First trip to Minmus [pic heavy]

[palker]

So over last few days i build tested and launched my first rocket to Minmus with a mini RCS powered rover. There were some trouble during the booster development mainly with rocket wobbling about like a wet noodle or just simply exploding on launchpad.

I solved these issues by, you guessed it, adding some struts.

Here is a picture of the first launch that went all right. Keen observers may have noticed that the earlier version had parachutes on the SRBs instead of nosecones for reusability but they did not work as expected and caused them to crash into the main rocket after separation which resulted in a massive explosion and complete destruction of the main rocket

Unfortunately the first mission ended with a crash and death because i came to Minmus too fast. The next one was a bit more successful but the last decoupler was placed upside down so when i detached the rover from bottom of my lander it remained stuck to it and i had to return to Kerbin and flip the decoupler in VAB.

Fortunately third time was the charm in my case and the last landing went without a hitch. I landed detached the rover and went for a drive.

The lander has landed, you can see the rover on the bottom part of it.

This can only end well

Smooth landing

After rather spectacular crash of my rover i went back to the lander on EVA pack RCS. Of course i left the flag behind to mark my achievement forever.

I run out of the pack fuel and overshot the lander by more than 1 km so i had to fly it to the poor Kerbal and since i did not put any ladders on the bloody thing i had to jump on top of the lander. It took me about 20 tries to finally get it right i boarded the ship and at last i could be on my way home.

When i was setting up for aerobrake i noticed that the Kerbol disappeared because the Mun was in the way. An eclipse!! This game is positively the most beautiful game ever.

Final deceleration and parachute deployment

Mission crew is very eager to get out from the command module

I landed about 40 km from KSC and designed a little passenger jet to fly the kerbals back to space centre.

The crew recovery did not go exactly as planned and in the end i had to save 5 Kerbals instead of the original trio.

Success!

Somebody is excited that he will get home unharmed (probably).

Back at runway posing for newspaper picture. Time to prepare a parade for the latest heroes of Kerbal space exploration.

[Tw1]

I like the way you recovered the kerbals with the plane. And congrats on your first trip to Minmus!

[Geschosskopf]

Cool mission. I, too, dink around with recovery planes but so far those that fly nice don't go fast enough and those that go fast enough tend not to fly very well .

Anyway, I'm new at this myself so I'm wondering how you stowed the rover in-line and between the lander and booster so it was perfectly hidden. Please explain .