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

[ArmchairGravy]

My largest booster was to lift the 125t Stanford Torus to LKO.

My largest interplanetary vessel was my 1st manned Layethe return mission. Subsequent missions were not nearly as over-designed.

[ShadowZone]

Ok, time to chime in here

My Sphere Station. Protective shell that incorporates habitation, science labs and internal docking ports for smaller craft (which can enter through "windows" on the sides of the sphere)

My hexagonal fuel station. I hate multiple launches to assemble craft in orbit, so I pack them all together in one launch and then dismantle that and put it together in one go. Which acutally was quite tricky. Got a video of that in the pipeline.

K-Force I, interplanetary carrier for smaller craft ("fighters", landers), carrying a crew of 20 or more, I think.

Last but not least: Hammerhead Maxx II - this was the last B9 update before the HX parts started to fall apart. The cargo bay expands on the inside.

Pretty sure the Hammerhead is the heaviest. But it reaches orbit directly from the launchpad (which only survives thanks to a plethora of clamps).

[InterCity]

Unfortunately, I don't usually build rockets (I go with SSTO's and stuff assembled in orbit, and modular bases), so the only thing I have is back from .18 when I was bad at making SSTO's:

And if you want the heaviest thing I ever got somewhere: It's this. Unfortunately I don't have pics of the launch stage, because it's long gone (the thing is just sitting on Laythe since eternity).

The biggest thing I've ever built was not even intended to go to space.

[cantab]

My new record is the refueller for my Tylo ship.

And here is the lander it refuelled, the biggest thing I've landed anywhere.

[Norcalplanner]

Here are two of my largest, both designed to loft huge fuel depots. A stock 6,400 ton craft will get a 702 ton fuel depot into Mun orbit. Its big brother uses SpaceY parts, weighs 16,500 tons on the pad, and will get a 1,080 ton fuel depot to Jool.

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[Rune]

I think the pieces for my L3 station. That booster was an affront to nature and aerodynamics. Works like a charm, though:

Rune. Built in career.

[problemecium]

Since Whackjob asked, here's a large SSTO I made that has no jets:

Note: this was before they made the radial engine bodies into intakes.

[Speeding Mullet]

There's some absolute leviathan vehicles going on here. The Deep Jool certainly doesn't stack up against some of the previously posted but it's probably the biggest ship I've ever made. the weight of the ship was minimal as it flew to the Jool system running on fumes - Kethane mission!

STATS:

Total Ship Mass on Departure: 284 T

Total Part Count on Departure: 894 - bad times

Crew: 28

Central Living quarters

Detachable heat shield

1 Jool impactor probe

1 Jool satellite

4 sub orbital hoppers

4 communication and kethane scanning satellites

2 robot RCS vehicles

Kethane mining and rover/base drop ship

4 two man rovers, each with 2 detachable science packages

4 four man bases for the Joolian moons (apart from Tylo)

1 Laythe jet plane

1 Tylo lander

1 Mobile Lab

1 Return to Kerbin ferry (main ship and drop ship stay in high Jool orbit to service remaining crew and moon bases)

Main thread here

This is one of the albums selected for best views of the (very) complex ship. For a sense of scale the tanks by the SIXTEEN ATOMIC ROCKET MOTORS are the large orange jobbies.

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Interestingly I originally tried to launch it as one big lump:

Oh yes, dbmorpher once responded to a "what shall I do next" thread with 1) build a cathedral 2) put in on the mun. So I did. That was a whale of a vehicle also:

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[foamyesque]

I think this now stands as the biggest rocket I've built that did what it was intended to:

1150 tons of payload (~1500 tons if you count the remaining juice in the core stage) to LKO, with lots of capacity to spare.

[a2soup]

My biggest stock rocket was for my Grand Science Tour, an 0.25 mission to do every possible experiment using the payload of a single launch. The rocket was 2667 tons, 1466 parts on the pad. I was very surprised that it was stable enough to make orbit.

Since radially decoupling huge asparagus cores is a recipe for disaster, I came up with a "frame staging" design, where the asparagus cores decouple vertically from a structural frame. The frame hurts efficiency but makes the rocket more stable and reliable. Below is a detail of the frame with asparagus cores attached.

The payload in orbit, with the last booster stage and empty structural frame still attached. Ready for science!

[Vindaloo]

That's No Mun!

Not mine, this is from Reddit.

[CelticCossack51]

I found this screenshot. The original booster would look like the Delta IV, but with six SRBs

[Steambirds]

My largest rocket to date was probably my saturn v clone, but I think my most impressive was my launch system for my space shuttle Icarus. Icarus crashed (wings first).

[problemecium]

This, my new Jool-5 mothership, is the largest interplanetary ship I've built to date and close to the largest stock ship I've ever built:

Size comparison with its predecessors:

Album: http://imgur.com/a/4gJcu

[pearldrumbum]

@parameciumkid that thing is amazing, nice work! How did you make that cross-section view picture?

[ShadowZone]

@parameciumkid that thing is amazing, nice work! How did you make that cross-section view picture?

I think that's a mod called Kronal Vessel Viewer.

________

I myself went a little berzerk this week with big launches. This here is the Osiris, a Jool Cruiser (the front with the cockpit is detachable and functions as the lander). The thing weighs 1100 tons, so I had to design a new launcher from scratch. Got into a stable 150k orbit without having to use the LV-N or any of the fuel on board of the Cruiser.

The 100t lander vehicle has enough dV for Tylo and can also manage Laythe - if I get CoM and CoT to balance some day...

So I got frustrated and designed a more minimalistic Jool lander and a sleek transport craft in Russian rocket style with 14.000 m/s of dV. The lander is inside the Mk3 cargo bay as well as a lab.

Thing weighs 7000t or something on the launch pad. Top stage (about 300t including the lander) has 7200 dV with 21 LV-N propelling it.

Edited January 17, 2015 by ShadowZone

[bs1110101]

It's based off the Nova, a rocket that was basically screw docking and logic, bigger rockets too the moon!

Anyway, that was made in 6.4 scale kerbin. In rss (without RO, just isp scaled up a bit) i made this, not sure if bigger or not.

Launched this, in a few bits.

[Frozen_Heart]

This one is pretty cute compared to most rockets here but its the largest one I've ever got to orbit. I use it quite regularly now as its so reliable.

160 Tons to orbit.

[trainmax]

Cool crafts!

[Northstar1989]

This was an SSTO that I launched back in the golden days of my KSP-playing (now, my laptop can barely handle the game)

For scale, the central fuel tank to the right is 3.75 meters in diameter (the larger fuel tank was made with StretchyTanks).

Regards,

Northstar

[Draconiator]

Here is the largest thing I've ever built so far as far as launchers: I'm launching a fuel depot to go to Minmus, and I need enough fuel to fill two Kerbodyne S3-14400s, which I'm launching empty to save weight. I fill 'em when I get there out of what is left in the second stage, and use 4 LV-909s mounted on the depot itself to land. I did use Rockomax 22-77s but those proved not to have enough thrust and I spectacularly crashed it. heh.

Thing's so huge even the boosters have boosters.

and here's a video of it jettisoning the booster boosters...or something...

Edit: And I got it successfully to Minmus, and landed...~11KM away from my base. But me being me, I crashed it trying to move it. Doi.

Edited January 21, 2015 by Draconiator

[[email protected]]

3,200 tons on the pad, just a hair over 450 tons to orbit, onion staged. Unfortunately my save file is broken so I can't take a picture.

[TimePeriod]

Jeb didn't even flinch.

[Starlionblue]

2889 parts in 19 stages. 31290 tons on the pad, with delta-v of 17398, 21162 (atmo, vac).

Pics here.

Full details here.

Worst part was that it didn't even work. My new Eve Vehicle, which is very close to managing the mission, is "only" 13667 tons thanks to much more clever design.

[gooddog15]

I've built a Super SLS with clustered core stages before.