Learstar A1

On the launchpad...

The Learstar A1 is a stock craft that uses the Spaceplane Plus parts and was added into KSP 0.25. It resembles the Space Shuttle or Buran. It is one of the three space shuttles included in stock.

Craft Description

“

SSTO is overrated, payload capability and comfortable seats are all the rage these days. — Squad

”

Capabilities

In 0.25 and 0.90, the Learstar had 6.4 km/s of delta-V when empty, or enough capacity to lift about 40 tons into low Kerbin orbit. In 1.0, it had 5.9 km/s of delta-V when empty, or enough capacity to lift about 75 tons into LKO. (The reduction in delta-V was outweighed by the reduction in delta-V required to make LKO by the aerodynamic update.)

Possible Improvements

• It is recommended to tweak the thrust of the orbiter's main engines to 60%. During flight, tweak down the thrust of the huge KR-2L "Rhino" engine because its power increases dramatically with altitude even as the weight of the fuel it has to lift is decreasing.
• Replace the "Rhino" engine with an engine more suitable for launch from sea level. Compared to the Rhino, RE-M3 "Mainsail" offers 114% power on the launchpad & 75% in vacuum, S3 KS-25 "Vector" offers 78%/50%, and RE-I5 "Skipper" offers 47%/33%.

Changes

For 1.0, all of the engines' thrust and specific impulses were adjusted to balance them against the improved aerodynamics. To compensate, its S1 SRB-KD25k solid rocket boosters were doubled.