Category: Best heavy-lift cargo spaceplane. Best refuelling tanker spaceplane. Mods: FAR SSLS4c 2 man Space Station Component Lifter. Capable of lifting a fully laden 82 ton Fuel Tank module to LKO and returning with another used empty. Designed for lifting heavy parts for what was intended to be a tetrahedral Space station. The module here is the heaviest part lifted. Part count: 654. Cost 304000. Including Fuel Module. No action groups. Just two stages, ignite second stage rocket at about 1500m/sec @ > 22000m, then let the Turbojets flame out. Component clipping. I penalize the three cases of tank clipping by removing some fuel from those tanks. So clipping gives no cheatiness. One intake per Turbojet. No Intake spam. Ready for takeoff. - She is very heavy. 215 tons on the runway. - Flattening out at 15000m for the slow run up to atmospheric escape. - The Fuel Tank Module is built connected at the front, it connects at the rear when physics starts. - Rockets ignited approaching 1.5km/sec. Hard back on the stick. - An orbital delivery would normally drop the tank on this trajectory and return to KSC. Today we are picking up an empty tank from the Space Station. - Full tank, fuel to burn. - Who scheduled this launch? We are miles from our target. - Two and a half hours later, looking good for intercept. - Getting there. - The tank we want to bring home. - Heavy traffic. - Connecting. The front connects magnetically and drags the tank straight, which engages the rear Clamp-o-tron immediately. In theory. - This tank was actually faulty, and would not magnetise at the rear. - I had to go back and transfer the fuel over to the original delivery module. - That one connected fine. - Transfer all residual fuel forward out of the cargo tank for reentry. - Reasonably robust, but gentle on re-entry since the tank is only held by two Clamp-o-trons. - Nearly home. - - Touchdown. - Learn to park Thompenny. - Recovered. - - - - - - - - - - - - - Category: Best all stock parts spaceplane. Mods: FAR + KIDS - Preset: FAR to Real Life Raw. Hard Mode. TL2a Not quite so Heavy lifter with realistic mass ratios. Part count 528. Cost: ~250000, including Fuel Module. This is part of my KIDS hard Career mode, I am not at the heavy lifter tech yet. Lifts red tanks to LKO with the ISP multiplier at 0.39, the KIDS, FAR to Real Life Raw preset. With KIDS, the Isp's of all the engines have been crippled. This complicates the orbital insertion and makes nukes almost mandatory for any vacuum activity. I shutoff fuel flow from the rearmost FL-T800 fuel tanks at take-off, and at about 1-5-1.6km/sec ignite the Mainsail + NERVAs and burn until all fuel is consumed. I shutdown the Mainsail, activate fuel flow (right click menus) and am usually able to reach orbit on just the nukes using the reserved fuel in those rear tanks. This depends on how well you make the transition from atmosphere. There is spare fuel in the foward centre tanks. (An X200-8 and an FL-T400) which will probably need to be pumped for orbital maneuvres. Without KIDS this is obviously much less fiddly.
