Boson Heavy Shuttle SSTO

[Redshift OTF]

Time for one more SSTO?

Introducing the Boson Heavy Shuttle SSTO space plane. Built for distance in mind, after re-fuelling in orbit, she is capable of return trips to Duna and one way trips to Laythe. She's probably capable of trips to Minmus without re-fuelling but I haven't tried that yet.

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The Boson utilises Rapier and LV-N engines to get her where you need her. She has 2 FL-T800 tanks worth of fuel.

Size comparison with one of my other SSTO's, the Bullet, and the stock Aeris 4A space plane.

Stats:

Part count = 135

Starting Mass = 16.9 tons

Starting Rapier TWR = 2.29

Starting LV-N DeltaV = 3725 m/s

Fully fuelled LV-N DeltaV = 4678 m/s

Fully fuelled LV-N TWR = 0.34 (Kerbin gravity)

Electrical charge = 465

Operational notes:

Hotkey 1 = Toggle Rapier jets

Hotkey 2 =Toggle Rapier cycle mode

Hotkey 3 = Toggle LV-N

This shuttle is fairly heavy but has plenty of wing clipped into the body so she'll fly like a decent plane. Takes a bit of effort to get to altitude and the Rapier jet mode will give you an apoapsis of 40km but when you get that high and engage the closed cycle of the Rapiers then there is more than enough thrust to punch your way out of the atmosphere and plenty of fuel to do it as well. Features the normal range of luxuries like docking port, internal RCS, RTG, and a probe control ring fitted under the nose for remote piloting. Also note that both engines drain the side tanks first and then the central tank so you shouldn't need to move fuel around if you want to land her with the jet engines!

Craft file

Hope it's of use to someone.

Edited January 12, 2014 by Redshift OTF

[Immashift]

Cute little ship. Nice design, and the range is pretty impressive. I'll use it as a crew shuttle I think. I know you call it heavy cause of the range, but it seems funny to call that heavy sitting next to the 4a

[Spartwo]

Moar intake!Judging off my own you should be able for a refueless Minmus return trip.

[Redshift OTF]

Cute little ship. Nice design, and the range is pretty impressive. I'll use it as a crew shuttle I think. I know you call it heavy cause of the range, but it seems funny to call that heavy sitting next to the 4a

Thanks. Perhaps dense shuttle would be a more appropriate name. It is only 0.2 tons lighter than the 4a.

Moar intake!Judging off my own you should be able for a refueless Minmus return trip.

It's got 6 pairs of intakes already. I've just tested it and it does go to Minmus and back without much fuss.

A modified version can be used to launch satellites in high orbit, (Just removed the shielded docking port).

[Spartwo]

Oh they're clipped into each other.