Mk2 Shuttle X

[EagleWorks]

Hello fellow KSP lovers, today I decided to share my first notable craft with you, the Shuttle X. Might as well post it now before the next patch destroys the admittedly funny aerodynamics

I built this shuttle to send Kerbals to my space station and so far it has done this job reliably in a more enjoyable way than a simple capsule could.

The 6500m/s delta-v enable it to reach orbits above 500km and back without any problems, while still having a little liquid fuel to find a proper landing site with the R.A.P.I.E.R. before landing.

The launch is very straightforward, just fly it like any normal rocket. The few action groups are named in the description in the VAB.

Please tell me what you think and how the Shuttle X can be improved.

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[s1l3nt_c0y0t3]

That seems pointless. You could make an SSTO spaceplane not much bigger than the return vessel with the same crew capacity. That's just an expensive waste.

[Redshift OTF]

But then he hasn't used many jets either so it is a quick way to get to orbit.

[Scoundrel]

Welcome to the KSP forums! That is a nice little shuttle, and thanks for sharing it. The only recommendations I might make are: possibly replacing the skippers with quad couplers and aerospikes... though you might get heat issues there; for career mode, I would consider converting the shuttle into a spaceplane - it looks like your orbiter would be a great foundation for one - so you can bring back all the expensive parts.

[EagleWorks]

I should have mentioned that the real motivation (other than the arbitrary crew transfer one) was to learn docking with a vehicle that is a bit more complicated than your standard small orbiter. As a sandbox project I found synchronizing the orbits a lot easier and faster to do with this inefficient design than with a SSTO, so the expensive waste has served its purpose for me.

Now that I have got my docking skills turning it into an SSTO is of course the next step, thanks for your feedback.