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Sideline/BOT: An attempt at one-upping the space shuttle.


mattihase

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Behold the Sideline, a (theoretically) reusable shuttle without any need for disposable side boosters:
vuYXzBc.png

One of the brighter ideas of those nerds over at NASA was the Space Shuttle, a rocket which stores its expensive engines on a spaceplane segment which can return them back to earth for re-use. A pretty clever idea with a couple of hitches in the execution:

800px-STS120LaunchHiRes-edit1.jpg

See those two big boosters on the side? Yeah. Those bits aren't on the reusable spaceplane bit, and it's a real hassle to go out and recover those seperately.

The Sideline Shuttle (with Big Orbital Tank) concept attempts to remedy that one singular sole problem with the Space Shuttle, by simply placing two Sideline Shuttles either side of the disposable tank.

ZFkUeaR.png

As you can see, twice as many main engines can be recovered now, 6 in total, and we've gotten rid of those silly booster things too.

This was a pretty fun craft idea to explore, and I ended up creating two variants of the Sideline, one with a small passenger tube (in the first screenshot) and one with a Mk2 cargo bay capable of ferrying around small satellites or station components (in the second screenshot), both coming in at about 22 tons by the time they seperate from the main tank and make it into orbit. The Sidelines can make a powered landing, though ironically, given the whole reason I designed them, I've yet to have any of them return from orbit without spinning out and damaging their precious engines during the inevitable crash, but hopefully I'll be able to work that out eventually.

I was planning on working on a bigger 4 engine per shuttle variant shortly before posting but then the VAB ended up freaking out and creating a part singularity so I've decided to call a day of it for now.

pbdzeXF.png

 

 

Edited by mattihase
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