The cries of war were concerning Urist. He was not a warrior- his only interest lay in engineering. All he wanted to do was build his rockets in peace and explore the wonders of space.
On that note, he sketched down the initial concept of a larger booster rocket. The first he had was fairly unimpressive, but this one should add a significant amount of thrust to any of his designs. It still wouldn't be enough to launch the space shuttle- that beast was still far too monstrous. Perhaps a redesigned fuel tank?
There was much work to be done.
Research:
Space Shuttle: Decrease the weight more.
Booster Rocket: Increase the chance of reuse.
[Fuel Scientist] Large Fuel Tank: A tank with a larger per-section size that stores proportionally more fuel.
Anti-Missile defense system: A system designed to track and shoot down incoming missiles and rockets. Can't be too careful in these times...
Designs:
[Personal Design]
Supporter Booster Rocket
Height: 5m
Weight: 725 kg
Available Payload: 1275 kg
Thrust: 2000 kg to LEO
Components:
Booster Rocket hull (5m): 5*25 = 125 kg
Small thruster (1 meter): 100kg, 2000 kg To LEO
Solid fuel tanks (4 meter): 500 kg
Building:
Nothing today.
Other:
Contact the government to see if they're interested in buying the Spear Mk II, Sword Mk I, and Lance Mk I.
Spend 5k on an expo day.
Spend 4k on recruiting good (at least 7/10) Scotonauts.
The Spear Mk I and Squat Mk I designs are obsolete and rockets are gone, so they can be dropped to save space/time.
Expenses: 13k (4k research + 5k expo + 4k recruitment)