Pecan

You'd love by Cupcake :-)

It's all in the re-entry. If you're coming straight down from 70-80km, it should be fine, as long as you wait until you've been through the re-entry effects and your speed has dropped to 250m/s or less. If you're coming straight down from 110km, you'll die - it's that simple. (Mk1 pod, mk16 parachute, decoupler, RT-10 = fine. Replace the RT-10 with a 'Thumper' = dead). If you have a contract or record that requires you to reach 110km then it's time to go orbital instead of sub-orbital and do a low-energy de-orbit burn, at Ap, that makes your Pe no lower than 40km (to be on the safe side).

Congratulations

More seriously - because I don't really care that much if people want to insist on saying "SSTO" when they mean "spaceplane"; it's a game! - my preferred approach for everything is dedicated SSTO launch/recovery vehicles, separating mission-specific space payloads once in orbit. If the payload's meant to stay up the launch vehicle returns alone, otherwise it hangs around until the payload does 'whatever', redocks and they go back down exactly as they came up. Unlike panzer1b, I wouldn't dream of making a SSTL because I can't see the point - that's what space-only tugs are for (launched by SSTO) - but then he's playing a very different game to me. As to KerikBalm's original question - I'd say if drop-tanks work for you, use them proudly; it's not a SSTO any more, but so what, it's reusable and cost-effective and that's what you're after, isn't it?

What's wrong that you can't SSTO 200t? Admittedly, the biggest I've bothered to do is 130t, but it's all doable - ask any Whackjob. I'm quite happy with the wikipedia definition "A single-stage-to-orbit (or SSTO) vehicle reaches orbit from the surface of a body without jettisoning hardware, expending only propellants and fluids. The term usually, but not exclusively, refers to reusable vehicles" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-stage-to-orbit). It seems pretty clear to me - if it only uses a Single Stage to get To Orbit, it's a SSTO. Doesn't even have to come back or be able to do anything once it gets there (although there's no real point if it isn't reusable). Doesn't matter if, having got To Orbit with a Single Stage, it separates, refuels or turns pink and plays Ode To Joy. It's a SSTO. My whole point is that that design is definitely NOT a Single Stage To Eeloo, which is why I called it SSTO to Eeloo. That's why misusing the term "SSTO" all the time is annoying. panzer1b has it right with SSTL.

If your station is in LKO then it'll take very little for a SSTO to de-orbit, so it's hardly worth refuelling it just to land again. It's easier to design for something that has the 'spare' dV in orbit to rendezvous, dock (RCS/monopropellant) and de-orbit all on its own. *grin* If you don't have that much, chances are you'll miss your docking and won't be able to refuel at the station anyway - life's like that. Presumably you've got bored of SSTO rockets, which are much, much easier to build and fly, especially for any useful cargo mass - although harder to land accurately. The only spaceplane tips I have are i) use a rapier engine for your first ones, ii) start small, iii) make something that flies well as a plane first, then work on high and fast. Here's one I made earlier: The fuselage there consists of two FL-T400 fuel tanks, with a Mk1 Liquid Fuel Fuselage sandwiched between them. Wings are swept wing B and tail-assembly uses structural wing d. Building this yourself, the only 'trick' is that the landing gear is attached to the wings with cubic octagonal struts, to give them a bit more length. Flies very nicely, lands around 40m/s with 5-degrees of pitch. ETA for below: Good point - the design above cost 8k more to build than my best one-man SSTO rocket but the fuel costs 1.5k less per launch (assuming 100% recovery for both, which is a long-shot for rockets). Not only does that mean the spaceplane breaks-even after just 5 launches but it pays for itself completely after 21, if you're ever likely to launch anything 22 times ^^.

Yep, "Single Stage", "To Orbit" - seems simple enough to understand, but what can you do? *Sigh* Hehe, which is also fun, because I recently posted my 'SSTO to Eeloo' which is an ion probe that jettisons it's Single Stage launch-rocket once it's got To Orbit. Well, if it's SSTO there's no rules about what happens afterwards, are there?

LOL, you say that like it's a bad thing.

No, no they don't. Thank you, I will have to look at transfer-window planners again .. Aha - I'd never bothered to look at such slow transfers - that makes all the difference

That, must, really, suck! I feel your pain. My settings are sandbox + design + test, then let MJ and KAC take care of the boring bits. So that probably doesn't count.

Hehe, it's easier to just remember the n-teenth low-tech Mun return mission I've designed. I'd be hopelessly lost if it were without manoeuvre-nodes though, as caveman is.

The latest version of KSP is 1.0.4 The simplest manned SSTO I have is - Mk1 pod and parachute, 2 x FL-T800 tanks, T-45 engine. If you want information about spaceplanes ... http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/131122-Spaceplane-Woes-in-the-new-version http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/131171-Minimize-drag-for-SSTOs http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/129955-Spaceplane-issues-in-the-transsonic-region http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/131050-Regarding-Intakes http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/131184-The-Art-of-landing http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/129374-Pro-SSTO-builder-pilot-Challenge http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/116729-Stock-Payload-Fraction-Challenge-1-0-4-Edition (maybe) http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/95562-fastest-jet-in-ksp-%2AUPDATED%2A-8-8-2015 ... are just some of the current threads.

I've always thought the biggest problem with getting to Eve is waiting for a transfer window. It's almost the last to come up in a standard game, unless you go immediately (and sub-optimally). If you don't have anything else going on to hang around for you can just timewarp to the transfer though, so it doesn't have to be a deciding factor.

Sadly not :-( ... Unless, of course, you add a mod ... ^^

I SSTO nearly all the time. Hardly ever use spaceplanes or airbreathing engines though. Then again, my maximum payload is only around 40t - anything larger gets assembled in orbit. ETA: come to think of it, I hardly ever use SRBs either. LFO is cheap.

The good news is that nowadays you start by building something that looks like a 'plane. Then make it go Mach 5+ on jets between 15km-20km altitude, point at the sky and 'light the blue touch paper'. My old designs, based on intake-spam and flying to the edge of the atmosphere on jets don't even vaugely work, but simple spaceplaces seem easier to make now. The worst thing about them is how many people can't say "spaceplane". Incidentally - these are 5 single-rapier SSTO designs available on dropbox that I have put together to illustrate the evolution of a spaceplane. The first two are vertical-launch, closed-cycle and airbreathing, then there are two drone planes being the smallest I could make and an easier one to fly ^^. The last is a 'proper' spaceplane, with enough dV left in orbit for rendezvous, docking and de-orbit plus around 5km/s dV once back in airbreathing mode. I've put these together for part of a tutorial that I will be writing and would appreciate comments.

"Limit To Terminal Velocity" is one of the settings in MJ's 'Utilities' section, along with smooth throttle, prevent jet flameouts, etc. These are always active when selected and will cut-in whenever relevant, even if you haven't got any other MJ windows open or functions activated. Having said that ... terminal velocity is incredibly high in 1.0.4, to the exten that it is hardly ever a limiting factor. If you are having problems with it - say on the launchpad!? - I'd think there has to be something else going on. "LF" main stage & boosters, not "LFO"? Could be air-breathers not having enough intakes for full throttle but not enough thrust to lift at low throttle?

Good advice, works well. Just to add for ... Windows symlinks are perfectly possible. Quick search suggests this guide might be useful -> http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/

Lost the other thread where this is being discussed ... I'm having almost no luck at all with service or cargo bays. Doesn't matter what order I add things or whether I use any 'tricks' or not, they just don't seem to behave. Forget the satellite for the moment - at the front of that bay is a SAS unit and battery, with a couple of solar panels. Lots of extra drag with them and the hottest things on ascent are the solar panels, which receive light and generate power, in the closed bay. How? Even without the panels the SAS and battery are a problem, despite this all being rebuilt several times, because I knew bays are awkward. Funnily enough, I care less about the oddities of Service bays, even though they show up more often. Rockets are just so much more forgiving than planes that I don't mind the drag and heat as much. It has been disconcerting to see a service bay half-way out of the stack during flight but opening and reclosing the doors (nothing in the way) cures that most of the time.

If you're downloading from anywhere else it's almost certainly an illegal copy.

AND a huge amount of orbit, surface, vessel, target, transfer and other information. Have a look at the custom window editor for all the data you can display. I stopped using KER because MJ could show me everything I needed, and more. (KER's back for comparison at the moment - and can't tell me the dV most of my vehicles have).

So how come no-one else has done this? Oh yeah - there is only one Whackjob

Does it count that I just did this in the demo (and the previous demo) version, with limited parts to help those that don't have the full version? (New demo wasn't first time though, admittedly. The old one was ^^).

They are meant to eliminate the drag and heat buildup from parts inside when they are closed. They don't work too much of the time. I'm having trouble with imgur at the moment but I'm trying to upload a picture of my cargo bay contents - battery, SAS and solar panels. No clipping, no fancy placement, lots of heat and drag. :-(

All your mod questions answered when you find that mod's thread in ... http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/forums/35-Add-on-Releases