Teck History 01

The new age of space travel.

With the successful test runs of the Gravity Control Units, in 2001 a challenge was put out to create working single stage to orbit reusable space craft. The two top contenders had been working on this idea for some time.

Skylon found it very easy to modify its working design to include the GCU forward & aft nodes. Because of the functional reduction of the craft’s weight within the gravity field, the Skylon was vastly overpowered for the necessary thrust to orbit. After many computer model tests, a reduction in fuel tanks in exchange for cargo capacity was arrived at. The first Skylon to orbit flew in late 2002. 
 

The Skylon Mk1s would have a crew of 2, and 4 passengers in the cabin. The cargo bay (not internally connected to the cabin) could hold 50 tons. The powerful engines were kept as their design was already very refined. As no one entirely trusted the GCU yet, safety required that the craft be able to make a de-orbit and landing without it.  Unlike some later generations of craft, all the MK1s could reach orbit even with out the GCU. 

Length 270 ft, 20 ft diameter body, wingspan 88 ft.

Venture Star also entered the market, however it insisted on using the centralized GCU. 

The VS-mini had its test flight in 2003, with the VS-max having its first lift of a year later. 

The VS-mini (same size as the original X-33) was built to test the new design and would serve as a small shuttle. The UN-EDF had plans to also make it into a fighter. It would have a crew of 2 and 2 passengers in the cabin, which would connect to the rather small cargo bay; capacity 5 tons. It mounted 2 aerospike engines and was intended to go from Earth to high orbit, but not to the moon. 

The first gen VS-mini could reach orbit with out the GCU, later builds sacrificed fuel capacity in favor of cargo space or combat equipment and armor.  

 

The VS-max (full sized craft) would mount 6 aerospike engines. The same cabin was used as the mini, for 2 crew and 2 passengers, but the cargo bay was much larger, able to carry 40 tons. It would have enough fuel to go to the moon and back. As with its lil brother, early builds could make it to orbit without GCU while later ones could not.  

Both Skylon and Venture Star were very successful in the early years of the “great leap into space” with an obvious division developing in the market place. Skylong engines really only mattered if frequent trips to and from Earth were being made, as their main advantage was being able to act as “air burners” instead of “internal fuel feeders”. So most of the Earth to Orbit shuttles ended up being made by skylon or using a variant of their engines. For the craft that spent most of their time in space or planned to land on worlds with a non-earth like atmosphere, the aerospike engine was preferred. 

In 2006 the X-66 entered service with the UN-EDF a fully combat ready version of the VS-mini.