What's the biggest thing you ever got to orbit on a spaceplane?

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

Not talking fuel or Kerbals.

The greatest mass of parts carried to, and left in, orbit by an SSTO Spaceplane. (Plane not included.)

For me: I could never get the Big Orange Tank up there. I could do the Big Gray 18 ton. But now I'm working on a system capable of 80 tons!

How 'bout you?

[Superfluous J]

I voted 0-25, though IMO 0 should be its own category.

And I'd have picked it

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

I voted 0-25, though IMO 0 should be its own category.

And I'd have picked it

But, but, you're the guy who landed the asteriod! what do you mean, ZERO!

(IMHO that trumps simple hauling things UP)

[GoSlash27]

I voted 0-25, though IMO 0 should be its own category.

And I'd have picked it

^This. I don't lift cargo with spaceplanes, I lift supplies.

I did, however help somebody sort out their cargo lift spaceplane and it carried a big orange tank, so I guess that counts *shrug*

Best,

-Slashy

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

^This. I don't lift cargo with spaceplanes, I lift supplies.

Best,

-Slashy

Exactly, its easy to add more fuselage. The challenge is payload.

[Columbia]

In total, I've lifted --- Yes, a whopping exact 0.00 tons into orbit on a spaceplane! What an amazing feat!

[Starhawk]

I got an orange tank to orbit in a space plane in 0.24 or 0.25.

I'm just planning to design a new one to do the same job. My Jool-5 mission plan calls for several modular units consisting of little more than orange tanks and docking ports. I think a spaceplane will do the job admirably.

Happy landings!

[Randazzo]

Since Kerbals don't count...

I can make a spaceplane, I just can't make a spaceplane that can carry anything other than itself.

[GoSlash27]

Exactly, its easy to add more fuselage. The challenge is payload.

Oh, I disagree. It's not that it's any more of a challenge to lift cargo with spaceplanes, it's just that it makes no sense (at least in my program) to do that. My current tanker carries more fuel than the orange tank and it's certainly not any easier to accomplish that.

Using spaceplanes for cargo means I have to limit the dimensions and mass of the payload to what the spaceplane can handle and any particular spaceplane design wouldn't be used often enough to justify the R&D time.

Shuttling kerbals and transporting fuel, OTOH, is something that I do regularly. If it's not a job that 1) spaceplanes are best at and 2) I'm going to need to do often, I just plain don't design a spaceplane to do that job.

Best,

-Slashy

[DocMoriarty]

I used to build really oversized spaceplanes pre-1.0 and bring nearly everything into orbit with these. You can find some of them also in the documentation about spaceplanes in my signature. Here are some highlights though:

This is Leviathan delivering a new 100ton+- tug into LKO doing the final orbital insert with the nukes for efficiency:

And Leviathan on runway without payload:

This is a tanker called Milkman:

After all the nerfs of the jet engines and rapier and new aerodynamics that stuff is impossible. Also because of the much slower physics in 1.0.x. Spaceplanes used to be A LOT more fun in 0.24, probably not as realistic but therefore 10x more kerbalistic!

Edited September 6, 2015 by DocMoriarty

[Kyrt Malthorn]

I got 7 tons ir so of 1.25m mono tanks to orbit testing my first attempt at a cargo/supply lifter mk2 space plane. I want to do better, never played with the mk3 parts yet. I want to develop more, it's justa matter of making time while still trying to support my other KSP operations.

[Guest]

Zero tons for me as well, though I've easily created in excess of one hundred tons of SSTO debris thanks to my rubbish piloting.

[Moach]

does the mass of Kerbals count?

in total, I must have left tons of "conspicuous green material" up in orbit over a long iterative process of Kesslerian Accumulation

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

I used to build really oversized spaceplanes pre-1.0 and bring nearly everything into orbit with these. You can find some of them also in the documentation about spaceplanes in my signature. Here are some highlights though:

This is Leviathan delivering a new 100ton+- tug into LKO doing the final orbital insert with the nukes for efficiency:

http://www.docmoriarty.com/ksp/gfx/leviathan_05.jpg

And Leviathan on runway without payload:

http://www.docmoriarty.com/ksp/gfx/leviathan_02.jpg

This is a tanker called Milkman:

http://www.docmoriarty.com/ksp/gfx/milkman_01.jpg

After all the nerfs of the jet engines and rapier and new aerodynamics that stuff is impossible. Also because of the much slower physics in 1.0.x. Spaceplanes used to be A LOT more fun in 0.24, probably not as realistic but therefore 10x more kerbalistic!

I love that!

Reminds me of this

- - - Updated - - -

Oh, I disagree. It's not that it's any more of a challenge to lift cargo with spaceplanes, it's just that it makes no sense (at least in my program) to do that. My current tanker carries more fuel than the orange tank and it's certainly not any easier to accomplish that.

Using spaceplanes for cargo means I have to limit the dimensions and mass of the payload to what the spaceplane can handle and any particular spaceplane design wouldn't be used often enough to justify the R&D time.

Shuttling kerbals and transporting fuel, OTOH, is something that I do regularly. If it's not a job that 1) spaceplanes are best at and 2) I'm going to need to do often, I just plain don't design a spaceplane to do that job.

Best,

-Slashy

Ah, Slash, I love our debates.

challenge (noun)

: a difficult task or problem : something that is hard to do.

Yes. more of a challenge. As soon as I did the KPrize I thought: "Great! Now, how can I use this to haul spaceships to orbit?!" And yes, I could make bigger, or faster, or more efficient planes.

I eventually gave up, thinking "ok spaceplanes for fuel or crew but that's it." (that was giving up)

Now I have new idea. 80+ ton SPACESHIPS to orbit on spaceplanes. And they don't have to fit in those little payload bays.

Details soon.

[GoSlash27]

Ah, Slash, I love our debates.

challenge (noun)

: a difficult task or problem : something that is hard to do.

Yes. more of a challenge. As soon as I did the KPrize I thought: "Great! Now, how can I use this to haul spaceships to orbit?!" And yes, I could make bigger, or faster, or more efficient planes.

I eventually gave up, thinking "ok spaceplanes for fuel or crew but that's it." (that was giving up)

Now I have new idea. 80+ ton SPACESHIPS to orbit on spaceplanes. And they don't have to fit in those little payload bays.

Details soon.

Brainlord Mesomorph,

Hey, more power to ya It's your game and there's no wrong way to play it.

But we're just gonna have to agree to disagree on the difficulty of making cargo spaceplanes. I can design and build spaceplanes that haul cargo just as easily as spaceplanes that haul supplies (see earlier photo). It's all the same to the plane whether the payload is kerbals in a passenger compartment, fuel in a tank, or cargo in a bay. It's the same engineering exercise, so I don't know why you would find one more difficult than the others.

for me, this

is no more or less challenging than this

or this

There are a lot of aspects of design that would make one spaceplane more challenging than another, but I don't think the type of payload would be one of them.

All that aside, I'll be interested to see what you pull off.

Best,

-Slashy

Edited September 6, 2015 by GoSlash27

[Aragosnat]

Best I did pre-1.0 was 5 tons. Now... Don't think I can get that even. Barely been getting craft into orbit that can get 1-2 Kerbals up.

[Alshain]

Post 1.0

0 tonnes SSTO plane. SSTO Planes suck now for anything more than crew carriers and quite frankly have been ruined for me.

10 ton payload shuttle (modded parts)

Currently working on a Mk3 shuttle, but it hasn't successfully carried anything to orbit yet.

Pre-1.0 w/ FAR

SSTO plane - A heck of a lot (also modded parts, kinda had to back then). I miss SSTOs

Edited September 6, 2015 by Alshain

[RocketPilot573]

I believe I once delivered like 20 tons to Minmus, but that was in like 0.23.

[EladDv]

48mT to orbit in 1.0.4 i wanted it to go to duna but to no avail....it should have been delivering base modules there but it could only get them to orbit

[windows_x_seven]

0.

Just... plain... round... boring... 0 tons.

I cannot SSTO. :'(

[Bill Phil]

0 as of now.

I can if I really want to invest a few hours into it.

[Mikki]

Errm... 185 tons if irrc..., did not vote on this poll. It was in 0.9, and the SSTO was called "Swan". And it flew like a big, very well feeded one.

http://imgur.com/cIO5MU2

Edited September 6, 2015 by Mikki

[xebx]

I've voted 75-100 tons :

The HypersonicCarrier2 SSTO can deliver 85 tons to low kerbin orbit with a little fuel remaining, i've posted it in the 'Stock Payload Fraction Challenge' here, score 35.5% (Val Nich Slugy Rubisco scored better)

Edited September 6, 2015 by xebx

[Val]

I lifted 136 t for the Stock Payload Challenge, but that design isn't useful for anything else. The only thing dense enough to fit the cargo bay with that mass are Ore Canisters, and it's not balanced to be able to land again.

But I did do one that could lift 108 t. 3 Orange tanks with some room to spare. It could conceivably be used to launch 2.5 m diameter Station parts or Interplanetary stage with a lander or 2.

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Craft file

[Red Iron Crown]

I seem to have real trouble with Mk3 based SSTOs. The joints don't seem strong enough for the masses of parts involved, at least the way I build things (and I see others are successful so it's likely just me). The most detachable payload I've fit into a spaceplane is ~10t in a Mk2 bay.

Here's a pic to illustrate how well my typical Mk3 SSTO attempt goes:

There's a reason I make them uncrewed...