KerbalX

Details

• Type: VAB
• Class: spaceplane
• Part Count: 646
• Pure Stock

Explore what heaven looks like!

Funkyndustries proudly present their newest orbiter Himmelstürmer. It’s a multipurpose vehicle, built in KSP 1.3.1, which can lift-off with Energija as a launch system or without, just as a usual HOTOL SSTO.

The vessel in its current state is configured for Laythe STS-1 mission of the Shuttle Challenge. That’s why it comes with a mining & refining outpost, a small exploration aircraft and a jetski for some fun on Laythe’s or Kerbin’s sea.

I haven’t tested a lot of different payloads, but it should work for the usual range (5-40t) to LKO or further (~2000m/s left). For SSTO style flight I’ve tested it with a 20t dummy payload to LKO (~500m/s left).

Tips & Tricks

For lift-off with Energija there are two different ways:

Either you brute force the craft into orbit. Therefore you just need to switch the mode of the RAPIERs to closed cycle (AG4) before lift-off. You might want to reduce the amount of liquid fuel in the VAB.

Or, if you’re a skilled pilot you can try to use airbreathing mode up to 25-30km altitude for more efficiency. Therefore let the RAPIERs spool up a little bit (~40% thrust, so they don’t flameout) before staging the boosters and the main stage.

The rest of the flight and cargo deployment is pretty much straightforward (see video). The action groups explain most of it.

For Energija you can find some additional hints in the description of my Energija w/ Buran.