Fellow314

I think you're right, B it is I thought it might be something like that, thanks.

Thanks!! :D Now, option a or option b... On a technical note, at less than 10 tonnes, it should make orbit on one rapier? I'm having real trouble pushing through the sound barrier with it full, I have to drain a little O2 and fuel to get it into orbit.

No, it was built without one. I know it should have one but it makes the front end look funny

Swift. A one kerbal SSTO. balancing O2 and fuel is a proper pain...

Yeah, I did something similar once before. With the new one the launch vehicle makes about 1400 m/s before giving up, so I suspect the orbiter could make it from there, just. I suspect stability problems due to the slightly weird design mean it won't get past the wip stage.

Working on an alternative launch system....

With slight modification and a boost to intercept, extremely capable of landing on and returning from Duna. Which is nice.

There may be more elegant ways to get it into orbit, but once it's there there's over 3Km/s of delta V. Which will take it all the way to the surface of the Mun and back to a soft, gliding landing on Kerbin, forgetting to take significant photos all the way. https://www.dropbox.com/s/5ycpoc5x12inq28/Munshot%203%20f%20NMJ.craft?dl=0 For the orbiter/return vehicle 1- Landing rockets 2- Main engines

Trying to get a plane to the mun and back. At one point the launch vehicle was just a little overpowered...

A thing I'm working on.

Inspired by this, I built this. Almost entirely reusable launch system for delivering one pilot and up to four crew to LKO . https://www.dropbox.com/s/9bzjazxhaps858o/Klauncher%20i%20NMJ.craft?dl=0 For those who care to fly it... SAS on Hit <2> for the main engines. Angle up to 30 degrees. At 9,000m, drop down to around 25 degrees Watch your airspeed, when it stops going up (should be a little over 600m/s) and starts going down hit <0> to light the SRBs RCS on Angle up to between 35 and 40 degrees Leave the jets on until they stop giving thrust then hit <2> and <1> to turn them off and close the inlets The SRBs should burn out with an apoapsis of around 50-55,000m (this bit's tricky...) Right click the left hand separator at the back of the orbiter and decouple. Ensure throttle is off Hit <5> for the RCS engines Lower the landing gear, angle up and push the throttle and maneuver the orbiter out of the bay It's important to arrange things so the exhaust of the orbiter is not pointing at the launch vehicle Turn off the RCS engines <5> Raise the gear Then hit <3> to light the SRBs Hit <4> to light the main engines Aim the ship at slightly over the pro-grade marker, the aim is to push the apoapsis as close to the desired orbit as possible, the SRB's should burn out before this point so the burn should be finished with the main engines. Circularise and do what you need to do. A docking port and proper 360 degree RCS would need to be fitted if you need to do docking type things. De-orbit at between 20-30 degrees nose up. The orbiter seems pretty rugged and has survived full on tumbling re-entry. The launch vehicle has to engage the engines to reach the other side of the water. There is a closed reserve tank at the front if needed. There may be more efficient launch profiles but the above places little stress on the launch vehicle and leaves about 6-700 m/s delta V.

Getting there...

Sure, it has to be completely impossible to combine two aerodynamically stable craft into one, single, aerodynamically stable craft Bristol Spaceplanes think they can do it too

After a long enforced break, I'm working on this. Terminally unstable in the upper atmosphere for reasons I can't yet fathom.

Also a Ranger. Only by name. https://www.dropbox.com/s/j7svrpfw1zk3cjb/Ranger%20Alpha%20NMJ.craft?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/pk46gv3xzi6oho3/Ranger%20XR%20NMJ.craft?dl=0 If you do want to fly either the standard or extended range versions, taking off is a tricky procedure. Hit 2 for the turbojet, turn on SAS. Let the turbojet get up a good head of steam then hit RCS then 1 for the downward motors. The whole thing should leap up and forwards. Angle up plenty and you shouldn't need to keep the downward jets on for long at all. Has about 300 m/s Delta V once in orbit from the main engines and about another 700 m/s if you control from the docking port on top and use the VTOL RCS Motors for thrust. Carries parachutes in case you need all that fuel to get back home. Any sort of horizontal landing would probably be suicidal.

4 Kerbal shuttle which may have been inspired by watching Interstellar so I call it a Ranger. Not that it looks a lot like the craft in the movie but hey, it's the same colour

But not really. I don't know what to call it. It gets one kerbin into orbit. Would have been so much more difficult to build without being able to move the root part. Messing with the separate sections so they were stable together and separately was almost impossible before. https://www.dropbox.com/s/j2auxu8cb2lhavk/Twinplane%20NMJ.craft?dl=0 If you want to give it a go... - Hit 2 for the turbo jets - Put the prograde marker on about 40 degrees and leave it there - at about 18.5K hit 3 which lights the SRBS. - This should give you an apoapsis well outside the atmosphere. - Separate and circularise the orbiter - Land the launch vehicle wherever you can.

New thing...

I built this. Then made a thread. Then realised I should probably have put it here. So, erm, here it is. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/107692-Shuttle

Indeed. All that shifting centre of mass stuff is a colossal pain in the neck for me, particularly with no engine on the tank (shuttle rather than buran style). I am in awe of those that can do it which is why I needed to keep everything in nice straight lines. Why NASA ever wanted to do it in real life is a mystery to me.

Ah, this is what I consider to be the challenge. You mod away, I'll stick with stock. And Mechjeb.

So, I wanted to build a shuttle but I really can't do all that messing about with COT and COG that you fellows all seem to be very good at. I wanted everything in a nice straight line through the middle of the ship all the time. So I built this. Slight over use of SRBs, perhaps and the TWR throughout the ascent is abysmal except right at the end where it's just excessive. Launches well, suprisingly, stage once to fire the main engines to stress the ship a bit then again to fire the SRBs and release the clamps. I should probably have an auxiliary tank to feed that first second or so when it's still clamped down but what the heck. There are six tiny little rocket motors at the back, you can use two and three to turn the main engines and the smaller ones on and off. They're used for a teeny bit of extra power during the climb when TWR is low and for fine tuning maneuvers as the big main engines are not good for this. Takes an orange tank to a 100 x 100 orbit with just enough fuel to spare to mess about a tiny bit and then de-orbit to glide like a leaf on to the runway. My brief to myself was to get all the expensive bits back so it only drops SRBs and fuel tanks on the way up along with a teeny bit of structural stuff. https://www.dropbox.com/s/8f3p2jq0yhnxrsl/Shuttle%20%20delta%20NMJ.craft?dl=0

I think this counts as a shuttle. It can't really lift much more than itself into and 80 x 80 orbit and has an annoying habit of colliding with itself while staging. Work goes on...

Pretty much finished except heavy landings can cause the cockpit to go smashing into the runway.

The story of a trip to Laythe. Was going to go to at least one other body in the system but there was only enough delta v for the one landing. Probably due to very poor piloting. Also, and this often happens to my spaceplanes that have been a long way, the aerodynamic parts fell off the plane on the way down and there was a bit of a crash. Other than that it all went rather well.