SSTOs! Post your pictures here~

[Janus92]

Touring the Kerbol System after updating two of my VSSTO ships:

[Nicodo123]

This is my first SSTO. I tested it without the radiator panels, and it exploded on re-entry. I haven't tested it yet with the radiator panels, but I'm just happy that I was able to get it into orbit.

 

EDIT: I have since tested it with the radiator panels. It works, but it span out of control at the last second, and I had to ditch the craft and land Jeb in the water. He's fine, but it was annoying.

If anybody thinks they can do better with the landing, here's the craft file. https://kerbalx.com/Nicodo123/SSTO

 

Edited February 22, 2021 by Nicodo123

[RyanRising]

JNSQ has a loading message that reads "Deleting all craft files with the string 'SSTO'. " I think this was intended, but I took that as a challenge.

Craft File & Description on KerbalX. This thing is downright scary to fly, even if you're doing it right. If you're not doing it right, you burn.

[FELIXOFFCIAL]

On 6/3/2013 at 8:31 AM, rtscaptain said:

Dumb question..... but what does SSTO stand for? I get that it is about space planes, but whats the acronym.

single stage to orbit thats why there spaceplanes 

[camacju]

Not all SSTO are spaceplanes. SSTO rockets are a thing too, and a properly designed SSTO rocket can actually get pretty far. The farthest I've got one was to Eeloo and back

[GNO-SYS]

I've been building some heavily-modded monster SSTOs lately.

The Maven and Typhoon were nice science vessels and did missions to Duna, Laythe, and Eve, and the like, but then, I started stepping things up with interstellar warpships, taking them all over the GU galaxy.

The Invidious, Eldorado, Conan-class Interstellar Transporter, and Timberwolf, as well as its upgraded variant, the Turbowolf.

The Invidious was an early prototype that had a lot of limitations, including being very hard to get in and out of and having very clunky landing legs for its size. It was fast, but that was all it had going for it.

The Eldorado was somewhat underpowered and could only hit 100c, which made the journey to Tarsis-1 take about a week. Its horizontal landing ability made it very useful for surface exploration, though. It can do water landings for oceanic exploration, but I've never tried using it as a submarine or anything like that.

The Conan can transport 200ish tons of payload basically anywhere, so it can move very large station sections.

The 600-ton Timberwolf/Turbowolf, which is based on an upgraded 7.5-meter drive block based on the Conan's, is built according to the lessons learned from previous warpships. It can go 5000c, is equipped with a full science suite, and has well over a year of supplies. It is capable of transiting from Kerbol to Nova Kirbani in like 5 actual minutes, and it can land as a tailsitter on basically any planet (except Belph, obviously).

I've landed these things on really hostile worlds like Ceph and Kaith and taken right back off just fine. Their mass is balanced around their Alcubierre warp ring so they can use exotic matter's negative mass and fly horizontally as "antigrav airships". This gives them quite a bit of flexibility in terms of low-altitude maneuvering and choosing a landing site.

Bonus shots. An empty Conan landed on the roof of the VAB, and the Eldorado's armed variant, the Starwarrior.

 

[fourfa]

Slap 2 orange tanks on a Twin Boar, and you have a rocket that can SSTO 25 tons of payload to orbit. Doesn’t really need a whole lot of design, and no reason to take the whole booster anywhere once you’ve reached orbit. Now, Single Stage To Anywhere - indeed there are plenty of threads for challenges like that, this just doesn’t happen to be one of them. 

[camacju]

This is my newest long range SSTO. It can go from the runway to Kerbin orbit and back, eight times. Here it is during the third orbit.

[SomeKSPlayer]

A-65A "Hazard" Tilt-Wing SSTO (top) and A-65B "Danger" Tilt-Wing SSTO (bottom).

I've put in quite a lot of effort into the designs of these craft, with what I think is a perfect balance between efficiency and aesthetics.

The A variant uses 2 Kodiak engines for RATO VTOL, resulting in a lower dry mass and greater efficiency. Based on the multiple times I've flown this craft, it averages around 5.4km/s-5.4km/s of deltaV in LKO, enough to land anywhere except for Eve and Tylo.

The B variant relies on raw jet power to VTOL, using 4 Panther engines alongside the 4 RAPIERs and 2 Whiplashs. Because of the super high stationary TWR, it is a lot easier to fly compared to the A variant, though it suffers from slightly lower vacuum TWR and a less than aesthetically pleasing engine array. It averages around 4.9km/s-5km/s of deltaV in LKO, once again enough to land everywhere except for Eve and Tylo.

Both can however, perform a round trip to Laythe with no mining/refueling, which was my original intent when making these crafts.

 

Edited April 21, 2021 by SomeKSPlayer

[Aerospacer]

Single-whiplashed, experimental design SSTO. Can do Mun or Minmus flyby in single launch, or reach to Jeely, Duna, Ike after refueling from orbital station.

 

Spoiler

A few more screenshots

 

Edited April 26, 2021 by Aerospacer
add 2 pics

[vanlaukaus]

His name is Asphodel.

Greetings everyone! Wanted to present you my new creation, made after about 1000 hours in KSP - obviously, those were spent not only on building SSTOs, but whatever...
My objective was to make completely universal craft, that can easily do almost everything you want in stock system. This is how Asphodel was born! 337 tons of beauty can easily reach Kerbin orbit with about 3000 m/s left. Of course, it also can refuel somewhere, lets say, on Minmus - or on any body with gravity less than 0,24 G, and then the Delta-V counter can show you number up to 5100.

This bad boy has everything you can probably even think about. Laboratory, science stuff, 17 crew slots, fuel cells, 17 R.A.P.I.E.R.s, 6 NERVAs, empty CRG-100 cargobay for some additional payload, solar panels, Convert-O-Tron 250, two big excavators... what am I talking about, if there is even infrared telescope onboard!
Some problems may occure in the atmosphere though. Not because of bad wing construction - no, craft can hold up to 18G, but because of the partcount - it is somewhat around 440 so the FPS counter might feel really bad sometimes.
 

 

[Spaceman.Spiff]

1 hour ago, vanlaukaus said:

Greetings everyone!

Welcome!! 

That is SUPER impressive.

Like, astonishingly good. Great job!

My favorite part is probably that curved tail fin. 

[Kerminator K-100]

1 hour ago, vanlaukaus said:

His name is Asphodel.

What a cool craft! Its amazing how it has everything! You could also have a good kermercial with that. "With the all new Asphodel, you never even have to leave the ship!"

[camacju]

That craft has a lot of engine. I wonder what your ascent profile looks like?

A good rule of thumb is to have 36 tons per Rapier and 45 tons per Nerv. In this case that would mean 9 Rapiers and 7 Nervs.

Cool looking plane though

[JadeOfMaar]

11 hours ago, vanlaukaus said:

His name is Asphodel.

Greetings everyone! Wanted to present you my new creation

That's a truly epic first post, dude!

On 4/26/2021 at 4:56 PM, Aerospacer said:

Single-whiplashed, experimental design SSTO. Can do Mun or Minmus flyby in single launch

Amazing! I don't think I've ever see a ...Panther+Terrier SSTO before. I wouldn't think they were doable because of the Terrier's small bite (low thrust).

[vanlaukaus]

12 hours ago, Spaceman.Spiff said:

Welcome!! 

That is SUPER impressive.

Like, astonishingly good. Great job!

My favorite part is probably that curved tail fin. 

Thanks! Making such craft took a long path that you can see here. And yes, I tried to turn MiG-19 into an SSTO.
I took the tail fin idea from the Hazard-Ish videos. In fact this fin is so big that with some modifications it probably can become a separate spaceplane ...

Spoiler

Some of those crafts are also pretty interesting. Surely gonna tell you more about them soon!

 

12 hours ago, Kerminator K-100 said:

What a cool craft! Its amazing how it has everything! You could also have a good kermercial with that. "With the all new Asphodel, you never even have to leave the ship!"

Thank you! This commecial sounds pretty good! Will anyone buy it for568k though?

2 hours ago, camacju said:

That craft has a lot of engine. I wonder what your ascent profile looks like?

A good rule of thumb is to have 36 tons per Rapier and 45 tons per Nerv. In this case that would mean 9 Rapiers and 7 Nervs.

Cool looking plane though

It surely do. You see, such amount of thrust is especially useful when additional payload (up to 70 tons!) is loaded into the cargobay. Without it, I can agree 17 Rapiers can be a bit too much, but thanks to them craft's ascent profile is pretty steep. Here:

2 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

That's a truly epic first post, dude!

Thanks a lot!

Edited April 28, 2021 by vanlaukaus
grammar edits

[Kerminator K-100]

7 hours ago, vanlaukaus said:

Thank you! This commecial sounds pretty good! Will anyone buy it for568k though?

9 hours ago, camacju said:

A bit steep but I'm sure Jeb has plenty of extra cash lying around

[MisterBennock]

On 2/18/2021 at 12:10 PM, Janus92 said:

Touring the Kerbol System after updating two of my VSSTO ships:

Really nice, I dig the 50s scifi look.

[vanlaukaus]

The Sunset, or The orbital submarine that was made accidentally

Hello again! In my last reply I promised you to tell more about my most interesting crafts, and since I've recently found my old laptop I used to play KSP on earlier (until may 2020) I'll start from the very beginning.

The Sunset is my second working SSTO overall and first working SSTO made in full stock (by the way, it's almost 2 years old - this craft was created on May 8th, 2019). It has only about 1500 dV at orbit, so what is so interesting about it? I'll answer: it literally can be a submarine and start from the ocean floor (just be careful with fuel). What is even more remarkable is the fact that I didn't even wanted it to work like this. It just... happened accidentally.
Probably it's the NERVA being fat part of the craft and pulling it down in water. Well... A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one!

For now I am going to only add my old screenshots because the internet here is pretty slow for doing anything else, but when I return home I will be happy to make some new pictures and maybe even record a video of this boi flying to orbit from underwater for yall, if you're interested!

Spoiler

Edited May 6, 2021 by vanlaukaus

[Guest]

Meet BAK Billbo, the spaceplane that goes there and back again, where "there" is the Laythe ocean surface. She carries a crew of two and a small underslung external payload, in this case a bathysphere that probes the depth of Laythe's oceans. She'll hit 100 km LKO with about 6,000 m/s vacuum dV; a standard Hohmann transfer to Jool followed by a gravity brake off Tylo and aerocapture at Laythe will leave her with about 4,000. After a visit to Laythe's surface, she's back in orbit with 3,000 m/s left, which is plenty for an easy, controlled return to KSC.

She has deployable hydrofoils that will lift her out of the water and allow her to rotate and take wing. (Probably won't work with Scatterer wave buffets on though.)

https://kerbalx.com/Brikoleur/Billbo

[TheWanderer05]

The Demeter mk1B, a mid-tech debris disposal vessel. The launch stage itself is an SSTO that carries up the deorbiter. Both land as planes.

The picture below shows the launch stage engine configuration and some canards I added to give it a little more pitch authority at low speeds.

[Aerospacer]

@TheWanderer05 Excellent, I always approve of low-tech practical things that help to perform real tasks in career. Especially if it full reusable.

[Janus92]

My Starship SSTO gained some new capabilities (kOS Script for Landing), but Bill lost his sandwich during that second landing:

I guess it must have slipped under the seat somewhere!

Ah well, Bill will just get a new sandwich. He hopes someone will find the old sandwich before the next launch!

[Aerospacer]

Simple and utilitary vehicle - orbitbus Patern-9 for tourism business in career. Can deliver 9 kerbanauts to Low Kerbin Orvit with 200+ m/s dV left.

Launch mass 19.6 t, 1 Panther + 2 Terriers. 35 parts, tech level - Supersonic and before.

Made in KSP 1.8.1.

Spoiler

 

[Rakete]

Here my SSTO-family for almost all Kerbin-SOI-Needs.

(I have to admit: The two last SSTOs mentioned below are inspired by @Matt Lowne's Argus-Class-SSTOs.)

All of them use only stock parts.

 

 

The Arrow Mk III - my oldest one

10 Seats, 1100 dV remaining in orbit. Rapier-only-driven, 2000 dV refueled in orbit. Parachutes for "code red emergencies" in case there is no runway available/empty tank on approach to runway.

 

The Basilisk Mk I - my newest one

Just 2 Seats, 2400 dV remaining in orbit. Rapier-driven + one Nerva, 4500 dV LF-refueled in orbit. TWR in Orbit relatively poor, Parachutes for "code red emergencies" in case there is no runway available/empty tank on approach to runway.

This one is the most fuel efficient as it only needs 3700 units of LF fully fueled and 1100 units LOX. The other SSTOs of my hangar drink waaaaaayyyy more fuel! Even less than my single-use rocket based crew transport-systems like the Caprica IV system. This SSTO-spaceplane is for the climate-caring Kerbals. A real green deal!

 

The Phoenix Mk VIII - the most optimized (and most loved) one

6 Seats, 2500 dV remaining in orbit. Rapier-driven + six Nerva for space operations, 5400 dV LF-refueled in orbit. Great TWR in orbit thanks to the six Nervas, Parachutes for "code red emergencies" in case there is no runway available/empty tank on approach to runway.

It got seven major reworks & upgrades. This is my workhorse for Kerbal transports in Kerbins SOI and beyond.

 

The Sphinx Mk II - the one for the most Kerbals (the party bus)

20 seats, 2000 dV remaining in orbit. Rapier-driven + three Nerva, 5000 dV LF-refueled in orbit. TWR in Orbit relatively poor, Parachutes for "code red emergencies" in case there is no runway available/empty tank on approach to runway.

(I don't know why it need 20 rapiers. With less it won't reach the famous rapier threshold of 400m/s - even with a shallow ascent profile)

 

The Manticore Mk I - The freight transporter

Rapier-driven + three Nerva, TWR in Orbit relatively poor, Parachutes for "code red emergencies" in case there is no runway available/empty tank on approach to runway. Can lift up to 16t of payload to LKO. dV-values vary due to the payload.

 

 

Edited May 24, 2021 by Rakete