SSTO showcase (I made this for a worldbuilding thing with some friends, additional lore in the bodytext) The Ventus Meridian is the beginning of the third generation of Mastodonian space planes. Starting with the original M-1 “draco” built by the old makoban space agency in 2387. It flew semi-routine spaceflights for 11 years before its retirement in 2393. The second generation of SSTO’s were built and flown in the late 2410’s. This included the HT-1550, HT-1650 and 1660 refreshes. This marked a rapid increase in cadence compared to the old M-1’s, due to the lack of external tanks which would detach. This generation also demonstrated that civilian spaceflight is commercially viable. However, since the last flight of the HT-1660 in 2468, Mastodonia has lost the ability to sustain constant commercial spaceflights at such a high pace. This period ends now. The Meridian is Ventus’s play at a SSRT.…