She's ugly but she did it!

Spent a lot of time on this only to be a bit disappointed lmao, the new 2.1 update slowed down to ~220KM/S to 180KM/S and only capable of making 1 round trip before needing to "refill" the thruster fuel etc. Is this normal? Or did you build a ship that can constantly be on the go as long as nuclear fuel is present?

Also main question: What speeds are you guys targeting for Aquilo trips? I have half a mind to completely redesign this to be more compact/faster, but worried about rocket turrets to production ratio.

EDIT: Sorry guys i uploaded the wrong picture - i added nuclear to the ship (shown in the main post pic) because it was needed to make that first round trip which is what made it successful. I added the nuclear update at the end so very ugly implementation lol (see one of the comments below)