What's your favorite spacecraft/launch vehicle?

[Sanic]

Don't stuff me in the old Mk.1 Inline Cockpit if this has already been made.
The title explains everything, just know your spacecraft doesn't have to exist IRL.

I personally like the Saturn 1 the most, because it was the world's first heavy lift rocket (and is also super underrated).
Picture!

Edited December 2, 2015 by Sanic

[adsii1970]

Are we talking real or sci-fi? If we are talking real, even though it was highly inefficient and never delivered on the promise, I still believe the most graceful has to be the space shuttle... Something about the sheer brute force at launch and the graceful landings... If we are talking sci-fi, I am torn between the Enterprise (refit) from the Motion Picture/The Wrath of Khan and the Eagle off of Space 1999. If we are talking about sci-fi one-man craft, the winner would have to be a Colonial Viper...

[Bill Phil]

Saturn I wasn't a space craft. It was a launcher. 

Personally I like Gemini.

[Sanic]

A spacecraft is any craft that goes to space, right?
Or something?

13 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

Are we talking real or sci-fi? If we are talking real, even though it was highly inefficient and never delivered on the promise, I still believe the most graceful has to be the space shuttle... Something about the sheer brute force at launch and the graceful landings... If we are talking sci-fi, I am torn between the Enterprise (refit) from the Motion Picture/The Wrath of Khan and the Eagle off of Space 1999. If we are talking about sci-fi one-man craft, the winner would have to be a Colonial Viper...

Any spacecraft. I just don't indulge in any sci-fi.

[Bill Phil]

Only the upper stage technically went to space, AFAIK.

[fredinno]

My favourite is the Soyuz. BOTH Soyuzes.

[Sanic]

1 hour ago, fredinno said:

My favourite is the Soyuz. BOTH Soyuzes.

What do you mean by both Soyuzes?
Google saves the day! I'm assuming you mean the spacecraft and the rockets.

Edited December 1, 2015 by Sanic

[fredinno]

1 hour ago, Sanic said:

What do you mean by both Soyuzes?
Google saves the day! I'm assuming you mean the spacecraft and the rockets.

Yes. I am.

[Streetwind]

I'm pretty partial to the Hubble Space Telescope. The amount of IRL science points it has generated cannot be measured.

[Jovus]

I'm tempted to say the Space Cruiser Yamato, just because it's so silly...

 

but I'll be boring and say the Atlas 1. Or, actually, the Atlas-Agena D, just because it's so...strange...

[KAL 9000]

Sci-Fi: Endurance/Ranger from Interstellar and the Hermes from the Martian.

Real: New Horizons and Curiosity

KSP: Outer Planets Explorer (my own design for a spacecraft to explore all the OPM bodies) and DAV (Duna Ascent Vehicle, for my Mars Semi-Direct recreation, Duna Semi-Direct)

[wumpus]

Am I the first to name the Orion?  Not the new pretender to that name but the original (never built) beast by Ted Taylor and Freeman Dyson.

No, it really wouldn't work.  The original calculations assumed that once the fallout was blown clear of the atmosphere, Earth would be safe from it.  This is not true, any nuclear blast happening within the magnetosphere would be eventually pulled back (hopefully Earth would be spared most of the nasty half-lives, but still).  You would have to build it out at least at Lunar orbit, presumably from steel harvested from asteroids (an Orion could lift the immense mass needed to build the thing.  Chemical rockets, not so much).

It remains the type of thing SpaceX would need if they wanted regular runs between Earth and Mars, but the required infrastructure is just huge.  Still an awesome idea that makes the idea that pure space opera is in reach if we just had to guts to Build, Dream, Fly in real life.

[Excalibur]

The LEM.

Had a soft spot for it ever since I was a kid. Only true spacecraft ever flown with a crew, looks cool as all hell and well, you know... it went places...

[fredinno]

21 minutes ago, Excalibur said:

The LEM.

Had a soft spot for it ever since I was a kid. Only true spacecraft ever flown with a crew, looks cool as all hell and well, you know... it went places...

If I know what I mean...

[SargeRho]

As far as real spacecraft go, for awesomeness it'd be the Space Shuttle. But overall, it'd be the Soyuz. Unmanned probably Cassini-Huygens. JIMO takes the place of favorite proposed spacecraft.

Fictional, the ISV Venture Star and the Alexei Leonov on the realistic side, Galactica and Normandy SR-2 tied for "in the middle", and the Minbari's Sharlin War Cruiser on the unrealistic side.

[Excalibur]

I think my favourite sci-fi craft would have to be the GSV Sleeper Service.

[razark]

Neither one was built, but I wouldn't say they're entirely fictional, either.

Dynasoar:

Or the proposed orbital variant of the X-15.

Edited December 1, 2015 by razark

[Temstar]

Quote

The original calculations assumed that once the fallout was blown clear of the atmosphere, Earth would be safe from it.

Huh? It doesn't say that. Original plan called for launch directly from the ocean into orbit all with nukes (2000 bombs to get into orbit). And Dyson calculated that out to show that on average the fallout will kill somewhere between 0.1 to 1 person per launch globally.

I consider that acceptable, consider the huge amount of payload each launch can loft up. Dyson said he would consider it acceptable if they could get it down to 0.01 person per launch.

[Spica]

If I had to pick a favorite spacecraft, it would be the Agena Target Vehicle.

Edited December 1, 2015 by Spica

[1101]

If the question were launcher only it would be a Falcon 9, but spacecraft?

The LEM, but specifically the Aquarius

It did serve to support 3 people rather than the two it was designed for (with some improvisation), amongst other things that meant Apollo 13 survived.

 

Now fictionally - the ship Nostalgia for Infinity from Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space.  If we're going for more ridiculous levels of Sci-fi - A Xeelee Nightfighter.

[Wjolcz]

I'll probably sound super mainstream and all, but I always liked the Millenium Falcon. The shape is nice, it's actually fairly symmetrical and wouldn't have that much CoM/CoT offset issues + I'm a fan of big, glass cockpits.

2 minutes ago, Veeltch said:

I'll probably sound super mainstream and all, but I always liked the Millenium Falcon. The shape is nice, it's actually fairly symmetrical and wouldn't have that much CoM/CoT offset issues + I'm a fan of big, glass cockpits.

 

 

For IRL, or almost IRL ones: the concept of Nautilus is pretty neat. Looks nice and is modular.

 

EDIT: ummm... What did I just do with this post and how do I fix it?

Edited December 1, 2015 by Veeltch

[AngelLestat]

Dragonv2, it will come with many innovations, which in my opinion the abort escape solution merged with propulsion landing is the best.

[Mitchz95]

Real life, probably Dragon V2 once it gets up and running. Otherwise I'd have to say the Shuttle, despite its failings. The MCT will probably steal the prize if it's everything Musk promises.

Fictional, I'd say the NX-01 Enterprise from Star Trek: Enterprise. Something about it really appeals to me, even more than the other classic ships. Just look at it!

[Nothalogh]

10 hours ago, wumpus said:

Am I the first to name the Orion?  Not the new pretender to that name but the original (never built) beast by Ted Taylor and Freeman Dyson.

No, it really wouldn't work.  The original calculations assumed that once the fallout was blown clear of the atmosphere, Earth would be safe from it.  This is not true, any nuclear blast happening within the magnetosphere would be eventually pulled back (hopefully Earth would be spared most of the nasty half-lives, but still).  You would have to build it out at least at Lunar orbit, presumably from steel harvested from asteroids (an Orion could lift the immense mass needed to build the thing.  Chemical rockets, not so much).

It remains the type of thing SpaceX would need if they wanted regular runs between Earth and Mars, but the required infrastructure is just huge.  Still an awesome idea that makes the idea that pure space opera is in reach if we just had to guts to Build, Dream, Fly in real life.

Provided your propulsion units are fission efficient, your only fallout potential would be at ground level during launch.

Build it big enough to use proper Teller-Ullam propulsion units, and I'd let you launch it in my back yard (provided I got to ride).

[bigdad84]

Launch vehicle by far would have to be the Falcon 9. Sleek, sexy, tall and soon to be reusable.

As far as a spacecraft I would either go with the LEM or the Venera probes that landed on Venus. Just the fact that the probes went to Venus and survived the hostile conditions for as long as they did is amazing. I wish a space agency or company would commit to exploring Venus.