KarateF22

A flawless gravity turn is the most efficient way to ascend to orbit, as you waste virtually no fuel on rotation, letting gravity do all the positional work for you. It should be noted that you generally are going nearly straight up in the lower atmosphere, however you want to establish at least a 5-10 degree tilt early so that gravity will tilt you in that direction, if you go straight up the direction that gravity will tilt you is less predictable; additionally the earlier you start your gravity turn the less drag you create by not pointing prograde.

I gotta ask, how many tons was that on the launchpad and on Eve's surface?

I just followed the tried and true maxim of adding booster if not in orbit and adding struts if exploding before orbit. Also couldn't use SAS at all during ascent or it would explode.

Ok, I'll bite. Behold this monstrosity: All in one craft is a lifter, refueling drone (powered by 3 nukes for orbital maneuvers and 1 Toroidal Aerospike for takeoff), and permanent ISRU + Science Lab station intended for Pol. I actually did successfully deploy this. Looks hilarious on the launch pad. Has good traction when fully laden with fuel, but if i try to drive it around without RCS assistance when nearly empty it slides around all over the place. *EDIT* Some more pictures:

You can hold every single unique result in the game, keyword being unique. No duplicates.

If it were much bigger its landing gear would snap like twigs.

I recently created my first successful SSTO Orange tank after the 1.0 patch. I had actually not played since .23, so meeting the new challenges caused by the aerodynamic changes as well as tinkering with new toys made this take a good deal longer than I hoped. Its not exactly the most pretty Spaceplane either, aesthetics is usually something that lacks a bit in my designs, but it does its job and can lift at least 36 tons to at least 120km (maybe more/further with skill and care). Stats: 260 tons unladen (296 tons with Orange Tank loaded) 12 Rapiers, 8 Turbojets, 20 Ramjet Intakes, 1 Rhino Around 18k Fuel and Oxidizer (20.5k-ish with the Orange Tank) Download Craft File here. No fancy name for it yet because I suck at naming stuff. Non-wing clipped parts: Only two, both are PB-NUKS embedded between the cockpit and the first rocket fuselage to provide infinite SAS power Custom Action Groups: Switch Rapier Mode and Toggle all Intakes. Toggle Rapiers. Toggle Turbojets. Toggle Rhino. Flight Profile: To orbit: [*=1]Ascend to 8km at subsonic speeds. [*=1]Between 9-11km level out and break the sound barrier. [*=1]At 550-600 m/s resume ascent [*=1]Disable Turbojets once flameouts begin to occur [*=1]Once Rapier Thrust drops below 150 (around 22km), switch to Closed-Cycle and Activate Rhino. [*=1]Once Apoapsis Hits 80-90km cut engines and coast out of atmosphere, disable Rapiers and use fuel efficient Rhino exclusively to circularize and perform orbital maneuvers. Descent: [*=1]Drop Periapsis to desired level (but not too steep); try to descend onto same continent as KSC. [*=1]Orient plane upright and set SAS to Prograde. [*=1]Deploy Airbrakes until below 1000 m/s. [*=1]Use more efficient Turbojets for landing exclusively unless fuel is in excess. Warnings: Plane cannot pull up until it reaches the end of the runway. Recommend not pulling up until shortly before then to maximize speed. Extreme maneuvers in atmosphere can cause rapid unplanned disassembly, especially when fully loaded. Maneuver with care. Plane not intended to land when near maximum laden and fueled weight, but it is possible if done very very gently. Current configuration not intended to directly dock, though it could be reconfigured to without much difficulty. My current use for it is to place it 100 meters away from my space station then use an RCS tug to retrieve and attach the Orange Tank. I am open to improvements and constructive criticism, please provide them if you can.

LV-909 for small stuff, LV-N for large stuff is pretty much the general consensus. This is because the 909 is light, meaning it wastes significantly less mass than the Nuke providing its ISP which is important in lighter craft where the engine makes up a large proportion of total mass. However, for large objects the Nuke's higher mass is irrelevant when compared to the total payload and its double efficiency matters a lot more.

If you are at 13k altitude locked at 250 m/s, you are actually probably fine, just unable to get over the transonic drag hump. I have a bi-RAPIER + single Nuke SSTO with a similar problem and my solution was to climb to 12.5k then descend to 10k in order to break the sound barrier. Once you break 500 m/s you can begin climbing again no problem as drag falls after 400 m/s while RAPIER thrust skyrockets.