Largest ship you've launched into Orbit?

[jkool702]

What is the largest ship you've launched into orbit? I recently launched a humongous rocket to bring up a nuclear tug and a lander. At launch she was ~3600 tons, 78m tall, 22m wide, and ~1.8 mil (including payload) (and had entirely too many parts). She can deliver a ~600 ton payload to LKO.

[ouion]

My is the SLS A1 vehicle, but I don't need big rockets to go to orbit

[luizopiloto]

I usually build big rigs in orbit... takes more time, but is more safe...

[Michaelo90]

When I got the spacey mod I made an SSTO rocket that could launch a 1000t payload into orbit (2000t in orbit with launcher+payload, 6000t on the pad), with enough fuel left to deorbit and do a semi-powered landing. I don't think I ever actually landed it from orbit though, I did some launch pad landing tests but i think something exploded on reentry and 1000t payload seemed overkill so I didn't bother to fix it.

[LittleBlueGaming]

Just launched an 1100t payload into LKO. Entire thing was almost 300 parts, I was only getting 3fps at launch.

Hardest thing I've ever gotten into orbit was my torus station core, just so much drag at the top of the rocket.

[Spartwo]

45x15x10

Not my biggest ship by a long shot, but the largest put into orbit at once.

[Avetho]

With 0.22 Interstellar I launched an antimatter-fueled DT-Vista rocket up. It had three rings on 6x symmetry. I wish I kept footage but my computer would've melted under the stress of recording that moment. I only hit a steady 4fps while it launched. If my memory serves me right I had a TWR of about 1.2. In retrospect, I should've assembled the payload in orbit. I did have the quantum struts mod.

[Hotblack Desiato]

this was a test, using the karborundum drive. afterwards I launched more or less the same thing with stock engines SSTO.

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it's something around 1000t capacity, the ship with stock engines was equipped with an extra planetary launchpads recycler and recycled its conventional rockets. mass to orbit after recycling: around 1600t.

0.90, NEAR, extensive use of part welding. the monstrosity here had 155 parts after discarding the karborundum drive.

oh, by the way: with a nifty little 0.90 mod, this thing was capable of breeding kerbals in space

EDIT: and yes, one picture shows flames, the craft exploded shortly afterwards. I had to revert.

Edited June 27, 2015 by Hotblack Desiato

[kiwi1960]

The largest payload I have put into orbit was around 2000 tons! It was one of those cases where the first attempt failed so it just got bigger and bigger with boosters and the like... and yes, in the end it did reach orbit, but by that time, I didn't need it any more so the station wasn't used at all but it was there should it ever really have been needed. My problem is that I hate giving up... why it wasn't needed was because I wanted one of these for orbit around Kerbal and another for the Mun. In the end, I launched two smaller stations which did the job. The big station looked like it would shake apart with oscillations if even a small supply rocket docked with it. The entire game was lost when I moved to version 1.0

Such are the joys of helping Kerbals escape their prison planet.

[NoPanShabuShabu]

Technically it never went into Kerbin orbit, and I never submitted it, but for the "This is the end" challenge on Reddit I did a spaceship which could take 1,027 kerbals on a Kerbol escape. It had a lot of parts (considering 256 of those were hitchhiker containers) and was quite tall.

[Fenris]

Technically it never went into Kerbin orbit, and I never submitted it, but for the "This is the end" challenge on Reddit I did a spaceship which could take 1,027 kerbals on a Kerbol escape. It had a lot of parts (considering 256 of those were hitchhiker containers) and was quite tall.

Did you take a screenshot? Sounds like it would make an interesting pic.

[Avetho]

Indeed it would be amazing

[Starhawk]

My Enormous Eve Expedition. Single launch of Mk 1-2 pod to Eve near sea level and return. Over 9000 tonnes and 1171 parts.

Launched in 0.90 for the Eve Rocks Challenge. Stock other than KER.

The complete album is here.

Happy landings!

[maccollo]

My Venus EDL and ascent vehicle, about 20000 18000 tonnes on the pad, 450 tonnes in in LEO. A launcher of this size would be capable of throwing about 4000 tonnes to LKO.

Edited June 28, 2015 by maccollo
went back and checked. faulty memory

[NecroBones]

My Venus EDL and ascent vehicle, about 20000 tonnes on the pad, 450 tonnes in in LEO. A launcher of this size would be capable of throwing about 4000 tonnes to LKO.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22015656/VenusLanderLauncher.jpg

Wow, that thing is a monster... and yet, so beautiful...

[LABHOUSE]

9 mainsails, 108 hitchickers, 18 2 m mono, 18 orange tanks, 90 2 m batteries, 18 nosecones, 8 large landing gear, and 108 large sas modules... just not to lko, it went to Duna.

Edited June 28, 2015 by LABHOUSE

[NoPanShabuShabu]

Found the old version where I did it, KSP 0.24 stock:

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On the pad: 1,247 parts, 16,500 tons. 1,850 tons in orbit flown straight up then sideways. 735 tons and 1,027 Kerbals sent out of the Kerbol system. That is if I actually went to the trouble of hiring 1024 more Kerbals and actually loaded up that ship!

- - - Updated - - -

Did you take a screenshot? Sounds like it would make an interesting pic.

I didn't take any screenshots at the time since I was just seeing if it could be done. I have dug up the old version where I did it and ran the mission.

[Norcalplanner]

One of my biggest stock craft was Buster, 8,500 tons on the pad. It was for a challenge to see how fast you could go before leaving Kerbin's SOI in 0.90. No exact figure for LKO since it never circularized, but the first screenshot that shows periapsis above 70 km has the vessel at 1,386 tons.

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Edited June 28, 2015 by Norcalplanner

[RandomRyan]

my Project Endeavour.

AKA the Mobile Space Station and a full on lander

(yes,i put the whole thing in the launcher stage) it took me to lag, crash and explosions

[Camaron]

Here's my biggest to date: Titan Fifteen. Up to 4,500 tons to orbit, Payload weight 3,300 tons. (The extra power gets used to park the ship in higher orbit)

Here for another round on another thread for fat spacecraft!

Here's the thread devoted to it: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/114072-1-0-Update-The-Titan-XV-Over-4-500-tons-of-All-Stock-Monster

[Gravaar]

JOOL 5 challenge in 0.90

Weighs in at 25978.7 tons

put 2800 tons into orbit

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[ShadowZone]

I had a few giant launches...

The "Joolishka", my Jool-5 Mission craft.

The Starhammer, a multipurpose carrier.

And most recently, the Ringo Gigante:

[Evanitis]

The Starhammer, a multipurpose carrier.

If I didn't see you making it, I'd be sure it's an alien craft. So cool.

[Fenris]

Found the old version where I did it, KSP 0.24 stock:

http://imgur.com/a/iceWI

On the pad: 1,247 parts, 16,500 tons. 1,850 tons in orbit flown straight up then sideways. 735 tons and 1,027 Kerbals sent out of the Kerbol system. That is if I actually went to the trouble of hiring 1024 more Kerbals and actually loaded up that ship!

- - - Updated - - -

I didn't take any screenshots at the time since I was just seeing if it could be done. I have dug up the old version where I did it and ran the mission.

Nice! That last picture looks like something out of a sci-fi movie

[MGCJerry]

1,170 Tons. It was going to be a "mobile" kethane base that was going to stop over on Mun or minmus to 'refuel', and try to use it to explore the system. Got it to orbit, but never did anything with it. This was with 0.23.5 (ARM update). No pictures though.