n1ghtcross

to giggleplex, your statement is true but also false, there is a point around during a takeoff where you will burn 90% of your fuel, that is the thickest part of the atmosphere, or for kerbin up to about 10-12KM ish, i have found that if your 1st stage has enough fuel to push past this mark, and you are able to bank over to give or take 70degrees @ 090 or 270(090 preferred) that most heavy lifers have enough thrust to easily escape kerbins atmosphere going in excess of 1km/s and you shouldnt have to drop your 1st stage not including boosters until 50,000 KM + that is what i have found, but small rockets for me are so boring =o. bigger ones provide a nicer challenge and i also dont have to worry about fuel once im in space.

New SRB issues, i havnt seen any, but thats just me. but reading some of these comments here i figured id post and try to help you out. You\'re probably going to want to change your engine configuration, seeing as how the outside rockets on your 1st stage work harder then the inner rockets. but imo if ur building big u dont want any of those non powerhouse rockets for your initial stage. and do get rid of all those extra RCS\'s those are just adding weight that you dont need. and you could also experiment with tri engine configs on the initial stage, would require a bit of tinkering but you could easily have 20+ engines with only a few more tanks of gas to push them along, just a thought tho. Perhaps some general advice tho for your 1st and 2nd stage, put boosters on the 1st stage to help with initial velocity and will help save fuel for the 1st 10KM of flight, also on that note i dont know how you usually launch your rockets but with big rockets if they can hold together it is reccomended not to fly straight up the entire way(also a huge waste of fuel imo). For the 2nd stage why only 1 engine? this is your orbital stage it needs to either finish getting you into orbit and then make your TMI for you. you want this stage to be a powerhouse as well, no need for overkill but more then 1 engine would definatly help. and if you are able to keep enough fuel past TMI this stage also saves you fuel on lunar descent. A good way to see if your doing it right or not is; by the time u are trying to burn into your orbit, u want to be going at least 1500m/s, minimum of at least 1k. however it is duable at slower speeds but requires more fuel to finish the orbit. 'You\'re problem is that your rocket is gigantic'- haha this rocket is small on the scale that i attempt to launch, even with .16 i still make my desktop cry. but if u dont build big then why build at all.

looks awesome man, how hard is it to pilot into space tho?