FlyingPete

This. All those huge cargo bays and cockpits look tempting, but it's not worth it for the use that they get. Crew transport? No need to send 16 kerbals into orbit at once- make multiple trips. Need to launch a Big Orange Tank to orbit? Send it up empty on top of a rocket, then refuel it later with smaller tanker aircraft. At best, I might consider building a Mk2 twin-fuselage design with the cargo slung between them, but I'm not very good at building planes so haven't tried that yet.

Exactly the same reasons Lego is fun

With the right design, you can build a vertical SSTO using jets for the initial climb. Comes in handy for delivering bulky payloads, plus you get to recover your expensive engines rather than drop them into the sea.

I tend to go with jet engines plus a pair of radial engines- either 48-7S or the O-10 monopropellant engine. With the right launch profile you only need a small push to get into orbit, and for orbital maneuvering you don't need a huge TWR. I find you can keep a dedicated jet engine going longer and higher than the RAPIER in air-breathing mode, which makes a big difference to the amount of rocket fuel you need.

Read the contract, check the location/orbit in the tracking station, read the contract again. If it's nonsensical or the numbers don't work, Gene Kerman tells them no thanks.

I test the launcher first, and if any boosters rotate inwards on decoupling, fit a sepratron to the top of the booster. Usually, when they then rotate outwards the core rocket clears the boosters. That's normally sufficient for SRB stages. Anything bigger I tend not to stage radially.

It's worth investing in infrastructure for these sort of contracts. I waited until I got a 'build a new station' contract to recoup the costs. From there it's fairly easy to send a reusable lander, either to the surface or a low-altitude flyby as appropriate. You can store any science data onboard the station and take it back when you swap the crew.

It does come in handy in career mode before you've unlocked the other action groups. I use it on my planes to switch between jet and rocket engines. But yeah, the intended use is to control a LES in case of rapid unplanned disassembly, imminent lithobraking etc.

He brought so much to Star Trek, and sci-fi in general. I think we definitely need some sort of memorial in KSP. Personally I like the idea of something along the lines of the Armstrong memorial on the Mun, with the Vulcan IDIC symbol instead of the Apollo lander. Leonard Kerman gets my vote too

What started out as a near-routine flight from Mun Station to one of the craters became a lot more interesting when Kerson Kerman spotted something rather strange out of the window. Making a quick course correction, he headed for it. What is that thing? Landed. Geological activity? Alien life? Portal to another universe? Outside it was strangely dark. Things came over all "2001" with this shot. Our fearless explorer left the craft to investigate. "It's full of stars!" said Kerson. It's bigger than expected, and Kerson doesn't think it looks natural. Could anyone have built this? Kerson jetpacked on top of the mysterious arch to claim it for Kerbkind. Unfortunately the flagpole wouldn't go into the rocky surface. Gene Kerman has since negotiated with the contractor of the planned Mun base to deploy it here in order to study the arch in greater detail. Look out for Arch Base 1, landing here soon!

Jeb does seem like the sort of guy who'd jump through space because he left his helmet (and the keys to the pod bay doors) inside.

Mun-ception

Just the four intakes on these planes- no part clipping here. Nevertheless, with the right profile (slight 'reentry' flames on the way up) you can get the jet engine to still be ticking over at near 50km. Then it just needs a slight push from the two rocket engines to make orbit. The limited space in the Mk2 cargo bays means it's only really good for small probes, but then the Mk3 parts are just too large. I'd like to experiment with using 'old Mk3' sized parts to build a slightly more spacious cargo carrier. There might be some scope in fitting a few command seats inside the cargo bay to make an 'economy class' crew transport. I think in station construction, it might be more economical to send up fuel tank modules empty, then bring up the fuel separately with these tankers. That way less of a rocket is needed to lift the empty tanks, and the fuel itself is brought up in the cheapest way possible.

Here's some SSTO aircraft I'm using in my career mode save. This is a carrier for small payloads. I use it to launch satellites within the Kerbin system. This is my new resupply tanker for my LKO station. It's essentially a modified version of my crew carrier, with the front cockpit, rear passenger cabin and inline docking port replaced with extra fuel tanks and a drone core. On the first test flight, it lifted around 360 units of liquid fuel and oxidiser to the station in its 100kmx100km orbit. Not a huge amount of fuel, but it consumed only 210 units of jet fuel to get there (plus a small amount of fuel+oxidiser for rendezvous) so it's quite economical.

Jet/monopropellant propulsion works quite well for small craft- either using normal RCS thrusters or the O-10 engine. The old trick of getting out and pushing with the EVA pack is viable too. Theoretically if you can push your Ap up high enough to encounter the Mun, you can get into orbit with a gravity assist. I'd like to see this attempted

That's what I was thinking too. Some sort of small drone aircraft for scouting around Eve or Laythe.

Eve is slightly easier to get to and land on due to the thicker atmosphere and higher gravity. You can land just about anything with parachutes. Gilly is also very simple to get to from Eve- you can land on it with just the EVA jetpack. Taking off from Eve, however, is one of the more difficult engineering challenges in KSP. Duna is slightly more tricky due to the much thinner atmosphere reducing the effect of aerobraking, plus Ike has a habit of getting in the way as you're encountering Duna. It's far simpler to get back from Duna though. I launched a mission to Duna and Ike, and I ended up landing on Ike first due to a chance encounter following aerocapture. For Duna, I'd have the main ship establish itself in orbit and then deploy a lander to the surface. I'd go to Duna first if you want to do a round trip exploration. Eve is good for unmanned probes and permanent colonies.

Looking forward to more of this I hope you've got your launch windows between Duna and the Jool system calculated- it would be great to see some interaction between the two long-term missions.

Put it in orbit around Kerbin and turn it into a space station/base. Would look great with various modules all stuck to it at funny angles like a shanty town

It should make launcher design interesting. Currently I can launch most mid-size payloads into orbit using 3 Skipper engines as a first stage (plus a couple of SRBs), and 1 for the second stage. I think there will end up being much more defined 'First stage engines' and 'Second stage engines'

It's a game where the home planet is populated by cartoonish little green men with debatable intelligence and an apparent love of explosions. The graphics have to be a bit cartoony or it wouldn't work. Orbiter it ain't.

I have this contraption on Eve as part of the colony mission there: It's useful for carrying the colonists around and is pretty sturdy. The trick is to make it low and wide for stability. Rovers are pretty useless on places like Minmus though- there's just not enough traction on the wheels. Adding more mass increases traction but at the same time increases momentum so is a pointless exercise. On places like this it's best to have a lander that can make short hops around to explore, or alternatively something with RCS thrusters or ion engines to push itself around. Electric rovers are definitely better suited to higher-gravity environments. I never bother with docking mode, so instead I remapped the rover controls to the arrow keys. When I'm using my gamepad I set it to the same controls (d-pad) as the rcs translation controls.

This is why so far I've built absolutely nothing using the Mk3 parts. They're pretty pointless without larger wing parts and landing gear IMO.

I reckon Ion-power has to be the next best option. Something lightweight with plenty of wing area and a few ion engines on the back.

If in doubt, get a copy of Despicable Me and take some sound clips from there. Those little yellow guys have got to be distant cousins...