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maple's posting corner
single stage space station supplier attempt. at high enough altitude it'll switch from jet engines to the rocket thrusters, to get to the space station in space. also you can see the docking port on the nose :P
having stability trouble so added a fixed horizontal tail to the back and a canard to the front
this will be a success if i can reach about 15,000 meters on air jets alone, have enough fuel to rendesvous with the station and deposit the payload, then glide back to the surface
well i don't think i have the tech to do a single stage yet, but this will end up being a two stage. the jet engines will be jetissoned during ascent after they run out of fuel to allow for less weight for the rockets to push
is it twice as expensive as an equivalent multie-stage everything-gets-discarded-on-ascent rocket? sure. but it's way cooler.
and salvaging most of the plane part may end up with a net equivalent cost...
hmm this one might actually break orbit
had to move the booster forward but stage 1 is going ok
@maple look sometimes you want to skywrite a 9
i figured out the major flaw in my design. bad weight balance between stages
and i think the swept wing was making things a little too unstable too. or if nothing else really tough to get the right balance for
@maple this thing is warp-capable
that didn't work so i had to make something even more normal
reached 10,000 meters with ease. this might be it
that explosion is supposed to be the second stage rockets which are supposed to be propelling the spaceplane rn
took a couple more minor adjustments of part angle and weight distribution but we're finally at stage 3. should be able to establish an orbit without issue
oh god center of thrust matters in space and the ship is spinning lol
oh my god minus the hover tech i could probably make an actual podracer in kerbal space program....
got into orbit, but not enough fuel to intercept space station. bummer
one more go then it's time to retire for the evening
made it to the space station! now time for docking
@wallhackio it didn't work out so here's the more refined version