Signs You're In for a Short Flight

[Corona688]

When your rocket runs out of power halfway up due to rover motors running amok

[viktor19]

When you run out of runway and vertical velocity needle never gets above 0.

"Landing gear is overstressed."

Ascending with FAR and realising SRBs don't gimbal.

Realising 2nd stage's TWR won't get to 2270 m/s in time.

When you realise your ablator won't hold out to the end of reentry.

Radial boosters ignite and clip through the main core.

Recreating lifting reentry and parachute goes poof.

Rocket breaks up during ascent and mk3 cockpit is the only thing that's left. (see: STS-51-L)

[Xyphos]

When your launch window opens but you eject in the wrong direction.
True story, it's happened to me twice, my Laythe SSTO wound up taking a gravity assisted detour around Tylo and Bop, back to Laythe.

Edited July 24, 2016 by Xyphos

[TheEpicSquared]

When any or all of THESE happen. 

 

 

[Curveball Anders]

On 2016-07-22 at 8:24 PM, String Witch said:

When you separate a booster and it slides down the side of the rocket and takes the main engine out.

Booster separation is always one of my main nail biters at every launch.

"Don't hit the main, Don't hit the main!, DON'T hit the Main!, DON'T <expletive> HIT THE MAIN!"

"Phew ..."

[pandaman]

I tend to find the great big fireball on loading to the launchpad a fairly strong hint that it's not going to end well. 

[Corona688]

When you hit 'M' instead of '<' repeatedly, turning a docking manuever into a fireworks show as KSP boggles in and out of the map during a delicate docking manuever.

[Corona688]

When you carefully burn 99% of an escape trajectory so the discarded stage hits the planet on the way down, decouple, and realize the next stage somehow has no fuel.

[Kerbart]

When your Gigantorosaurus rocket is 50m off the ground, you hit "T" to engage SAS and KSP tells you it can't do that because you have no pilot on board.

[Sharpy]

You finish circularizing your gravity turn. Periapsis: 30,000m. Apoapsis: 30,000m.

Your boosters majestically overtake the main stage and soar towards the sky.

You start pulling that asteroid, and with a bit of rising dread you see it grow farther away... and the bottom part of your tug is still there, while the pod, ISRU and engines speed away into space...

You recall that fuel cells require oxidizer too.

You recall that vernor thrusters require oxidizer too.

When, about to enter thicker atmosphere, you decouple that last engine and tank... and all the parachutes that were attached to the decoupler.

You realize 400m to the target means 400m to its root part, not to its nearest part.

You fine-tune your landing speed (below 9m/s but above 7m/s) in order to achieve percussive decoupling of the landing stage from the rover.

When your ion engine drains all available power so fast there's not enough for the probe core to switch it off.

When Jeb dismounts the command seat of the tiny lander, stands up and watches the lander disappear behind a distant hill.

 

 

[Jimmidii]

Forgetting that I've taken all the fuel out to check the dry stats of my craft.

 

Twice.

(Same craft, same mission, and the reason I was back in the VAB was just to put the fuel back in before I got distracted by other tweaks.)

 

Also, on one occasion, forgetting to put a heatshield on the nose before takeoff.

(I wanted a really REALLY fast takeoff)

Edited August 17, 2016 by Jimmidii

[septemberWaves]

When you realise mid-flight that you forgot to set the action groups on your enormously expensive Tylo exploration vessel (though thankfully this was before I had actually got to Tylo).

[Sputnik 1]

When you begin to overheat three seconds after entering the atmosphere of Kerbin

[Michael R]

When you're burning full throttle retrograde and suddenly your suicide burn counter starts to rapidly run negative because you've shifted your landing zone from the plains to the mountains.

[Sharpy]

On 27.07.2016 at 1:26 PM, Curveball Anders said:

Booster separation is always one of my main nail biters at every launch.

"Don't hit the main, Don't hit the main!, DON'T hit the Main!, DON'T <expletive> HIT THE MAIN!"

"Phew ..."

I only recently got around that problem.

For lighter boosters, like BACC, there's the Structural Pylon, which gives a nice separation (and doesn't leave draggy crap behind).

For heavier - I tend to make two drops worth or Asparagus staging. The first drop gets angled fins, four per booster. In thick atmosphere, at already considerable speed, the boosters elegantly fly away. The other gets separatrons on the nosecone, pushing the top downwards and away, where aero can't smash the boosters back into the craft.

 

Now, to stay on-topic.

When you launch your SRB with that silly part strapped on top, open the mission window, find the contract, and read.

blah blah blah Test the LV-1 Ant engine in suborbital flight. Altitude: 18000-23000m: ✓ Speed: 850-920m/s:        ✓ suborbital flight:               ✓ Eve:                                 ✘

[Archgeek]

2 hours ago, Sharpy said:

When you launch your SRB with that silly part strapped on top, open the mission window, find the contract, and read.

blah blah blah Test the LV-1 Ant engine in suborbital flight. Altitude: 18000-23000m: ✓ Speed: 850-920m/s:        ✓ suborbital flight:               ✓ Eve:                                 ✘

In fairness, a contract like that should have a high enough payout that it'll more than cover sending that ant out to Eve, so accidentally wasting a Kerbin-specced rocket shouldn't impact the profit much at all.

[JonathanPerregaux]

When your meticulously-balanced new plane ascends nicely and picks up some decent speed, but your first banking maneuver causes the wings to tear off.

Edited August 19, 2016 by JonathanPerregaux

[Matuchkin]

Starting KSP, then wondering what you're doing and turning on Orbiter instead.

[NightshineRecorralis]

[insert_name]

When you use your airbrakes as ablator and your cargo bay as airbrakes

[322997am]

You forget to set the main engine and launch clamps on one stage; the rocket falls onto the pad.

[322997am]

Also,

*signature

[monophonic]

13 hours ago, 322997am said:

Also,

*signature

What's there? Forum wont show signatures when browsing with a phone.

[Samniss Arandeen]

You hit the Action Group mapped to your Rapier modes and suddenly lose all thrust. Protip: When using Kerbal Engineer or Mechjeb, you have to set the Rapier closed-cycle thrust limiters to zero to get accurate TWR readouts in the editor.

[Chiron0224]

On ‎7‎/‎7‎/‎2016 at 4:39 PM, Corona688 said:

When your mun lander has no ladders.

Mine never have landers.  That's what EVA propellant is for.  I even do something I call the "Valentina Maneuvre" since I first did it with her.  I fly way out to a distant location with EVA, then fly back and without touching the ground I fly right to my hatch and board.