Project 129 Spaceplane

The Project 731 Spaceplane (referred to as the Kometa-class by KASA) is a one off highly experimental next generation Roskosmos Spaceplane design, and one of the most controversial Space Vehicles ever built.

The Kometa-Class genesis begins prior to even Zvezeda-Class Shuttle, as apart of an orbital spy plane, capable of spying on KASA developments from the safety of orbit. However, the technology necessary for an SSTO was not yet practical.

The first technology that would be developed would be the nuclear LV-N NERV engine, which was developed by Kerbodyne for use on the Juno Nuclear Upperstage on Artemis Rockets. Roskosmos agents stole KASA blueprints of the design, and used them to reverse engineer a copy of the engine.

While Roskosmos attempted to use this engine on several rockets, their attempts were ultimately met with failure, as their conventional engines were not efficient enough to be useful.

The use of the Nuclear Engine in itself was very controversial, especially after KASA had decided against using NERV engine for manned missions due to nuclear fallout risk should the rocket fail on launch.

Additionally, Roskosmos would be firing the NERV engines in the upper-atmosphere, a massive hazard. However, the overall radiation output of the engines is hardly higher then that of 2x background radiation, and the Kerbonium Fuel has such a short half-life that it's practically harmless.

However, Roskosmos had little concern for this

When C7 Aerospace began development on the revolutionary RAPIER Engine for sale with KASA approval, Roskosmos knew they had little chance to be able to purchase one. However, when C7 Aerospace contacted Roskosmos about the use of Zenith I rockets as Launch Vehicles for their RAPIER powered V-Series Shuttle, Roskosmos saw an opportunity.

C7 Industries would have to launch their V-Series Shuttles from Baikerbanur, which would allow Roskomos to get a close up look at the RAPIER.

When the first V-Series Shuttle arrived in Baikerbanur, Roskosmos Engineers descended on the rocket plane, taking detailed pictures and measurements of the RAPIER engines. Within months, a flight worthy copy of the RAPIER had been developed by Roskosmos.

With this engine, Roskosmos finally had a powerful yet efficient engine to develop a cost effective SSTO Spaceplane.

Design History
Beyond the use of revolutionary high tech engines, Kometa was otherwise a very old school design. Many of the components and avionics were just left over parts from other rockets. This gave the Kometa a very junkish appearence.

The most obvious use is the main fuselage, built using left over Lyra Rocket Family main tanks. The nose cone and tail cone are both heavily modified versions of the nosecone used on the boosters of the Lyra II.

A section of the main fusalage actually contains a crew cabin. This cabin is capable of carrying 4 additional Kerbalnauts, or carrying supplies for extended flights, primarily fly-by's of the Mun.

The wings are left made from leftover scrap material of the Zvezeda's composite wings, including the heat sheild, which uses left over ceramic tiles from the Zvezeda. Also taken from the Zvezeda program are the Kometa's main evelons.

These were spares that had been leftover after the Zvezeda was retired.

However, due to this, the Kometa could not be easily replicated. It had been more of a skunk works project rather then an actual intended flight worthy example. However, Roskosmos would take advantage of the Kometa and use it for crew missions.

Flight History
Odinochnaya stadiya istecheniya Single Stage Expirement