Kerbal Dream Chaser

[MadChris48]

After adding a ship earlier I couldn't help but add another.

This is the Kerbal Dream Chaser craft. Capacity for 2 Kerbals, and takes a small shuttle vehicle to an 80km LKO orbit with a single stage.

The shuttle is powered by an LV-909 and has 2.9k dV. Plenty to peruse the Kerbin system.

Those big engines can be little much and put a lot of stress on the craft at full throttle and it can get a bit flippy. But some careful throttling and attention paid to AoA and it's really not at all that difficult.

You can make a variant of the lifter stage if you haven't unlocked the tech for the biggest rockets yet. A lifter stage of two orange tanks and a Twin Boar with a set of fins will get it mostly there with just the last couple hundred dV to circularize left up to the shuttle. (though it does look a bit ridiculous with the smaller 2.5m tanks and such a large fairing)

This one is pretty much WYSIWYG, nothing fancy here. Enjoy!

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dropbox file included. https://www.dropbox.com/s/m65qpe7frks4tb0/dreamchaser.craft?dl=0

[Ferdoni]

What is its purpose?

Also, it seems to be a far too huge lifter for getting the craft into orbit...

[MadChris48]

It's purpose is to a) act as a rescue/ferry for kerbals in the kerbin SOI, and to look cool and be fun to fly.

Yes, yes, The lifter is a bit stronger than it needs to be for sure. But I wanted it to be a single stage to orbit craft so its just a wee bit over-engineered.

Like I mentioned, you can replace the large lifter section with a couple orange tanks and a twin boar to bring the cost down quite a bit, however it isn't very aesthetically pleasing in that config. And you'll have to use the shuttle section to circularize.

Sure there are probably better and definitely cheaper ways to get this up there, but this isn't an efficiency craft, its a balls to the wall, your-grandma-wish-she-had-this-ship-growin'-up kinda craft. get it.

[Columbia]

Very well-done design! I like it.

Repped!

[Jesrad]

I'm pretty sure you don't really need the big fairing around the shuttle, since it's already streamlined.

[MadChris48]

I'm pretty sure you don't really need the big fairing around the shuttle, since it's already streamlined.

Without the fairing the wings create too much lift, bringing the CoL far ahead of the CoM and it gets flippy.