SRV Ron

Did some flight test with both braces and fuel line, no braces and fuel line, and no fuel line. Found that how the fuel line is connected affects the ejection as well as the weight of the tanks. Ejection force is less severe under mostly full tanks but quite violent with empty ones. Just leave a clear path as they sure fly upwards with extreme force when empty and in space.

Before the kracken attacked; After the attack;

Going to have to test this one out. Meanwhile, try using three tanks instead of four. I have had no issues with that design with either radical decoupler prior to 0.25.

You can probably use your ships that you have created in 0.25 Sandbox. I have done so in 0.23. Doubtful about a full save. But, given the improved performance and large number of additional parts, just start your space program over in the paid version. You won't have a limit to the number of flights active or be restricted to flying to one moon.

This should be placed in the challenge section to come up with a cost efficient design. Easily doable using asparagus design but not cost effective.

A simple test with most basic of parts; LV-T30, 2 FTL-200 cans, pod, parachute. (Will work with the radical one too.) Easily reaches the altitude and speed for the test. You can even remove 50% of the fuel in the upper tank if you want.

An early version using a player's design gave me an intercept after aerobraking. The window is critical. Too high and you will fly out of the system. Too low and you will crash on the surface. After the maneuver.

As others have stated, test on the way up and cut thrust as soon as the chute is deployed. Don't stage any parts on this flight. You can tweak the fuel load to reach test speed and altitude faster and fine control the acceleration with the throttle. Aim for a water landing close to KSP to recover parts cost. While you can use Jeb in a pod for the test, use a probe if available. That is safer and cheaper in case of a failure and crash.

While it is possible to have the very first launch do all four base contracts, I recommend against it. Do several sub orbitals with this tweaked design. Take along a pair of Goo canasters later on for getting Science points. Start by tweaking the SRB to reach just over 5,000 meters. Increase fuel to do the next altitude one for 11,000, 22,000, 33,000. It can go to almost 40,000. Add a second stage to fulfill the 55,000 and sub orbit with Goo canisters. Land both designs in the ocean close to KSP for recovering cost. Now, build a proper orbiter that can double to do a manned Mun orbit and return for a ton of science points. Be sure the Mun contract has been offered before going there or it won't show up. In short, take little steps and you can build up fund a lot faster.

As this was designed and flown before 0.25, I don't have a cost. It is about the cheapest probe you can build if you use a single Oxstat panel in place of the more expensive one. It is a SSTO with a Too Hot thermometer and is designed to fulfill contracts for data returned from orbit.

That can happen if you send missions there early on in your space program. The same is true for altitude records if your first or second flight goes for orbit. If you conduct your space program in small steps, those good contracts will quickly appear in order of difficulty.

Indeed. The Kerbal Rocket Science School of Hard Knocks. Build something and test it. If it doesn't work, try something else. If it does, improve on the design and learn how to fly it better. One learns a lot more on what works rather then depending on the aid of Mech Jeb and other flight mods. You can use those mods later for assembling space stations or deep space missions in orbit when you know how to fly manually. Finally, build simple. It is a lot easier to learn how to fly then building huge designs prone to going out of control or blowing up soon after launch.

In Career Mode, you can easily do a suborbital with this simple two stage SRB. Just tilt slightly towards the East using the D key so that it will land in the water. Tweak the first stage to 75% thrust and the second to 40% thrust. It is capable of reaching over 100,000 meters with two Goo canisters. This design, as you should have collected enough Science to unlock the bigger SRBs and radical decouplers, will go into a 100k orbit with plenty of fuel left in the third stage for high orbit or even a Mun flyby. You will need to learn how to do an orbital turn for success. Second stage engine is a LV-30. Third stage the LV-909. Fly this going straight up until the SRBs, tweaked to 60% thrust, are staged. Start gradually turning East getting to about 45* around 25,000 meters. Go into Map mode and fly using the Navball. Keep turning following the pro-grade marker until apogee reaches orbit, I prefer 100k. Cut power. Either add a Maneuver mode and set it until orbit, or aim the ship to the horizon. Restart the engine when the ship is about 15 seconds from apogee. You will have to switch to outside view and stage the rocket before it gets into orbit when the fuel runs out. Go back to map mode and continue the burn until you see your in orbit with the pro and retrograde marker about 100k or more, then shut down. To return, burn retrograde until the paragree drops into the ground.

Could be a problem with big ships and exploding launch pads when the physics kick in.

Mun and Minmus contract landers. Both can return to orbit to do data from orbit contracts. Intercept burn The manned Mun or Minmus Landers Intercept burn completed No landing at this time as I have started a modded career.

And, a couple of more will fulfill returning data from orbit contracts. With a little more fuel;

Something definitely changed in 0.25. No matter how I brace or mount the BAC style SRBs, they continue to rotate inward at the top upon staging in designs that slid off cleanly before. The fix for now will be tweaked sepatrons that just fire long enough to counteract the rotation. And, as others have stated, save the hydraulic separators for the big fuel cans. Besides, they have a lot more mass then the others.

3 applies to those playing in higher difficulty levels. Normal mode and easy mode players are not hampered by having to pay for researching parts. Certainly, take advantage of test parts for missions. I haven't really noticed contracts not appearing due to not having researched parts, but, you don't need to unlock them when a test contract comes up for one. What won't show up are the altitude records if your first launches have exceeded those heights.

1. Recover as much as possible as close to the launchpad as possible. 2. Combine contracts as much as possible. 3. Research ONLY those parts you absolutely need for the mission. Additional ones can be researched as needed. 4. Build as cheaply as possible. 5. Once you have unlocked the Stayputnik, OxStat Panels, and the Too Hot Thermometer, place a satellite in orbit and leave it there. Use it to do the data returned from orbit contracts. Combine its launch with other orbit testing contracts if possible. You can use that combo for the Explore Mun, Minmus, etc..., then place it back in orbit and rake in the money for no additional cost. One example; This simple design with the booster thrust and fuel tweaked to suit the mission, did the first launch, and set altitude record for 5,000, 11,000, 22,000 and 33,000 meters. It can almost reach 40,000 meters with full fuel and properly tweaked thrust. Land it in the water close to shore for full part recovery.

You pick up a flight in progress by going to the Tracking Station, the structures with the dish antennas, and selecting it from the list of flights in progress. If that is not working, post a screenshot so we can try to determine what the problem is.

Once you do some more posting so the forum doesn't think that you are a spam bot, you will be able to make changes to your account.

As there is no special loader for the Steam version, you can copy the entire folder to another location, create a Shortcut from the KSP.exe, place it on your desktop, and run the copy from there without launching Steam. For the 64 bit version, just create a shortcut for the KSP_x64.exe and run that. Your saves from the 32 bit version will run from the existing folder. Want to play with mods? Just create a copy of KSP and use it to add mods to. Rename the shortcut to KSP Mods so you can distinguish it from the stock version.

Spraying the complex with staged bombs did not work. I had to drop the entire rocket on the VAB just to destroy it alone. To do a complete destruction of the complex, you need to also take out the runway and launch pad.

In the higher difficulty of career, especially with the updated NovaPunch and KW Rocketry mods, research only the parts you plan to use or you will quickly go bankrupt. Balancing that out will be lots of contracts that can be combined into one mission to raise the funds needed for missions and later unlocking of parts available.

Four stages; 1. SRBs to about 10,000 meters. 2. Liquid fuel core to orbit and insertion burn. 3. Liquid fuel stage to orbit and landing. 4. Liquid fuel stage to complete landing and return to Kerbal. The manned lander is similar in design and concept.