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NASA - Venture Star SSTO - Lockheed Martin

Please do not re-post this item without my permission.

Ever wondered if there was a shuttle replacement planned?


Not to be confused with the Venture Star spacecraft from Avatar.

Venture Star was an SSTO (single stage to orbit) space plane designed by Lockheed Martin. Its goal was to replace the STS (Space Shuttle) and it would be able to carry cargo such as satellites into orbit. Although it was an uncrewed vehicle there were plans to carry crew in the cargo bay using an attachable crew module so that astronauts could be taken to a space station.


1) Open the cargo bay doors and enter the cockpit at the back of the cargo bay.
2) Press the timer block called 'START' (Num 1) to launch to space. The rest of the launch is automatic.
3) (OPTIONAL) If you don't want to fly to space or wish to fly it somewhere else press Num 2.
4) Press the time block called 'GEAR DOWN'. When landing I highly recommend that you land it like a helicopter as the landing gears are FRAGILE!!!!!!


As you can probably tell no Venture Star space plane ever flew. Originally Lockheed Martin were developing a smaller sub-orbital version of Venture Star called X-33 which would have done demonstration launches before the full space plane was built. However the project ran into technological problems such as the materials for the composite fuel tanks. Another problem was getting the linear aerospike engine to work properly. Eventually the program would be cancelled in 2001.

A futuristic crewed version of Venture Star was shown in the opening titles of Star Trek Enterprise.

Enjoy!

For more space planes and rockets such as Rocket Lab's Electron or ESA's Hermes Space Plane check out Star Core's Rocket Replicas.

STS Atlantis: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2062823557

blackwatch's Osea SSTO : https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2086958762