[Challenge] Escape, but return

[tjrieves]

Thanks, I can't wait to try it out!

[Aralonia]

This is, so far, the greatest flight performed.

Well done. I like it.

[P.Funk]

I'm pretty sure I could do it but I want to try and make a ridiculously cool or absurd vehicle with which I can accomplish this so that pix are actually entertaining. We'll see what I can do with that.

[Jack Slinger]

KSP Commander: What goes up must come down!

Bob: But sir we've built rockets that can reach escape velocity

KSP Commander: It must come down I tell you! Make it so!

[summit]

superL that is some rocket!

[WernherVonKerman]

Just received confirmation of the retro burn to bring them home with a final distance of 32410K. Velocity was 670m/s at time of course reversal. Mission started in orbit at 124km then entered into a bi-elliptical transfer out to 3000K and back in to 50km. Upon hitting perigee at 48km, the craft accelerated to 3330m/s for an exit trajectory with an excess velocity of around 470m/s. I aimed for the low excess velocity to insure having enough fuel to reverse course and achieve an LEO before re-entry.... If I don't crash back into the Kearth. >.< Was done with stock engines and tanks, with a few add-on couplers. I expect to achieve an LEO within about 6-7 hours.

[Supraluminal]

Good luck! You're probably going to pick up a lot of speed at that distance. If you want advice, I suggest you aim for a relatively high orbit to begin with... it's much less stressful to drop down to a lower orbit from a controlled situation than it is to burn like crazy to avoid crashing into the planet.

[WernherVonKerman]

Well.. yes.. not sure how this is all gonna play out as it is a test run. Wasn't sure how to best accomplish this so I just reversed course up to the speed at which I was travelling away before the burn. I'm assuming its just going to travel back along the same path at on which it departed and come into a perigee at roughly the same altitude and speed in which I departed. Whether this is the case or not I have no clue. If all goes as planned, I will have a ^v of roughly a 1000m/s to enter LEO with 1 and 1/4 tank of fuel left atm. My other concern is that I did the departure burn at 50km and 15km before hitting atmo is a small window to play with when coming in from that far out. The original drop in to 50km from 3000K was hair raising enough.