Shade

Alright, after gathering up my courage, I took up the challenge to out-monster the previous monsters. Here's the result, the Big Bertha mk3: A few facts about the monster: Built off-center in the VAB, yet still had to build a notch into the lower stages to allow it to ascend past the crane-like protrusion on the launch tower. Initial FPS during launch is about .5 for me, and I have a fairly beefy computer. It is capable of thrusting continuously for upwards of twenty minutes, staging included. And of course, most importantly, it will eventually reach a maximum speed of 14.600m/s Staging is... complicated. For the lower stages, there is an overlap to allow one ring of tanks/engines to fall away and a new set to ignite while another keeps firing to open the distance to the spent stage faster, after which those get to fall away. Otherwise, the time needed for the spent stage to get far enough away to safely ignite the next stage would basically mean nearly ending up back on the ground. Once higher, staging is more standard, so you have to allow time for them to fall away before igniting or things will go boom. Stock parts only, of course, although struts kinda feel like cheating when they allow something this huge to exist without collapsing. Craft file attached for anyone who wants to try it.

Heh, yeah. The thing with a 400k orbit is it would take bloody hours to complete three full orbits, and I just can't be arsed heh. Actually getting there wouldn't be much harder than simply getting into space though. For example, using my attempt above as an example, getting from the ~44k orbit in the second screenshot to a 400k orbit would take only a little more than 400m/s delta-v using a Hohmann transfer.

Well, I haven't got the several hours needed to go around Kerbin three times so this probably won't count as a success, but this rocket will nonetheless do the trick - And with stock parts only, at that, discounting the satellite itself: I had two satellites and couldn't remember which came from where, so just picked the heavier of them for this (not that there was much difference between them). Also, though you didn't specify it, I also provided for the safe return of the astronauts after the job is done. Here's an image of it in orbit, with half a tank still remaining for a Hohmann transfer to 400k:

Hot dayum, that thing is huge. My mind shudders at the mere thought of putting together something that massive and complex. Nice work

You seem to have included a duplicate of the stock 'fuelTank' part in this download. Checked the stats, and they're identical, so no harm done if anyone overwrites though. Other than that, excellent job Been using the older releases plenty, and it's awesome to get an updated one to go with the final 0.9 release. Many thanks

Oh, that's more or less what I did for the flight I mentioned in the last update. Straight to about 10k to clear the densest atmosphere and then slowly lowered the nose towards the horizon. At the time I hit the final stage I was at around a 57k altitude, with a speed of around 3400m/s and a velocity vector just a tad above the horizon. Sadly, staying in orbit isn't an option going from there. At that speed, no matter what you do, increasing it further will mean leaving the planet behind.

The 'Il Tempo Gigante mk2' - Named after a race car from an old movie. Basically an attempt to go as fast as possible using only stock parts, this baby will get above 9500m/s on a straight vertical launch, and might possibly break 10k if launched on an oblique trajectory to avoid fighting gravity as much. Steering is extremely heavy, though, so actually managing that would be difficult. The stuff at the top is actually part of the initial boost phase - Couldn't place them on the lower 'legs' without it inducing unwanted rotation that would eventually result in spectacular failure without adding struts (and thereby more weight, even if just a little), but due to the sheer length of the thing they're actually far enough above everything else that they can fire safely without damaging the lower parts. That whole SRB assembly is gone before the rocket even reaches 3000m. No SAS modules after the top boosters are gone makes it important to never let it gather any turning momentum, or you won't have the steering torque to recover it. My best launch so far managed this: The whole thing is actually an evolution of a previous design for v0.85, which could manage 7500m/s on a vertical launch and just scrape past 8200m/s on an oblique launch. The improved staging controls in 0.9 let me replace a bunch of SRBs with additional liquid fuel tanks though, as well as cut out some heavy stack decouplers and add the whole top booster assembly to assist with the early takeoff. So thanks a ton for 0.9 and the far more powerful stage management system. Couldn't have built this without it ;D My ultimate hope is to build something that can reach Earth's escape velocity though (which is around 11.2 km/s), so there's a ways to go yet... [Edit] Typos fixed. [Edit 2] Tried an oblique launch. Initial boost phase wasn't my best ever, but still managed this: Now wondering if adding a fuel tank or two to the final stage might give a bit more speed. Would definitely cost some speed early on, but a single fuel tank should add something like 400-500m/s at the other end if the extra weight doesn't cause too many problems elsewhere. [Edit 3] Added two fuel tanks to the final stage, briging it to eight total. The result: Just need to find another 400m/s somewhere and I'll have succeeded at reaching Earth's escape velocity... or perhaps 300m/s and some better piloting that I managed : Probably also qualifies as a heavy lift vehicle as the lower stack managed to put the entire final stage of 8 LF-tanks+LF-engine+Pod into Kearth orbit at just over 3400ms, which is just around escape velocity for Kearth. Attachement updated to this mk3 version.