RobertR

I'm with the other people saying without because the nose cone is too big. I'd be more interested in a which will go higher involving fairings with a fairly larger payload. I feel like the added weight isn't worth the reduced drag with the fairings but I'm too lazy to test it myself.

That thing looks great AND it works?? Reminds me of this Needless to say I'm a big fan. Thanks for posting the craft file. I tried building a ssto for the first time since before 1.0 was released today and totally overestimed the number of engines required. Ended up going too fast and ripping the wings right off. Sure I could have throttled down but I wasn't convinced I couldn't just power right through the turbulence. Turns out it doesn't work like that.

When I first started playing this game getting anything to orbit was very challenging to me because I had no idea what I was doing. Obviously like the rest of you I eventually learned how to do it. And I don't think bigger engines makes it any easier. It just means I can put bigger things in space with less stages. The real challenge to me now is building efficient rockets to get things to orbit. Sure you can put one of those big ass engines on your rocket and enough fuel to get to eve and back just to send a small lander to the mun, but that's you making it easy not the game. The game can be as hard or easy as you want it to be and that's what makes it fun. Challenge yourself.

I used it once before I realized it doesn't have SAS. Its pretty useless. Doesn't really offer any advantage over the other probe cores.

Did 4 survey contracts and rescued Jorbal Kerman from space. The first zone was supposed to be surveyed above 18,000m so I just caught it while I was rescuing Jorbal. The next 3 were all low altitude so I made a small plane with the limited parts I had. It can hit about 11,000m before it starts to run out of intake air. Put a couple parachutes on it in case I lost a wing or something wouldn't want to lose Jeb this early in the game. It's nothing special but it's been getting the job done in the early stages of the career so far. Having to do a lot of contracts to earn funds. I really like the pilot's skills. The retrograde/prograde options make docking or matching something's orbit much less trouble. Not necessarily easier but it saves you the hassle of spinning the ship around manually. Jeb's only a 1 star pilot right now so I haven't unlocked anything else yet.

I use lv909 and poodle engines for most things that return to kerbin. I'll use nukes for tugs that remain in space like another poster mentioned. I just don't like the length and weight of them. Also the painfully long transfer burns.

My design style is usually just whatever works. I try to build efficient rockets so I guess they tend to be a little minimalistic.

North America, US, Louisiana.

1) Press Z to go to full throttle 2) Turn SAS on 3) Press space to detach the launch clamps and start the engines at the same time 1 & 2 don't need to be in order.

Decided my Mun lander could probably make it to Minmus and back to complete two contracts in one trip. I'm currently building a rescue ship to send to Minmus.

Spent like 2 hours trying to make a SSTO spaceplane with the medium sized S2 cargo bay from the B9 mod. It made it off the runway once so I guess that's progress.

I made a spaceplane using parts from the spaceplane plus mod. I was very happy when it easily reached LKO. I think the next step might be to launch a drive stage that will dock on the rear docking port and bring it to another planet. Although some modifications might need to be made to allow for vertical landing on planets without an atmosphere. I've been having fun building spaceplanes lately and I'm hoping .24 will make them useful... It's definitely a lot easier to just launch a rocket when you don't need to worry about budgets/reusability.

Check your gear in the front. I was having this problem and it turned out the front gear wasn't straight up and down. All I did was move the gear off the mk2 cockpit and now the plane doesn't veer off the runway.

I made a kethane scanner and sent it to Duna. I'm still pretty new to kethane so I don't know if it's the best set up for kethane scanning but it ultimately got the job done. Working on a base type thing to send to duna to start a mining operation.

I sent Bill on a trip to Jool with the intention of landing on one of the moons. Unfortunately I didn't send him with enough fuel and ran out just after I got into orbit around Jool. This is the first time I've sent a manned mission to Jool so I think I did alright. I'm planning on sending a rescue mission eventually but I decided to start assembling a space station first. Bill's mission changed from landing on a moon to taking pictures for several years.