Shuttle

[Fellow314]

So, I wanted to build a shuttle but I really can't do all that messing about with COT and COG that you fellows all seem to be very good at. I wanted everything in a nice straight line through the middle of the ship all the time. So I built this.

Slight over use of SRBs, perhaps and the TWR throughout the ascent is abysmal except right at the end where it's just excessive.

Launches well, suprisingly, stage once to fire the main engines to stress the ship a bit then again to fire the SRBs and release the clamps. I should probably have an auxiliary tank to feed that first second or so when it's still clamped down but what the heck.

There are six tiny little rocket motors at the back, you can use two and three to turn the main engines and the smaller ones on and off. They're used for a teeny bit of extra power during the climb when TWR is low and for fine tuning maneuvers as the big main engines are not good for this.

Takes an orange tank to a 100 x 100 orbit with just enough fuel to spare to mess about a tiny bit and then de-orbit to glide like a leaf on to the runway.

My brief to myself was to get all the expensive bits back so it only drops SRBs and fuel tanks on the way up along with a teeny bit of structural stuff.

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https://www.dropbox.com/s/8f3p2jq0yhnxrsl/Shuttle%20%20delta%20NMJ.craft?dl=0

Edited January 18, 2015 by Fellow314

[mikecorp11]

Delete

Edited August 19, 2018 by mikecorp11

[hellblazer]

First off it looks promising but the vanilla game is your downfall. No options and having to compromise all the time. Your using too small of boosters too lift your shuttle and those enormous orange tanks up. I would invest in adding some new engines and boosters to your collection by checking out the KSP mods @ Curse. Less is more sometimes. This is a space plane slash shuttle I'm currently testing.

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[Fellow314]

First off it looks promising but the vanilla game is your downfall.

Ah, this is what I consider to be the challenge. You mod away, I'll stick with stock. And Mechjeb.

[Rune]

First off it looks promising but the vanilla game is your downfall. No options and having to compromise all the time. Your using too small of boosters too lift your shuttle and those enormous orange tanks up. I would invest in adding some new engines and boosters to your collection by checking out the KSP mods @ Curse. Less is more sometimes. This is a space plane slash shuttle I'm currently testing.

http://imgur.com/a/p3gMf

You should really check out the shuttle thread to see what can be done with stock

Rune. Or my sig.

[Fellow314]

You should really check out the shuttle thread to see what can be done with stock

Rune. Or my sig.

Indeed.

All that shifting centre of mass stuff is a colossal pain in the neck for me, particularly with no engine on the tank (shuttle rather than buran style). I am in awe of those that can do it which is why I needed to keep everything in nice straight lines.

Why NASA ever wanted to do it in real life is a mystery to me.