Tell about your biggest fails

[colonel0sanders]

I tried to land my all-stock rover next to my z02-mining lander (on the left) on minmus (the rover was built before I installed the zoxygen mod so it doesn\'t currently have a system).

So the rover lands upright on a platform with the descent engines (picture about 30m into the background). The descent platform lands, then lifts the legs (which opens the landing gear on the rover). The plan is to the decouple from the descent stage, use rcs to pitch the rover forward, and drive along just fine. This worked well on the Mun, but on Minmus the super low gravity got to me, the rover flipped, and came to rest in its above-pictured state.

At least the crew will (possibly) be able to EVA over to the other ship (with the zo2 mining drills) for the return trip. How many kerbals can you stuff in a capsule again?

[707-Engineering]

Tried to set a sea speed record .. got to 12m/s and flipped..

[Kamiei]

I flew and did a slingshot trajectory to minmus from the mun. Once I arrived at minmus, i realized that i forgot the landing legs. I was nearly out of fuel (1/8 tank), and was on a sub-orbital (landing) trajectory already. So I decided to land, and was able to land at 1.2 m/s. But the engine and fuel tank exploded and I got my favorite lander stuck on a moon orbiting at 43,000,000-46,000,000m from kerbin.

[Token White Guy]

I\'ve been working on my second giant structure to get in space recently (a giant Mun base). I\'m using the North Pole as a training area for testing Munar landings.

So I have Mechjeb running through the landing procedure when something goes wrong. A support arm holding one of the four engines snaps. The loose engine flies up, crashes into the main cargo bay, and explodes. I hit the emergency abort button but it is already too late. The craft flips over and dives into the ground. Nothing is recoverable.

[glugg23]

My first attempt to land on the Mun was a total failure/win, it is now orbiting the Sun 8)

[the Crusader]

i always burn too late when landing on the mun now there is bits of saturn v Altair and tardis all over the giant crater :-[

[Ted]

i always burn too late when landing on the mun now there is bits of saturn v Altair and tardis all over the giant crater :-[

I used to have the same problem, I had about a 1/12 Mun landing record until I got MechJeb and watched it land a few times. Now I know the altitude I need to do a braking burn at is above 10,000m.

[GWBBQ]

Planned to slingshot around the Mun to get to Minmus. Left off the lander legs since there\'s so little gravity. Was coming in perfectly, then tilted a bit to far to correct. Slammed the throttle stick to max to fly up and try again, but the hill was too steep and I somersaulted right into it.

I had forgotten to quicksave so I loaded back on the launchpad.

[flaillomanz]

Planned to slingshot around the Mun to get to Minmus. Left off the lander legs since there\'s so little gravity. Was coming in perfectly, then tilted a bit to far to correct. Slammed the throttle stick to max to fly up and try again, but the hill was too steep and I somersaulted right into it.

I had forgotten to quicksave so I loaded back on the launchpad.

Wait... there\'s a quicksave?!

Shit.

[MaverickSawyer]

First story:

I tried to make an Energia/Hope flight. First try: Boosters were not balanced. Crashed on pad before ignition. Second try: I didn\'t set the stages up right. Flipped forward onto the tower. Crew pod sheared off and wound up on top. Third try: everything set, but I flipped backward onto the ground. Crew perished in a lag-inducing blast.

I decided to stick with my symmetrical designs instead...

Second story: I thought that a periapsis of about 40km would be enough to initate a descent. Answer: nope. Skipped out and is STILL orbiting. Bob still hasn\'t sent me a birthday card...

[the Crusader]

building a atlas v and having it take off on the last stage :-[

[Panichio]

At least they got to the mun

As for me? I manually got six or seven rockets into orbit before discovering what the \'\'T\'\' button does.

Yeah, when I first got the game, I did the same thing for a long time =P.

[TsubasaLegend]

Oh god where to begin XD

I'd have to say my biggest fail would have been my attempt to launch my space battle cruiser while it was fully manned, armed, and filled with fighters, landers, probes, rovers and space torpedoes legit. The boosters were huge, un fortunately I hadn't space taped the boosters together so when I launched they both went in opposite directions and tore my ship in two, the resulting explosion as the 30+ torpedoes mounted on docking ports right down the centreline of the ship fell back into the hanger was quite spectacular, by the time id figured out what had just happened all that was left was the pod and a few bits of debris took ages building that ship to find that it's too weak at the centre

[Direwolf21g]

every large space plane i have ever made and used any mods with excluding interstellar.

[GamerMitch]

"Damn, I forgot the Parachutes!" ~Returning home from the Mun Must have done this at least 2 or 3 times on different occasions as well.

[mythic_fci]

Hmmm...

Spaceplanes: Forgetting the landing gear, staging and action groups all at once.

Rockets: Staging again, and as a side note I do forget my boosters quite often... (As in I spend hours building a Duna ship, put it on the pad then realize that I forgot to smack a rocket underneath)

Gameplay: In the beginning, I literally went to a garden and found a large enough stone to hold down the F button before I knew about the T button...

[dryer_lint]

Just a few minutes ago:

Launching the new Mun exploration ship.

Wow, the boosters run out of fuel at exactly 10,000 meters!

What a great design! Time to jettison them.

*presses space*

boosters come off and shred half the ship to pieces

Oh come on! Eh, might as well land the final stage.

Coming in to a gentle touchdown...

bam! smash! explode! DESTROY EVERYTHING-

At least the capsule survived. *recover vessel*

... nothing's happening.

*recover vessel*

... the heck?

*space center*

Nothing.

*revert flight*

Nothing.

*kill process*

There we go.

[MedwedianPresident]

My biggest fail was and is that when flying an airplane, I often crash like half a kilometer short of the target runway.

Back in .13, my Mun landers crashed at landing or even the capsule crashed at return. I also often have space capsules often accidentally separate from their SM's in orbit, unable to deorbit and left to become graves for the poor kerbals inside.

[gazzareth]

Design a finely balanced VTOL then decide to test a structural pylon on it and wonder why it makes a great big crater on KSC runway.

G

[Heimdall5008]

On the decend on Duna my lander became somehow unstable, always steered to one side and I had no idea why. As my engine run out of fuel I noticed why: Only one of my three external tanks (transfer and landing stage) was connected via fuel line to the ascend stage and engine. Obviously I had used no symmetry when I placed the fuel line. So now I had two full fuel tanks but no chance to get the fuel to my engine...

Other mission: I but the Remote Control Unit on the wrong side of the decoupler...

Multimission fail: I launched the hub for my space station. Only with the next module I discovered that I had placed all the senior docking ports with the wrong side out... So I had to use a tug with a claw to deorbit this one and start a new one.

[Vanamonde]

Goodness! This thread is a year old! That being said, it's not a time-sensitive kind of discussion, and seems to have started up again. But please remember to check the last posting date before bringing old threads up again, as some of them will have outdated information from previous versions of the game.

[merendel]

Goodness! This thread is a year old! That being said, it's not a time-sensitive kind of discussion, and seems to have started up again. But please remember to check the last posting date before bringing old threads up again, as some of them will have outdated information from previous versions of the game.

on the other hand we do have a rather active thread on the same topic over here http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/32027-You-Will-Not-Go-To-Space-Today-Post-your-fails-here! Not sure we really need a second one being dredged up from years ago.

[Malaugrym]

Start science mode. Play science mode until docking ports. Build ridiculous contraption in orbit. Target: Eeloo. Do much math. Do much testing. Back to math. Back to testing. First attempt after ignoring transfer windows: Slingshot around multitudinous orbital bodies. End up orbiting star. Redesign ship. Do more math. Do more testing. Rebuild ship in orbit. Second test: Randomly break apart halfway. Put Jeb in permanent Jool orbit as punishment. Re-redesign ship. Math. Testing. Third attempt: Great Success! Enter Eeloo orbit. Land on Eeloo. Return to craft. Return to Kerbin. Land on Kerbin.

...Forget to do Eeloo science...

[ThinkOutsideTheHangar]

Made a sandbox. Built one-way epic laythe base. Did everything like a boss until landing part. My trajectory was incorrect and I had to use nuclear engines to get to land. Had to reload over 30 times before game decides to corrupt the save. Still on rage-quit mode today.

[Vanamonde]

on the other hand we do have a rather active thread on the same topic over here http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/...our-fails-here!

Good point. Okay, closing this one, and directing any additional posts people would like to submit to that newer and more active thread, please.