5 Ton Speedster

[purpleivan]

I put this cute little thing together for @Hanna's Fastest Rocket in KSP available challenge, in which the goal is to get the highest speed possible within a launch weight of no more than 5 tons.

The 5 Ton Speedster weighs in at 4,990kg

Heading into the rising sun at takeoff.

She's away and this thing accelerates really fast.

Not long before everything's on fire.

Just need 735m/s to finish off the orbit and most of that is going to come from the Rapier engine.

Burn, burn, burn.

Saying goodbye to the Spaceplane stage and over to the Dawn one.

After a few dozen seconds the vehicle's in orbit.

At sunrise it's time to start the first of two periapsis kicks.

That's number one done.

That's number two... next time round we are outa here.

Hello there Kerbin, don't mind if I swing round the backside and picky a little boost.

Into the big bun now with about 90% of the xenon fuel remaining.

So long Kerbin.

That's 6km/s.

That's 10km/s.

Finally it's out of fuel, with a speed of 11141m/s on the clock.

11952 surface speed.

[xendelaar]

wow, that's a nice compact build you've got there! thanks for sharing.