EtherDragon

And the other classic, "Maybe just one more attempt before bed..." Four hour later, "I made it! Sort of."

Too true. Fraggle: "Hi, my name is Fraggle and I'm addicted to Kerbal Space Program." Room: "Hi Fraggle." Yes, the learning curve is steep, with a few nearly vertical ascents. Luckily there are lots of videos and tutorials and stuff out there to help with the concepts (I have a couple links in my sig if you're interested). Also, check out the Tutorial forum and the Live from Mission Control forum, they have lots of great stuff. Of course, learning the hard way, snatching success from the jaws of repeated total (but hillarious) explosive disaster is a lot of fun with these little green guys and gals on board. In short - Welcome!

Yep, I definitely think that's a fair assessment, as I scored it about the same.

Lower stages 1.5 to 2. Upper stages (in atmosphere) around 1.0

Valentina is currently relaxing in the lounge, after a successful flight to get some Crew Reports from the Surface of Kerbin. Jeb tried, but wasn't able to complete them without crashing his plane, making it unflyable. Valentina went and handled them like a boss AND brought the plane home in mint condition! (Video Episode to air this Thursday!)

Welcome back to this great game!

Welcome back!

Spaghetti flying is a result of too many torque forces acting on too many different places all at once. This usually occurs when you have more than one torque wheel, or a torque wheel and gimbaled engines enabled at the same time. Generally, if I'm using a torque wheel (either what's in the cockpit or a separate one) then I make sure that there is only one for control.

You are absolutely correct - tail-fins are on most rockets for a reason, they make them way more stable on the way up.

Hi Pinchy, if you are playing "Career Mode" then you need to pay for building upgrades. They start off simple, and become more complex and capable as you upgrade them. Sandbox and Science mode has each building fully upgraded already.

Oh you must have played any one of the recent Battlefield games. =p

Amendment to this suggestion: If you have strong enough aerodynamic fins at the base of your rocket, tip over early (between 60 and 100m/s) and then TURN SAS OFF. You don't need it, just use gravity to execute your gravity turn. Locking Prograde just uses energy to control the rocket that you don't need to expend. Video Tutorial:

Please read the Tutorial: "Why Does My FLIPing Rocket Always Flip Over!" Then, check out this video: .These sources should give you an understanding why you have to do certain things to build a stable rocket - or at least, what you need to do to deal with an unstable one. The basic gist is: (as many have stated) going strait up to 10km and pitching over to 45degrees no longer works as you have realistic aerodynamic forces acting on your rocket (e.g. Nose-Heavy drag and torque causing a loss of control).

Greetings, CaptainNemo! Be sure to check out some of the let's plays going on at the sub-forum: Live from Mission Control

Welcome, and hello! Glad you're on the forums.

Welcome, welcome, finally. =)

Hello, and welcome! Check out any of the great Let's Plays over at Live from Mission Control (A sub-forum here).

Greetings. That paper airplane mod sounds like it could be a lot of fun!

Sounds like the mods modded the Science required, but didn't do anything for the contracts.

In Short Read This Forum Post to understand why. But here is the gist: Drag pushes on the nose more than the tail, because the Center of Mass is closer to the tail. If you deviate too much from the flight path, there is too much torque on your nose for your SAS to overcome and you flip. Also, here's a video to help get you to orbit more easily:

Actually, you don't need thrust vectoring. If you follow a good gravity turn procedure (demonstrated all you need is an initial push over (doable with any level of SAS) then it's all about throttle control, and letting gravity and time naturally turn your rocket.

Welcome, and greetings!

Yep, you gotta be a pretty consistent, patient pilot to get an SSTO to go. Once you got it, though - it's cake. Here's my routine: Take off from runway. Pitch up about 20degrees. Get to max V. Pitch up to between 30 and 45 degrees to climb to 10km quickly (climb angle depends on craft). Start leveling at 10km, by 12km I'm 10-15 degrees above horizon gaining speed like mad. Use pitch to keep speed under 1km/s and climb to about 17.5km. pull up hard, and get ready to switch over. As soon as my speed starts falling off (at about 25km), switch over to rocket mode. Maintain 30degrees upward pitch. Push Apoapsis to 72km, engine cut-off. Profit!

I have seem some really cool 1.0.1 Space-Plane designs. What's really cool is that they are all different enough to not be cookie cutter! The second one was me making one for RAPIERS at first, then seeing if I couldn't retro-fit it with Turbojets and Reliants, the kind of tech one might have part way through Career Mode, as RAPIERS are a top tier item (1000 science to unlock! Whew!).

Actually the problem you are having is quite the opposite of "top heavy." Take a look in your VAB at the Center of Mass. You'll see that it's nearer the bottom of your rocket than the top. Also, as you empty the fuel the CoM shifts lower. By definition, your rocket is bottom heavy. This becomes an issue because what that really means is your rocket is top-draggy. If you parked your rocket on a see-saw, and balanced it on the CoM it would have a lot more length at the nose than on the tail. What this means is that any torque on the nose will have more leverage than the same torque on the tail. If your nose tips over just a little bit (more than about 5-degrees) the difference in drag induced torque between the nose and tail is enough to overwhelm your controls and flip the rocket over. So, what's the answer? Tail-fins. It turns out, the very thing that wants to flip your nose over (drag from the air) is useful for keeping it pointing strait up, if you have tail-fins. Here is an Illustrated Guide in the Tutorial section of these forums that explain what I'm talking about. Keep flying, and stay shiny! P.S. That doesn't discount your feeling - yes, finless rockets really do feel "top-heavy" when in-fact they are exactly the opposite.