Spaceplane Reentry - how to hit KSC and not overheat

[AeroGav]

A quick demo of how to hit KSC every time in a spaceplane.  

When you hold the angle of the nose about 7 degrees above prograde, you get the best gliding angle and your impact point will steadily move downrange  of the initially plotted ballistic arc.      The further you point your nose away from "best glide", the less this effect till, at large angles, it actually causes the impact point to move closer.    Whilst you can pitch down, left or right to acheive this effect, i recommend UP because it takes you away from the thicker atmosphere and gives you a respite from re-entry heat.

As you can see, this mk1 doesn't have much problem with re-entry heat.  Possible reasons for this

1. Inline cockpit is quite far back.   The fly by wire unit has a pointy antenna thing on the nose, that moves the bow wave well forward of the cockpit.

2. large wing area means it stays high until it has lost a lot of speed.

3. engine pre-cooler makes a good radiator. As do the jet nozzles on the rapier. these parts surround the cockpit.