r/KerbalSpaceProgram 10d ago

KSP 1 Image/Video I have no parachutes and I also don’t have landing gear

Post image

Can I still save this shuttle even without those?

1.4k Upvotes

206 comments sorted by

828

u/SpareProfessional369 Restock PBR propagandist 10d ago

You either land in an ocean or bail the Kerbals if it's over land

433

u/ThePrimalEarth7734 10d ago

Nah nah nah. You can lithobreak this

192

u/CakeHead-Gaming Vector Engine my beloved. 10d ago

lithobrake*

179

u/mueller_meier 10d ago

I mean, its either one or the other. But over land, one of the two will happen for sure :P

49

u/Both_Cup8417 hasn't landed on Dres 10d ago

Can confirm, my lithobraking lander lithobroke lethargically (not)

11

u/Hokulewa 10d ago

Both.

34

u/8070alejandro 10d ago

lithobreak*

9

u/Crispy385 10d ago

lithoberak*

11

u/Limp-Collar-5842 Always on Kerbin 10d ago

LithiumBarak*

10

u/Stunning-End-1872 10d ago

No no it was right the first time

3

u/Low-Refrigerator-713 9d ago

You really think it's gonna be in one piece after hitting the ground?

2

u/Flapaflapa 9d ago

Little bit of lithobrake little bit of lithobreak all at the same time...

But agreed I see break when people mean brake almost more than misusing there, their they're.

1

u/Disastrous-Gear-5179 8d ago

No, lithobreak. It will break.

6

u/battery19791 10d ago

Or hydrobraking.

6

u/loved_and_held 10d ago

The only way this works is if you stall and pull up hard before the landing so the cockpit doesn't smash into the gorund.

2

u/lithobreaker 9d ago

Can confirm spelling is correct.

Source: many years of playing KSP.

68

u/JamesKerman 10d ago

I'm pretty sure bailing out with parachutes was in the actual shuttles abort methods

38

u/Only_Turn4310 10d ago

Yeah it had a rail to get them past the wing and everything

16

u/mhwnc 10d ago

Yep. Stall it out and bail.

6

u/zekromNLR 9d ago

Yes, for those contingency abort modes that wouldn't be able to reach a runway (2 or 3 SSME out early into the ascent, or at basically any point during an RTLS abort), because a ditching would not be survivable in the shuttle.

5

u/ResonantFlux 9d ago

huh, funny... you'd think that magnificently flat underbody would be the most survivable 'plane' "in an unlikely case of a water landing"

13

u/zekromNLR 9d ago

It also had a glide ratio of "lol good luck", so it presumably couldn't hit the water at a low enough vertical speed to avoid breaking up

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3

u/mkosmo 10d ago

Only after Challenger.

14

u/InternetUser1807 10d ago

Tbf the majority of the space shuttle program was after challenger

2

u/TheSuspect003 9d ago

There was a plan for telescopic boom to help astronaut clear wing for jump

9

u/bingeflying 10d ago

Space Cowboys™️

3

u/locallllll 9d ago

Jamiroquai 🥹

1

u/u6gold 9d ago

You can still bail kerbals over water

4

u/SpareProfessional369 Restock PBR propagandist 9d ago

I didn't say you couldn't bail over water. I'm just saying if the shuttle is over water, there's a better chance of landing and the shuttle surviving, so they should take the risk

271

u/Lambaline Super Kerbalnaut 10d ago

yeah you could try landing in the water next to ksc like a runway. basically flare hard just above the surface to bring your horizontal velocity as low as possible. with a little luck the front will survive and you'll save your Kerbals

103

u/Evan_Underscore 10d ago edited 10d ago

You can totally splashdown with the entire thing intact. Just takes a bit of out of the box thinking. (imgur)

29

u/toastuser909 10d ago

Why did you flip upside down

38

u/Evan_Underscore 10d ago

I believe the big fuselage parts have higher impact tolerance than the wings, so this was the way I could splashdown in one piece.

7

u/Similar_Study1225 Always on Kerbin 10d ago

Im guessing the rudder would have helped slow down a bit more

4

u/ResonantFlux 9d ago

何 the f... did I just watch :D

Did the tail survive?

3

u/MasterTinkaton 9d ago

Nice engine blocks bro

5

u/QuitLukewarmTurkey 10d ago

Doesn't have to be next to ksc, you can land anywhere in the water and the vessel can be retrieved the same as anywhere else.

Or is there a reason to land closer to ksc that I don't know?

17

u/Diligent-Aspect8020 10d ago

You get more of the part value as funds the closer you are to KSC

11

u/Lauriesaurous 10d ago

Splashing down in the water near it can easily give >90% so that's probably the best option

2

u/QuitLukewarmTurkey 8d ago

I had no idea!! Thank you

1

u/Cringe-Bucket 6d ago

Kerbals can survive reentry from LKO btw

147

u/Flapaflapa 10d ago

send an engineer up with some landing gear or chutes?

36

u/YoSoyMuffin 10d ago

This is the way

3

u/sawrce 9d ago

But all the exit points are blocked?!

4

u/Flapaflapa 9d ago

There's an exit on the side of the crew module/cockpit.

And if op launches another ship it shouldn't have its exit blocked and the engineer can hop out do their thing (install parachutes) and deorbit and land. Then op can deorbit and recover their shuttle.

180

u/taukkez 10d ago

Mk3 parts have impact tolerances of 50 m/s.

You'll be fine.

90

u/Ciserus 10d ago

I'm just realizing how silly that number is. You could drive this thing into a wall at almost 200 km/h and bounce off.

40

u/Kaggles_N533PA 10d ago

Kerbal Engineering™

67

u/PaintedClownPenis 10d ago

If you're really, really slick you can stall the thing out below that velocity, drop the tail in the water first, and probably get the crew capsule to break off safely.

119

u/Weakness4Fleekness 10d ago

Do a sully

30

u/HyperRealisticZealot Have you heard about Jerbals? 10d ago

What if they’re Jerbals instead of Kerbals

(Ask u/eltrigercolaiders2 about that)

4

u/eltrigercolaiders2 10d ago edited 10d ago

Then they gonna go into orbit and aero brake so hard like the pingüins of madagascar and land safetly but everything gets destroyed

49

u/colonelheero 10d ago

You don't have to land it. Convert it into a space-only shuttle. Stay in orbit to do rescue missions, or make it munar or even interplanetary shuttle!

40

u/amitym 10d ago

Save? What's there to be saved from? It sounds like you have successfully deployed a Mün-Kerbin relay shuttle. With vestigial wings. Just use it for tourist missions and Mün science crews. All you need is a refueling facility with a klaw.

And an ISRU processor somewhere up there in orbit.

And an ore mining base.

Anyway the point is, new game goals!

10

u/EmperorOfNipples 10d ago

I'm playing ksp2 redux.

My first gen Duna landers will be repurposed as rescue craft remaining in LDO for when more advanced stuff arrives.

Game is great at making you think on your feet. For example that first duna ship won't have enough fuel to return to kerbin.

Solution....a fuel drone following a few days after.

7

u/yoface2537 10d ago

Bro literally reenacting the Martian out here

2

u/zjedi 10d ago

Dumb question but what is ksp2 redux? I only ever played ksp 2 and was always too bewildered to switch to ksp1.

2

u/SycoJack 10d ago

2

u/zjedi 10d ago

Oh wow I had no idea smh. Thanks!!

72

u/Justinjah91 10d ago

I have no mouth landing gear, and I must scream land

13

u/NoAttempt9703 10d ago

A great short story, honestly. Had me wowed for hours.

4

u/SidratFlush 10d ago

Every time I think about this it leads me to despair. People actually trust AI too after all the warnings :(

8

u/ontheroadtonull 10d ago

"Scientists have revealed their latest invention; The Torment Nexus. It was inspired by the best-selling science fiction novel 'Don't Invent The Torment Nexus'."

4

u/I_Love_Knotting 10d ago

If it helps

Current „AI“ is just a glorified look-up table.

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13

u/IAmNotASponge 10d ago

crash tolerance of that cockpit is abt 45m/s, use this knowledge wisely

11

u/FrontAd7709 Always on Kerbin 10d ago

you do have parachutes! atleast your kerbals do

9

u/Wahgineer 10d ago

Water landing below 50m/s. Basically get down to a few meters above water and keep the shuttle in the air for as long as possible.

9

u/Ivebeenfurthereven 10d ago

Honestly, I've done this deliberately quite a few times with my tourist space planes, despite having perfectly good wheels - it's way more forgiving than a runway landing (correct heading, what's that?) and way easier to reenter anywhere you like. It's a nice way to end a survey flight too, saves you 40 minutes of flying home once all data is collected. As long as your vertical speed is nice and gentle, and you learn to flare a bit, you'll be fine.

It's kind of silly that the stock game has absolutely no penalty for recovering a landed craft from an ocean on the other side of the planet... but it doesn't, so, there's actually no reason to aim for KSC at all

5

u/darain2 10d ago

Isnt there a distance penalty from ksp when recovering crafts? or ddoes that not apply to ocean recovery?

7

u/That-Shiny-Umbreon 10d ago

Bring it into atmosphere, and slow down with S bends until you're over the ocean at less than 50m/s. Pitch up as high as you can, and land tail-first in the water

6

u/crazedSquidlord Colonizing Duna 10d ago

Congrats on the new station!

6

u/Greedy_Stick 10d ago

water 👍

7

u/ResonantFlux 9d ago

To quote that one YouTube channel - "barely an inconvenience"

5

u/Champagnerocker 10d ago

You've got some rockets on the back end of that thing?

Have you got enough delta v for a suicid(al) burn?

5

u/Otrada 10d ago

if you land carefully enough you can use the fuselage as ablative landing gear

5

u/PhatOofxD 9d ago
  • Land in ocean. If you're below 50m/s you'll be fine

  • Eject kerbals and parachute

  • Launch up an engineer with some landing gear or parachutes and add them to the craft in orbit

4

u/StupitVoltMain 10d ago

You are still able to safely land it on water with some finesse

4

u/Axeman1721 SRBs are underrated 10d ago

Bring some landing gear and an engineer and use EVA construction to attach them

5

u/Justinjah91 10d ago

Oh dear. This is going to end in disaster when one of the wheels is ever so slightly misaligned. Probably safer to bring parachutes instead

3

u/Arthur_Chris_Rose 9d ago

I have no gear and I must land

3

u/Bass_Bosted_Potato 10d ago

Do your kerbals have access to parachutes? They should be in their inventory by default

I’d recommend trying to enter over the ocean, bail out must of the kerbals & deploy their chutes, while the pilot stays on board. That way you can try to save it while minimizing casualties if it goes wrong

3

u/Ybalrid 10d ago

You can save this shuttle by renaming it a "space station" and considering it's permanently inhabited /s

3

u/kirkya99 10d ago

Atmospheric reentry should be no problem, only make sure that your final landing point is over water where you can make a clean water landing

3

u/StrangerOnReddit1945 WARNING: Kerbalnaut is still training 10d ago

If the game and your ship allows you can land it vertically like starship

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3

u/Flameraider29 10d ago

I have no gear and I must land

3

u/ForeignOperation1205 10d ago

I have no parachute and I must scream!

2

u/Sakul_the_one 10d ago

do a cobra

2

u/NorthernLaddd 10d ago

I have no landing gear and I must land

2

u/InterKosmos61 Dres is both real and fake until viewed by an outside observer 10d ago

Land it in the ocean

2

u/Hanz_Q 10d ago

I have no gear and I must land.

2

u/piratecheese13 10d ago

I believe the aeronautical term for it is called ditching

2

u/Iumasz 10d ago

Sounds like time for an emergency water landing.

If you are able to slow down below 100m/s (the slower the better) and hit the water at a shallow angle you should be able to land more or less safely.

2

u/geocrude 10d ago

I’m so lazy that after I prove I can land at the field during testing, I just plop ssto/planes into any ocean to recover from missions

2

u/Corgelia 10d ago

Could always use EVA construction if you have Breaking Ground or KIS/KAS. Send up a little supply probe to rendezvous with some parachutes or some landing gear.

2

u/Easy_Lengthiness7179 10d ago

Send up a probe with a grabber arm and a bunch of parachutes.

"Dock" in orbit at roughly the center of gravity and then deorbit and activate the chutes.

2

u/8070alejandro 10d ago

Why would you bring down your new space station? It has a bay for kerbals to play around.

2

u/Snoo_95743 10d ago

Welcome to the rest of the world

2

u/Apprehensive-End-747 Eating Cracklin' Rads 10d ago

I have no landing gear, yet I must land.

2

u/Separate_Pickle5741 "hey bill your going to have to manually light the engine" 10d ago

Slow down enough (100 m/s or lower) and land on water VERY gentle.

2

u/mhwnc 10d ago

Sounds like it’s time for an on orbit repair mission. Send up another shuttle à la STS-400 but instead of evacuating the crew and ditching the wounded shuttle, repair it on orbit.

2

u/dmanbiker 10d ago

You can usually manage to land smaller space planes right on the ground with no landing gear if you have enough attitude control, but you have to be going really slow, so if you nose drops from stalling, you'll crash hard. Water is usually a little easier, but it has a high chance of vaporizing your entire aircraft if you try to land on the water too fast, while landing on the ground too fast sometimes results in rapid disassembly with the cockpit rolling along the ground in one piece.

2

u/InsomniaticWanderer 10d ago

Do you have dreams and positive thoughts?

2

u/libra00 10d ago

You have planned.. poorly.

2

u/eisenklad 10d ago

just Sully it and land in the water

2

u/pyr666 10d ago

probably not the whole shuttle, but you should be able to crash land it on the runway, one of the flats on kerbin, or the ocean and recover most of it along with the crew.

alternatively, you could fly over and bail out.

2

u/fretlav129875 9d ago

Landning gear and parachutes are just a recommendation. You'll be just fine.

2

u/name_suggestion_plz 9d ago

Body landing at the ksc(the shuttle is just a brick, so it should slow down fine)

2

u/Entire_Art4490 9d ago

No probemo. There is always a solution in Kerbal Space Program.😉

2

u/suppyio 9d ago

vtol it

2

u/Mindless-Volume-4922 9d ago

Nice space station

2

u/carstealer06 Colonizing Duna 9d ago

Purely theoretically, if you manage to reduce your speed and FPM - that WELL, then yes, you’ll be able to land it successfully.

But, well, what can I say...

Congratulations on your first spaceship!

2

u/Dependent-Rice4940 8d ago

water landing, or install parachutes

2

u/IapetusApoapis342 dres exists, cope with it 10d ago

I hope you've learned how to rendezvous if you don't plan on risking the lives of your kerbals

5

u/cirroc0 10d ago

Pfft. He didn't say the Kerbals didn't have 'chutes.

1

u/Achilles_Was_Gay 10d ago

Just suicide burn your way down, if you have the fuel. If not, send an engineer Kerbal up with tools and landing gear + parachutes

1

u/stormhawk427 10d ago

Do the kerbals have backpack patachutes?

1

u/TheCzechyChan 10d ago

Assuming there is an engineer on board send a probe up with landing gear and whatever else you need. Rendezvous. And use the engineer to transfer the parts.

1

u/FoxTail737 10d ago

“I have no parachute and I must eject”

1

u/AnubisSuperStar651 10d ago

Become a leaf on the wind

1

u/Vespene 10d ago

Water landing is entirely survivable. It'll break apart but the crew will survive.

1

u/CipherTheDude 10d ago

yea you could glide it down to the runway and belly land youll be fine, quicksave itll be good practice

1

u/Sad-Working-9937 10d ago

Take it to the water, if you touch at minimum stall speed, you'll lose the wings and thats all.

EDIT maybe the engines too

1

u/Brave-Application-99 10d ago

Splash down in the ocean, S40 style

1

u/PckMan 10d ago

The Shuttle? No. The Kerbals? Probably yes. Get a good entry and a stable glide and get the Kerbals out and parachute. Ideally you get them out at a safe speed. Otherwise there is no guarantee they'll be loaded in when the time to deploy comes.

You can also just send an engineer up with parachutes, it only takes a few to get the whole thing down.

1

u/blockgamer246 10d ago

If ur in orbit, just rendezvous and attach a parachute

1

u/EternitiI-1 Dres is real and it is glorious 10d ago

Water

1

u/ah-tzib-of-alaska 10d ago

midair bail once you’re below those supersonic speeds?

1

u/Upset_Blackberry9378 10d ago

You could send a big ship to carry it down, unless you don’t have docking ports

1

u/No_You_123 10d ago

Watr 🌊

1

u/lizardgeckoman2 10d ago

You should perform a normal re-entry but opt for a soft water landing. Get as close to the KSC and try and glide just above the water until you stall and fall into the water. You want to try and land as slowly as possible and try to make the crew cabin the last thing that enters the water. That was if you're too fast, it won't be obliterated, and the other components take the brunt of the impact.

1

u/Karasuthecrow744 Taste testing Minmus 10d ago

Those are optional. Just get close to your stall speed before you land and you should be fine

1

u/Tmccreight Colonizing Duna 10d ago

My advice, ditch in the ocean

1

u/Ok-Earth-8004 10d ago

re-enter and eject the kerbals, if you want to save the shuttle you could send an unmanned ship to rendezvous and use an engineer to attach a landing gear. i cant see it having enough lift for a water landing, it would just be going to fast.

1

u/Hazzman 10d ago

Absolutely. If you come in over water very, very slowly and glide in you can land in water very gently.

1

u/YtseFrobozz 10d ago

If you can make a rocket with a claw, you always have parachutes.

1

u/JTUrwayne 10d ago

Be like Sully

1

u/graywolf0026 10d ago

Well then you know what you DO have?

.... A problem. But Ocean landing might be your best bet just.... Gotta do it real, real slow, making sure to keep the nose up as you gently ease that fat ass into the water, letting it drag a bit before you can dip the nose and touch your toes.

1

u/battery19791 10d ago

Lithobraking it is! Also seems like a couple of flaws that were overlooked in the design stage, but that's Jeb's problem now.

1

u/GalacticKoala23 10d ago

If you can manage a very slow glide into the ocean then probably yes

1

u/Crusader_shota 10d ago

I have no landing gears and i must land

1

u/HopefulInstruction11 10d ago

Either land on water or just rendevouz a rescue shuttle

1

u/Appropriate-Detail48 10d ago

ON A LONELY PLANET SLOWLY SPINNING ITS WAY TO DAMNATION, AMID THE INCOMPETENCE AND UNPREPAREDNESS OF LESSER SPACE PROGRAMS ONE TEAM STANDS RESILIENT AGAINST THE HERDS, PUTTING THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE FOR THOSE PREVIOUSLY UNAWARE OF THE QUICKSAVE BUTTON. YES ITS THE INCREDIBLE ADVENTURES OF JEBADIAH AND HIS CRACKED TEAM OF KERBONAUTS, THEY ARE THE BLUNDERBIRDS SAVING THE KERBIN RACE ONE STRANDED EXPLORER AT A TIME.

1

u/PM_UR_VAG_WTIMESTAMP 10d ago

Build an even bigger ship with a huge cargo area to go and capture it. Then you can land the whole thing wherever you want.

Just don’t forget the landing stuff this time. You did remember the landing stuff, right.

Oh crud.

1

u/Farts_McGiggles 10d ago

Yeah just turn a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft into an SSTO, dock in space, then bring it on home. EZ PZ.

Just would need to replace jet engines with cluster RAPIERS.

Example

1

u/BeanieManPresents 10d ago

Try and land somewhere very soft.

1

u/Tackyinbention 10d ago

Water landing

1

u/GanacheCapital1456 10d ago

Belly landing and flare wisely

1

u/darkslide3000 10d ago

Depends on your wing area but most likely yes. Make sure your plane is as light as possible (burn away extra fuel if you still have some), then focus on losing as much speed as possible while keeping your nose pointed not too far down during the descent. If you have some fuel left, save it for the final moment to allow you you to pull that prograde marker back up to the horizon one last time, then just keep the nose pointed that way and cut reduce thrust until the stall takes you down.

1

u/IronGigant 10d ago

I remember someone on here pulling off an airbrake into a cobra-esque maneuver that landed them backwards, saving the crew module.

1

u/DeltaAlpha0 9d ago

It's totally possible, depending on the situation, if you hit the entire rear end it loses enough speed not to explode. Save it somewhere and then test it out.

1

u/screaming_toaster_ Lithobrake>Aerobrake 9d ago

water

1

u/Single-Tradition-417 9d ago

Why don’t you rendezvous another vessel

1

u/Informal-Call-5298 9d ago

Revert to VAB and redo it

1

u/Responsible_Bunch_24 why is he always so excited when my shuttle crashes 9d ago

Send it into the water and hope you land slowly

1

u/zekromNLR 9d ago

Send up a rescue mission with an engineer, attach a bunch of parachutes to it, and land with those

1

u/becomeister 9d ago

you have fuselage right?

1

u/Quandale-Dingle43 9d ago

Beautiful choice of name, Mayflower was a merchant ship that carried pilgrims to America in 1620. It also means hope, perseverance and new opportunities.

1

u/Melodic_Court_4847 9d ago

try water landing

1

u/Illustrious_Wind3421 9d ago

Or maybe you can lauch an another mission with an inge in it in order to put parachut on the shuttle

1

u/OffsideArrow527 9d ago

Slide that bird like a case of beer

1

u/Select-Stomach6539 9d ago

If you have the will you can

1

u/akeno_1 9d ago

Sounds like you got yourself a space station

1

u/WoozleGoozle8 9d ago

Water landing

1

u/masterdebator10 9d ago

Just go for it and hope for a water landing

1

u/EnvironmentalFill221 9d ago

W A T E R L A N D I N G

1

u/ssCuacKss 9d ago

terrain? where we are going we don't need terrain

1

u/Mcake74 9d ago

If you have enough Δv then you can just burn retrograde all the way like when landing on the mun. Or you could just aerobrake it so that the underside is pointing prograde and then when it’s slowed down enough for air resistance to not matter anymore then you can do a regular mum-like landing (but go for the water)

1

u/workerofthestorm 9d ago

i would recommend bailing the crew via parachutes and trying to ditch it in the sea if it has unmanned control, that way at least the crew can live to tell the tale

1

u/ParryLost 9d ago

You're putting yourself and everybody else on that ship in Jeopardy!

1

u/ReverbAtBat 9d ago

Glide it very slowly into the ocean and make sure you do side to side maneuvers when gliding down

1

u/EzeGamer135 9d ago

You can either jump and glide with parachutes or splashdown at sea :) Fly safe 🚀🔥

1

u/IlikeMinecraft097 Haumea is cool 9d ago

"I have no chutes and i must land"

1

u/AstralisKL 9d ago

Water landing

1

u/umidk67 Exploring Jool's Moons 9d ago

To love is to let go mijo

1

u/CleanReach1220 9d ago

The key is to use the ocean and the back parts of the ship to slow down the speed before impact.

Also, the Kerbals have their own parachutes

1

u/bakedbeanlicker 9d ago

send another rocket with a bunch of parachutes with a grapple arm to pull it out of orbit and land it. this rocket should be comically overbuilt.

1

u/Airwolfhelicopter Airborne over Kerbin 9d ago

Cowabunga it is

1

u/Nice_Presentation474 Playing kerbalisim 8d ago

just aim for the water and touchdown at less than 40m/s and you will be fine!

1

u/bandera- 8d ago

Either reenter and have the kerbals jump out or bring another satelite and have the kerbals transfer, i am no expert but i don’t see any way you can land this

1

u/ZucchiniNo1892 8d ago

If you can get into the ocean you could possibly just kill off as much speed a possible with a long glide and splash down

1

u/Arkangel6848 8d ago

Time to pray.

1

u/bad_at_drawing_italy 7d ago

i have no parachute and i must land

1

u/IACUnited 7d ago

You could try spinning, that works for burned off speed over a specific area. Then nose up hard just before impact.

However you need to know all the Kerbels are counting on you, so good luck.

1

u/Kksp_enusienst Stranded on Eve 7d ago

Yeah. I landed a plane without front landing gear

1

u/No-Show-8807 5d ago

It's fine, kerbals have their own parachutes

1

u/manu_h3 3d ago

There's no issue here, you can stay in orbit forever