Orbiter

I stumbled on an incredible piece of freeware by Dr. Martin Schweiger, Ph.D. - Orbiter.

It's an amazing spaceflight simulator with very accurate physics and amazing expandability. I've just installed it (with optional but recommended 3d party sound pack) and so far have only run a couple of the demos, but the Atlantis Space Shuttle launch demo alone is worth the effort (the price is free! but install and activate the sound pack first). This has great obsession potential.

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Amazing that it's freeware, as it seems to be.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 level in quality, depth, accurate physics, and expandability. It's really a flight sim too as the fictional spacecraft have atmospheric flight capability and you can land them (powered) at KSC or even land the Shuttle (unpowered!). New 2005 version as of Jan/Feb with a lot of new goodies.

The craft is a few years old now but still cool (the look is still much the same - I downloaded a lot of the Apollo stuff but have not tried any yet, as I'm still trying to achieve the orbit I want and maneuver with thrusters).

The addon people for this thing are maniacs, and the Forum is the one of the most multinational I have ever seen -- 12 year old kids in India to retired USAF guys in Colorado to all sorts of people around Europe, some Australia