My first *confirmed* successful rocket

[rdfox]

The name isn't that creative ('Russian-style 2'), but my second attempt at building a 'Russian-style' (clustered tanks with quad-nozzle engines) booster is now here, confirmed to put three Kerbals into roughly-circular orbits anywhere in the 50km to 60km height ranges, while still retaining enough fuel for a successful deorbit burn fired from apokee. (Unfortunately for me, on my first attempt, I managed a 50.0x52.5 km orbit and discovered that, firing from apokee there, the landing point is on nightside, hence the 'catastrophic failure.' Still, I made velocities that the calculators say were right for the orbit I listed, and easily managed to slow enough for aerobraking to bring them back to Kearth!)

It does require some piloting, particularly before the boosters burn out, and careful throttle control up until then, too, to keep it from tumbling at low altitude, but once you get it going, it's a stable, smooth ride to LKO (low Kearth orbit). SAS is used in preference to fins to save weight (because with the number of fins it'd need, we'd *never* get off the ground!). I recommend liftoff at default thrust, then up to 50% power after tower clear, and full throttle after booster separation. Pitchover to 45 degrees can start at 10km, 30 degrees at 25km, 15 degrees at 30km, and about 5 degrees once clear of the atmosphere, for a roughly 60km orbit. Launch uses the first four booster stages (up through KSP stage 07) completely. Stage 05 is an injection module, fired at apogee to circularize the orbit. Be sure to save some fuel for deorbit! (Note that I included the heat shield on the capsule; it needs to be jettisoned before parachute deployment.)

An impressive sight on the pad.

It's not exactly snorting along at first stage burnout, even with booster jettison... but it *will* keep climbing until burnout. This was from a second launch, and even with apparently losing one of my liquid engines to... something, I made the 62km orbit on that flight.

Acceleration picks up nicely once you're on the second stage, though.

Proof of a survivable landing...

...no matter what the game said.

Data from the first flight.

(Yes, I probably need to think small and light quite a bit more...)

Addons required: Moach's heatshield, Wobbly Rockets 1.08, SIDR&SD parts 0.9, Xemit's micro-rocket (for the injection/deorbit engine). (I *hope* that's all; I have a whole bunch of addons installed.)

[sirmonkey]

small and light is boring though, lol.. i too enjoy trying to build the biggest workable rockets possible.