Twin Asparagus - You're going to go even further, kid!

[Tw1]

B

There was a great Imgur album that showed bamboo staging, but I can't find it.

I've found a picture:

From the looks of things, shedding the engines during one of the latter stages would give even more detla V for reasonable thrust.

Edit: Found the definitive album:

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Edited May 15, 2015 by Tw1

[Norcalplanner]

I guess my point would be that both onion and asparagus have a place, and that what is best for a particular situation is going to depend on a lot of factors. Choosing the right engines and then tweaking fuel load in each stage, in addition to choosing what type of staging to use, is a bit of an art form. MechJeb or KER help tremendously when tuning a design.