Peregrine type shuttle

Peregrine type shuttle is the type of maaned space based weapons platform used by the United States during the Colonization era.

Technical Data
Peregrine type shuttle was the second stage rocket, launched from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It did not have much fuel on board, only enough to make occasional and modest changes to its orbit.

The shuttle's appearance was aerodynamic for reentry and gliding flight. Its cockpit, much like the German Kaith type shuttles and unlike the Soviet flying tin cans, possessed a bubbled canopy with excellent all round view.

The shuttle was reusable.

This type was armed with a standard two nuclear tipped missiles and twin 50 caliber machine guns.

History
The Peregrine type shuttles were designed sometime in the 1950s and had come into regular use by the US Air and Space Force before the arrival of the Colonization Fleet.

A number of shuttles were kept in orbit to maintain a nuclear deterrant, much in the same fashion as Operation Chrome Dome of the unaltered timeline. The shuttles would stay in orbit for a limited period of time, a few days, then be replaced by fresh replacements.