Did you know...

[Redshift OTF]

You can clip a KR-2L and an S3 KS-25x4 rocket onto the bottom of an SLS fuel tank, attach fuel lines on the outside and have a 5700 kN engine?

Time for the mother of all lifters.

(Warning! not fully tested yet. )

[HazelPine]

...that you can clip a tank+rocket part (forgot the name) into a 3m stack that has a KS-24x4 and get a 6 nozzle heavy lifter! No pic yet, sorry.

[sal_vager]

Why stop there Redshift?

[Redshift OTF]

Why stop there Redshift?

Hah, yeah I just tried that as well. I think that's 8900 kN of thrust, (ignoring the side engines you used).

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

Too much clipping for my liking but I enjoy watching you guys Play around with it

[Geschosskopf]

The new uber-joints in 0.23.5 allow you to make extreme lifters without need of thrust plates.

This example is as wide as the stock VAB; you could make it wider with Editor Extensions. But the important thing to note is that the entire mass is hanging without breakage, sagging, or wobble, from just 2 launch clamps in the middle. Also note that each side tank is held on only by a decoupler and 2 struts, 1 at the top and 1 at the bottom. This whole thing, therefore, has only 16 struts in it.

And it flies just as wobble-free as it hangs on the launch clamps.

So why bother clipping engines? The new joints allow you to make totally insane asparagus lifters with no clipping.

[Joshington]

Alright, asparagus staging time.

[Iansoreta]

Alright, asparagus staging time.

For me, no, because asparagus staging has less aerodynamic advantage with aerodynamic plugin.

[dryer_lint]

Ugh. I used to love asparagus staging, but recently it's the booster separation that always takes out my rocket... Sepratrons don't help. Spacing doesn't help. NOTHING helps.

[Franklin]

Ugh. I used to love asparagus staging, but recently it's the booster separation that always takes out my rocket... Sepratrons don't help. Spacing doesn't help. NOTHING helps.

Man, sepreations have made my staging so much less risky, I don't know how I never bothered with them for staging before. Gotta angle them just enough so their thrust doesn't act like a blowtorch on the centre column, though.