Musicrafter

This is kind of an old thread, with an older version of KSP, but I'll pitch my design in for 0.90: I have a ship I call the "Magnus III" (guess how many failed Magnuses there were before) that delivers 728 tons to LKO in just three stages. It weighs 5200 or so tons on the launchpad. My lifter just so happens to consist of stacks of three Rockomax orange tanks in an inner ring of six and an outer ring of twelve. All 18 stacks are thrusted by Mainsails. That alone isn't enough dV nor enough TWR, so I added eight 2.5-tall stacks of Kerbodyne tanks with the huge Kerbodyne quad engine on the bottom of each. And that was still not enough so I added four of the taller solid boosters (not the BACCs, they're the ones by Rockomax) to each of the Kerbodyne stacks. The ascent stage has just 100 dV left by the time it achieves a circular orbit. I really tried to compact the design. I refused to use asparagus staging because of how close together all the tanks are. All the tanks expire at the same time. Remarkably, I also didn't use any fuel lines at all, so the outer Kerbodynes don't feed any of the Jumbo-64 oranges. But because of the proximity of all the tanks, it was easy to add a bunch of struts to hold things on radial decouplers in place. I never have any idea what I'm doing when I place struts; I just place them where it looks right. I took a series of screenshots of the ascent. I actually think I'm a relative noob at KSP. I've never left Kerbin's SOI, ever. The furthest I've gone is Mun. I know basic information about the Kerbol system, such as the 11 km/s Eve ascent requirement (and the 97km atmo) and the 5 km/s Tylo requirement, but I've never been there. This rocket was the most impressive thing I've ever made.

Aww man... that spontaneous combustion glitch ruined everything...

Make an SSTO that can achieve a 72km Kerbin orbit starting from KSC. Challenges: IRL: A spaceplane launched from the SPH. (0 points) VTOL: Self-explanatory. Launch it from the VAB rather than the SPH. (+5 points) Universal I: Don't use air-breathing engines, even those that can use both (e.g. the RAPIER). (+8 points) Universal II: Give it enough delta-V to land and ascend from Tylo (about 5 km/s). Emergency one-time-use staging qualifies for this category. (+15 points) Come Home I: It must be able to de-orbit itself. Using emergency staging qualifies for this category as well. (+7 points) Come Home II: Land successfully on Kerbin without damaging the ship. Must deorbit itself. Note that the ship is allowed to fall over after touchdown, but the touchdown itself cannot damage it. (+10 points) Come Home III: Land successfully on Kerbin without using emergency staging. (+12 points) Come Home IV: Land your SSTO at the KSC. (+4 points) Almost Won: Give it over 11 km/s of delta-V. That's enough to escape from Eve, although the TWR to do it probably isn't possible on an SSTO. (+15 points) Comfort: Use a proper capsule or pod rather than an external seat. (+1 point) Company: Design it to carry more than one Kerbal. (+3 points) Old Fashioned I: Use 100% vanilla KSP (not even MechJeb) to achieve orbit. (+3 points) Old Fashioned II: Using 100% vanilla KSP, prove you didn't just guess and get it right, but actually did some math. (+8 points) Ambition I: Send the SSTO craft to another planet and test it for real. All planets and moons in the stock Kerbol system qualify. (+10 points) Ambition II: Send the SSTO to another planet under its own power and do a successful landing and takeoff. (+15 points) Ambition III: Successfully send out, land on another planet, takeoff, and return your SSTO back to Kerbin. (+17 points) Ambition IV: Send out, land on another planet, takeoff, and return your SSTO back to Kerbin, all under its own power. (+25 points) Quick, Call NASA: Achieve the Come Home II challenge in the Real Solar System mod. (+35 points) Hopper: Touch down more than once and lift back up again. (+5 points) Lightweight I: Have your SSTO weigh less than 50 tons. (+4 points) Lightweight II: Have your SSTO weigh less than 20 tons. (+6 points, but Lightweight I's points are not included) All the Toys: Include more gadgets on the SSTO than necessary, such as remote guidance, SAS, RCS, etc. (+2 points) Total points possible: 206 I did this challenge and my final score (having completed VTOL, Universal I, Universal II, Come Home I, Come Home II, Come Home III, Comfort, Lightweight I, and All the Toys) is 64 points, for a modest 31%.