It makes perfect sense, they’re pointed towards the ship’s center of mass. In atmo, the jet needs to be more or less lined up with the wings, but up near space where the air is thin, the high AOA from switching to the rockets wouldn’t be an issue–up there, what matter is whether your thrust vector lines up with COM. It’s probably not comfortable for the pilot, but it gets the job done
The engines pointing like that ruins the whole image IMO, it makes no sense.
It makes perfect sense, they’re pointed towards the ship’s center of mass. In atmo, the jet needs to be more or less lined up with the wings, but up near space where the air is thin, the high AOA from switching to the rockets wouldn’t be an issue–up there, what matter is whether your thrust vector lines up with COM. It’s probably not comfortable for the pilot, but it gets the job done