RogueNine

In my FASA/Realism Overhaul career, I missed my Duna transfer window by about 70 days. So, naturally, I decided to see how fast I could get to Duna using chemical rockets without the alt-f12 menu. A massive heat shield was installed, and the probe was launched on board a modified Saturn 1B. 36 short days later, the Duna Orbiter entered the red planet's sphere of influence moving at 10km/s relative to Duna. The moment the spacecraft touched the wispy outer edges of the atmosphere, a decoupler failed and the heat shield rammed through the rest of the spacecraft. Long story short, just wait for the next launch window.

FASA + Realism overhaul/RP-0 + Real Solar System. I'm having a lot of fun recreating Project Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. I plan to expand into Apollo applications and STS designs as well.

Sirius, perhaps?

Parachutes. Always parachutes! I was docking an escape craft to my manned science/comms station, when I realized I had forgotten the blasted parachutes. Again. I couldn't revert to the VAB because I switched between the two vessels during the docking maneuvers. Luckily I was toying with the idea of moving the station to minmus orbit so the escape craft docked with over 2000m/s of Dv left in the tanks. I ran the numbers (read guessed wildly) and decided to land under power on the engine bell. It worked..... mostly. I ran out of fuel 100m up and hit the ground at about 50m/s but the crew survived . If it's stupid and it works, it ain't stupid. I'd like to add that the only reason I was in this predicament is because I forgot to add parachutes to the stations inbuilt re entry vehicle in the first place. I was running out of available crew I as well.

My money's on it being made of Cavorite.

Yes, I test perform test flights. If the rocket explodes then it's a test flight.