Kerbolitto

You'd get a far better lift / drag ratio by cleaning the design and eleminating parasite drag The butt with no cone and solar pannels creates a very high amount of drag.

If I may, it is possible to recreate the shuttle that you based your craft on without canards, by placing wings under the cargo bay to provide some kind of body lift. This could help you increase l/d ratio and lift balance . You can also form an U shape around the hull, which gives better yaw stability !

Im having troubles to fly my current mission, the graphic settings keep resetting, and the game lags a lot more than before the update.. You guys saw that kind of problems too ?

Depends on where you're coming from ? I've reached Tylo from Bop which took around 200m/s to take off / circularize, 62m/s to get an encounter, and maybe 750 to lower orbit on Tylo. Also the shuttle was not well balanced when empty on 4 Vectors, they gimballed too quickly and that induced some lateral speed on the last seconds before touchdown. Probably 2450-2500m/s in a symetric craft would be enough !

Tight as no fuel left and 5-10 m/s vertical, bounced on the ailerons and broke them (Mk3 cargo ramp absorbed the rest). I've landed with something like 2350m/s & 1.75TWR from something like 30-35km high (screenshots in the report are a bit confusing because I used Nervas to lower Ap before retroburning, so dV reading is a little off).

Thanks Jacob ! The landing on Tylo was very tight and I had to reload quite a lot, had only 1 or 2 seconds of margin .. But at the same time I came down from Bop with an average intersection, and I still had the possibility to undock the outpost and the plane in orbit somewhere (it weights 7 tons if I remember). All in all it was a very fun mission to fly. I planned to do it on Wolfhounds with rocket fuel only, but everything would have to be a lot bigger.. This shuttle only modifications are a double Vectors set and a short Mk3 LF fuselage

Thank you ! The original four in the shuttle and one of each spec in the outpost, and yes Bob stayed behind to enjoy the view ! : D

Hey ! No worries It's another STS mission, but this time I landed on all 5 with only one shuttle ! Here are the links : First part : Second : And finale ! There's a ton of pictures, apologies for slow internet connection (like mine :x)

Just drive around and take a picture from your rocket shuttle at a distance

That's almost correct ! It is not an SSTO as it will require strap-on boosters to take of from Kerbin, the torque unbalance is too great to run all engines during the whole ascent without staging. I'm also planning a service shuttle because the dV might be too short after circularizing. This should work, in theory ... Still have a lot of testing to do

I think he meant that the first aerocapture is very important, and after a few passes as the speed decreases, it all becomes pretty standard.

It's getting close .... !

Well well well, it's good but I think some improvements could be needed..

Where you going ? :p Also what about the big secret mission ?

The way nodes are working prevents me to detach a cargo bay while keeping the payload attached to the main ship :x

What should we do next ? =) I was thinking of a multi stage shuttle to take off from Eve but the game won't let me, so sad.

He does his own choices !

Not at all, in fact it is getting quickly soupy once you fly below 40k, and hot too .. That's why I put (empty) heatshields behind the nose cones of the Shuttle, I had troubles to capture on my first Jool5 because the heat rises very quickly !

STS Laythe / Jool 5 : Part 3 ! Mission is finally over !

Mission is complete ! : D Here is part 3 :

STS Laythe / Jool 5 (part 3) : Laythe outpost and end of the mission ! Once they finished exploring a bit of landscape on Tylo and mourning the two crushed elevons, the crew decided to complete their mission by -softly- landing on Laythe. In the aft cargobay was installed a tiny outpost with some science parts glued on it, and a little airplane to visit a few islands. 3_ Laythe, a breathing experience ! "But it's all water !" "I think I saw a tree !" "Really ? Let's investigate !" 'You are right those pixels looks very suspicious ..!" "Yeah touchdown !" "Ready to unpack ?" "Slowly, slowly .." "Nice, let's deploy this and that !" "Everyone stand stiiiiill" "Okay now let's have a look at your tree .." "Strange, this thing has no leafs, still fine to wash the windshield tho !" "It tastes like water !" "Well we don't need that stuff anymore." "Nice ! Looks very efficient !" "Meh, close enough." "Stabo you mind testing this winged contraption ?" Do not push over Mach 2. "Fantastic !" 2_ Time to leave this planet ! "Well see you around, don't forget us this time !" "Yeah let's spray a bit of radioactive materials here too" "A bit more here, we never know, maybe some life will pop out of it !" "Jeb, full thrust if you please, I want to see some sick 6 minutes nuclear burns !" "Cool place, you think we'll come back ?" "Oh hey there, next time we don't break anything !" 3_ Kerbin, maybe "Oh hey ! I remember this one !" "Val you mind to stop doing that when we're maneuvring ?" "See ? It's safe from there !" "Do I smeel something burning ?" "This is the moment we do fly it ?" "Look those small white dots ! It's KSC !" "Oh yeah that was fantastic stuff !" "Can't wait to fly with you again, but hey, where is Bob ?" "WOOOOOOoooooooooooooosssSSSSHHHHhhhhhh this place is the best !" END I'm quite happy with how this mission developped ! The ship was easy to fly, I've add lots of things to this design to facilitate its use, only forgot to put some landing gear for Tylo. Hope you guys enjoyed the readings, it was great fun reporting those screenshots ! If you have any questions don't hesitate

Glad you like it ! It's getting easier everytime I try :p I did not think I could have done it with a shuttle lighter than 200t. (which is the limit of payload on my orbiter), but hey nukes are OP !

Thank you ! It's not working for me either ! I've landed back at Kerbin, will post part 3 soon, I'm searching for a new thing to do with rockets this time :p

Hey there ! I'm posting my second attempt at this great challenge ! This time I'm only flying one single space shuttle, under 200t. with 2 Vectors and 2 Nukes ! Like my first attempt it is also linked to the SpaceShuttle Challenge which requires the deployement of a small outpost and an aircraft on Laythe. First part : Launch, Capturing around Jool, Bop and Vall landings ! Second part : Bop and ... Tylo ! Last part will be posted in a few (Laythe deployement + Kerbin return) As usual I took way too many screenshots, I hope you will enjoy this new ShOrPa Shuttle !

STS Jool 5 Successfull landing on Bop (who cares) and Tylo (really ?) ! This was a bit intense . Landing on Tylo with the very last droplets of fuel, but I still had the possibility to perform a better approach / capture, undock the Laythe outpost & plane in orbit (around Bop) and just pick it later !