An alien drive

X130B-Spear 01

The X130B was a classified project. At least the drive was. This new linear aerospike design was directly derived from some of the A51 maneuvering systems but then enlarged. Jeb boosted the latest airframe off the runway. Similar to the Champ, the Spear was designed to test a number of engine configurations. This flight was a pure aerospike configuration and Jeb was pushing the design to its limits.

Jeb reached orbit with 400 m/s to spare. The descent from 80 km up was fierce and the lack of fuel meant that he could not pilot back to the runway, but managed to land in the desert safely.

X130C-Spear 02

The second design tried to combine regular Kerbin tech with the Alien counterpart. A pair of whiplash ramjets were supposed to take the craft hypersonic and the aerospike would then boost it into orbit. This mission was not successful, but Jeb made a successful landing anyway. Fuel balance would be crucial for this type of craft.

X130D-Spear 03

The third engine was called “RAPIER” and tried to combine both designs into a single-engine. It performed better than the previous iteration but again they struggled to achieve orbit.

“I guess this thing is not rated for a water landing?” Jeb asked. “Negative, Jeb. find some land” KSC replied. “Hmm, okay.” he began a careful glide back to earth and barely managed to put the craft down. “Pfieuw, perhaps the shape of that saucer was round for some reason?” Jeb would not be able to explain it, but the design of the Spear would need some changes before it could work.

X130D-Spear 04

The D airframe was reverted to a pure aerospike design and the cockpit was modified to handle more crew. The flight was crewed by Scott and Jebediah. The craft took off like a rocket and picked up a bit of plasma on the way to orbit.

“Gotta love the view,” Jeb said after a single orbit, just before firing up the re-entry procedure. All systems performed as expected, and they made a safe landing back in the desert. Though the reserves were too low for orbital taxi services, it could offer tourists a great and simple way to experience spaceflight though.

Research would continue to learn from the ancients.