KSC Year 2 Official Lifter Family

The following was taken from the annual report of the Kerbal Space Center.

There were quite a few changes from last year. The entire Arrow family was almost obsolete, given a rare low-cost communication satellite launch. The Wodan family was also reduced to a single spot, and most notably: more than half the launchers came from the commercial sector.

              

Commercial Cargo Lifters

• Main launch provider was Kerbin Orbital Services (KOS) with their new Charon Heavy Booster. Recovery was still troublesome, but they can boost 8 tons into LKO with a 100% success rate.

KSC Cargo Lifters

• Heavier payloads require an L110A Thor. This legendary expendable rocket can easily put 20-tons in LKO and has pushed heavy payloads to the Mun as well.
• The new kid is the L110B Super Thor, which can put 30-tons in LKO. Only one test launch was done in year 2 but we expect a lot from this craft.

Commercial Crew Program

• KOS also competed in the commercial market with the C016B Charon, optimized for standard crew rotation on UKSS (3)
• In development is the C017A Charon Heavy that should be able to take a crew of 6 to UKSS or Space City in the case of tourists
• The second contender is Space X that also runs the Space City hotel in LKO. They run the C015D Castor, a 4 kerbal craft that despite high reliability is losing market share to KOS
• The X400B Orbiter was a controversial 10 seat shuttle, designed to bring tourists to space city. The first two shuttles suffered from landing gear problems but Orbiter 3 made 2 trips

KSC Crewed Craft

The KSC currently operates 2 spacecraft that share a common design:

• C020D Delta is the spacecraft for Mun/Minmus operations. Capable of supporting a crew of 3 for more than 40 days it packs enough power to haul 5 ton of supplies or a lander with them
• The C021D Delta A is derived from the Delta and functions as a 5 kerbal fery to LKO until the Charon Heavy is ready to replace it

The mission for KSC would move away from building LKO craft and focus on orbital construction of large interplanetary vessels.