The Wrong Brothers - career mode done differently (pic heavy)

[Daddy Cecil]

Grats on 15k views!

EDIT: 100th post too. Neat!

[katateochi]

UPDATE

The air around the space center was full of the sound of scientists arguing. Their quarrels where about two things; where to go next and what kind of vessel should be used. The first argument was easily settled as the majority felt that focusing on planets with atmospheres was the most logical. This narrowed their options down to just Eve or Laythe (anyone who suggested Jool was ridiculed and put to work sweeping the SPH). From spectrum analysis it was believed that Laythe had an oxygen rich atmosphere that would enable their Jet engines to function and it was suspected that Eve would be extremely hard to leave. So Laythe was the obvious choice.

The next argument (which at points turned violent) was what type of craft to use. Many felt that a massive vessel would be the way forward, one with a full science lab and large crew would enable more in-depth studies. Some felt that efficiency was the way forward and that a small craft could do the same task but with much lower fuel (and sandwich) demands. A smaller more radical faction felt that not only should they be able to land, but also bring a sort of Ride-On-Vehicle-(for)-Extended-Reconnaissance or ROVER if you will.

They just couldn't make up their minds so in the end prototypes for all three ideas were built so each idea could be better analysed and tested.

The first design to be completed was the SS-Flying-Laboratory. It was the first ever wide-body design, utilizing larger fuel tanks, a completely different cockpit concept and most importantly a science laboratory. It had a full crew of 5 but could be operated by a skeleton crew of just 3.

Initial tests looked promising as the craft was capable of reaching orbit, however reaching orbit did deplete most of its fuel so a in orbit refuel would be required. That was not a problem, the real problem with this craft was its maneuverability, or rather lack of it. It was a lumbering, heavy craft and required a long smooth landing strip, even with its many wheels the slightest bump on landing would cause it to buckle and touch the ground. Very few of its test landings where successful, even on the runway.

Those working on the Rover project produced a craft called Rouge1 which held a ROVER in a rear bay. It could raise its rear wheels to lower the back so the rover could drive in and out. Design was looking good at first but it had two major flaws. First was parking the rover in the hold again was tricky at best, it would only work effectively when the craft was parked on level ground. But its most crippling fault was its complexity that led to horribly laggy performance.

Meanwhile the team working on the small scale project had made a number of breakthroughs. The first component of their design was to build a small lightweight SSTO that could carry a set of science equipment into orbit. With just a single jet engine, two LV-909's and two intakes this craft set a new record for air-breathing ceiling, it was able to continue accelerating on jet propulsion above 30km.

It was realized that with a little bit more fuel this plane could do much more and as a side project a variant with slightly more fuel was built. This version was able to reach orbit, deorbit and land somewhere on kerbin and then take off and reach orbit again with just enough fuel to deorbit again. It was the first SSTO that could reach orbit twice without refueling, a major break through in exploring Kerbin.

The lighter version was still the preferred design for the mission and it was now modified to hold extra science gear for the mission.

The two science pods under each wing would be used to get upper and lower atmosphere readings during the descent and would then be left behind. The next stage of the design was a transfer stage that could push this plane to a Laythe orbit and bring it back again. Unlike the DunaGlider this plane wasn't designed with docking connections along its central axis, instead it would dock ontop of the transfer stage. So the transfer stage had to be built with an offset design.

Meanwhile it was realized that which ever project was chosen they would need to refuel in LKO before departing so the now much used and very reliable SSTO transporter was modified to take a bulkier cargo and made two trips up to the orbital station GammaLeo with large fuel tanks. The tanks had to be taken up a bit over half full due to their weight.

Once at the station the small RCS tug positioned the tanks on the station;

The second set of tanks was docked shortly later;

In order to completely fill the tanks a large fuel transporter was built to bring the additional fuel up. Another wide-body design, this fuel tanker was able to transport around 2160l of liquid and 2640l of oxidizer up to orbit.

Jeb rode up in the tanker and would now wait at the station for the mission modules to be brought up to him. The first module to be brought up was the main transfer stage (which also had to be brought up partially empty);

As well as fuel and engines the transfer stage also had a more spacious command pod that would serve as his living quarters during the long trip out to Laythe.

The transporter dropped it near the station and it docked (under unmanned control) to the stations assembly arm;

Jebediah prepared to exit the tanker and space walk over to the transfer module. The whole world watched and waited for the famous pilot and astronaut to appear, everyone knew what was at stake, the risk involved in this mission, the distances he was going to travel. There was a significant chance that he might not ever return. Although there were still some further preparations to be made, once Jeb entered the transfer modules pod he would not be seen again until his return, if he returned at all.

A silence fell over the entire world, no doubt this great Kerbal would have some deeply meaningful and powerful message to say as he made his way from the tanker. Silence. Then the crackle of a coms radio...."erm Control....we have a problem....the door won't open!!"

The design of new cockpits eject system had somehow blocked the door and was preventing it from opening! Jeb would have to return to KSC and along with the other two, would have to be cut out of the cockpit. A thousand little green faces where buried in a thousand little green palms. This design bungle was born of modular testing; the tanker had been extensively tested, the eject system has been trailed again and again. Both performed fine and after ejects the crew could exit the cockpit. However exiting the cockpit while still attached to the craft had never been checked!!

So, Jeb (rather sheepishly) made his way back down to KSC and landed the tanker (at the dead of night to avoid unnecessary press coverage).

Meanwhile the preparations where still continuing and a new pilot by the name of Jorgee had left in the sprinter carrying a set of small (empty) tanks that would be attached to the transfer stage. These would be booster tanks for the transfer stage that would be dropped once spent.

Once he'd arrived at the station, Bill used the RCS tug to move these tanks into position, and connect them via a triple dock connection.

Once connected they where filled from the stations fuel tanks.

All that remained now was for the science SSTO to be brought up and this would now be Jeb's ride back up to the station. Behind the crowd of spectators a lone and decidedly grumpy Kerbal could be seen muttering to himself and scowling. If not for the door debacle he would have been the pilot to fly this new craft, a job that would have earned him much respect, but once again it was Jeb who took the center stage. Curiously enough his name was Envey and he'd been having a rather bad few days. He'd been the pilot to fly the SSTO transporter carrying the transfer stage and he'd suffered a bad accident involving physics warp during his descent. Apparently the modified transporter didn't like going into physics warp when it didn't have a cargo and had basically folded in half and dropped out of the sky.

He had managed to eject in time, but he would be forever remembered as the pilot who first crashed this otherwise very reliable plane.

Jeb bid farewell to his people saying "we may be small (and green) and the mountains may be large, but in the end it is not a giant craft that will carry me to the edges of our system, but one of the smallest ever built". And with that he shot down the runway.

At the station Bill was moving the transfer module into its departure position ready for Jeb do dock his craft to;

Shortly later Jeb arrived and docked with the transfer stage, a dual docking mechanism ensured that the craft was attached at the correct orientation;

The mission was now ready, and Jeb was towed away from the station by the RCS tug.

Once the tug had disconnected Jeb fired up the mighty nuclear engines to begin the 20 minute burn for Jool transfer.

Before breaking out of Kerbins orbit the drained boosters tanks where dropped. One day someone will be charged with collecting them.

(image brightened)

Jeb watched Kerbin shrinking away from him and wondered if he ever see it again.................................

300 days later

After nearly a year of coasting through the seemingly unending black, with only the gradually shrinking Sun marking the changing days, Jeb was finally nearing Jool. After a few course corrections he was set to pass round the mighty giant and plunge into Laythes atmo.

With the wings of the plane acting as a heat shield during entry, Jeb was treated to a stunning view of Jool setting over Laythe.

Once in orbit Jeb scoped the terrain from his observation window, trying to find a landing site that wouldn't involve swimming for his life. After several orbits a stretch of land appeared below him, he named it Long Island.

After transferring to the plane he disconnected and began his deorbit burn. This was a make or break point for the mission, if he was unable to return to the transfer module then he would be marooned out here forever.

On the way down (aided by the power of action groups) Jeb took readings in the upper and lower atmo

After skimming over Long Island he turned north toward the lake and touched down by it.

The next order of business was to take more science readings, but after all that time in space, Jeb decided to indulge in his love of swimming first.

But there was something a little eerie about these waters. Not like the clear water back on Kerbin, the lake was opaque and mysterious, its still surface only made him feel like it was intentionally trying to hide something. He was in no mood to find out if there was aquatic life here so he took a reading and then quickly got out and jogged back to the plane.

There were important jobs to be done, like planting the flag.

and downloading the data from the wing mounted science pods.

Once he'd taken all the data from the two pods he disconnected them from the craft

The revelation that data could actually be transferred would really lighten the load of the return journey.

After some more time exploring Jeb climbed into his cramped cockpit and took to the sky once more.

The Kerbin tested SSTO performed very well in Laythes atmo and soon he was back in space and heading for the transfer module

He redocked and transferred to his more spacious living quarters.

Finally it was time leave the Joolian system and head home

With a short burn he transferred into a Jool orbit and then waited for half an orbit to start his 10 minute return burn to put him on a course home.

It wasn't the ideal time for a transfer back to the Kerbin system and the return journey took 420 days, longer than the trip out to Jool. But waiting for the right transfer window would have meant waiting for even longer.

420 days later

Kerbin rushed towards him, he was overjoyed to see it. It appeared that Mun was overjoyed to see him too and came rushing up to greet him. As nice as it was to see his close neighbor again it was also a problem, he had to make a course correction or end his traveling days in a smoking heap on Mun.

It took some further course corrections (and some 'simulations') to set his Pe at the right height in Kerbins atmo to areobrake into orbit.

Home was now so close he could almost touch it (if not for the massive distances involved).

The reentry was the most intense he'd ever experienced and made him wonder about designing some form of special shield, but the wings protected most of the craft and it was soon over.

After a few adjustments to bring him to a circular 100km orbit he separated from the transfer stage which would stay in orbit and be refueled, ready for another mission.

He began his descent towards KSC, he wondered if he'd recognize the place, after all it had been over two years since he left, maybe they'd built another building or added a second runway? But of course it was also equally possible that everyone had just spent two years sunbathing on the shores and enjoying the peace and quite without the noise of jet engines filling the air.

As he approached he realized that he'd miscalculated his deorbit a bit, but after all it had been a while since he'd landed on Kerbin. He just have to fly round and land in the other direction.

KSC was exactly the way he'd left it, clearly everyone had been on a long holiday.

Touchdown! Home at last!!

Jeb taxied to the crew complex and stepped out into the warn Kerbin air, after years of breathing recycled air it was wonderful, or at least it would be if only he could get this darn helmet off!!

The hero of the skies was safely back on the ground. The Kerbal who had started this apparently whimsical project of leaving the ground had now pushed the boundaries to the very edge of their solar system.

The mission returned 5188 points (plus some more from transmitted crew reports). The tree of science could now be completed (and with 2000+ points to spare!)

As it turned out Jebs people hadn't been entirely idle during his absence. Jebs Mun landings with their vertical landings and take off's had inspired a group who had started dabbling with the notion of launching a craft vertically rather than using a runway. The called this kind of craft a "rocket" and it would shed empty tanks as it flew. Many people thought it was complete nonsense and it was clear that they had a long way to go to make this concept a reality.

Another Kerbal had also discovered something that he was calling "KerbPaint", a colored substance that could be used to change the natural color of certain objects, really revolutionary stuff. This MODern innovation had been used to paint a special aircraft which had been built specially for Jeb in honor of his return.

It was an SSTO and was built for aesthetic appeal as much as its function and in a spectacular ceremony it was presented to Jeb;

In spite of having spent the last two years in a cramped cockpit Jeb eagerly boarded his new plane and set off for a test flight. It is virtually impossible to keep this Kerbal on the ground. He'll keep flying till the day he dies and even then his memory will continue to lift new pilots into the air, to boldly fly where no pilot has gone before.

THE END!!!!

or is it..........?

New MODern technology has provided some more ways to spend science points. Can you believe it, 1000 points for a magnetic connector!?

These new pricey components brought some much needed additions, with increased air traffic it'd become apparent some ground support crew was needed to refuel and tow landed craft.

The truck has two interchangeable trailers, for towing and refueling;

Refueled craft ready for its next mission.

Thanks for reading guys and for all the great comments you've left. This has been without a doubt the longest and most challenging way I've done career mode, but its been really good fun. It's taught me a lot about aircraft design and playing pure stock has been quite refreshing (cos I'm normally a mod fanatic). As you can see from this last bit, I'm going back to the land of mods now, at least for payloads and support craft. But I've actually had far more success building stock SSTO's than I've ever had using mod parts, I just can't seem to get B9 based craft to work for me.

I'm kinda at a loss now as to what to do next. I want to get back to building regular rockets but I will also make more use of SSTO's in the future. I could carry this story on as I visit other planets but it probably won't be totally aircraft based. What do you think?

I will make another post and put all the craft used in this career up for dl if you want them. I just need to sort through my craft and put them in the order they appeared. The SR-71 BlackBird at the end is already up for DL here. It is totally stock apart from the paint job, and if you don't have the kerbpaint mod installed it will just appear in its stock colors.

Thanks again guys and HAPPY FLYING!

Kat

tl;dr - went to Laythe and back in a little plane, completed tech tree. Built something that launched vertically, it exploded. Built something sleek and painted it. Went trucking. stuff will be up for DL. END!

[Captain Sierra]

You just beat the tech tree with nothin but wings. Go make yourself a medal! Now go do whatever you want. If you want to plant a flag on every body, just without using planes, do it! If you want to keep the story going with rocket development to the rest of the planets, that would be cool too!

[Brotoro]

Excellent adventure! Congratulations on completing the tree with just aerospace planes.

[Logan.Darklighter]

Bravo! You definitely have THE RIGHT STUFF my man!

[JumpsterG]

Congrats and thank you very much for sharing. As someone who is finally capable of building reliable SSTO spaceplanes in stock KSP, I appreciate the immense time and effort that went into this venture.

The only thing I can imagine left to do with this save is to use the Kethane powered jet engines for an Eve landing and return mission or a Jool low atmosphere flythrough and return mission. Everything else is just a long distance repeat of the Mun landing which doesn't matter for the preference of wings and/or horizontal landing/takeoff.

Whatever you do, thanks again for sharing!

[Mr_Brain]

Congratulations for completing the tree! This has been awesome. Thank you very much! I actually feel just a little bit sad that it's over now.

[bowfonz]

Awesome, congratulations! And thanks for the great story. Very well done.

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

Sad to see it go, but a brilliant story nevertheless, have some rep.

Edit:apparently you were the last person I gave some to, sorry :/

[katateochi]

Thanks Guys, especially those of you who've commented lots!! Its been such fun doing this so I'm glad you've enjoyed reading it.

I said I'd put the craft up for download so here they are;

Download All Craft zip Here

There is an index in the zip to show you which chapter the craft came from and some notes on a couple of them. A couple are sub assemblies, they have the prefix 'subassembly', just rename them and put them in your subassembly dir.

Most of the later ones have eject systems which all work in the same way; Abort to eject, and then hit action group 0 to deploy chutes.

There are a bunch of craft in a folder called Others. These where ideas that didn't make it into service and didn't play a part in unlocking the tree. Just thought I'd include them anyway.

Bonus Craft contains some side project craft and things which came after the full unlock. There are a couple fun craft in there including the SR-71 replica and a craft called "another speedy thing" which is a really fun low alt jet. It's very maneuverable, if you like trying to snake around the KSC buildings at speed this is a good craft for that.

The SSTO which can make orbit twice without refueling is in there (DoupleJumpSSTO) and there are also two planes which can land on water.

Of the ones from the story there are a couple which are my favs and still get used.

- the Sprinter is just a fun, fast, 1 man SSTO. Will have you in LKO in under 10 in-game minutes.

- the HunterS is a good way of shuttling 5 guys into orbit. (action groups 5-8 fire its missiles, or remove them before launch for a quicker ascent to LKO).

- the SSTOTransporter while large and heavy, its 20ton payload capacity has made it the backbone of this space program (see note in the zip about how to best change its payload).

The story continues.....

Jeb sat at the end of the runway pondering life. It was nice to watch the planes come and go and he was there to greet Bob as he returned from the space station onboard the HunterS. But while Jeb lived for fast paced travel he did on occasion yearn for a quite place to relax, somewhere he could escape to and not be easily accessible.

Suddenly two new ideas hit him at once. Why had he not thought of this before? A plane that could land on water! and if that worked, why not a small base which floated on the sea?! Gah, if only he'd thought of aquatic landings before the Laythe mission that would have really been cool. To the SPH!!

A short while later he rolled out a fairly odd looking craft, it reminded him of the early skid landing craft, just this had larger skids and they where covered in air intakes, which for a strange reason had proven to be very buoyant and surprisingly tough.

Once over the sea he throttled back and carefully descended until he was just skimming over the water at about 80ms. The he dropped the throttle right back and SPLASH!! Touchdown at 70ms.

Now he could go swimming where ever he liked!! And this would be the way to get to and from his floating house idea. hmmm yes the house, not classically considered the most aerodynamic of structures and a house with wings was just going to look silly!

What about this new rocket idea? Perhaps rather than flying it like a plane he could just fling it into the sky (in a sort of guided way) and then parachute it into the water.

Without-a-doubt this was the oddest thing ever to come out of the SPH.

But it took to the air (in much the same way a brick does if you put C4 under it)

This was such an experimental and risky operation that it was done unmanned. Once it was across the bay the engine sections where dropped and chutes deployed.

With a great splash the house hit the water and bobbed up and down for a while before settling.

The only problem was that now on the surface, the curve of the world meant that it had lost its line of sight communication link with KSC. But that could be fixed, maybe a nearby antenna mast could be put up, or perhaps a whole new project to put satellites in orbit.

Jeb took off in his sea plane and headed for the floating base. It was just a short 5 minute flight out and then he touched down near the house.

RCS had been added to the plane to enable it to taxi on the water, sturdy fuel lines on the house for moorings and a ramp to get out of the water, with handrails in case of stormy weather.

The inside was a little sparse, but additional things could be brought over later, but the most important thing was already there, a set of deckchairs mounted on hinges so they could recline.

Jeb now had a place to chill.

But being completely alone in an empty floating house isn't much fun. So Bob and Bill came up with a faster jet that could carry some supplies and set off to join him.

They started carrying in the things they'd brought;

And began assembling

Unfortunately the hinges on the adjustable deck chairs had started to sink into the decking so Jeb had to replace the seats, sadly this meant they couldn't recline anymore.

Now they had an indoor sitting area, complete with science gear

And the outside deck to lounge in and watch the world go by, or (being Kerbals) sit and plan the next mission.

(if only Kerbals had invented fishing rods)

Now all that remained was to get the communication link setup. But that's an unnecessarily complicated mission for another time.....

(btw, the two sea planes are in the craft zip. The ones in the zip are still 100% stock, the seaHawk had KAS gear added later and was upgrade to be a twin seater

The house is totally not stock and isn't included!)

[Vanamonde]

Somebody's been busy.

that's an unnecessarily complicated mission

That's never stopped you before.

[Brotoro]

The house needs a disco ball hanging from the ceiling!

Love the reclining chairs.

[Old_Gaming_Geezer]

Excellant work

[katateochi]

The house needs a disco ball hanging from the ceiling!

Love the reclining chairs.

Unfortunately the reclining chairs have broken! The hinges keep sinking into the decking. Each time the house is loaded they sink a little further. I think it probably because the house is floating.

hmmm, a disco ball. Would have been easy to install one before deploying the house, but adding it in after, tricky...challenge accepted!! But before that....

Update...

The floating house's position was just over the horizon from KSC which meant that the line of sight communications (remote tech gear) was not working. They thought of a few ways to solve this problem. The first idea was to put up several satellites in a high elliptical (molniya) orbit so that there would be coverage around Kerbin. Another idea was to put a single geostationary satellite in orbit directly overhead and the third idea was to construct a large tower and move it somewhere between KSC and the house.

It was realized that the tower idea was going to be the most tricky option, so that's what they decided to go for!

The tower was constructed in the VAB and the shipped to the SPH to be loaded onto a trailer. The ground crew truck was then used to pull the trailer.

Dodun and Matt set off to travel the ~20km to where the tower was going to be set up.

The going was slow and the terrain they had to cover became increasing hilly, they had to stop several times to repair punctures.

After a long journey they approached the selected site, a raised point along the bay which provided line of sight to both KSC and the house.

Now to assemble to tower. The truck disconnected and Dodun secured the rear of the trailed to the ground.

Then the trailer raised itself up on hydraulic rams and more anchors where dropped from the towers legs and attached to the ground

The central anchor was attached to a pylon which Dudon placed on the ground.

Once all anchors where in place the tower was hosted into its vertical position.

Finally the trailer had to be disconnected and returned to the ground.

They had planned to bring the trailer back, but they decided that it would actually be more fun to push it off the cliff and then drive back unhindered by it.

Dodun still had to climb the tower and fit some lights and turn the antenna on.

At last the job was done.

The link to the floating pad was now established

Now for the far more important matter, the disco ball.

Jeb and Bob returned to KSC to fit a disco ball and loading system onto the SeaHawk.

When they got back to the house Bob fitted a docking port to the roof

And the disco ball was ceremoniously plunged in through the front door.

Initially docking it was a problem as the SeaHawk was moored to the house and objects where mysteriously passing through each other.

Once it was undocked it was able to rotate the ball into position under the docking port and the arm was disconnected and retracted.

The disco ball does rotate but that didn't do much for lighting effects, but the different light combinations flashing out of phase made it happen

and now the house was jumpin'.

In the middle of a blinking light fueled haze it slowly dawned on Jeb that there was actually more science research to do. After discovering MODern part technologies the tech tree still had a few nodes to unlock. Another mission was needed, but that would have to wait a few days......

[Vanamonde]

Katateochi is no stranger to

.

[Geschosskopf]

Damn, what an awesome conclusion and a fittingly absurd "happily ever after" ending. Truly an outstanding show all around. Bravo!

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

Damn, what an awesome conclusion and a fittingly absurd "happily ever after" ending. Truly an outstanding show all around. Bravo!

Oh but it isn't over, read the last line of the last update: "there would be another mission needed"

[Rakaydos]

I'm trying my own "No VAB" carear now, inspired by this.

Gotten my first suborbital flight, and just unlocked fuel lines. Still have 2 biomes left on kerbin, plus termperature scans and "confirming" the last few points of Materials and Soil Samples in each area.

[Brotoro]

Excellent! Party time!

[Rakaydos]

I broke the intent getting a polar orbit- didnt use VAB, but launched vertically from the runway.

The first stage used turbofans, at least... Then the solids kicked in.

[Rakaydos]

Trying to design a good cargo spaceplane- I've got a reliable science spaceplane, but it barely has the range to flyby Minmus, and I'm to the point I need Minmus/Mun landings to get any furthur. (I got high solar with a Mun slingshot and a return burn, so no easy science there.)

[zarakon]

I'm trying my own "No VAB" carear now, inspired by this.

Gotten my first suborbital flight, and just unlocked fuel lines. Still have 2 biomes left on kerbin, plus termperature scans and "confirming" the last few points of Materials and Soil Samples in each area.

I'm trying it too

Researching everything on Kerbin takes so much time for so little reward...

I've finally gotten a craft that can make orbit. I always used the turbojet engines before, so doing this with the basic ones is a lot harder.

Next step is to get a polar orbit to finish up the orbital EVA reports. My current version should have plenty of fuel for that.

With a couple modifications (moar boosters) I should be able to take this thing to orbit the Mun, and hopefully that will get me enough science that I don't have to resort to landing all around Kerbin again for temperature data.

[Dat_Spacewaffle]

I've gotten a SSTO rocket prototype into orbit ONCE and you manage to pull off a career mode using nothing but SSTOs? Thats just awesome, I hope there will be more missions with the discovery of the "MODern" technologies (lets just hope Jeb doesn't put a warp drive on the back of a SSTO, even though that would look awesome).

[flipmcf]

Keeping this WONDERFUL thread alive, after I finished Career Mode from the launchpad.

So far, I've gotten to the Minmus encounter.

I'm trying very hard not to refer back to katateochi's OP to get hints, but I was happy to find that he did start using two-stage vehicles to get to the mun and minmus, because I had to do the same thing. Once I saw it, tho, I made sure I could recover & reuse my lifting stage.

I'll come back and post some pics. Highly inspired by this thread.

It's REALLY hard to get research after you complete all the Kerban-based research.

Anyone made their first mun trip in a single stage? I got about half-way to a good deltaV before I gave up and made a two-stage plane.

[flipmcf]

My Mun Orbiter and Minmus encounter was done with this.

looking back at the OP - looks like a very similar design.

I still haven't "landed" the orbiter back home.

Mun encounter mission (the first) resulted in a crashed, but recoverable command pod because I really thought I could land the glider after re-entry without any fuel.

Second (low mun orbit) mission resulted in a 'chute landing because the science was greater than my ego.

Minmus encounter was also a 'chute touchdown, but the main launch stage was successfully returned to kerban (also with chutes) by use of the stayputnik

Mun landings are next.

Edited April 25, 2014 by flipmcf