SSTOs Are Possible!

[Rocket Farmer]

Slapped together my totally unoptimized first plane with 3 of the powerful jets (whiplash I believe) in a small frame with 2 air intakes.

 

While messing around trying a speed run I got up to 1,200m/S at 17km.  Interested to see how well it could do I then tipped my nose up 30 degrees and watched the rockets speed climb to 1,280m/S before cutting out at 22km.  I then drifted up to 73km and stayed in space for 2-3 minutes with 960m/S speed.

 

I haven’t been able to do that in KSP1 since they removed air hogging in the soupisphere about 5 years ago.

With a little work I’m thinking SSTOs are totally viable in this atmosphere.

 

[The Aziz]

You won't be able to hit 1200m/s at that altitude once the heating is back.

[Streetwind]

You can build a SSTO with just six parts. It has become even easier in KSP2 than it was in KSP1, now that it seems like dV to orbit is closer to 3200 than 3400 m/s. Just slap together a mk1 capsule, a parachute, a decoupler, a FLT-400 and a FL-T800 tank, and a Dart aerospike. It'll go to orbit without staging, with fuel to spare.

A spaceplane, on the other hand, will need a few more parts. But there's plenty videos out there from content creators who have built some. Matt Lowne slapped one together at the ESA event and went to orbit and back to KSC with it.

[Chilkoot]

1 minute ago, Streetwind said:

A spaceplane, on the other hand, will need a few more parts. But there's plenty videos out there from content creators who have built some. Matt Lowne slapped one together at the ESA event and went to orbit and back to KSC with it.

Spaceplanes with utility beyond Kerbin's SOI are going to be more challenging now with the high-ISP engines using hydrogen as a propellant.

The days of OP SSTA spaceplanes may be over, which is fine as those were a bit ridiculous, honestly.

[Rocket Farmer]

1 minute ago, Chilkoot said:

Spaceplanes with utility beyond Kerbin's SOI are going to be more challenging now with the high-ISP engines using hydrogen as a propellant.

The days of OP SSTA spaceplanes may be over, which is fine as those were a bit ridiculous, honestly.

Those days ended way back when KSP1 got rid of airhogging in the Soupisphere many years ago.  I had one airplane that could run up to 44km and I was able to fly it to Duna and back landing on the runway.  Those were fun times.

While I don’t think that’s possible I bet you can get a spaceplane orbiting the Mun without too much effort.

[Soda Popinski]

34 minutes ago, Rocket Farmer said:

Those days ended way back when KSP1 got rid of airhogging in the Soupisphere many years ago.

Totally possible to build an SSTA in the current KSP1.  Just scale it up and use nukes for the interplanetary stuff.

 

I'm currently torturing myself with a RAPIER/Ion drive SSTO.  It looks like acceleration under time warp isn't in yet, so it's taking hours to do these burns.

Edited February 25, 2023 by Soda Popinski

[Chilkoot]

3 hours ago, Soda Popinski said:

It looks like acceleration under time warp isn't in yet, so it's taking hours to do these burns.

I hit the same issue, then realized you need to start the burn first at 1x time, then increase the warp.

[Soda Popinski]

3 hours ago, Chilkoot said:

I hit the same issue, then realized you need to start the burn first at 1x time, then increase the warp.

Hasn't worked for me with ion.  Maybe my ship is bugged, as others seem ok, even with ions.