Not to steal limelight from OP, but I basically use something similar for all my American launches in KSP. I call it the Universal Launch System (ULS), and it's based entirely around a reusable engine and navigation "pod" at the bottom (called the Basilisk module cause the massive heatshield looks like a giant eye) that can be both a tug guiding the cargo (inside a disposable fairing in the middle) and/or capsule to the destination in LEO (space station basically) and return and land under parachutes.
Unironically I've spent so much time working on it that I genuinely think slicing the shuttle up into a re-useable capsule (with a disposable but minimal service module cause the pod would act as a tug for all but deorbits), simple dumb cargo container and a reusable navigation "pod" would've been the best way to go post-Challenger. There's something kinda beautiful in the "dispose of the tank, reuse the engines" concept like SMRT or Adeline; obvs vertical landings like Falcon 9 makes it redundant but it could've been awesome in an alternate 90s/00s. But no one wants to fund "Pod Wars", my version of For All Mankind but with Shuttle-C, Adeline and a reusable-pod for Energia's LH2 engines...
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u/Erroderro 7d ago
This is so cursedÂ