My first Orbital Rocket

[Markarth_Guardian25]

This is when I built my first orbital rocket that could return back to earth.

[Corona688]

Congratulations on joining the 'sunrise club' (those who\'ve seen one from space).

It sounds backwards, but you can make your ship go faster by giving it less engines and fuel. You are breaking into orbit by sheer brute force right now -- low thrust for a long time -- and by reducing the number of tanks and engines in the right proportion, can get high thrust for a shorter amount of time, getting there and back with far less fuel and weight.

There\'s a \'sweet spot\' for weight vs engines you should try to find. Watch your G-meter. If it never goes much above 1, you\'re wasting most of your fuel and thrust barely gaining any speed...

[Markarth_Guardian25]

The thing is I\'m stuck in an old version of the game. I do own it but my computer can\'t handle the lag so I am stuck. ( I will be getting a new computer soon.)

[Millst0ne MK II]

Even in the old versions, pod+4 tanks makes orbit, and will lift a decopler and parachute for descent if you add some SRB\'s

[Markarth_Guardian25]

Thanks!

[Markarth_Guardian25]

It worked!!!!

[Bluejayek]

Another thing I like to do is that asparagus design. Rather then having all 6 of those tanks on a single stage, make two sets of three for the same orientation. Then, take fuel lines and connect those two stages in series, and then to the inner rocket. When the one stage is depleted, eject it and you will still have the full second set of three. This lets you burn that half of the fuel with a significant amount less mass on the craft, giving you a higher delta V. My hyperion class V craft attached demonstrates the concept. V0.15.2.

[Maxed-Rockets]

Congratulations on joining the 'sunrise club' (those who\'ve seen one from space).

It sounds backwards, but you can make your ship go faster by giving it less engines and fuel. You are breaking into orbit by sheer brute force right now -- low thrust for a long time -- and by reducing the number of tanks and engines in the right proportion, can get high thrust for a shorter amount of time, getting there and back with far less fuel and weight.

There\'s a \'sweet spot\' for weight vs engines you should try to find. Watch your G-meter. If it never goes much above 1, you\'re wasting most of your fuel and thrust barely gaining any speed...

Example: If you look at this mission, http://imgur.com/a/nMWK0 I never went out of the green arc, thus retaining the ideal efficiency. I frequently use this one for anything up to geo-sync orbits, it is my reigning efficiency king.

Bad job: http://i.imgur.com/Gu6B0.png I frequently saw the g-meter pull into the red arc, peaked at about 10.8g.