So I had to rescue my rescue mission.

[Wachman]

So, I got greedy on a mission to Minmus. 3 contracts in 1 mission: launch a satellite, rescue a Kerbalnaught from orbit and and another on the surface. So I loaded a fairly big rocket for me at this stage of the game. Tucked a tiny satellite in a cargo bay, filled another bay with science, put a fully crewed 3 Kerbal capsule on top and a 4 Kerbal hitchhiker with 2 empty seats for the new crew I was going to pick up. If you're going to go might as well go big and send everybody for that free crew XP.

The mission went pretty well, the launch was iffy (big rocket, low TWR, lumbering is an apt description, sorry no pic.), but it eventually got there. The satellite launched with little fuss, but adjusting orbit to grab the circling Kerbal was trickier than I planned, but eventually he was on board. Adjusted orbit again to take me over downed Kerbal, and landed around 1km (good for me) from him. The terrain was hillier than I liked and the landing was rough with the ship falling over, no damage though. Unfortunately at this point I did finally save the game, but then soon realized I didn't have enough fuel left to get off planet and make it home a gain. Without a docking port I was looking at eva'ing 7 Kerbals to a rescue ship and losing all that science, not a situation I liked. So Jeb was confident he could launch and come down on one of the flats where a rescue ship would have an easier time landing near, and easier transfer evas. It almost worked. Right before touchdown the fuel ran out and the ship bounced hard. It broke up, but nothing was destroyed. Since I was sending a rescue craft anyway, no problem I thought.

(Score: 7 Kerbalnaughts stranded on Minmus)

I redesigned the original craft, omitted the non needed satellite and added a a second hitchhiker module. I also redesigned the lifter to have a better TWR ratio. Unfortunately at this point I left out a small second stage booster that pushed the original craft out of orbit and most of the way to Minmus, this would be a problem later. The new craft touched down just 7 km from the crash site and rolled (I was thinking ahead here) along the flats to the crash. There science was done and the 7 original crew transferred to the empty hitchhiker modules on the rescue craft.

(Debris field and rescue ship)

Shortly after returning to orbit I realized I didn't have enough fuel to get home, again. I didn't want to make a rescue ship big enough to rescue 10 Kerbalnaughts, plus my only pilots were all stranded was well. So I used the research I had to unlock the claw, and designed a robotic ship with a claw, and lots of fuel and sent it to Minmus to rescue the rescue ship.

(Score: 10 Kerbalnaughts stranded in orbit of Minmus)

The "docking" wasn't pretty but eventually I snagged the rescue ship by the tail and boosted it back to Kerban. I left the Grabber ship in orbit because it still had lots of fuel, and you know why waste it.

(Rescue ship snagged by grabber ship)

And wouldn't you know it. I got greedy on a Mun mission and tried to get some science from just 1 more biome. So again 7 Kerbalnaughts stranded in orbit. So I fired up the grabber, adjusted its orbit to get it the Mun. It wasn't pretty but eventually the grabber was making the final adjustment to snare the ship by its engine just as I had done before. That's when the grabber ship ran out of RCS fuel. The collision sent the manned ship reeling. Neither ship had any RCS left so I prayed and just went for it. I got lucky and snared the manned ship near its center of mass so control wasn't too bad unless I went to full throttle.

(Grabber with another ship to be rescued)

With no RCS fuel in the grabber I let it burn up in reentry following the manned ship. It was a good ship that did what was asked of it.

Morale of my tale: Don't be greedy on missions and SAVE OFTEN!

[match]

Remind me never to call you for a ride home

[BurningLegion]

The moral I've actually drawn from this is: Research the Klaw xD

Great job, Wachman! It sounds like all your Kerbalnaughts owe you a beer and a punch in the face

[Tankman101]

When in doubt, trust the klaw!

Pretty sure a couple of my rescue missions involved that thing as well.

[Jonboy]

The Klaw will either save your life or summon the Kraken and fling you into interstellar space.

Either one is more fun than being stranded