jbakes

Just wanted to share my 180 ton cargo SSTO. It flies fantastic, straight as arrow and it can glide extremely well. I designed it to send fuel to my space station in a 100 km orbit. It contains 163 parts. The plane weighs 150.4 tons and 179.5 tons with the payload (29.1t). It uses 14 rapier engines. Accent profile: 0-10km point nose 15-20 degrees, keep prograde 5-10 degrees. 10km-25km keep prograde around 5 degrees and build speed. 25km+ Switch to rockets and build speed then point nose to 20-30 degrees. It has just enough fuel to make it orbit and then land on the runway. Not necessary a problem but it takes forever to swing this thing around to the desired vector. It does have RCS but I would like it if it could change direction faster in space. If anyone wants to share any solutions feel free. Anyways here it is, let me know what you think.

Thank you. Depending on the weight of your ship and your method of reducing speed you'll probably want to aim for a Pe around 15-25 km.

I got this in orbit around Duna today. Named the NIT-5 docked with a small lander. flew up the lander and tug separately then docked them. The tug can get to Duna and back twice carrying that same lander before it needs to get refueled. I captured Duna for the first time using only aerobraking. Took me only 40 m/s to get this into a 58 km orbit! I set the Pe to about 15km then kept toggling the brakes on and off to get my desired Ap. Also the rockomax tanks oxidizer was emptied and then I edited the config file to have twice the liquid fuel.

Nope that Doesn't work.

I can't get it to work. I placed it in my game data folder and nothing happened.

How do you pull up the menu to paint stuff?

It worked! Thank you.

How do you pull up the UI for the clouds?

Does anyone know of any visual atmospheric mods that will work for 1.0.4? I would love to have some clouds and other visual enhancements in my game.

Yes I'm aware. If I'm using oxidizer in space it's because I'm using rockets to save time as the nuke engine has low thrust.

Landed on Minmus. Now to get back...

Just finished this today. Took me weeks to build as it is my first fully completed SSTO. Its purpose is to dock with a space station in a 100 km orbit to refuel and go elsewhere. Uses 5 engines, 2 turbos, 2 rapiers, and 1 nuke. It gets to orbit extremely fast and doesn't require intense piloting. Named ORS-15.

Ya it really does. Wasn't my intentions but it flies extremely well and very fast. Great to use for a shuttle or to refuel and go elsewhere.

Thanks for the comments guys. I actually just changed the design to something a little more appealing. It functions pretty much the same but it can re-enter Kerbin atmosphere much better. I know 5 engines is a lot but this thing can get to orbit stupid fast and very easily. Basically all you do pitch to 30 degrees then around 10km go to 10 degrees or so and you're in space. This was after re-entry so the nose is a little damaged. First time landing on the runway back from orbit though

I just wanted to share that I finally completed my first SSTO. Definitely much harder than building a rocket. It took me weeks to figure out how to design this ship to do what I wanted it to do. It's main objective was to be able to get into a 100km orbit and dock with my fueling station. It can also survive re-entry to Kerbin and land (chutes are for an emergency). It's not the best looking but it does the job. Complete with 5 engines. The R.A.P.I.E.R. and turbo jet engines get it into orbit and then I use the nuke and RCS for the rest. Then here it is docked with the fuel station, It's the one all the way to the left. The other ships are previous designs. I also have another variant that will carry a total of 2 crew. I'll probably use this SSTO for a while then design another one that can hold more Kerbals. I also want it to look better as well, that's why we make SSTO's right??? If anyone has anything to share or critique feel free, any input helps as SSTO's are very difficult.

Go for it, you should get it first try if you pilot it correctly. I learned from YouTube. They teach you all the good tricks to get to the Mun efficiently and safely

Appreciate you taking the time to type all of that. I took your advice and changed my previous design. The only thing I didn't add was SAS, I couldn't really figure it out. On the trip home I had 500 m/s Delta-V left even after a couple correction burns. The Terrier is definitely more efficient but jesus did it take a while to slow down and land lol, I also did it in the dark Anyways here it is. It flies very stable.

Yes I did realize that. I'll probably change that next but for now it works as intended.

Thank you and yes very rewarding because it's so difficult at first but now I can do it with minimal problems. As for the design, I already did I fixed the tilting problem, all it needed was some wing-lets. I kinda modeled it after the Kerbal X (except it can fly to the Mun and back and do science).

I finally made a return trip from the Mun after logging 25 hours! Some hours were spent messing around but mostly just trying to make a round trip. I looked at numerous rocket designs and watched YouTube videos to figure out the best way to do it. I had just enough fuel to make it home, I had 2.7 seconds of burn left to spare from an L10. The rocket flies pretty well, you just have to be a little careful when tilting 90 degrees early on in the atmosphere as there is a possibility it will tip over. Here's the rocket. Complete with 9 engines (1 M3, 6 T-30, and 2 L10's). 7 engines for lift off, 1 M3 and 6 T-30's with asparagus staging to get into orbit. The M3 runs out about midway circularizing an orbit, then the first L10 takes over to get into orbit. I then use the rest of the first L10 to orbit around mun. While circularizing the orbit around Mun the first L10 runs out and then I activate the 2nd L10 to complete the orbit, land, and get back home on Kerbin safe and sound. The design could probably use little tweaks but for now it works good enough. If anyone has anything to add feel free to do so (Ways to improve, share your own designs?)