Pedant

For the last one, re-adjusting the Large Solar panel position temporarily fixes the transparency bug. Still there on reload though

@UmbralRaptor - agreed. Tried the persistence file edit to make the orbit higher than 200km, and that did the trick.

Thanks for the ideas chaps, muchly appreciated! @Taki117 / @Eric S: Cheers, but that was the first thing I tried: actually running the KR-2L experiment anyway at the correct altitude and cycling the stages as well just in case. I've also tried varying eccentric / circular orbits, all to no avail. I'm trying to be somewhat puritanical and do this without mods or alterations, but I'll try the persistence file edit as EdFred suggested just to get me out of a tight spot... @Bobnova: Regarding the 'feature not bug' thing that gets spruiked regarding these broken contracts, sorry, not buying that. Clearly not the game's intention (e.g. blatant dastardly tricks)!

Done some more testing, and as I suspected the Contract system is definitely deeming the 'Orbit' requirement to be not met when an Apsis is under 200,000 around Jool. See two more shots below, and note the Contracts panel on the right when the Jool periapsis moves from just over 200k to just under 200k. Any thoughts? I'm desperate, since this will cost me 11,000,000 credits which is more than I have

@Jodo42 - I'm running Engineer 1.0.0.0 but don't have that active on this mission since it's a tad buggy still. @Russoft - I have no problem orbiting my craft just inside the atmosphere, but apparently the Contracts system does - the issue is that as soon as I get near the correct altitude it 'unchecks' the 'Orbit' requirement as being no longer met. Hopefully the screenshot below clarifies what I meant (pardon the bad grammar in the captions). It seems that KSP considers Jool's atmos to be 200,000 and straying any lower flags you as not being in 'orbit', for contract purposes at least. Does that make more sense?

Hello chaps! The name on the tin says it all: is this possible? I sincerely hope so, since I'm financially committed to the hilt The contradiction: - Jool's atmosphere extends to 200,000m - Contract specifies that the KR-2L must be tested: > At Jool: no problems > Altitude between 186,800 and 188100m - no problems > In Orbit - Whoops... apparently my going into the atmosphere (ie under 200,000m around Jool) instantly cancels the Orbit criteria being met. This was a contract worth 11 million. Would any of the clever KSP boffins out there have any clues on this one? Hopefully I'm just being a silly duffer and missed something. Thanks in advance!