KerbalX

ATTENTION

A larger refueling-capable variant of this craft with 900m/s more range has been released recently. You may find it here if you prefer that variant.

Description

The Kanneli (Yellowfin), is an SSTO designed carry 20 Kerbals into orbit with 5100+ m/s remaining.

With the advent of space tourism, KSC needed a way of transporting passengers to their destinations efficiently. A new clean-sheet design was brought up, with requirements being a reasonably small size, while still having sufficient range and crew capacity.

The Kanneli departs from it’s manufacturers’ usual tandem-wing design, instead going for a more standard canard layout. The shoulder-mounted wing gives predictable reentry characteristics (with a slight twist detailed below), while the landing gear placement allows relatively easy takeoffs and landings. An aerospike is included to aid in vertical takeoffs and landings on low-g bodies.

One should plan trips accordingly, as no refueling equipment has not been installed for space reasons (get it? Okay, I’ll show myself out now).

Built in the SPH in KSP version 1.6.1

Launch profile

It is recommended to keep precision controls on until 20km altitude. Kerbal Engineer readouts also help alot.

• Space to activate rapiers, use rudder inputs to remain centered.
• Lift off at 115m/s, minding the tail. Pitch up to 15 degrees, then tap F and maintain level flight below 200m.
• Passing 400m/s, stop tapping F, nose at 5 degrees and let it slowly come up by itself as speed increases.
• At 8km, tap F to drop the nose to 5 degrees again, and hold until 1150m/s.
• Target 1450+m/s by 20km, with 10-ish degrees pitch.
• At 20km, tap 3 for NERVs. Tap F if your speed drops too quickly.
• At 28km, press 1 & 2 to switch rapiers and close intakes. Pitch up to 25 degrees and try to hold.
• When Ap reaches 47km, press 4 to shutoff Rapiers, drop the nose to prograde then slowly bring it back up 25 degrees while ensuring your speed keeps increasing.
• Let the nose come up to 35 degrees, then maintain this.
• When your time to Ap starts increasing, slowly lower the nose to 25 degrees again.
• When Ap reaches 70km, hit prograde. At 75km, shutdown, then circularize at Ap.

You should reach orbit with around 900-1100 oxidizer remaining, which is sufficient for Mun Landings.

Re-entry from 75km orbit (Tested up to 100-tons craft weight)

Use this as a general guide for re-entry purposes:

• Aim somewhere near the old-island airfield, and target to deorbit with a 140-ish m/s burn.
• Pitch attitudes of 15-20 will increase your range, 20-30 degrees or higher will decrease it.
• The craft has a somewhat unusual stability range, it stays stable at either 0-10 degrees, or 65-80 degrees nose up.
• Anywhere in between tends to push the pitch up towards the higher stable range.
• If you end up stuck in the higher range, a quick recovery method is to pitch past 90 degrees, then down towards prograde.
• The aforementioned maneuver can be used to quickly slow down if done correctly.
• Pitching down too hard can put you into a spin. If you absolutely have to do so, go no more than 15 degrees below prograde.
• Correct any roll motions you may have if you pitch down too much.
• If you enter a spin, set SAS to prograde and you should recover soon.
• In the lower atmosphere, avoid drastic yaw inputs, as again, this may put you in a spin.
• The craft has been tested to 44g vertically, however it is recommended to keep the g-meter under the red line.
• Try to land as soon as possible on the runway at 100-115m/s (60-85m/s at 70-tons).
• The craft is relatively easy to land, avoid touching down too hard as this can destroy the runway surprisingly easily.
• Hold the nose up as long as possible to help with braking.

For lighter weights, move the aiming point further from the runway, practice makes perfect!

Other tips

• For Mun landings, keep the nose pointed higher than retrograde during your descent.
• If your descent rate is too high, add bursts of Rapiers by tapping 4.
• The aerospike helps a lot just before landing. Tap 6 to toggle it.
• Minmus landings and takeoffs can be done on Nukes alone.
• If the craft keeps on sliding/rolling on low-g bodies even with brakes applied, just retract the landing gear.
• Due to time constraints, I personally haven’t tried other bodies as of yet, Duna might be a bit challenging to land on.