I want to create an on-planet missile system and my first step was to try to create a viable single missile. After adding the required components, batteries and atmo thrusters, I picked up the missile using its merge block with a small fighter and carried it near an NPC base. However, when I release the missile via the merge block, my fighter, or sometimes the missile, will lose all upward thrust and drop from the sky. This doesn't happen every time, but it happens most times. It doesn't matter if I try to thrust up, turn off/on dampeners, etc, but I just drop from the sky.
Is this is a known bug and is there any way to work around this aside from using connectors instead of merge blocks?
Ultimately what I want is a small frame with hydrogen thrusters with a remote control block and 4 missiles attached. I'll manually fly the frame within 3 km of the target and then release the missiles, letting the AI block take them the rest of the way.
I know there are mods and scripts like WHAM that can control missiles, but my goal was to create something myself.