XB-70A

For performances reasons related to these unefficient, bad, ugly, &@#*! Thumper SRB I radically changed the full stock Eos shuttle : Now four Kickbacks take the role but taking just the place of two. The monop' tanks are replaced by small fuel tanks to simulate the OMS (the OME still are made of Spark). The orbiter got five Thud for its part. The ET now is made two fairings containing the fuel tanks, and a new two pieces vertical stabilizer has been placed instead of the canard. We have main engines start... SRB ignition... And lift off, lift off of the Eos flight 102, lift off, yeah lift off I repeat lift o... what?! I should stop screaming during each launch to let the others enjoy the engines melody? Oww... The climb is surprisingly easy, smooth and equilibrate (I mean for one of my craft). Keep on accelerating to raise the Pe to 140 km. ET separation. I had to place two Sepatron to make it clear the orbiter faster. The ET still had some fuel onboard so I used it to begin the circularization but also had to release it, shut down the Thud SSME and immediately start the OMS at the same time. Maneuvering and docking with Outer Heaven at 200 km. The barely 1000 m/s available with the orbiter are pretty just to give a good flexibility but still can give some fun. This first part of the Eos new version is some kind of a success. Now we have to see how the second part with the re-entry and landing will finish.

There is a short Mk2 to 1.25m Adapter coupled between the cabin and the rear docking port, I moved it a bit in the cabin to keep the craft short and place the engines aside. Globally it was to give the craft more operational capabilities once in orbit, the look and also to displace the CoM before re-entry.

Overpowered? In KSP there is no limit to the power!

With its skinny design your replica could also be used as a Hughes XF-11.

Thank everyone it's really cool to read that. The Eos is finished and will comes next : Ironically she was supposed to be a cheap and technically affordable (level 4 nodes) connecting vehicle costing no more than 30 000 funds at launch. But the problems with the Thumper SRB plus the inneficiency of the Thud main engines made me multiply their number, requiring more fuel and so now it cost around 50 000 funds. Too expensive for a new and moneyless career... But I don't know, I just love it. These events actually makes me think about a much more real story in our world...

Alas I'm against that profile of launch. They are inefficient (the whole already launcher got some difficulties to lift that 26 tons craft) and, I don't know it's just like it was killing the fun of climbing. But I understand it can sometimes be the sole solution to send something in orbit. Like those huge stations some made. I actually found the same solution just as after I created that topic and tried it. I was against the fact to place wings on the launcher but remembered a bug where the wings even offsetted into a tank were giving lift. The result is more than positive : It's like cheating and did not resolve the main problem of how to counter that lifting force. I mean like they have to counter in reality. I've seen two different configuration on artist impression. The most well knew at the top of a launcher : And one inside a fairing : Damn... I just discover by the way that the Atlas got a configuration with boosters...

Hi everybody, I am actually snatch my hairs with a 6-seats capable shuttle design I am working on. It is clearly inspirated from the now well knew Dream Chaser, but it gives me so much problems that I surnamed it Doom Chaser. I worked on two different variants : The A is about endurance with about 3 km/s of dV available : And the B much more for aerodynamic performances test craft : In both case they are my first attempts to place a medium orbiter with enough lifting surface at the top of a launcher. All the others concept were placed in a booster/fuel tank-riding position and their lifting surface was just sufficient to ensure them to safely glide back to home. Here the situation is totally new to me, the CoL is far away from the CoM and CoT more important. The result is a lifting force too important to be countered by the vectored thrust, the whole shuttle flipping all the time once the dynamic speed becames sufficient to gives the orbiter wings and body enough lifting force : 42 m/s relative speed is still to low to give the orbiter enough lift. 50 m/s and the problem starts to appear. Logically the autopilot tries to counter it by max gimballing the engines and it gives some results. But as a simple computer it will not keep on gimballing the engines and will wait for new problematics information to come. About two seconds only after the lifting force is so important that event he thrust can't counters it anymore. I've tried a booster riding configuration too to bring the CoL closer to the CoM but the result is absolutely the same. Of course I could also place it in a fairing to erase that problem definitely but it will ask for a larger and costful launcher. Is anyone of you with more knowledges got ideas ? (I should have studied more seriously my manuals about aerodynamics some years ago...)

Hi everybody, I released yesterday my small X-38 inspirated shuttle, the X-35A Adikia : As I wrote on the craft desription page on KerbalX, that puppy was built for spaecial reason to me and is absolutely inspirated from Flakbadger's X-38 which got a particular place in my memory. Made with 77 parts the X-35A is a small 5-seats space shuttle system named in honor of the Greek goddess Adikia a minor divinity representing the injustice. It is available here : https://kerbalx.com/XB-70A/Sleg-X-35A-Adikia And the whole flight album here : http://imgur.com/a/ll0nx Small but capable the whole shuttle system is made of an Atlas V-like launcher amde of two stages, the first one gets a pair of Vector engines to represent (roughly) the powerful RD-180 and the second two Swivel to simulate the Centaur stage. All together they get a total of 4775 m/s of delta-V in the atmosphere. The orbiter for its part got two Spark engines giving her enough thrust to accelerate and jump to another orbit pretty quickly. Her total delta-v represent 1688 m/s once in vaccum. But images are better than words : The first seconds can be a bit hard as the whole system is a bit instable, but once 40 m/s reached you can already start your gravity turn. Also the first stage is coming with two pairs of legs and eight parachutes for recover (as I hate wasting funds). In the qualification flight used for the album I dropped the stage with more than 1000 fuel units still onboard, more than enough so deccelerate before (sea)landing. I cames with a RC-L01 Remote Guidance Unit and more than 800 units of electricity to ensure some flexibilty. The second stage for its parts is non recoverable. On the demonstration flight I dropped it just after it put the AP to 200 km but it should have still been much more than usable. On KerbalX the user kitmatthews take a screenshot of the orbiter in the Mun SOI : For my part once in orbit I tried to join the docking training space station Orbital Target Alpha on its 300 x 300 km orbit. Everything went well and each maneuvers cost around 58-60 m/s : Once we got bored enough it was time to be back home! I recommend to start the re-entry maneuver by not deccelerating over an orbit of 150 km. More is feasible but prepare for the BBQ. Taking an angle of 45 degrees and transfering the fuel from the front tank to the back one will ensure a stable re-entry without even touching the commands : Now with her ridiculous lifting surface an horizontal landing is well... still possible but not really recommended. Like X-38 the landing should be made with parachute : one small breaking chute can reduce the speed to 50 m/s and two radial parachutes reduced it to approx 10 m/s. It is still a lot but the landing gears will support the shock without any problem. Once landed there was still enough delta-V available to realize some maneuvers while in orbit : One small 2-stars pilot for my hall of Fames.

Great creation, its lines remember me the Patrol Craft Fast ("Swift Boats") engaged on the South East Asian rivers.

Thank you for that recommendation I will order it when my budget will allow it. On my part as Columbia ever was my favorite of the fleet I really enjoy Space Shuttle Columbia - Her Missions and Crews by Ben Evans. The sole negative point to me being that, like all Springer Praxis editors books, the pictures are in black and white. Their Energiya-Buran book was awesome too.

The X-35A Adikia is nearly finished, but just like the X-38 it took inspiration from the landing has to be realized with parachutes. Just as a test I tried to land this lifting-body horizontally at low speed and create my first Kerbals unicycle by the same way. Images are better than words : Approaching with a huge sink rate! Nice BOOM but Steven seems to enjoy being a firework. And... TADAAAAAM... I feel like being an artist.

Three days since you ask it but indeed. Two flights are in wait : one with EchoStar 23 as a single payload and the second with ten more Iridium NEXT com-sats destined to the constellation. But no dates have been unvailed. I look forward for the Pegasus XL on the 12 and finally the second launch of Epsilon with the ERG on the 20 at 11.00UTC (an Ariane 5ECA is expect to be launch the same day about 09H30 after).

It's late and stupid to answer that comment, but the B-52D in its "Big Belly" configuration was configured to realize carpet bombing over the Vietnam jungle with 108 Mk-82. 84 (21 racks of 4) in the bay and 24 (3 x 8) on the external pylons. Well, a new post I should as much use it to expose the works which seems impossible to end for me... The Meteor : Only two stages to orbit. Instead of using cost full booster I choose simple and cheap external drop tanks. Surprisingly forgiving during the first seconds and maneuverable. But once it circularized at 120 km only 420 m/s are still available. The Vector being so inefficient in vacuum. And the Hecate ("Doom Chaser") : Absolutely the opposite of the first one it has more than enough of delta-V once in orbit... the problem being to reach the orbit. Or to be more precise the first minutes are terrible. So terrible that it is the first craft in more than a year with whom I can't use MechJeb's Ascent Guidance. Even when starting to pitch down around 40 m/s... Every climbs had to be made manually The second stage is Centaur-like and got more than 1500 m/s available. But still a lot of work is needed before making it a Dream instead of Doom craft.

The Eos is flying! With 6 Thumper she now get enough punch to reach 700 m/s before the SRB separation. We can get rid of them around 10 000 m. But with their ridiculous prices I've chosen to not recover them. For some reasons I can't explain now the whole shuttle is absolutely uncontrolable during the SRB use. It keep on rolling on its longitudinal axis.

I nearly never warp my career, so the technical tree is fully available without having land outside of the Kerbin sphere of influence. Another probe-relay is waiting in KLO for the transfert window to Duna opening in 270 days while a rover is close behind, intended to explore a bit Eve and which will be transferred in 310 days. So to keep some activity I keep on building some tiny shuttle. One X-38-like is perfectly operational for 400x400 orbit, another bigger sister with 6 seats and called the Doom Chaser nearly achieved to be in the same case. The last one is the X-26 Esos. I know the mono prop tank to simulate the OMS absolutely s**ks, but my computer is an office laptop. Everything over 150 parts can kill it Also those are really early screenshots. The OME are now visible and made of two Spark. The Jumbo-64 orange tank was too thin and heavy (such a paradox ). So four FL-T800 are contained in the air stream part. Three Thud play the S.S.M.E role. The main problem are the Thumper (like always). They are underpowered and more important swallow their fuel too fast. I will try to put 3 S.R.B and offset them in a single place on each side. It should kick the orbiter high enough before the separation. I tried the Kickback too but they are way too tall for such a small design.

I'm deeply sorry for the double post. I didn't know what happens while trying to edit the post under Safari the computer literally freeze for five minutes then every times I tried to edit it creates a new post (?!)

Really nice looking craft, it seems awesome! Yes I literally rip the concept drawings apart... I'd chosen that specific design to climb easily without touching the controls. Like the T-tails aircraft keep a positive angle while cruising. Too much air resistance increasing the consumption was the last drop of trouble needed to threw that craft away. I will restart to work on some lightest other T-tails project. With their overpower thrust crushing the resistance problems the tail is not a problem anymore. Like with the old Mad Dog :

From one of the Stock Masters, it's an honor. Actually the sole important problems with the first prototypes were at first the choice to place four Swivel like the wood model : Even angled with the CoM the Orbiter was flipping all the time with their limited gimbal. So the final choice was the pair of Vectors. Secondly cames a terrifying attitude while re-entering, even worst between 15 and 10000 m. The wings were built using the mirror system but while using the aerodynamic cheat it became possible to see a huge instability. All the plan was made with the thin parts : Also the Big-S tail needs its controls to be inverted for a reason I totally ignored, all the re-entries in the thicker levels of the atmosphere finished on the back... I feel the first flights like these poor guys discovering the commands reverse while approaching the sound barrier. The next will probably to get some fun with the liquid rocket booster shuttle, like the wood model right of the Saturn-Shuttle model up.

Thanks for the support everyone. I would like to share more but the season is starting again here and the heavy work by the same way. And this is only the beginning...

After three months and five different design changes I finally place the craft online in KerbalX : Named after the Greek titan Kronos (know by the Romans as Saturn) and his daughter Demeter the vehicle is made to reach an Ap of 500 with its "Vector" as S.S.M.E. and circulate with the "Thud" playing a role of O.M.E. Fully made of 140 stock parts the craft is costing a bunch (about 260 000 funds) to just send seven crew members in orbit. The Orbiter for its parts comes with a laboratory and a docking-node-wanna-be made of a lander can and a small fuel tank : The sole bad point to me is the really sensitive attitude of the orbiter during any re-enter. You have to ensure a perfectly stable angle before 60 km or the craft will be easily destroyed. Once around 20-15 km its controls start to beome effective again. The landing for its part is more than easy and soft. Just try to be perfectly aligned with the RWY and everthing will be normal. The file can be find here : https://kerbalx.com/XB-70A/Kronos-Demeter-Saturn-Shuttle And the last flight album here : http://imgur.com/a/LRS2G

It is not so new, alas. I discovered it too but not before 1.0.5... I also see that just a few peoples are aware that they can use there mouse scroll wheel to make some really small to huge changes to there maneuvers nodes. I use it all the time to make precise Ap and Pe changes to the transferring nodes.

Kronos-Demeter, my Saturn-Shuttle concept, is now available online since yesterday after a last re-work on the wings design. A dedicated topic on the spacecraft page will be make in the next hours. --- But about today I decided to test a new configuration of my all-solid light launcher Etendard. Cheaper and simpler it still cost a bunch(!) and while looking for a light satellite contract nothing like appears in the Mission Control so I took one of the tourist in the list, know under the perfect name of... Paella ! Of course, for just 163 000 funds Paella can't expect a confortable and soft launch as with the STS. 6 Gs will ensure to her a nice face lifting. Kickback separation at around 700 m/s only... While the second stage place it at no more than 1200 m/s... I profite of the current inertia to light-up the third stage some seconds after the separation. Once the third stage dropped we just have to get around 400 m/s to place the Ap at 200 km then 197 m/s will complete the circularization. After all it's just a simple one star contract. Like for Yuri it's time for Paella to be de-orbited after just an orbit. It's not like we have the time for this. It hasn't happen since some time now but I overshot and pretty well. With a speed of less than 6 m/s nothing can be feared for the structure integrity during the impact with water. Thank you for your contribution in our program Paella. But now I'm hungry...

My full stock Saturn-Shuttle, Kronos-Demeter has been re-styled at 08.00 local time... I must be adicted... Old design from last September : New one : The main difference is about Demeter's external tank. The first model was using the orange Jumbo-64 to be in accord with the shuttle we know, but after all the Saturn-Shuttle concept never lift off the design table so I switch for a white (or at least more white than orange) tank using a fairing. 11 FL-T800 are contained inside with two small reaction wheels. More than enough to keep the control and place the Ap at 300km before the ET release. Keep on accelerating during the first test flight. Moar boosters Sepratrons. As usual I sent the maiden Shuttles flights on a polar orbit and they used to fall back a bit and hit the upper layer of the athmosphere , placing the Pe at 53 km for a 200 km Ap. I will shurely share it on KerbalX tonight (-04.00 UTC).

Looking at the database it's the KSA Mk3 Multipurpose SSTO mkII from "KSpaceAcademy" : It is stille available here : https://kerbalx.com/KSpaceAcademy/KSA Mk3 Multipurpose SSTO mkII I found it beautiful at the first sight but in the other hand never used it once. It is still in my SPH hangar under 1.2.1 and I even updated it to new Whiplash and change the gears back to the medium size... probably just looking at it is enough.

It is really nice. I would love to get associate it to my Apollo-like module made or the Saturn IB-like launcher. Alas I had to use three Mk 1 pods to keep it small, cheap and able to be docked to a stock Skylab (so with medium size parts)... even the Clamp-O-Tron and the antenna are too big for it.