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Due to the rising cost of liquid fuel caused by the cartel KOPEC (not to be confused with the small coins Valentina keeps in her pockets for buying snacks) the order has come down to design a completely reusable "SSTO" that can get to orbit and back using only solid rockets. I put "SSTO" in quotes, because of course there will be "staging" but you may not discard anything. Every item you take off with (other than the solid fuel itself) needs to come back. To make this open to a wide range of skills, there will be various medals. I was going to do the standard bronze, silver, gold, platinum, but that seems cliche. So, in the interest of spicing things up and in keeping with the explosive nature of the fuel we are burning, the various medals are: Sodium: Get your rocketplane into a stable orbit. Potassium: Return from orbit and land safely. Rubidium: Land at the KSC. Cesium: Taxi off the runway and park in front of the SPH. Francium: Taxi off the runway and park under the large bridge at the R&D Building. Please keep off the grass while taxiing. Make sure your hands are dry before receiving your medal. Noble adornments and alternative awards Argon: Take more than one Kerbal into space. Krypton: Launch a functional relay satellite. Xenon: Take off from and land at the Dessert Airfield (Must have the Cesium or Francium medal to achieve--though can be done first). Radon: Take off from and return to the Island Airfield and park your vehicle in the hangar. (Must have the Cesium or Francium medal to achieve--though can be done first). Organesson: Take off from the KSC, Dessert Airfield or Island Airfield and land at Woomerang. Park your craft on the launch pad. (Note that that in order to provide medals in these materials, they need to be between -71 and -189 degrees centigrade. So bring gloves and an appropriate container. We will not replace any medals that have accidentally become gaseous. Recipients of the Organesson "medal" will have one atom personally synthesized for them. This is wonderful, and we want to thank all of you for agreeing to the entry fee increase this year which allows us to bring you such amazing awards.) Plutonium: A completely subjective and likely unfair personal judgement bestowed on the instigator(s) of mindblowing actions of insane Kerbalness. Hydrogen: A medal for the cheapest launch cost. Again, the medal needs to be kept below -259.14 C if you want to it to remain solid and the inscription legible. The leaderboard will include the lowest initial cost in each category. (Taking my cue from @Chequers's wonderful Orbit Boot Camp Challenge) RULES: 1. Stock and DLC only 2. You must takeoff and land horizontally on wheels. Chutes are fine for braking, not for descent. 3. Nothing may be discarded. What goes up, must come down (intact and attached). 4. Keep to the spirit of the challenge. Don't go looking for silly loopholes. 5. You must have at least one pilot. 6. Only solid fuel engines. 7. You must achieve stable orbit (this is defined as in orbit with no engines running with a minimum periapsis of 70,000 ) You cannot go up, make it into orbit and then turn yourself retrograde on the same burn. Orbit does not need to be circularized, just stable. But if you manage that too, more kudos to you. 8. This is about design, not punishing you for mistakes, so if you want to quicksave at certain points, that is fine. So obviously the challenge is about managing resources and coming up with innovative ways to control your thrust and manage your staging. LEADERBOARD Na Sodium Medal: @Chequers: Breakneck 28,400 @Rhomphaia: no name? ? @Klapaucius: Kuragina (with Krypton medal for launching a satellite--landed, but not intact). K Potassium Medal: @Klapaucius: Volkhonsky 33,122.8 Rb Rubidium Medal: @mystifeid: ShrikeII 7,627 (current holder of Hydrogen Medal for Rubidium class). @bayesian_acolyte: Steely Glint: 8151 @mystifeid: Shrike 9,600 @mystifeid: Swallow Mk II 13,241 @Klapaucius: Volkhonsky Mk II @mystifeid: SRB Cargo 732,120 (with 7 star Argon and Krypton medals) Cs Cesium Medal: @mystifeid: Swallow 16205 (with Radon & Xenon endorsements and former holder of the Hydrogen medal, with the full honours, rights and privileges for those of the noble Order of Organesson).) @chargan: Firecracker Mk II 16,959 (with Radon endorsement--former holder of Hydrogen medal) @chargan: Firecracker 20,675 @mystifeid: Swift 24,270 @AHHans: Stonewhale 2F: 47,113 (Gets a slightly lower grade Cesium 137 Isotope for not keeping off the grass. Also awarded a 2 Star Argon for putting 2 Kerbals into space and a Krypton Medal for launching a satellite) Fr Francium Medal: @Platapoes: ? 14,557 (current holder of hydrogen medal for Francium class) @chargan: Firecracker Mk III? 15,474 @mystifeid: Swift Mk II 24,570 @ralanboyle: Solid Boring (but nice silvery coloured) SSTO: ? @ralanboyle: Another Solid Boring (but nice silvery coloured) SSTO: ? (with Argon and Krypton medals) @AHHans: Stonewhale: 50,707 (with 5 Star Argon for putting 5 Kerbals into space)

When I go into orbit, I tend to ascend vertically to about 30km then pitch over to about 45 for a bit then cut the engines and time warp to the apogee point so I can create an orbit. My attitude needs to be about 90 degrees (parallel to the earth's surface) before I burn so I can open out the arc into a circle on the other side of the earth. But in map view, I can't see my attitude relative to the earth so I don't know if I'm firing prograde (which is what I want) or retrograde (which I don't!). I realise I have the nav ball, but once I am on my arc the ball starts to move so 90 degrees ain't 90 relative the earth any more. Any ideas?

Description Gecko KEMU Pure Stock + Breaking Grounds DLC Texture mods are Restock and Textures Unlimited Make sure to turn on SAS and enable Radial Out Press 1 to start walking (on repeat) Press 2 to jump or to crouch (on repeat) (jumping only available on low gravity planets) Press 3 stop all Reaction Wheels Press 4 Toggle Solar Panels I, K toggle Tail with Clamp J, L toggle Radar Arm A stock aircraft called Gecko KEMU. Built with 210 of the finest parts, its root part is probeStackSmall. Built in the SPH in KSP version 1.9.1. Details Type: SPH Class: rover Part Count: 210 Pure Stock KSP: 1.9.1 Highly Recommend Turn on Infinite Energy. Does have enough to travel a few hundred meters before needing a charge. Downloads: https://kerbalx.com/InterstellarKev/Gecko-KEMU https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2107158480