Saturn Shuttle Collection

[ZooNamedGames]

Thanks to the suggestion by @ExplorerKlatt, I have decided to finally make a home for my Saturn Shuttles in the Spacecraft Exchange. My Saturn Shuttle is a well traveled machine that has done many missions following my Saturn Shuttle Mission Series. This vehicle went through 20 missions before the thread was sadly locked, but now you can fly her yourself  .

A little backstory as to the existence of this vehicle. During the latter portions of the Space Shuttle's development in the 70s, engineers proposed a plan to use the existing Saturn hardware to carry the Space Shuttle and it's external tank. This sadly fell through as it was a poor excuse to continue to use the existing hardware and facilities, and eventually we got the Space Shuttle we know today. This hybrid of both the Space Shuttle with the Saturn hardware was simply known as the Saturn Shuttle! I decided to replicate it in KSP and magically on one of the first tries, I got it to work, and long before the advent of the new Vector high gimbal engines.

Now there are 4 variants of the orbiters as they changed during development. The empty orbiters are named SSM-X (following the naming scheme from the mission series). SSM-X was the first empty Saturn Shuttle. SSM-X1 was the second, and so on until SSM-X3.

I will also be providing the craft files for each mission.

 

Thankfully done by @Pine.

http://imgur.com/a/TGGCx

Thanks to @tg626 for the Album (note there have been modifications to the vehicles since this was made).

Orbiter Patches by @adsii1970

Spoiler

and adsii1970 is still working on the rest (and is not at all rushed since look at this thread! It's content rich already.

SSM-X3 shown in video.

 

Vehicles Updated for Version: 1.1.3

Test Vehicles:

 

OV-001

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0GVLJwOLVGyeFVDWE1leWRRR0E/view?usp=sharing

Vehicles: Hercules

Description: Used as a structural testing bed for the later orbiters.

-

OV+K747

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0GVLJwOLVGyX3FfMkVEaldBMkE/view?usp=sharing

Vehicles: Oddyseus, Explorer, Nomad

Description: The K747 would haul the orbiters into flight and then when it reached altitude, would be released to fly solo. These were Approach and Landing Tests (ALTs) testing the vehicles landing characteristics as well as testing the natural aerodynamics of the vehicle.

--

Official Orbiters:

 

SSM-X

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0GVLJwOLVGyd0w2Q2dFN0lCb3c/view?usp=sharing

Vehicles: Horizons

Description: This was the first official form of the Saturn Shuttle when used in the mission series.

-

SSM-X1

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0GVLJwOLVGyT2Q2TGhQUTUtcjA/view?usp=sharing

Vehicles: Inspiration

Description: This was an upgraded form of the orbiter with modified hull to increase space.

-

SSM-X2 - The Classic Saturn Shuttle

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0GVLJwOLVGyZUdXWmVha0ZSZmM/view?usp=sharing

Vehicles: Nomad (post retrofit for spaceflight)

Description: This was a modification of the wings to better the aerodynamic stability amongst that, the docking and payload mounting unit inside the cargo bay was replaced with something more useful.

-

SSM-X3 - The Modern Saturn Shuttle

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0GVLJwOLVGya0U3OVVMNW5DUmc/view?usp=sharing

Vehicles: Determination

Description: This is the most updated version of the vehicle. It has modified Saturn Shuttle Main Engines as well as the first (and only) modification to the launcher, in that the second stage engines have been replaced with Vectors.

--------

 

Flight Characteristics:

The vehicle will want to pitch northward just after launch so pull back (press S). Point yourself just above the center of the navball and as you gain more control of your velocity, you can move back. Then once your speed is high enough (80m/s+) roll clockwise (to the right with E) so that the 90 degree heading is up on the navball. Slowly perform a gravity turn as you increase in height. Make sure you stay along the 90 degree line. If your prograde marker is to the right or left of the line, lean slightly to the opposite direction until it returns to the center of the line. If done right, you will burn out your first stage just above 15km. The second stage is variable is your using a pre-SSM-X3 version or not, but regardless, continue to burn just above the terminator (point on the navball where the red and blue meet). If you start to fall, pull back into the blue, and if your apoapsis is growing too fast, put yourself more inside of the red portion of the navball. Note; once your second stage is ditched you may need to reduce throttle to maintain control of the vehicle. Release external tank when empty, and use the Orbital Maneuvering System thrusters (OMS) as needed. Note that to use the OMS you need to also toggle RCS. For an orbit of about 250kmv250km, I suggest that you burn just bit west of the giant crater west of the desert. That should put you near the KSC, however I still advise using quicksaves to be sure. During re-entry keep your nose up to about 25 degrees above the terminator to protect the body of the shuttle. Deploy airbrakes as needed, and once you make contact on the runway deploy the final stage, which is the parachutes to help slow down your speed and come to a stop at the KSC runway.

 

 

You might find the SSM-X2 and SSM-X3 the most useable.

I hope you enjoy these, and please show me what you do with them! I've seen the love some people give to other's crafts and I definitely feel the Saturn Shuttle deserves it's time to shine  . It's an amazing vehicle.

 

 

 

Thanks again for @adsii1970 for the program patch.

 

From the series- "Never stop flying"

                                                          -Gus Kerman

 

[Rath]

Very cool

[XB-70A]

Fantastic! Your work inspired me to try again this project.

[ZooNamedGames]

1 hour ago, XB-70A said:

Fantastic! Your work inspired me to try again this project.

Try which project?

[XB-70A]

7 hours ago, ZooNamedGames said:

Try which project?

I tried a Saturn Shuttle more than a year ago under 1.0.2, but the control was terrifying. I just give up and totally forget it until yesterday when I saw your work. It should be possible now with the Vector engine on Saturn, their gimballing will clearly help.

Also it was a project based on this wood model :

Like here my shuttle got four SSME (Swivel), but two Thud to complete circularization.

[ZooNamedGames]

3 minutes ago, XB-70A said:

I tried a Saturn Shuttle more than a year ago under 1.0.2, but the control was terrifying. I just give up and totally forget it until yesterday when I saw your work. It should be possible now with the Vector engine on Saturn, their gimballing will clearly help.

Also it was a project based on this wood model :

Like here my shuttle got four SSME (Swivel), but two Thud to complete circularization.

It's always been possible with enough effort  as you can see in the video, those are Skippers on the orbiter- not Vectors! 

[adsii1970]

@ZooNamedGames: Just watched your video (never done that before). I know from my efforts that the booster assembly always wants to slant toward the side of the shuttle. I noticed you struggled to maintain the desired pitch and roll. Are you trying to remain true to the concept or are you up to tweaking the assembly to give a smoother flight?

[ZooNamedGames]

6 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

@ZooNamedGames: Just watched your video (never done that before). I know from my efforts that the booster assembly always wants to slant toward the side of the shuttle. I noticed you struggled to maintain the desired pitch and roll. Are you trying to remain true to the concept or are you up to tweaking the assembly to give a smoother flight?

The only tweaking I've done is limiting the thrust of the Skippers on the orbiter to 33% (when I initially designed it I randomly picked that number first time and it worked). It's as true to the concept as I can manage.

[XB-70A]

1 hour ago, ZooNamedGames said:

It's always been possible with enough effort  as you can see in the video, those are Skippers on the orbiter- not Vectors! 

The problem to me was with Saturn not the orbiter. The last one got four Swivels and it was not a problem, but the S-IC-like was powered by five Skippers, not Mainsails. My stage was shorter than yours, some kind of dwarf S-IC, and the Skippers were underpowered while the Mainsails were fat and overpowered, even by reducing their thrust the craft use to flip and the fuel burned too fast. So I just switch to something else in my career to get more funds like tourists flights mainly.

But as I wrote here, your project just reminds me that another try can be fun.

[ZooNamedGames]

1 minute ago, XB-70A said:

The problem to me was with Saturn not the orbiter. The last one got four Swivels and it was not a problem, but the S-IC-like was powered by five Skippers, not Mainsails. My stage was shorter than yours, some kind of dwarf S-IC, and the Skippers were underpowered while the Mainsails were fat and overpowered, even by reducing their thrust the craft use to flip and the fuel burned too fast. So I just switch to something else in my career to get more funds like tourists flights mainly.

But as I wrote here, your project just reminds me that another try can be fun.

This isn't career friendly. The orbiter's power source is from 2 RTGs and the Saturn uses a mix of very costly parts that shouldn't be discarded like it is.

[XB-70A]

3 minutes ago, ZooNamedGames said:

This isn't career friendly.

I am member of the Echap-Return-to-the-VAB? Gang 

[ZooNamedGames]

So yeah, let me know what you guys do with these  . Like in the Space Shuttle thread, I want to see what others can do with this! Whether it be recreating the ISS, going to Duna (if it can), crashing into the sun or just plain blowing it up, I want to know!  

[ZooNamedGames]

I would make you guys a scenario for you to use if I knew how outside of a cheap quicksave.