Multistage to Orbit Spaceplanes! Post your Pictures here!

[MedwedianPresident]

SSTO's are very popular on this forum, indeed. The nerdy kids at the back of the class are Multistage Spaceplanes and aerially launched rockets. This thread is for you to post pictures of your 2-or-more-stage-to-orbit spaceplanes and horizontally launched rockets such as Air Launch. You also can post suborbital stuff such as X-15 or SpaceShip replicas.

Have fun!

[Ravenchant]

Oh, nice! I wanted to build such a thing for ages, but never really had the incentive to do so...this thread may just change that. Are spaceplanes with droppable "booster" stages okay?

[Fellow314]

I hadn't really thought to do this.

This is a sort of test type thingy...

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[MedwedianPresident]

Anything is allowed as long as it is not a SSTO.

A SSTO is a craft that is capable of getting into orbit without using any droppable stages.

This means that droppable booster stages are okay (except for SSTO RATO's)

[Woopert]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/15851-Virgin-Galactic-s-SpaceShipTwo-WhiteKnight

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/26950-Spaceship-Two

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/27938-WhiteKnightTwo-SpaceShipTwo

These are all very nice, but they're outdated.

[Elmetian]

This is a WIP that I've not found a use for yet. I wanted to create something like the ASM-135 ASAT that'd be given a leg up by a carrier plane, then boost out of the atmosphere and up to orbital velocities. My design uses a sepatron first stage after deployment for an initial boost, then liquid fueled 2nd and 3rd stages. I used the Selectroot mod so that the radial decoupler stays attached to the carrier plane after deployment. The missile is shown here with a scientific test payload, and it's placed into an orbit with a semimajor axis of about 1700km:

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[Guest Space Cowboy]

Hi I am not sure if this is what you're talking about but it's something made recently. Right now the mothership has been completely redone, but I have not yet mated it to a spaceplane.

[The14th]

This is a WIP that I've not found a use for yet. I wanted to create something like the ASM-135 ASAT that'd be given a leg up by a carrier plane, then boost out of the atmosphere and up to orbital velocities. My design uses a sepatron first stage after deployment for an initial boost, then liquid fueled 2nd and 3rd stages. I used the Selectroot mod so that the radial decoupler stays attached to the carrier plane after deployment. The missile is shown here with a scientific test payload, and it's placed into an orbit with a semimajor axis of about 1700km:

Narcosis, does your Caged Canary Extended count? (as technically you don't stage until orbit).

I only ask because I still use it!

I tend to build ships in the VAB rather than spaceplanes, but there are enough great shuttle designs on this forum that I need never use the same one twice!

(and that's something I try to do!)

HOWEVER! Sometimes I just need to get sh...er.. stuff done. When I just need to get a Kerbal from an orbital rendezvous to the surface of Kerbin fast, I often still use your Caged Canary. Why?

1. It's 10 times faster than sending an SSTO to fetch the Kerbal.
   
2. It's so simple, light, and manoeuvrable, I can land on the KSC strip 100% of the time in the Canary - and usually I don't even need the engine once after the initial de-orbit burn.
   

I don't know if it counts or not as multi-stage to orbit, but I did want to let you know that I still think it's awesome!

[Elmetian]

Narcosis, does your Caged Canary Extended count? (as technically you don't stage until orbit).

I only ask because I still use it!

Thanks! Glad it's still getting some use. I'll have to take another look at the craft file sometime and see if I can make it even more efficient and reduce the part count.

I'd not even considered the Canary for this showcase, but I guess it might count as a multistage spaceplane of sorts. I think it's probably something MedwedianPresident would need to decide. It's closer to a traditional 2 stage rocket really, and I think he meant this thread for air-launched rockets that take off horizontally.

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