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I've been working this in my off time over the past month, and i've been having good success with it" so, i proudly present to you, my first fully functional shuttle! it isn't particularly hard to fly, since all engines have gimbals, including the SRB's.
To takeoff, first activate the main engines and the SRB's and wait for them to spool up (they are in separate stages, just in case something goes wrong), lock the pointing vector to 90 degrees, then just decouple from the launch platform and off you go! Just like the real shuttle, try to make your gravity turn by pulling up instead of pulling down, you'll have less chance of the SRB's striking your wings that way, they have decoupling motors thoug, so the risk of that happening will always be quite low.
Once you get to just have the orange tank, be mindful of the fact your engines are angled through your center of mass, the engine angle is about 15 degrees, but it dooes float around that value due to gimball. By the way, don't be afraid of doing the takeoff and re-entry with RCS on, you have monoprop to spare, and try to leave the orange tank in a sub-orbital trajectory, we don't want kessler syndrome here, do we?
Once you separate the orange tank, shut off the main engines, just in case there might be a bit of fuel still left in the shuttle somehow, try to go away from the orange tank using RCS before you spool up your OMS engines (again, those have a 15 degree angle to them) with the OMS, you'll have about 1500M/S of delta V left, maybe less due to any payload you decide to carry, but it will most surely be more enough to carry you into LEO.
Re-entry can be a little tricky, since this is designed to work in RSS, re-entry speeds are usually around 7KM/S, and the heat generated from those speeds is more than enough to melt any piece in this game, even with a beefed up max-temp stat, so this is why you must keep your vertical speed low, -50M/S is usually a great bet, the way i'm used to doing re entry in this thing is to point my nose 20-30 degrees sideways from my velocity vector, and 5-10 degrees up, then i use roll to control my wing level, and thus, vertical speed. Re entries in this thing usually take quite a while if compared to capsules (just like the real shuttle) but you can't just leave the thing there, you have to pay attention during every second of it.
Once you get to 20Km altitude, at about mach 2 or 3, just start flying this like an airplane, point your nose 30 degrees down till you reach 5KM, then you start your glide slope to your landing spot, the stall speed in this is at about 40M/S, so i always land at about 60M/S, you have drogue chutes to slow you down once you land, so don't worry too much about overshooting on your landings.

Well! i guess this covers everything, hope you ave a great time flying this thing, i had an amazing time building it and i put a lot of details in it. Your upvote is always appreciated, have a nice day/night, and be safe out there.

GENERAL INFO

  • Successors 1 craft(s)
  • Created On: Windows
  • Game Version: 0.7.0.5
  • Price: $97,937k
  • Number of Parts: 219
  • Dimensions: 91 m x 41 m x 47 m

PERFORMANCE

  • Total Delta V: 5.1km/s
  • Total Thrust: 40.9MN
  • Engines: 9
  • Wet Mass: 2.44E+6kg
  • Dry Mass: -57,305kg

STAGES

Stage Engines Delta V Thrust Burn Mass
1 3 1.9km/s 11.9MN 5.1m 2.44E+6kg
2 2 2.0km/s 22.3MN 2.3m 2.44E+6kg
4 0 0m/s 0N 0s 7.38E+5kg
5 2 1.3km/s 204kN 8.8m 94,784kg

6 Comments

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    5,940 Edwards

    @Johan2006 i think one of the updates messed up the fuel transfer, i had this problem with another shuttle i made, the fuel from the orange tank simply won't feed the main engines

    4.4 years ago
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    When I activate the first stage the main engines don't activate even though I have the throttle at 100% is this because they changed the game and the suttle doesn't work anymore or am I doing something wrong?

    4.4 years ago
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    5,940 Edwards

    @DarkPK i had to match the expansion profile of the SRB'S with the main engines to keep constant torque, and the only way to do it was to over-expand the nozzle. Sorry for that nonetheless.

    5.0 years ago
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    218 DarkPK

    It's kinda weird to see shock diamonds from SRBs
    But it still an amazing craft!

    5.0 years ago
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    5,940 Edwards

    @MarioG thank you!

    5.0 years ago
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    45.3k MarioG

    Really nice!

    +1 5.0 years ago

20 Upvotes

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