Heaviest payload into Orbit via a fully reusable craft.

[Nooblet68]

The challenge is simple; the reality not so much. With the rising cost of metal on Kerbin, the Space program can\'t afford to endlessly buy more boosters to fill the space need, so they\'ve called upon you to build a craft capable of carrying a heavy payload into an orbit as possible while maintaining every part that was launched relatively in one piece.

This lays out the rules:

• 
  [li]ONLY stock parts[/li]
  [li]All parts that aren\'t part of the payload MUST return to Kerbin in ONE piece, or prove themselves capable of doing so[/li]
  [li]SRBs are okay, as long as they DON\'T get jettisoned[/li]
  [li]No Parachutes. What would be the fun in that?[/li]
  

For a couple of examples;

Craft a - A small shuttle is carried on top of a big one. The small shuttle holds a payload, whilst the larger one\'s payload IS the smaller one. Both shuttles end out with the end payload in space and CAN both be piloted into a landing. Allowed.

Craft b - One large shuttle is launched into an orbit with it\'s payload via a Rocket. This rocket can only land with parachutes. Disallowed.

Craft c - A rocket, with 25 stages. Disallowed.

The winner is the one that abides by all of the rules, and gets the HEAVIEST payload into orbit. They must provide screenshots and a .craft file to confirm.

Leaderboard;

[list type=decimal]

[li]Foursh (18.05)[/li]

[li][/li]

[li][/li]

[li][/li]

[li][/li]

[Sean Mirrsen]

I sincerely doubt that my one successful attempt, made last version, will still work in 0.16 (fuel use glitch disregarded), but I will try to do this nonetheless.

[Accelerando]

>no parachutes

Challenge aspect aside, I think Philip Bono would have liked to have a word with you.

[TheDarkOne]

Google Translate seems incorrect. Niemand is German for no one, but Personne is German for 'People', and probably the same for several European languages.

I\'ll be trying this to see how much I can do.

[G Addict]

Does the craft *have* to be a shuttle, or can a fully reusable rocket be used too? I think I have a few SSTOs lying around, and I bet I could make them do powered landings.

[Nooblet68]

Does the craft *have* to be a shuttle, or can a fully reusable rocket be used too? I think I have a few SSTOs lying around, and I bet I could make them do powered landings.

Technically, no. It doesn\'t have to be a shuttle. So long as it can land by it\'s self, (preferably having some dead weight to act as some command)

[Kreuzung]

Google Translate seems incorrect. Niemand is German for no one, but Personne is German for 'People', and probably the same for several European languages.

I\'ll be trying this to see how much I can do.

Personne seems to be a valid french short form, think I\'ve heard that in school once, but I suck at french, so it might be wrong.

[royalkingofgames]

A winner Me thinks

[Nooblet68]

A winner Me thinks

To be technical, though - while his craft can lift the payload of 45 mass into orbit, he never actually carried the run out.

[Sean Mirrsen]

-<YT clip snip>-

A winner Me thinks

I lack the patience to fully sit through 11 minutes of slowly loading video, but I\'ve scanned through it and I haven\'t seen anything resembling a craft fit for this challenge. Even if one does appear in some segment that I\'ve missed, the man quite clearly uses mod parts, while this challenge is all stock.

[Foursh]

I managed 18.05 mass units (tons?).

Blast Off!

Yup. That\'s an orbit.

Payload deployed

A wing and an engine broke off on landing, but nothing exploded!

[Nooblet68]

I managed 18.05 mass units (tons?).

Well, congratulations. You\'re in first currently.

[erkle64]

Oops, posted in the wrong place. Sorry.

Edited August 24, 2012 by erkle64