That's a great improvement.
If it can help, it seems i refined my method a bit and managed to get a (roughly) 230x230 km while having a bit more than 62% main fuel left.
Here it is :
Take off Full engine at 100km/h with Attitude Hold autopilot set to pitch 50 degree, then Gear Up.
Wait until you're at 12km, now set the Attitude Hold to 2.5 degree, by the time the XR-2 is now at 2.5 pitch you should be at +/- 20km altitude.
Stay like this until you reach 900km/h then open the Scram doors and set full Scram engine. Now shutdown the Main engine.
Set the Attitude Hold to Pitch 5 degree
In the autopilot panel, change its display to see the hull temperatures, you'll see it increasing (in external view you'll see you XR-2 burning).
No worry the XR-2 can take it, a bit before the temperature reach yellow numbers, lower the Scram engine power until the temperature start to drop.
Then increase it progressively, the goal is to get at full Scram speed and get the temperature green and decreasing, so play with the Scram engine power accordingly until you're in this situation. You should be finished with the temperature / Scram main engine game at between 30 and 32 km altitude.
At 35 km altitude drop the Attitude Hold pitch to 2.5 degree and let it like this until you run out of Scram fuel (if you followed this method exactly, you should run out of it before the scram diffuser temperature get critical).
Hull temperature at that angle will start to re-increase after some time, but don't worry it will start to decrease again soon enough (at +/- 45 km altitude) and will never reach critical (and with this method it should not even reach yellow too).
Just when you run out of Scram fuel, set the full Main engine power and close the Scram door immediately.
Set your Attitude Hold autopilot Pitch to 20 degree and wait until your Orbit MFD display to your LEO Apogee target, by example 230km .
Shutdown main engine, deploy radiator and shutdown APU once it's deployed, you can go Prograde now or wait a bit before reaching the Ap node, but be sure to be Prograde autopilot before reaching that node.
So wait until you reach the apogee/apoapsis node on your Orbit MFD then Full main engine burn to build your perigee/periapsis to get your circular orbit.
At (roughly) 230x230 km with this method you should be over 62% main engine fuel left.
If it can help, it seems i refined my method a bit and managed to get a (roughly) 230x230 km while having a bit more than 62% main fuel left.
Here it is :
Take off Full engine at 100km/h with Attitude Hold autopilot set to pitch 50 degree, then Gear Up.
Wait until you're at 12km, now set the Attitude Hold to 2.5 degree, by the time the XR-2 is now at 2.5 pitch you should be at +/- 20km altitude.
Stay like this until you reach 900km/h then open the Scram doors and set full Scram engine. Now shutdown the Main engine.
Set the Attitude Hold to Pitch 5 degree
In the autopilot panel, change its display to see the hull temperatures, you'll see it increasing (in external view you'll see you XR-2 burning).
No worry the XR-2 can take it, a bit before the temperature reach yellow numbers, lower the Scram engine power until the temperature start to drop.
Then increase it progressively, the goal is to get at full Scram speed and get the temperature green and decreasing, so play with the Scram engine power accordingly until you're in this situation. You should be finished with the temperature / Scram main engine game at between 30 and 32 km altitude.
At 35 km altitude drop the Attitude Hold pitch to 2.5 degree and let it like this until you run out of Scram fuel (if you followed this method exactly, you should run out of it before the scram diffuser temperature get critical).
Hull temperature at that angle will start to re-increase after some time, but don't worry it will start to decrease again soon enough (at +/- 45 km altitude) and will never reach critical (and with this method it should not even reach yellow too).
Just when you run out of Scram fuel, set the full Main engine power and close the Scram door immediately.
Set your Attitude Hold autopilot Pitch to 20 degree and wait until your Orbit MFD display to your LEO Apogee target, by example 230km .
Shutdown main engine, deploy radiator and shutdown APU once it's deployed, you can go Prograde now or wait a bit before reaching the Ap node, but be sure to be Prograde autopilot before reaching that node.
So wait until you reach the apogee/apoapsis node on your Orbit MFD then Full main engine burn to build your perigee/periapsis to get your circular orbit.
At (roughly) 230x230 km with this method you should be over 62% main engine fuel left.
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