You might want to work on the scoring. The "bonus" points are very low, really. There is no advantage in going for them. My first try gave me about 5.94km/s separation speed (with more than 3km/s dV left in the "probe".) -> 5940 points Minmus was reached in 1h46m (with the probe, after using 1km/s dV) and 2h with the booster. So 1334 or 1320 more points. (The time to reach minmus is really the same thing as the speed) I easily reached escape velocity. That seems to subtract significantly from the score, though. Since there is no apoapsis (or, well, at there is no maximum altitude above the sun). By the way, unless you aim in the wrong direction the speed is also basically the same thing as how far above the sun your apoapsis ends up. So all the scores measure the same thing. Except one: The rocket cost 32350, unless I miscalculate, so 9676 points there. <a href="http://per.hedbor.se/probe1.craft">.craft available</a>. All stock except for mechjeb on the probe. I have a <a href="
">movie of the whole launch</a> if anyone would like to see that...I did mess the launch up somewhat, it could almost certainly be done better using the same design. But to optimize <i>score</i> I think the most important part is to have a small rocket, since the $1M budget is so huge (also, avoid reaching escape velocity, unlike me...)