Broco

Maybe something wrong with the upload. I will do some fixes to the craft (like adding sufficient RCS, try to add 2 nuclear engines) and will reupload it.

Did you put it in the SPH folder? A friend of mine tried it and it worked (well he couldn't lift off but it loaded :-D) Little hint: If you crash don't select "Restart flight" as the craft will explode immediately. Go back to Space Plane Hangar and then launch again.

Thanks for the feedback guys, and yes, it was like 1fps on low settings. Well, I will try to optimize it and you are right of course... nuclear engines are much better. But it's really hard to take off with that little thrust at sea level... will try to exchange some enginens, maybe put some underneath (the Anubis is slightly top-heavy) but don't want to destroy the optics :-D

After the Bismarck I wanted to create a real SSTO Spaceplane Cruiser. I've tried so many engine settings I can't count. Tried Nuclear Engines but they were much too heavy and provided not enough thrust. After 3 days of playing around I went back to the boring aerospikes but it was totally worth it. No mods were used (including Mechjeb). After the takeoff which was a real horror the rest was pretty easy. I managed to reach a stable orbit with no fuel left, so no pictures with engines on, will need to refuel it first. Check it out: Rear views: Bottom: Hope you like it. Oh man, how I love this game in such moments... For those interested, the craft file: http://www.file-upload.net/download-7533284/Anubis2.craft.html Edit: Gotta edit this craft a bit. Forgot to add some more RCS-thrusters -.- Steers very slowly. Edit 2: Have edited it now. Added 2 nuclear engines, more RCS-thrusters for faster turns and more RCS fuel. Stabilized it at bit, it's easier to take off (but still a hell of a takeoff) - Use RCS for turning up after you left the runway, you can turn it off afterwards. Added some lights and generators for electricity. Added control groups: 1 - toggle outter aerospikes 2 - toggle inner aersopikes 3 - toggle nuclear engines 4 - shut down all engines 5 - activate all engines Images of the "mk2": Nuclear engine additional to the aerospikes: Other side, added a tail connector to the nuclear engine and added some swept wings to make up for the additional mass in the back and to stabilize the flight through a slightly lower point of lift (works pretty well): After leaving the runway (low settings due to potato-computer) - Jonby is sceptical but he made it into space unharmed (klick image to get to the big one, didn't want to detonate this thread): mk2 download: http://www.file-upload.net/download-7534043/Anubis.craft.html

Would love to see a Space Plane but these two rockets are awesome, too. I like how people said it's impossible and now we have some relatively simple rockets achieving this. Nicely done guys.

That would be to easy :-D No, landing means standing still with the ability for EVA. But I still would like to see you touching Tylo's surface with 2000 km/s (which is 2,000,000 m/s, which is ~0,67% of c).

I will start building a mk2 when I'm done working and try to fix this. SSTO would be awesome, too... Oh man, so many things to try :-D

This challenge is awesome :-D Tried to land directly at my base at Duna but didn't manage to get a stable orbit first, so he got lost on the other side of the planet. Kerbal lost through lazyness. Gonna try again sometime.

Thank you but this is no SSTO. I'm working on that one.

I don't think so. He posted a pic from his craft on Duna (and I don't know how he did that with a jet engine) but he didn't build his craft to participate in this challenge, he just built a really awesome VTOL SSTO. Indeed, it is. But why don't go any further? I know it's tough, maybe impossible but I'll try anything to achieve it.

@ bsalis: Did you manage to land it on tylo and return to orbit? Same with Kerbin/Laythe? If so, post pics and you are the lucky winner. It looks awesome already, nicely done. This challange is more like a proof-of-concept to me so if it's possible and you have done it, we need to know

@bacondeity: Many thanks, looks brilliant. Will overlook the design a bit though and try to make the ship more balanced. New laptop is on its way and coming the next week I hope so I can run this game on full settings aswell and do screenshots like those. The manouverability is not that good, don't you think?

He can? Didn't even know that until now :-D Done, sorry.

Thanks for the replies guys, uploaded a savegame with the ship in space: http://www.file-upload.net/download-7515251/Broco.zip.html

Ok, forget about Eve...

Inspired by Levelords really awesome spaceplane which is capable to land and return from Kerbin and Laythe (tried it - it works) I wanted to build a spaceplane which is capable of doing so on ANY planet (except Jool and Eve) or moon but I terribly failed. I manage to get into orbit from Kerbin but landing on Kerbin and returning to orbit (after refueling of course) was too hard for me. So long story short: Rules: 1. The craft must be capable of landing on any planet (except Jool and Eve) or moon and return to orbit on its own (single stage), no decoupling allowed. 2. Just stock parts. No mods allowed. 3. All engines allowed. 4. The ship is allowed to refuel in orbit and dock to other ships once in space to get transported to other planets/moons. The landing (including leaving the stable orbit) and return to stable orbit must be performed alone however. 5. Must be a manned craft. 6. Pictures or videos are mandatory. 7. If it looks cool you are my hero. 8. No parachutes aka 100% reusable. If this was achieved before I'm very sorry, didn't find exactly this task in the current version.

Yeah, a short ship makes things easier. Its not THAT hard though. Select the docking port as target select "control from here" on your docking port and make good use of the artificial horizon. Have the target and the prograde symbol aligned perfectly in the centre of it.

The small one orbiting Eve: Refueling and "communication" station in Kerbin Orbit (could have spared the communication due to the fact that they have no function atm but it looks cool :-P ): And another big one is going to be assembled in Jool Orbit: I use only stock parts and no mods.

This. Is. Awesome.

The aerodynamics for planes need a LOT of improvements in this game... I mean I manage to take off, fly around and land (not at the runway but hey) but the planes tend to stall at maneuvers every normal plane would easily do though the physics in KSP are much more forgiveable when piloting rockets. I don't mean this trainer, didn't try it but most of the crafts that are built or in stock have this problem. Really cool plane design though, I like it alot.

Hey you can't stop until you tell us if its radioactive!

Thanks alot :-D Still needs some tweaking... Wasn't able to test it in space until I got it into orbit. THAT was the major problem. And with major I mean 5-star-general-problem. It's ok but you can not use full throttle. RCS placement must be overlooked, too but it's really flyable. It's not the Titanic which is - as we all know - unsinkable. But I will eventually TRY to land it on water :-P At least 500 metres. I actually thought about making small rockets for it which are launched and then undocked but the effort-to-fun-ratio wasn't high enough because it wouldn't look good and I just wanted to use stock parts... What really would be cool in future versions would be if you could perform time-oriented sequential controls with action groups like "activate engine and decouple 0.1 second later". I think action groups are one of the coolest tools in KSP.

My first design I upload here, it's very heavy and bulky: The Bismarck. It was a nightmare to get his fatty into space... Tried many different ways to launch it. This one looked pretty good but it went terribly wrong: Decided to turn the ship 90° but it was still alot of tweaking. The launch itself was kinda complicated but finally did it: And now lets go to the orbital gas station kinda QUICK. Craft-file: http://www.file-upload.net/download-7505344/Bismarck.craft.html Excuse the poor graphics but my PC is not the best and if I try to dock to my orbital station I have like 1 FPS on better settings :-D Coming soon: Big Jool Orbital Station

My first ship I post here, it was a freaking torture to get this beast into orbit (just stock parts, no mods), I present to you: The Bismarck. It has the abilty to travel to other planets and VTOL on low-gravity moons/planets. Well, at least theoretically. This start attempt maybe look good but something went terribly wrong (R.I.P. Kelberry Kerman)... Decided to turn the ship 90° and put the boosters behind it... still needed a lot of tweaking (fuel lines, extra boosters etc.) to get this fatty into space :-P But finally I did it! And here we go (well at least to meet the orbital tank station to refill our nearly empty tanks....). Excuse the low graphic settings, but my PC is not the best, and when I rendezvous a big ship with my space station I have like 1 fps on better settings. Craft-File (if you like a challenge :-D): http://www.file-upload.net/download-7505344/Bismarck.craft.html