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ES-94+ DART II

ES-94+ DART II (European Spacecraft model 94 upgraded, Dual-mode Aerospace Reusable Transit, Generation II) is a compact, reliable and easy-to-fly SSTO LKO shuttle with 4 seats.

Moar pictures (23 in total): https://imgur.com/a/DNfekqW
Flight instructions at the bottom.

Pure Stock, no mods, no DLCs. 76 parts, root part is the Mk1 cockpit.

- 700m/s dV @ 85x85km LKO, 400m/s dV @ 300x300km MKO with one single RAPIER engine.
- Balanced and almost constant CoM regardless of fuel consumption, decent maneuverability and stability during the entire flight. No need to transfer fuel.
- Atmosphere-skipping and great gliding capability.
- "Flat top", no tall vertical stabilizers. Helpful when docking to certain space stations.
- Short stopping distance even without drogue chute.

- This is a modernized version of my first practical SSTO design, the X-94 "Comet Tail" (There is an ES-94 DART[imgur.com] in between, unpublished here on Steam). I used to love that one a lot, but as I look back, I can see quite some flaws in its appearance and overall design. But the idea is still lovely, so I decided to redo it and give it justice. It now features a far more reasonable construction, better alignment of CoT and CoM, thus better flight characteristics, 135% of RCS fuel and lower tech requirement. Orbital dV remains the same (aroung 700m/s).
- The shaping of this craft relies on "rational" part clipping. Some parts are not fully fueled, because I tried to keep its fuel capacity reasonable. (Note: the four Mk1 nose cones should also be part of fuel tanks.)
- By adding a pair of Sparks as orbital engines, it gets like 80m/s of additional dV, which I think is not worthy for the additional complexity.

Ascent
- Rotate at 100m/s, aim for 8 degrees pitch and fly to space!
- When speed hardly increases (~1480m/s), press AG1 to switch RAPIER mode.
- Push AP to desired value, cut off the engine, lock prograde and coast till circularization. A 85km AP should be 5min away from now.
- Advanced ascent profile involves a level flight somewhere between 10km-20km, let it accelerate to >1500m/s, then gently pull nose up to >10deg and fly to space. I can get some additional dV this way, but I still prefer a simple 8-Deg-To-Space flight profile
Descent
- Burn PE to 40km over target zone.
- Lock radial-out (90deg AoA) to aerobrake, until no longer possible. Then use 10-45deg AoA for a controlled waveriding gliding. With an 10deg AoA, it can glide from the Great Desert to KSC with an altitude of 20-30km.

Wish you enjoy and happy landings!