Squad Added A Stock Space Shuttle

[The Jedi Master]

Well, there's a big surprise. Squad added this stock vessel to the VAB with 0.25. Don't believe me, check the sandbox for yourself! What do you think of this?

[1greywind]

As other stock crafts: just an inspiration for new players. It is not very suitable for flight nor very practical. Just demonstration of "how you can connect parts together".

[Tery215]

Good for crew transfer, good for return to Kerbin, not so good for payloads that aren't crew.

[Pecan]

...Don't believe me, check the sandbox for yourself! What do you think of this?

I believe you, because I read the change log in the readme.txt "Added a new stock craft, the Learstar A1: A hybrid multistage vessel that functions very much like the Shuttle did."

Like all other stock vehicles, I deleted it. I can always unzip them again in the unlikely event that I want to fly a bad vehicle.

[RocketPilot573]

I believe you, because I read the change log in the readme.txt "Added a new stock craft, the Learstar A1: A hybrid multistage vessel that functions very much like the Shuttle did."

Like all other stock vehicles, I deleted it. I can always unzip them again in the unlikely event that I want to fly a bad vehicle.

You can just disable the stock craft option...

And for anyone who has not seen this:

[dryer_lint]

The Aeris 3A is basically the only stock vessel I ever fly.

[Fendleton]

Hmm. it's a bit of a handful on takeoff (I'd suggest rolling it around before launch), and a bit underpowered when the boosters first eject.....but it's not that bad. Until you reach about 25-30km, at which point full RCS couldn't hold it and it spun out of control.

....it may need some adjustments in order to function properly. Good starting-point for a shuttle build though.

[Pecan]

You can just disable the stock craft option...

How do you do that for sandbox?

@Fendleton: Do you mean it's a good starting-point in that it shows you why you shouldn't do it but if you do you shouldn't do it like this? (Honestly, I can't tell if you're joking).

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

Nice, I have to check this one out. Never made a working shuttle

[I_Killed_Jeb]

It's literally the first item in "New Features" in the first post of the first thread that is visible on this subforum

[RocketPilot573]

How do you do that for sandbox?

@Fendleton: Do you mean it's a good starting-point in that it shows you why you shouldn't do it but if you do you shouldn't do it like this? (Honestly, I can't tell if you're joking).

Last I checked it was in the difficulty settings. And I'm sure you can change it in the persistence file of an existing save.

[problemecium]

Well now that there's a thread about it, who else is having issues driving this blasted thing? I find that unless I throttle up to full at launch, it falls over backward immediately, and if I use full throttle, it remains stable until about 10km at which point it flips over, making for rather short "missions".

[CptRichardson]

If I wanted to build a stack-spaceplane (Certainly not SSTO), I'd jigger up some way of mounting it on top of the stack instead of that....

I'm not sure even Jeb wants to fly that thing.

[Loligoat]

Well now that there's a thread about it, who else is having issues driving this blasted thing?

It takes a bit of work, but I was able to get it to orbit with a pretty good amount of fuel left, at one point I had to change the thrust limiters on the radial LFO engines to 100.

[AmpsterMan]

I like it well enough; inspired me (with some help from none other than Kasper himself ) to build this

[magnemoe]

Hmm. it's a bit of a handful on takeoff (I'd suggest rolling it around before launch), and a bit underpowered when the boosters first eject.....but it's not that bad. Until you reach about 25-30km, at which point full RCS couldn't hold it and it spun out of control.

....it may need some adjustments in order to function properly. Good starting-point for a shuttle build though.

It would probably work better with the engines on the shuttle burning too as it would put trust closer to center of mass, pull an fuel pipe from tank to shuttle and you have an shuttle/ burran combination.

However the next problem will start then the tank getting empty and com moves towards the shuttle, but at this time you can probably throttle down as you would be flying pretty horizontal.

[montyben101]

It's a bit ugly really isn't it? I think squad should add shuttle engines now we have shuttle parts

Edit: oh dear... Is that a jet engine I see under the shuttle?

Edited October 12, 2014 by montyben101

[Redshift OTF]

It's an interesting design. Unfortunately there are no control surfaces or reaction wheels on the main rocket so you are relying on the gimballing of the rocket engine and the control surfaces of the plane. Could do with some tweaks.

[Crown]

How do you do that for sandbox?[...]

As far as I know, you can't toggle "Stock vessels" when you already have started a savegame. There are two options that can't be changes afterwards. But in the persistent-file there is an option that says "AllowStockVessels = True". Just change that to False.

Well now that there's a thread about it, who else is having issues driving this blasted thing? I find that unless I throttle up to full at launch, it falls over backward immediately, and if I use full throttle, it remains stable until about 10km at which point it flips over, making for rather short "missions".

I turn the vessel Learstar 1A around that the Shuttle is facing the VAB. After launch (full throttle) it's a bit tricky to keep it at 85° pitch but later in the flight it is quite easy to keep it on 70°, even without using the Vernier engines. Somewhen after the SRB sepraration I have to throttle down to keep it stable. And throttle down more and more as the fuel drains and have to use the Vernier engines to pitch is back. And at some point I loose control. Anytime.

On all my other rocket I have a ascent path that I try to follow and it usually works. But with the Learstar 1A I don't reach the speeds and altitudes I do with a normal rocket. It has four O-10 engines on it though. Maybe the trick is to drop the not-completely-drained fuel tank on ascent to the apoapsis, activate the monopropellant tank and use the O-10 engines instead to reach orbit. But I have flown it only twice.

[...]I think squad should add shuttle engines now we have shuttle parts[...]

Yes, it's a jet engine.

We don't have Shuttle parts in the game, those are Space Launch System parts. And that was in cooperation with NASA to, I think, spread the word about their Asteroid Redirect Mission. If you want Space Shuttle parts, I am sure there is a mod pack that gives you Shuttle parts. And, two, you don't have to use the Learstar 1A. Just build your own.

[montyben101]

Yes, it's a jet engine.

We don't have Shuttle parts in the game, those are Space Launch System parts. And that was in cooperation with NASA to, I think, spread the word about their Asteroid Redirect Mission. If you want Space Shuttle parts, I am sure there is a mod pack that gives you Shuttle parts. And, two, you don't have to use the Learstar 1A. Just build your own.

By shuttle parts I meant spaceplane plus parts, not the SLS parts....

[Sky_walker]

It's a bit ugly really isn't it? I think squad should add shuttle engines now we have shuttle parts

Yes, high-gimbal engines would be a great thing to have. Every engine in KSP looks like a joke in that department comparing to space shuttle engines.

Edit: oh dear... Is that a jet engine I see under the shuttle?

Yep. For descend.

I turn the vessel Learstar 1A around that the Shuttle is facing the VAB. After launch (full throttle) it's a bit tricky to keep it at 85° pitch but later in the flight it is quite easy to keep it on 70°, even without using the Vernier engines. Somewhen after the SRB sepraration I have to throttle down to keep it stable. And throttle down more and more as the fuel drains and have to use the Vernier engines to pitch is back. And at some point I loose control. Anytime.

On all my other rocket I have a ascent path that I try to follow and it usually works. But with the Learstar 1A I don't reach the speeds and altitudes I do with a normal rocket. It has four O-10 engines on it though. Maybe the trick is to drop the not-completely-drained fuel tank on ascent to the apoapsis, activate the monopropellant tank and use the O-10 engines instead to reach orbit. But I have flown it only twice.

Yea, I flew it only twice too. I'm not a huge fan of a rockets that require constant manual corrections all the way to space. Even with RCS on I couldn't reach stable orbit

[Moar Boosters]

If I wanted to build a stack-spaceplane (Certainly not SSTO), I'd jigger up some way of mounting it on top of the stack instead of that....

I'm not sure even Jeb wants to fly that thing.

If only NASA had your common sense, they probably wouldn't have killed 14 people with these things.

[Naten]

If only NASA had your common sense, they probably wouldn't have killed 14 people with these things.

Thank (uber-deity here) Roscosmos wasn't able to kill anyone with their own rocket-death-disaster Buran Energia.

No, really. pls no nasa, no mor shutel

[Taki117]

While the design itself is genious, flying it takes skill.

1. Roll "Heads Down" as quickly as possible. (Shuttle on the bottom, it's a fight)
   
2. After Booster Separation activate RCS
   
3. Throttle down as appropriate to remain stable.
   
4. At 25km, or 1/4 throttle increase thrust limiter on the Shuttle Engines
   
5. When apoapsis is at desired height cut thrust and Jettison EFT.
   
6. During coast Shutdown Liquid engines and activate RCS engines, also activate flow on the rear most RCS tank.
   
7. At apoapsis Circularize your orbit, welcome to space.
   

[royying]

If I wanted to build a stack-spaceplane (Certainly not SSTO), I'd jigger up some way of mounting it on top of the stack instead of that....

I'm not sure even Jeb wants to fly that thing.

Just like the ESA Shuttle