PnDB

All of your previous flights in the career log have ended with "Recover" or "Die". Does Jeb need to return to KSC ("Recover") to get credit for all the things he's done in and around Jool?

Here you go. This is the image gallery for GOES-16: https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/content/goes-16-image-gallery They're pretty spectacular at full resolution... even at reduced resolution, they're still amazing and beautiful. These images were taken on January 15, 2017.

I went to IPS's own forums today and their forum doesn't show any vertical text issues. Does that mean a new release has come out? Topics are still vertical here for me.

Mün has become a busy place as of late. Four tourists in various stages of arrival/orbit/departure, and one satellite positioned with a second in process. Kerbal alarm clock really helps with managing that many vessels in flight.

Mac user here, a little behind on the OS (Mavericks)... couldn't complete the survey. The Windows OS question is required, even though I'm not playing on a Windows box. In any case... very stable with only a rare crash or lockup every couple of days, though my activities are rather simple. All VAB, simple rockets currently. Haven't docked, haven't used wheels. I do have the SPH floor texture issue, where the lines on the floor are replaced by seemingly random (and rapidly changing) black and white patterns.

If you have the SCANSat mod and look closely at the boundaries between biomes, you often will find tiny (single "pixel") regions of some other biome right on the border. This is due to the way the biome maps were generated/stored in the game. It's why there is a patch of tundra just west of KSC, even though it's almost on Kerbin's equator. If you land close enough, you can take advantage of those micro-biomes to pick up extra science without having to hop very far.

Hope this helps a bit... very simple and straightforward for getting into orbit, transferring to either of Kerbin's moons, landing, and returning. DOH! Just noticed I didn't re-add the drogue chutes! Put two of them on the Mk1 pod or the OKTO! And definitely listen to folks like @Snark and @5thHorseman. Their assistance has put many an inexperienced player into space.

My cheap (about 30k funds) Mun/Minmus tourist/scientist/engineer orbit/landing ships use a single Mk1 command pod and an OKTO probe core as the main part of the payload. You should be able to build a cheap orbiter/lander using something similar, given your tech tree. I'm guessing your early orbit/suborbit flights had only one tourist aboard... start that way again for Mun/Minmus, and you'll soon be taking a dozen tourists along for the ride. Here's what's on my single-passenger ship from 1.0.5... it should still work reasonably well in 1.1.2. I took my science gathering, biome hopper ship and ripped out all the science... more refinement could be done to make this lighter and cheaper. Re-entry stage: Mk16 parachute OKTO probe core Mk1 command pod with no monopropellant 2x drogue chutes 1.25m heat shield with 40 units of ablator Transfer, orbit, land, launch, orbit, return stage: TR-18A decoupler Service bay with X200 battery and small inline reaction wheel 1.25m to 2.5m rockomax adapter with 4x OX STAT XL panels (don't need this much solar at all) Rockomax X200-16 tank with 4x LT-1 landing struts attached Poodle engine Lift stage: Rockomax decoupler X200-32 tank Skipper engine 4x AV R8 winglets Boosters: 2x TT-38K radial decouplers, each with a BACC Thumper attached Gives 1.6 TWR at launch, and about 6650 vacuum dV. Costs about 30k funds 34 parts About 68 tons total edit: Interesting... seems like the "insert code" option color-codes bits of my text. Ignore the colors.

I put 40 units of ablator on my 1.25m heat shield for returns from Mun or Minmus and aim for around 30 km periapsis. I end up with 3 to 5 units of ablator left. I'll have to give OhioBob's recommendation of 23 km a try, and see how the ablator fares.

KSP the novelty exploding wheels (kids love this one)!

Not just Macbook users... also iMac users, like me.

Every single kerbal tourist I have ends up with the same progression of facial expressions on reentry from LKO: Smiling during weightlessness in orbit. Smiling during initial reentry, prior to the flames. Smiling even more while flames engulf the craft. Immediate transition to complete terror as soon as the flames subside and are replaced with supersonic shockwave effects. Terror during almost vertical descent, prior to chutes opening. Chutes open... instantly content and/or smiling again. It's bizarre. It doesn't matter whether they have high courage and high stupidity, low courage and low stupidity, or anywhere in between. It's always the same.

BS Physics, BS Mathematics, BS "Mathematics and Computer Science" (they didn't have a full CS degree), Hampden-Sydney College, 1993 MS Applied Physics / Optics, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 1996 Currently pursuing a MS degree in Data Analytics from George Mason University

Antennas on probes and proper staging are my main "forgets".

@steuben has the right idea. If you look at a diagram of the A-10 engine, the exhaust direction is angled slightly upward, pointing the thrust vector pretty much straight through the plane's center of gravity. Radio control planes with pusher-props mounted above the fuselage do this as well. From Wikimedia -- trace a line down the center of the engine exhaust tube and see where it passes through the plane: