Smallest orbit

[maltesh]

I was hoping some people would actually try for a rocket (not spaceplane) orbit in-atmo. During a horrifyingly miscalculated rocket test, I dipped down to approximately 30km before burning up and away. Sucked up almost all of my fuel but flying along at 3400m/s at 30km is pretty beastly.

You'd probably have to be moving faster than Kerbin escape velocity to not bleed off enough velocity to deorbit at 30km (assuming you didn't do a powered orbit, as above)

It's also possible to put things into stable, unpowered orbits as low as about 22km above Kerbin...if they never get taken off rails. This is easily achievable with persistence file editing, but since the game doesn't let you save while in the atmosphere, I am hard-pressed to think of a flight plan that will leave a spacecraft in Kerbin orbit with an apoapsis that low.

Possibly ejecting pilotable debris and ending the current flight before atmospheric drag slows the new spacecraft too much.

[Khrissetti]

I have a piece of on-rails debris orbiting at a steady 80,000 x 40,000, I keep meaning to load it up and let it decay down to Kerbin, but who has the time?