That feeling of accomplishment.

[CalculusWarrior]

(This is long, so brace yourselves)

I consider myself to be a fairly decent KSP player. I've visited all planets within the Kerbol system, and I've built robust rockets that have served me well.

However, when it comes to planes, I fail terribly. It used to be that I crashed every single plane (even non-spaceplanes) that I built immediately, and that's if I managed to get it off the runway. So I stuck with rockets, and I still had a blast with KSP.

However, with all this talk of Career Mode and 'economics', I've started to waste fewer spent ships and build at least semi-reusable spacecraft, such as interplanetary ships that can make multiple trips. I've even made a replica of NASA's future Orion MPCV and SLS for short deep space missions.

While I feel perfectly fine with launching a space station module or interplanetary starship aboard one of my heavy lift rockets, I feel a bit of guilt when using a massive rocket to simply transfer 3 kerbals or so to my orbital stations. Even downsizing the rocket to the bare minimum delta-v required to rendezvous with an orbital station, I still feel bad about returning only the crew capsule to Kerbin, dumping the orbital maneuvering system and the lifter rocket along the way. Now, I'm not the type to start reusing every spent stage or devoting all my time into SSTO designs, but I felt that something more economical might be in order.

I wasn't quite sure what to do, until I saw the recent news footage of DreamChaser's testing. I said to myself: "Say, that looks like something cool I could build in KSP!"

So I looked it up, and learned that it was a Commercial Crew Transport vehicle, which launches vertically and lands horizontally on a runway, sort of like the Shuttle but much smaller and focused on crew, rather than cargo. So I went to the Space Plane Hanger, and built myself this beauty:

I thought it looked at least something like the real DreamChaser, and so I tested it out.

Result: it flew like a brick, smashing into the ground whenever I tried to land. The reason behind this, even though I wouldn't figure it out until much later, was that after burning all the fuel in its tanks like it would during normal orbital operations, the centre of mass shifted too far in front of the centre of lift. While a good plane does in fact have the CoM in front of the CoL, if it's too far ahead the plane wants to pitch down a lot and makes aerial maneuvering quite difficult.

So I tried another design. And another. I even loaded up my few successful spaceplanes to see if I could learn any tips from their designs. Nothing.

I was very close to giving up on this venture, and just continuing to use expendable launchers for my crew vehicles. However, something inside me made me keep going at it and eventually it occurred to me to look up the mass of the MK3 cockpit I was using, which is actually quite huge. So, diverging from the DreamChaser design I was emulating, I built something like to this:

For a change, my design actually flew! Not only did it fly, but it handled like a dream! Its small wings were a boon for putting it on top of a rocket (I had built a 'lifting body' by clipping a pair of wings inside the cockpit), and it danced around KSC like a small bird in the sky.

And so, the moment had come. I didn't want to have to tailor the delta-v requirements of a lifter to this craft, so I simply slapped it on my 'Moho II' launcher and took off to a station that badly needed crew.

Rendezvousing is old hat for me now, and even though the docking port is placed on the rear of the ship, I handled the maneuver without much trouble at all.

And when the crew had been transferred over, it was time to complete the most crucial part of the mission--return.

You see, I had only tested the integrity of the plane in subsonic flight around KSC. I had absolutely no idea how it would perform coming back in through the atmosphere at several times the speed of sound. (Fortunately, KSP doesn't model supersonic flight much different than subsonic flight; good thing I don't have FAR installed) Regardless, upon the deorbit burn, I was a little nervous; as all my time and energy put into designing this thing would be useless if it didn't deliver on its promise of reusability.

Fortunately, I was able to keep it pointing prograde during reentry, and nothing broke off (always a plus!)

I had carefully set up my burn so that I could hopefully land on the runway at KSC, so that the techs could just refuel the ship and place it back on top of another rocket.

Another reason behind my nervousness was that I had never successfully landed a plane on the KSC runway before, let alone brought one in from orbit. I kept my cool though, and gently nudged the ship onto a landing trajectory.

Unbelievably, I actually managed to set down in the centre of the runway! After landing successfully, I felt like someone in NASA's Mission Control after a big mission like Curiosity has landed--I let out a big whoop and was so happy.

To me, it is these moments where one accomplishes something huge like this that make KSP the game it is. You build and fly your dreams, which can take on any form, and often are things that you could have never imagined yourself doing when you first started playing.

Thank you SQUAD for making such an amazing game.

[boxman]

I agree completely.

And congrats about landing them back safely.

[annallia]

Congrats, I know how you feel with space planes. I suck with them too, most of my machinations wind up in booster bay... if they even made it that far. There's enough scrap metal laying along side my runway to build a death star.

However my space plane problems seem to be limited to kerbin. If I make a way to get them to say Duna or Laythe which I have done successfully I can operate them just fine in the lower gravity. However once they enter Kerbins atmosphere they may as well turn into a pile of scrap.

[Rainbow-Dashie]

I to am horrible with space planes... I finally managed to build something that can get off the ground before the end of the runway... but it didn't have the power to get to higher altitudes...

And I love how this game gives you that sense of accomplishment, it makes me feel like I actually achieved something worth cheering about, it's not just another match of Battlefield won, or another victory in Civ 5, I freakin' landed on the Mun, after spending weeks trying to get there!!! It's nice to have a game where hard work, and dedication actually pay off for something.

[esinohio]

That little shuttle is too neat! Defiantly had those Kerbals transferred to your station in style. You should share that in the craft exchange thread. I'm sure other people who might be struggling would love to see how you did it.

[Tw1]

Well done! I still can't get things on the runway.

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

Well done, I only recently was able to build a SSTO spaceplane, still haven't landed one on the runway though.

[Spyritdragon]

Awesome. Been looking around for something similar for quite a while, but have never actually come across one.

Good job :-).

(P.s. Thanks! I was hoping not to be the only one to go like 'I need a lifter to get this into orbit. I don't feel like building one. I'll just pop it onto 'Mission Duna' 's lifter - who cares about excess delta-V')

[milbournosphere]

Excellent little design! I replicated something similar and it flies like a dream. A cool spunky craft.

[larsmaehlum]

Very cool little thing. Congratulations on a sweet mission

[NASAFanboy]

Well done!

My spaceplanes have a abort system that would decouple the crew capsule and release several braking rockets and a parachute. I hate to say it, but I use it all the time instead of landing