You do know SSTO stands for Single Stage To Orbit, and so, by saying SSTO to orbit, you are saying Single Stage To Orbit to orbit? Back on topic, I find SSTOs very hard to design.
Can I suggest a HIGH-G alert? Also, I think it's already been suggested, but this would be amazing in IVA EDIT: This mod is bugged: all the warning lights are on, and there are no sounds.
Maybe it's a simulation, or the Kerbals start daydreaming once you press F5 (CUE FLOATING CLOUDS AND DREAMY MUSIC) and you do your stuff, and he stops when you complete the mission, or he wakes up when you press F9?
Do what NASA are doing. Send probes, calculate how long it takes to go there, use a Kerbin station with varying amounts of supplies to experiment (so if they are close to running out you fly them back down to Kerbin and send up more supplies)
"I'll just transfer the fuel from an outside tank into an inner one. If I don't have more than one engine I'll be fine" I said as my rocket shifted as I tried to do a burn
The speed doesn't affect parachute opening, it's altitude that does it. You do want to slow down though, or the force of the parachute opening could tear your craft to bits.
The wonderful thing about KSP is that it takes some intelligence to play, so you'll find very few trolls anywhere (except the occasional YouTube idiot who claims that "Its speled "moon' idiot"!"!!!!!)
There was a funny animation by ElementAnimation with a spacecraft. For a start, it had its engine on while flying to the Moon. Then there was gravity inside...
We will be able to have estimates of rocket launch safety, with more accurate readings due to Science! We will be able to have an increasingly detailed weather forecast for our launches, starting from a Kerbal standing on top of the VAB yelling stuff to a network of satellites to beam real-time info to wise Kerbal scientists who will predict the weather with 99% accuracy.