What's the Largest Rocket you've ever built? Interplanetary and Launchers Mostly

[Sir Nahme]

Where's wackjob and his monstrosities when you need them...

[Whackjob]

Where's wackjob and his monstrosities when you need them...

Actually, he's got a new girlfriend he's lavishing attention on in a very silly and endearing manner. Shhh! Don't tell him I told you, but he even did the fake-yawn-drape-his-arm-across-her-shoulder bit! He's such a dork!

~Whack's "assistant"

[NecroBones]

Actually, he's got a new girlfriend he's lavishing attention on in a very silly and endearing manner. Shhh! Don't tell him I told you, but he even did the fake-yawn-drape-his-arm-across-her-shoulder bit! He's such a dork!

~Whack's "assistant"

Congrats, and fantastic!

[Whackjob]

Don't tell him I'm posting on his account. He had me update his status once. So I come here to lurk. He probably wouldn't mind, but I didn't ask, either.

[DocMoriarty]

Today I can add another monstrosity. I created a real behemoth of single vessel for moving / mining E-class asteroids after some desaster with one (which is the story in my signature). It has a takeoff weight of 1400 tons and the vessel itself without boosters has a wet weight of 900 tons. The reason why it's so big is simply to have enough thrust to move E-class asteroids (somwhere around 2000+- tons). And since something that big is hard to get into orbit with a rocket, or at least not effective in times of resource mining, it got enough tanks and stuff to get into orbit itself with the help of 20 SRB's. It even has got enough fuel to make it to Minmus to the refueling station there. It features 2 x S3 rockets and 12 x nukes. And thanks to it's 21 SAS modules (SQUAD you owe us real 3,75m SAS modules, aren't ya?) it's as agile as a tiny newbie rocket. Kinda. The key of this one is, that it pulls asteroids and doesn't push which also explains the weird setup of 4 rockets surrounding the center rocket that has a claw at it's rear end.

Here is a comparison with one of my older designs for asteroid moving and mining. Raider 31-02 meets Marge 01-02 in orbit around Minmus while waiting for fuel. Well actually the new captain for Raider 31-02 was commanding Marge before and took over command of Raider at this point.

Carrica: And I already thought my old Marge was big!

Edited August 30, 2015 by DocMoriarty

[waterlubber]

This. A 250 ton lifter.

[dudefinal]

I present to you, the unnamed giant.

http://i.imgur.com/HH4DytJ.png

It costs 2.842617E+07 funds and its 620.6m tall. 68,198.6 tons.

You win XD!

[Musicrafter]

I don't build absurd rockets, but since my dad plays KSP (not very well in my opinion), he built a huge rocket. Took up all the horizontal AND vertical space in the VAB and he constantly keeps trying to add more parts. Costs $10.7 million (the game renders it as 1.7+E7 on the ship selection screen because it's so expensive), has several thousand parts and is a giant lagfest (the game renders about 1 second of game time every 15-20 real-time seconds) and most of it is tweakscaled 5m Kerbodyne tanks, with the addition of 7m tweakscaled SRB's. He doesn't have a clue that seeing atmo heating on ascent is inefficient, so he has the rocket pulling 2-4 g's all the way up and almost incinerating itself. The ascent stage, transfer stage, and etc. aren't even separate from each other. The lander is garbage as well. Four aerospikes, five large holding tanks, an ISRU, and a 3-man capsule SSTO that has some 2,200 dV when the ore tanks are empty but only 1,200 when full. The thing can barely do a Duna landing even with surface refueling. Also he doesn't scan for resources so his most recent landing was on top of an almost non-existent ore pocket, and it took him 7 Kerbin months to get the lander refueled. He used many modded parts from KW Rocketry and SpaceY, and abused tweakscale to the largest degree possible.

My best rocket, the "Magnus VI", has 1,261 parts, costs $1.7 million, and renders about 1 second per 5-8 real-time seconds. My computer isn't even as good as dad's. I also don't have KW, SpaceY, or tweakscale installed on my system, so my rocket is essentially 100% stock except for the "MJ and KER for all" mod.

[Red Iron Crown]

...He doesn't have a clue that seeing atmo heating on ascent is inefficient...

My most efficient ascents all show reentry effects, all of them. If I don't see them I know I made the gravity turn too gradual for best efficiency.

[Guest]

A fresh attempt at the UR700. Still in development, she weighs in a 1.325 million tons.

[LordCorwin]

This is my Laythe5, 2072 tons, with this I was able to land Jebediah safely on Laythe and bring him back to Kerbin without a single refuel.

[Arugela]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/...cas-The-Orion!

[Pixel of Life]

I don't have screenshots, but the heaviest rocket I've built was around 2500 tons and was used to launch a manned lander to Duna.

[Vermil]

Kronos_X15 (aka Kronos_B ).

At 8,459.1 t and 987 parts, it's slightly bigger (11.4 t) than Kronos_A (aka Kronos_X14) at 8,447.7 t and 980 parts.

Kronos_A carried Jebediah, Bill and Bob to Laythe's surface and safely back to Kerbin again, without refueling (1.0 game, 100% heat model).

I expect Kronos_B will do the same for Valentina, Madly and Kimene, one day, only better, safer.

Edited February 10, 2016 by Vermil

[fortraan]

I made a giant hypersonic cargo lifter using OPT's largest parts, and my poor computer just can't take it. The game crashes each and every time I try to load it. It was almost 3 times as wide as the runway, if you include the wings. It had Quiztech VTOL wings, but now I think I never would have gotten it to lift off. It's possible the game crashed from clipping, though. It is the largest I've ever built.

[NathanKell]

Mostly @ferram4 (I helped a bit; but his entry is obviously Eotena), but here's the
 Saturn VIII MLV.

October 30, 1979. The first launch of the Ares III mission lifts off, which launches the Flight and Return Vessel (FRV). The LV for the three main launches is the Saturn VIII Modified Launch Vehicle (MLV).

Excerpt from: Launch Vehicles, A Concise History (NASA Pub.)
Saturn VIII MLV: a product of Johnson’s push to reach Mars in a limited timeframe, making use of all available rocket technology and using existing hardware / manufacturing where possible. In practice, this is a Saturn VIII in name only, since the only remaining hardware from the original S-VIII design is the distinctive flared skirt / thrust plate on the first stage, with all other stages being bulked out to meet the nominal tank diameter of the first stage and using completely different engine specifications.

Design consists of an 8 F-1A stretched 1st stage assisted by 8 UA1207 SRMs, a 4 M-1 high-energy, high-thrust 2nd stage, and a 2 AJW3-N130 nuclear transfer stage. Vehicle is capable of 200 tonnes to a trans-martian trajectory.

[MatterBeam]

Amazing as always, Nathan. I have a feeling the Ares III-4's boosters could be glided back for recovery.... My tip would be to add multiple fins so that you can reduce the length of each one.

Here's the largest thing I used in RSS/RO:

 

It's the first rocket launch of the album. Named the Africa I, it can place 50 tons in low Earth Orbit. Weight on launchpad is 1250 tons.

 

Edited February 11, 2016 by MatterBeam

[NathanKell]

@MatterBeam thanks! Yours is very cool too!

More fins would help, but since dry mass isn't at a premium, chutes would probably be used like the SRB/RSRM.

[Mister Dilsby]

The KSS Intrepid is ready for launch! 2600 tons on the pad. Note that there are still several components (engineering section, several probes, a 75 ton mining lander and an SSTO plane--all carried internally) to be added once it reaches orbit. I estimate the fueled ship ready to depart for Jool will mass 1200 tons and be about 600 parts.

Edited February 11, 2016 by Kuzzter

[SpaceplaneAddict]

Just now, Kuzzter said:

The KSS Intrepid is ready for launch! 2600 tons on the pad. Note that there are still several components (engineering section, several probes, a 75 ton mining lander and an SSTO plane--all carried internally) still to be added once it reaches orbit. I estimate the fueled ship ready to depart for Jool will mass 1200 tons and be about 600 parts.

*Jaw Drops*

[cantab]

I give you the Burj Kherbalifa.

Burj Kherbalifa at KSC by cantab314, on Flickr

Completely stock, 216 metres tall, with accommodation for over three thousand Kerbals. With some comparatively small boosters (30 Mammoths fed by three giant Kerbodyne tanks each) it only got suborbital legitimately though, I had to cheat to circularise.

The lag was horrendous. Combine an old PC, 1.0.x having bad performance, and me not realise that 200 Kerbals on board spikes the lag, and launch to orbit took two hours. I wanted to land on Minmus (with fuelhack) but just couldn't handle the lagfest.

Maybe come 1.1 I'll dust the Burj off and fly it again.

Edited February 11, 2016 by cantab

[AlextheBodacious]

On 8/30/2015 at 7:16 AM, Whackjob said:

fake-yawn-drape-his-arm-across-her-shoulder bit

Isn't that just called making a pass?

[KerbonautInTraining]

On Monday, September 07, 2015 at 1:07 PM, Jack Wolfe said:

A fresh attempt at the UR700. Still in development, she weighs in a 1.325 million tons.

Are you sure that wasn't a typo? I think 13,000t sounds more reasonable.

Also this is mine at 24,000t

Edited February 11, 2016 by KerbonautInTraining

[Whackjob]

On 2/11/2016 at 10:30 PM, AlextheBodacious said:

Isn't that just called making a pass?

Sure, when you're in your teens.  When you're over thirty and you do it, it's called being cheesy.

[Randox]

I've never been one for the super large designs. This rocket is the largest I've ever used. She'll manage at least a 1,000 tonne launch weight. Note in the second picture that altitude is being measured from approximately the top of the widest point of the fairing (where the command pod for the space station payload is sitting). Payloads notwithstanding, it is the same rocket in both pictures. The space station in the second picture is the most voluminous payload I think I've ever launched (as wide as the boosters, and twice as long as the miner shown in the first picture), but thanks to the docking arms (widest point), it was actually quite easy to secure once I turned command pod gyro wheels off.

Launch dV is ~4,500-5,500, depending on payload.

 

Edited February 15, 2016 by Randox