an pretty interesting bit of history. "Technically" what they learned killed some other interesting concepts and also paid forward to programs like the the X-38, HL20/40 and eventually the Dream Chaser vehicles. Hermes turned out to be vastly to 'dense' for the lift it's airfoils and body could provide which was leading to a very high (capsule like instead of lifting body type) heating environment which would have required a very difficult and expensive new TPS development program hence part of the rising costs issue. The aerodynamic issues you had were also a big part of the "problems' with Hermes though this was know before hand and they'd really hoped that non-aerodynamic-surface (aka big fins :) ) could be avoided but that didn't pan out either. Yes Spaceplanes ARE much cooler than capsules but as you note the latter are actually vastly more practical, especially when going beyond LEO. Now not being a Patreon (subscribed and watch but that's about it) I still have a 'challenge' for you to ignore :) Want to try and build a "Lenticular Reentry Vehicle" in KSP? :)

We love u matt

I would love to see Matt use mods that would be a amazing series

12:06 *gasp* how could you do this!!!

It's about family, and that is what so great about it!

There's something beautiful about the Space Shuttle, my one regret about my trip to America is that I didn't see it on the Intrepid. (And yes, I know Enterprise never went to space but y'know it's the Enterprise, if nothing else, the name makes it a spacecraft)

Hermes!

The interesting thing regarding Hermes is that it has many different iteration and plans. While the most well known version is the one Matt made here ( 3 pilots + 1x pressurized payload area + expansion with engines and rear docking port), I found there are pre-1986 design that carry 6 Astronauts and has and a small open-able cargo bay (similar to KSP's MK2 cargo bay) and engines right with the fuselage (the adaptor will be just an adaptor with no engines/fuel)

Nose mounted spaceplanes are tough. Helps a lot if you add giant fins (AKA Wings) to the booster stage. The OG Dynosoar program involved big wings on the booster.

8:19 I heard “Leave a comment below and I’ll see if I’m a Lowne in this” 😂 But yes! SpaceX is the future, all hail the soon to be lord of Mars!

Matt your a cool person for liking space planes

I love how he said 1 and 1/2 out of 3 instead of 1/2 I love this mans dedication to the unnecessary

Hey Matt, I know what you mean about the space debris in sub-orbital trajectories that don't disappear from the tracking station. I don't know if it's a bug, or a feature (to prevent loss of a spaceship), but for some reason, if an object has an orbit that just slightly dips into a planet's (or moon's) atmosphere, it won't actually burn up or decay. As you gave said, KSP doesn't simulate orbital decay, so it just has a very simple rule that as long as the Apoapsis of a ship or piece of debris is above 70km, then the Periapsis has to go below a certain height before it automatically destroys it. I'm not certain of exactly what height it is, but I think it's somewhere around 50km-ish. But like I said, that's just a wild guess, I haven't played KSP pretty much since a couple of weeks after the ESA update came out, and even back then, I don't think that I actually knew the height.

I decided to make a replica because i was so interested. I ended up doing 3 of the mk2 fuselages in a circle to get the right size and shape (a whole one made up the bottom, the tip of two made the top, the nose was just clipping lots of parts, the cockpit was the mk2 cockpit.

Hey Matt, I see you still struggling with docking, just wanted to drop down that you can use the target marker on the attitude indicator as a kind of docking port alignment. It is like following the trick of setting each craft to follow their targets but only from one craft, you use the yellow bird to tell you in which direction your moving with respect to the target mark, and you just try to align the bird with the target. I think you know this I just haven't seen you talk about it.

With the ending of development for KSP maybe do a series with some cool mods coming up? might offer a bit more variety, and with the ending of development, more and more players will have the experience with mods. I have a bunch of like internal interactive cockpits and stuff and it feels like playing kerbal flight simulator sometimes lmao

That cockpit was genius

Nice video 👍

Nice vid

Please please please make a video about the mods you use!!! Those visuals are stunning, and I want a piece of it :D

my morning poops are always comforted by your kerbal endeavors. may god bless your soul Mathew

Nice!!

About the core stage that's in orbit, the game doesn't calculate drag when the ship leaves the physics range, so it doesn't calculate drag, you can deorbit just by changing into the vessel and waiting

“Have some whis… apple juice to keep you motivated” 😂😂😂

I HAVE A CHALLENGE FOR YOU: How far and how much landing could a fully fueled starship go? Arguments: - Superheavy and starship must be stock and fully fueled - The upper stage(Starship) must be refueled in orbit with a tanker starship - Don't need to land the superheavy but MUST land the Starship to complete the challenge - Must land on at least 1 planet/moon except for Kerbin and must be interplanetary Bonus Arguments (nearly impossible): - NO quicksave or quick load - Land on every planets and moons in the Kerbol system (Allow multiple tanker starships) - Rendezvous with multiple tanker starship to refuel every time fly by Kerbin

I like the virgin galactic one as well Matt spaceplanes need more development

For the debris thing, the vessels do not decay if not in physics range, so even if they are suborbital they can stay like that forever. You have to "fly" them and they will decay

Hi

"Have some whisk-Have some apple juice" LOL

You’re amazing

YES, FINALLY, HERMÈS

Would you do the MUSTARD shuttle concept? That thing was crazy, but I wonder if you could do it.

“Jeff [Bezos], I bought some stuff at your shop before …” made my day :D

Bucket List for Matt: Play Kerbal Space Program in Space

If you switch to the debris in the tracking station(assuming it’s already on a suborbital trajectory) and sly it and just time warp to when it enter the atmosphere it will get destroyed and if u can’t be bothered to do that just hit the terminate button in the tracking station

The structure of the plane was built very well.

Matt, when sn20 launches you should do a live stream with a ksp starship.

Cool B)

Also make the adjustments later in the flight sometime helps as well

Next video ideas, maybe pls: Voyager 1 or 2 or the cassini-huygens

nice!

4:41 - havesome whis-have some Apple Juice to keep yourself motivated, and you'll get their using the power of -Drunk- Friendship - Matt Aug 14 2021

I made a spaceplane right after this like this video and it was ridiculously hard to control.

I love you matt

You are the best ksp gamer

A great pity this was never made. I agree with you, space planes are cool. One day, (not in my lifetime) we will make real bespoke rockets almost as easily as the program !

Theres this game called space sailors on roblox that is actually making the Ariane space plane, but with the Atlas V rocket,You should check it out!

There is a way to have a rocket with a space plane on top and having it fly inverted, and without wings, just use lots of reaction wheels and reaction stabilizers. I used them with an HL-20/Titan IV replica

a mod i use called the knes mod adds the hermes space shuttle and i never realized that it was to be launched on the ariane 5

I got the youtube notification for this video while I am 2:35 into the video

Hey matt! Go as far u can go in the KSP sol please and go back to kerben after :3

I tried making a very similar craft and could not fly it AT ALL. It’s great to see I’m not the only one

Interesting cockpit construction 🤔

If you get the opportunity, the Virgin Galactic flights are long enough, you could probably trace the flight of Space Ship III live while onboard to do the first KSP video IN SPACE!

I did the launch and docking as pilot of Hermes in the real simulator near Cannes at the Space Camp Patrick Baudry, it's quite a memory (in 1990 aged 14). Hermes was quite an elegant proposition, and would not have suffered the same kind of failure the STS did. (others maybe) NOTE : the Dream Chaser still keeps the backward compatibility and options for the Ariane 5 adapter; however a spaceplane under a fairing for me is ... something is just missing.

I have a LOT of stages with a perigee of 30k and an apogee of 75k. My craft always spend extra time in the atmosphere so that only about 70m/s is needed to circularize. I have those fairings for a reason...

The allure of SSTO space planes is probably because it's the ultimate SciFi space ship trope. Everything from Spaceman Spiff to the Serenity shows us a fully self-contained ship that can take off and land independently. What's not to love? Also, in my opinion "Jeff" and "Richard" should _stay_ in space. Life support optional.

"Had some wisk....." you can't drunk while flying a rocket "Apple juice!"

In the case when you land on eve Here is a gentle suggestion Send a I accent vehicle To Eve ahead of time And the lender would look more like a space plane This is why it would be a good idea when you land on eve land at the smoothest spot of Eve that you can find

A flight on the vomit bomber would be a good start then huh? 😂

Finally

I gonna use this spacecraft as a crew transportation system for my space station.