Krases

Alright, lets play the guessing game. How did this Falcon 9 manage to make it nearly to orbital velocity? Guess? Figure it out? Here is the answer: Based off a very real concept. My goal is near complete recovery. The booster recovered with parachutes. The Falcon 9 recovered because Falcon 9. There is no real second stage, just a dragon capsule with some maneuvering thrusters.

Payload to LEO is a bit fluid right now, I am still trying to figure out a good ascent profile. It has a bit over 16,000 DeltaV. Engines wise, it has 8 shuttle boosters and 18 F1-B engines in the first stage. The shuttle boosters help keep a good TWR while the F1-B's chew through the orange external tanks. By the time the boosters are out, the orange tanks around 3/4ths expended and get dropped soon after. This then leaves a small tank right above the F1-B's which is then expended. Right above the F-1's are M-1 Engines. Nine of them come online as the fairings drop away with the F1's. After that, its 6 more M1-s in their own stage. Followed soon after by 4 J-2X's in a 4th stage. Here is a side view of an earlier version.

Alright, time for a batch of pics. I worked hard on this guy. Its not the best, but it was fun to work with. Based off a Jupiter DIRECT concept I saw once.

@Ravenchant Yep! You got it. ....my largest rocket is kinda obscene. I got Sokol 90 working in the end. 1400 tons to LEO. And then there is this monster. About 4800 tons to LEO. Still hammering out the PEG ascent guidance but it has the delta V for it. 144 F-1B engines first stage along with 32 STS boosters. The F-1B's exhaust the fuel tank that is wrapped in boosters, then convert to their own fuel tanks. Those thin lines you see hanging down are fuel lines pushing fuel up into the main stage. As the boosters and fuel tank fall away, 18 M1 engines come online to help take it to orbit. After that, 9 J1-X engines for the final phase.

So....can we post failures? Ive been working on a line of Soyuez type rockets called the Sokol series. They differ in the sense that they use F1-B rockets as their main engine. Only the Sokol 1 has been a success. It has a single F1-B rocket and drops a good chunk of its fuel load quite a ways up. I'm wondering if there is a way to do stuff with fuel mixtures to make the other ones get the Delta V they need to make it to orbit. Anyway, picture time: Sokol 1 Sokol 5 Sokol 25 Sokol 90

This mod looks so awesome, I need a bit of help installing it though. I tried dropping the 0.9 Alpha into the parts folder. What am I failing at?