The Klauncher Spacecab

[Fellow314]

Inspired by this, I built this.

Almost entirely reusable launch system for delivering one pilot and up to four crew to LKO .

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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.

Edited May 21, 2015 by Fellow314