Shuttle Design

[Sigma117]

I've made a shuttle that can fly in atmo and reach orbit but the large wing strakes just don't survive the return trip which buggers the shuttles lift, making it nosedive.

Any ideas on how to stop the strakes burning up or should I try using other parts that'll give a higher temp resist?

[Porkjet]

Dive in in a shallow trajectory, maintain an angle of attack of 30-40° in the upper atmosphere to lose that speed, use an airbrake on the top of the rear to assist in pitch up and drag.

if you're good at it you can reenter with barely any visible flames. Happy flying!

Edit: Also, if you keep some fuel in the strakes, it increases their thermal mass and makes them heat up more slowly

Edited April 29, 2015 by Porkjet

[Parkaboy]

I think I finally got the hang of reentering with a shuttle.

I was just playing career, and decided to build a small two-kerbal shuttle to ferry tourists around kerbin, and maybe even take them on Mun flybys. Mind you, I was still low on the tech tree, and had no access to stuff like airbrakes and drogue chutes.

First I designed the shuttle itself. The thing I used to have trouble with - making a small vessel that could glide well - turned out to be fantastically easy with the new aeridynamics. Then I designed the booster stages. Getting the balance right has always been a pain, and in fact I think the new aero helps me on this area, since the shuttle wings help keep it stable. Then I had to find out how to reenter without burning up. I got it right on my third try. Here's how I did it:

From LKO (around 80km), I burned retrograde until I got a periapsis of about 50km. I tried to set this periapsis a little west of KSC (near those mountains). Now here's what I think it's the important bit: in the highest part of the atmosphere, where it isn't too thick, you shoul pull your nose up and offer a lot of area to cause drag. I pulled up about 30º-45º, and lost most of my orbital velocity between 50km and 30km. If you don't do that, and you reach an altitude of around 30km with too much velocity, you may burn up.