XR-2 Ravenstar
The XR2 Ravenstar is a high-performance spacecraft created for Orbiter by the Altea Aerospace team. The XR2's concept, mesh, and sound effects were the work of Steve "Coolhand" Tyler. Coding work to add multiple subsystems, failure modes and UMMU support was done by Douglas Beachy, as with the other vessels in the XR series. The initial 1.0 release came on October 8, 2008, the most recent being 1.50 on May 13, 2012. Currently, there is a beta test version featuring new heating effects that is located at Orbiter Forum.
Design Concept
The XR2 was designed as a single stage to orbit, reusable spaceplane able to carry up to 14 passengers to low Earth orbit along with about 10-11 metric tons of cargo in its bay. The exact design parameters for the XR2 have always been variable, depending on the preferences set by a user in the configuration file, but with realism settings set to their highest levels, the XR2 proves quite challenging to fly succesfully. Scramjet engines are typically used during the bulk of the ascent to orbit, providing most of the velocity needed to reach orbit in the high atmosphere before conventional rocket engines are used to provide the final orbital insertion.
Precis
This article has a precis and appears in the Random addon or Random article section on the Main Page. The precis can be found at XR-2 Ravenstar/precis and is displayed below.
 The XR2 Ravenstar is a high-performance spacecraft created for Orbiter by the Altea Aerospace team. The XR2's concept, mesh, and sound effects were the work of Steve "Coolhand" Tyler. Coding work to add multiple subsystems, failure modes are done by Douglas Beachy, as with the other vessels in the XR series. The initial 1.0 release came on October 8, 2008, the most recent being 1.10 on February 20, 2018. (More...) |