SSTO, no wings

[Riph]

My spacecraft stay in orbit forever, getting reused over and over until they're obsolete. This saves a ton of money over detaching the command pod and landing it (and junking everything else.) The obvious problem however is how to get kerbals and data back home. For years now I've been trying to build the holy grail of crew rotation transports, which for me is a craft that is the following:

1. Gets to orbit and precisely back to KSC with no staging or discarded parts.
   
2. Carries at least 4 kerbals as passengers (can operate with 0).
   
3. Is bloody effortless to fly, takes off vertically, lands vertically with parachutes. I am a rocket scientist, not a jet pilot.
   
4. Has no wings. See #3 for why. (Some may remember my previous thread about my troubled relationship with wings.)
   
5. Vanilla parts.
   

I believe at last I have done so. Behold, the Air Taxi.

This thing is so easy to fly it brings tears to my eyes. Crew rotation and science recovery have never been easier. I felt compelled to share.

[Rocketfeline]

Huh. I hate to mcdonalds you but can I have a docking port with that?

[Majorjim!]

Looks fun to fly, good job!

[Riph]

Huh. I hate to mcdonalds you but can I have a docking port with that?

Totally. I didn't include one here because I know people prefer a wide variety of small, medium, and large ports.

My personal preference would probably be a pair of docking port jrs mounted to each of the sides.

[NugunsKnight]

That sir, is an awesome piece of science, but not artwork.

[Riph]

That sir, is an awesome piece of science, but not artwork.

Bwahaha. If you think that's ugly, you should see my craft that aren't designed for atmosphere. Bare metal efficiency makes for some damned ugly rockets.

[LABHOUSE]

Totally. I didn't include one here because I know people prefer a wide variety of small, medium, and large ports.

My personal preference would probably be a pair of docking port jrs mounted to each of the sides.

Just use a klaw.

[SHiftER2O]

Just use a klaw.

Yep, agreeing with this guy here Stick a KLAW at the front and you basically have a radial attaching spacecraft, who needs docking anyways?

- - - Updated - - -

And use radial parachutes

[SquaredSpekz]

looks cool. Not sure what you meant from SSTO , no wings as a SSTO does not need wings, only simply to be SSTO.

[problemecium]

I'd recommend changing that top parachute into a shielded docking port (or any port, but the shielded one works well aesthetically) and adding some radial parachutes, enough so that in case some noob burns up all the fuel it can still manage a soft landing.

[StormKat]

Will you be posting it to KerbalX? Not that I can't just build one... I'm lazy.

Wait! Where's the command/control?

Edited June 9, 2015 by StormKat

[Jesrad]

Thanks for sharing, Riph. You're my kind of spacecraft designer, and I completely concur with you on the evilness of wings in current KSP. I'll test this, and see how to best integrate docking ports without sacrificing too much of its elegant efficiency.

[Jesrad]

Tested (after a few minor changes) and approved:

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I'll try next model with no RCS but Vernier instead.

[Jon144]

Reminds me of the old shuttle concept. Just a giant space capsule that works as an SSTO. The one at the top left.

[Theysen]

Can you give some flight instructions? Tested the exact first layout and didnt make it to orbit at all.. Do you go vertical at some point like the current spaceplanes design during ascent? I really would love to know as I like this approach of a crew shuttle!

[Foxster]

I use something similar. Except I keep it even simpler and just use a rocket all the way. Uses a bit more fuel but that's cheap...

[Jesrad]

Err, "cheap" and "RTG" don't go well together

Can you give some flight instructions? Tested the exact first layout and didnt make it to orbit at all.. Do you go vertical at some point like the current spaceplanes design during ascent? I really would love to know as I like this approach of a crew shuttle!

Here's the profile I used in my test:

Launch with SAS on, incline 5 degrees East as you reach 50 m/s

Once your craft's direction and prograde indicator match (around 20 seconds later, or less), engage Prograde Hold on the SAS.

Let it ride all the way to 21 km altitude, at which point you may engage the rocket.

At 26 km your jets will die. Your craft should be pointing roughly 45 degrees up East by then.

Cut thrust when Apoapsis reaches 75 km, place a maneuver node for circularization (you should have a minute or so to fiddle with it).

Past 60 km altitude, point the craft to maneuver node, and apply full rocket thrust. Your Burn Time should indicate something around 2 minutes, and your ETA to maneuver should read 45-50 seconds. If you did not mess anything, you'll be in orbit with 10% of fuel remaining.

[Edit] Oh, a couple tips: use Action Groups to enable/disable all the jets+intakes, and the rocket, seperately. And you should lock the liquid fuel on the two main tanks until just before lighting up the rocket, so the jets won't pull fuel from them and unbalance the LFO mix.

Edited June 11, 2015 by Jesrad

[Theysen]

Thank you very much Jesrad, I simply forgot to lock the tanks and ended up with less fuel to be burnt by the rocket, didnt check that the small hardpoints don't lock the fuel crossfeed!

Got it into orbit now and I am kind of hooked with more designs like this. Tyvm!

[Jesrad]

And here is an album of how to fly the LFO-only version closest to Riph's original design:

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[Ferdoni]

How much deltaV does it have left in LKO?

[Jesrad]

As it were in the screenshots ? Roughly 250 m/s.