Surviving Kerbin Re-Entry Learstar A1

[HeavyLanding]

Has anybody successfully survived re-entry in the Learstar A1 or any space plane? I'm trying to play without cheating using any mods.

I keep disintegrating

[Dixi]

As I understand new reentry mechanic is more realistic, not as much as in Deadly Reentry, but not completely safe, as in ksp 0.9.

So not every old version craft can return safe now.

[Anquietas314]

For the Learstar in particular the trick is to use a very shallow reentry and S-curves similar to the space shuttle during the re-entry, but in my experience for most spaceplanes just slap some airbrakes on and you're good to go, even for pretty nasty reentry profiles .

[NathanKell]

Like the real shuttle, reenter belly first, not nose first.

[Anquietas314]

Like the real shuttle, reenter belly first, not nose first.

Doesn't work well for this particular craft - the wings naturally flip it nose-first just because of drag being off-center, even if you deliberately stall it.

[HeavyLanding]

Thanks for the replies... I "landed" it once... by land meaning i didn't burn up, but the ground wasn't that forgiving

[Anquietas314]

Thanks for the replies... I "landed" it once... by land meaning i didn't burn up, but the ground wasn't that forgiving

Hehe, sounds a lot like my first 1.0 SSTO spaceplane:

Getting to space? Eh, doable with a bit of practice. Getting back? Easy, yay airbrakes!. Landing? Have fun with that... plane's unstable when low on fuel, you have no choice but to land at ridiculous speeds (very little wing surface), the plane does cartwheels if you try to use the airbrakes to help with landing, etc, etc.

[NathanKell]

Ah. Then you might want to fix the craft before trying to reenter.