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F-NAD is an aerospace division run by the finest nuggets. Check out Adans Workshop for my previous spaceflight adventures and new ones to come. Look on this forum for sneak peaks of my next kerbal vids and for giving help and getting shoutouts for and from me, respectively.

Here's the story. I decided to build an SSTO that can carry a three-person spaceplane into LKO and leave it before landing at the KSC. That way, the spaceplane itself will be ready for its interplanetary burn with all its liquid fuel tanks full and I won't have to drop any debris on the surface. For an aerodynamic design concept, I viewed Matt Lowne's air-launched spaceplane video. Though I followed the video while building my plane, I made sure to add my own parts in my version (e.g. rapiers instead of airliner engines, reaction wheels, NERVs, more oxidizer for the rapiers, etc). I plan to get BOTH craft in orbit instead of sacrificing one for the other. Below is the image of my prototype (spaceplane included). I do not plan to change the spaceplane, so it's the carrier I need help on. STAGING SEQUENCE: 5: Carrier rapiers 4: Carrier NERVs 3: Detach spaceplane from carrier Attached via docking port 2: Spaceplane NERVs Should be separate from carrier by then. 1: Spaceplane rapiers 0: Spaceplane rear parachutes Spaceplane has ~4,952 m/s of delta-V with its oxidizer tanks (99%) depleted, so there's the reason why I want this to work so badly. Craft file: https://mega.nz/#!iSglSAKT!iyaMk3pM_rt1HMWtCXu4ROxektOhf-tsHE4Y5OqtBig While the appeal of this design seems awesome, the test results are anything but. For instance: My aircraft keeps sliding on the runway, even at maximum friction control. I can't achieve LKO. I did once, but I could not repeat it. More details on what happened later. Honestly, I forgot if it was this prototype or another one. Either way, I was lucky. The other times, I failed to achieve an apoapsis above 70 km before I got below 39 km (or whatever altitude you can't bounce back up from). When I did reach Ap=70 km, I couldn't get my periapsis up in time to avoid getting recaptured in the atmosphere. (IN THE ONE TEST RUN THAT I ACHIEVED LKO IN) My carrier plane lost control after re-entry, and I spun uncontrollably in the air. In fact, my tailfins snapped right off. I had a bit of trouble keeping this plane straight when the carrier's rapiers activated. More specifically, it wanted to pitch way up for a bit until its oxidizer supply was depleted. I then tried Matt's Stratolauncher design concept, but that prototype turned out even worse. When the rapiers switched to rocket mode, I rapidly pitched downward. The picture below shows the prototype in question. If I had to guess why, it's because of the three rapiers on the top being so close together What should I do for my carrier to work? What kind of design is necessary to function both with and without the spaceplane? Any and all help is greatly appreciated. If you want to try it out for yourself, feel free to ask for the craft file (aside from the one I posted here) One more time: the spaceplane shall not do anything until it is released from the carrier in stable LKO.