[Stock 0.17] A Shuttle, Interplanetary Explorer, SRBs, and Rescue ships!

[Zephiris]

I've been tinkering around with ship designs in 0.17 since it came out and I finally decided to share some of my efforts!

I didn't have a lot of luck getting a shuttle into space from the space plane hangar, so I went ahead and just threw a bunch of rockets behind it and shot it into orbit that way!

You can easily put this shuttle into orbit with the first two stages alone. After that you should have no trouble visiting mun or minmus and still have enough fuel for the return trip to Kerbin! I still haven't been able to land on the runway yet, but I just blame my poor piloting skills for that.

(Yes, I lost the engines on the way down, but once again, I'm a bad pilot )

Click here to download!

This one is just like it sounds! The number of solid rocket boosters (SRBs) is definitely more than parts that aren't SRBs!

I made it to Duna with this. I haven't really tried any other planets yet, but it might be possible to go elsewhere with it!

Click here to download!

I wanted something that would let me explode--I mean explore any planet in the Kerbol system, so with that in mind I created this. I have successfully landed on Duna and Eve with this ship and have been to Jool and its moons for a quick visit before they used their respective gravities to slingshot me into an extremely long orbit around Kerbol!

Click here to download!

I kept stranding my kerbonauts on distant moons while testing my ship designs and wanted a way to bring them home. This series of ships was my solution! These rescue ships come in 3 crew sizes: 3, 6, and 9. One thing to keep in mind is that these ships don't have enough thrust to land on back on Kerbin after rescuing the stranded pilots, so make sure you take a look at how the pods and parachutes are staged so you will be able to deploy them in time on your return trip!

Pictured below is the RX3 version which can rescue up to 3 crash survivors.

Here is the RX9 on Minmus after a nasty shuttle crash! (Yes, it can rescue up to 9 survivors!)

And here we have 4 rescued pilots along with the rescue mission pilot after a successful landing back at KSC!

In general, I don't use mods or modded parts since some of them can feel a bit like cheating. However, I went ahead and used the crew-able empty pods mod since it wasn't really a game-changer. I have also tested these ships with MechJeb to make sure they are stable enough for those of you who use that plugin, since he can shake ships pretty hard sometimes!

Click here to download!

Edited September 26, 2012 by Zephiris

[ThatChumpSeth]

Do you have some tips for the shuttle? I'm having a hard time getting it into orbit.

[bomberJV]

Amazing. That is all.

[bomberJV]

Do the rescue ships still work with vanilla KSP?

[goldenpeach]

Can you upload the files in craft file(currently,there are RAR files,and I can't use them).

[sal_vager]

I recommend you install 7zip goldenpeach

[Neon]

Im Impressed. Great job on the Shuttle by the way, I myself have a similar design but the farthest I have flown was to Eve... But I crashed

[Zephiris]

Do you have some tips for the shuttle? I'm having a hard time getting it into orbit.

Well, the first 2 stages (with the large fuel tanks) should have enough thrust to get you into orbit, though you might have to use a bit of fuel from the shuttle stage to circularize. Watching MechJeb do it can give you an idea of what to do and when if you still have trouble getting it there!

Do the rescue ships still work with vanilla KSP?

Well, I had to use the empty pods mod in order to have room to pick up stranded kerbonauts, so you'll have to use those parts to use the rescue ships. I could probably modify one of them to use only vanilla parts, but then you would have to take 2 pilots out of the pod before taking off to make room for others.

Can you upload the files in craft file(currently,there are RAR files,and I can't use them).

At the time I posted this, I didn't have the ability to post attachments, so I just uploaded them to my website and linked them from there. As sal_vager already suggested, you can download 7zip (http://www.7-zip.org/) for free to extract the craft files.

Im Impressed. Great job on the Shuttle by the way, I myself have a similar design but the farthest I have flown was to Eve... But I crashed

Thanks! I never intended for the shuttle to go past minmus, but if you made it elsewhere, good job! I have been working on other interplanetary ships recently, so I might end up posting some of those soon!