Spaceplanes for dummies

[Marcvs101]

I am trying to make a horizontally launched SSTO: I know it is possible, in fact I have managed to make one, which failed to re-enter (it went spinning madly just under 40 km).

Are there any advices anyone can give me?

Also I still haven\'t managed to properly use an aerospike engine: I have noticed that it drains A LOT of fuel, a lot more than a standard liquid fuel engine.

[rkman]

Also I still haven\'t managed to properly use an aerospike engine: I have noticed that it drains A LOT of fuel, a lot more than a standard liquid fuel engine.

I tested the aerospike side-by-side with the standard non-cimbal engine (215 thrust), and the aerospike uses a little less fuel.

[EndOfTheEarth]

I\'d been struggling with the same challenge. I just recently got into orbit and back, and here\'s what I found:

--Make sure your spaceplane has all the horzontal and vertical control surfaces a normal plane would have, and that it actually flies through aerodynamics rather than thrust. There are other threads on how to do this.

--Keep your plane pointed prograde until you\'ve made it below 10km.

--Rather than doing a heavy reentry burn and vertically dropping, do a light burn that brings your spaceplane in slowly; don\'t entirely kill your orbit, just bring the periapsis down to about 5km or so and atmospheric drag will do the rest.

--Don\'t turn your atmospheric engines back on until you\'re below 12.5km, then use them to stabilize into normal plane flight.

--Don\'t expext your ASAS to fly the plane for you. This late in the mission, your plane will naturally want to tilt up due to where the remaining fuel is localized. Do not allow your plane to get tilted more than 40 degrees above the horizon, or you will start to tumble.