Your PROUDEST moment in KSP

[Greenfire32]

I'll echo a lot of people and say it was probably my first mission to the Mun. However, while landing on the Mun was indeed awesome, my proudest moment was splashing back down on Kerbin.

THAT was the moment I knew I could do this.

[Gordon Fecyk]

There are so many moments from my first year in KSP that picking one as proudest is difficult:

• Surviving the 1.0.5 launch tutorial
• Reaching the Mun in the stock Kerbal-X
• Returning from the Mun in the stock Kerbal-X (which taught me about efficiency)
• Emulating Scott Manley right up to his SR-71 lookalike (Spent a week alone learning how to fly an SSTO)
• Landing a rover on Duna
• (Re)Learning to fly with Ferram Aerospace
• Starting a cinematic series starring Bob and Doug McKenzie Kerman, and going full CKanadiana with new artwork, flags and characters
• Taking up my first forum challenge (gravity turn efficiency)
• Starting my first forum challenge (Returning from Minmus efficiency)
• Flying a Minmus-Mun lander to orbit in a Tier 5 low-tech SSTO, executing said mission, then returning everything safely; on the runway!
• Starting a career game from Eve as an April Fool joke and then making orbit from Hell on Tier 4 parts
• Making my first mod

Though I suspect a lot of folks experience a similar progression in achievements.

[kerbinorbiter]

My best moment was very recently:

1. the slowest docking ever in KSP history: 12 mins

2. using KOS to create a (rather primitive, but hey it works) Script (for DECQ's soyuz space craft and rocket pack) that also makes the korolov cross

3. landing my first space plane from space on the run way (Unplanned)

my (probable) best moments

1. Becoming DECQ's KOS script maker (that could happen soon).

[TrooperCooper]

 

Project Odysseus, a manned roundtrip Earth - Venus - Mars - Earth in RSS/RO/RP0 using free trajectories with precisely timed slingshot fly-bys.

Edited April 18, 2017 by TrooperCooper

[TheKosanianMethod]

My first SSTO and Mun landing were both awesome. Some of my dogfights are pretty awesome too.

[Norcalplanner]

Recently, it was succeeding in getting back to orbit around Tellumo. With an SSTO. In a 3.2x career. :-)

[Nothalogh]

Manually flying a gravity turn with only the throttle and a SAS off

[spacebrick3]

I think three are probably tied:

• Landing for the first time on the Mun (always a classic)
• First SSTO orbital flight (burned up on reentry, but still)
• First docking (after several failed attempts and a rage "burn [the spacecraft] with [reentry heat]" moment)

[bdole92]

Honestly, my proudest moment was when i first entered low duna orbit with a big ass interplanetary craft. A huge 4 man ship loaded with probes and relay satellites, running USI-LS. Took me 22(!) launches to assemble it in low orbit around kerbin, its a shame i didn't take any screenshots for posterity

[Enceos]

After all these years with KSP I already forgot the thrills of achievement.

But one did happen to me recently:

I landed a shuttle which weighted 130 tonns (it was ferrying expensive metals from my orbital station to Kerbin, the cargo weight was around 75 tonns, and the Shuttle with dry tanks weighted 54 tonns).

It was a true flying brick with a stalling speed of 115 m/s, no saves, one landing attempt. And I did it, reliving in KSP what actual Shuttle pilots do and feel.

I had to do everything: the S turns, the suicide flaring, the tail brake and flaps management, and the rolling on rear wheels until the speed dropped enough to land the front gear.

That was scary af! Because Jeb was piloting and I didn't want to lose him.

I landed more loaded shuttles that day, but never took as much cargo as I did on my first try.

In this image I'm slamming the RCS button while trying to kill the Shuttle's velocity before the end of the runway, the wheel brakes and the drag chute weren't enough.

 

Edited April 21, 2017 by Enceos

[MythicalHeFF]

Returning from Eve after literally a thousand failed landings and two failed ascents. It was the last place (besides Jool or Kerbol obviously) that I returned from in the stock system. The feeling of accomplishment was unbelievable. 

[Kromey]

My first orbital rendezvous.

It was the standard rescue contract, I had to go out and get Magne Kerman from a higher-than-the-Mun orbit around Kerbin. Built and launched my rescue vehicle, Val in the pilot's seat. Got her into her initial parking orbit, and then plotted that first maneuver to get the encounter. Took some fiddling, but I got an encounter under 100 km; figured that was good enough, and with a little time warping I then started the burn. But, due to a slight error in the execution of my burn, my encounter ended up being over 50 km off from the plotted one -- 50 km closer, somehow, if you can believe it! With a small mid-course correction burn, my first ever encounter with an object without its own SOI had me within physics range!

It was only then that I realized I had no idea what to do next. I'd watched Scott Manley do things like this before, but years ago! So, I just started winging it, figuring out by trial-and-error which symbols on my navball meant what in relation to the target, and in very short order I parked my rescue ship less than 20 m from Magne's stricken pod! (Her EVA over to the rescue ship, however, revealed a crucial design flaw that has since been fixed: I had no lights on the ship, so she was literally flying toward a black shadow against the starry backdrop behind it!)

I was pretty thrilled with myself with pulling that off!

Not long after, I managed my first orbital docking, but it just didn't compare -- probably because I screwed up multiple times and never did get the rendezvous quite right, unlike with Magne's rescue where I perfectly matched orbits and could have just floated there right alongside her for years!

This may change when I finally put a Kerbal on the Mun, which I intend to do Apollo-style...

[Jarin]

Blind-shot hit Duna with a vertical launch on SRBs. 

(plus 50dV or so on LF, but still)

Edited April 20, 2017 by Jarin

[Zeiss Ikon]

My proudest moment has to have been Val's last asteroid mission.  After three attempts to rendezvous with an asteroid during its Kerbin encounter, she (I) decided to venture out of Kerbin's Sphere of Influence (only my second time since I downloaded KSP).  Rendezvoused with the (more or less randomly chosen) asteroid in Kerbol orbit -- and found it massed 968 t.  Even so, flying with chemical rockets only, she pushed it into a Kerbin encounter, then successfully captured it into Kerbin orbit (high, pretty eccentric, but stable as long as someone gave it a little polish before it could encounter Mun -- there's only so much dV in 3 1/2 orange tanks).

Not only did I (Val) successfully redirect and capture an asteroid on the first successful rendezvous, but the asteroid seems to be about 83% ore; it will soon become Fuel Station Valentina, and serve as a jumping off point for missions to Duna, Eve, and Dres, at a minimum.  I still need to get the science to research drills and converters, but that's just a matter of more missions to more places. 

[Superfluous J]

It's probably weird to say, but I think my single proudest moment was when I published my mod All Y'All (Now maintained by LinuxGuruGamer). I have a pretty long history of posting maps and items and characters (which can be considered mods) for games, but AYA was the first programmed mod I'd ever written for a game.

[Dire_Squid]

My proudest moment was, while using Karbonite, landing a rocket-jet (not quite a Spaceplane) on Eve, and successfully refueling... didn't get back off of the ground, though.

[klesh]

Giving one of my steam friends a KSP 101 lesson on teamspeak.  None of my friends understand the game; none have played more than a few hours to giggle at the lolsplosions.  Did about an hours worth of lessons for this guy and he landed on the Mun that evening.

[Dark Lion]

So I dunno if this actually counts as my KSP moment, but the pride is the appeal, right?

Not too long ago, I got into a minor argument with my girl about the difference in games we play. She loves Diablo, for instance, and I absolutely zombie and sleep after more than 20 minutes worth of gameplay, while she does about the same thing, trying to watch me play KSP. Naturally, we childishly went back and forth-- Me: "Your game's redundant, and teaches you nothing but hoarding and button-mashing!" -- Her: "Well, YOUR game is boring! You stare at the same thing for upwards of four hours and actually play for less than an hour!" Back and forth we go. A compromise was in order, for sure...

So naturally, we challenged one another to take on the other's favorite game, while helping one another out a bit. I haven't seen her playing Diablo since! 

Her first attempt was to build a jet, but she asked that I don't hover while she builds. So, I just stayed nearby to answer the onslaught of questions about our beloved KSP. Well... it crashed into the sea just off the runway at the KSC and made a fantastic speedboat!  Nevertheless, it didn't work as expected, so she was totally against ever playing again. I convinced her to try again, but this time, let me help her more directly. This time, I just asked her some common-sense kinds of questions, like "You saw in the part description that engine requires intake air, right? How can you scoop air into an engine?" She went right to the aero-tab. Or, "Are you planning to take off from the water or the runway?" She went straight to the wheels tab. Etcetera...

After no more than about an hour of this sort of turn-about, her jet, which she aptly named "Redemption" lifted off from the runway... I didn't think I could smile bigger when I saw it was stable... and FAST! But I was wrong... 

SHE LANDED IT ON THE FREAKIN SOUTH POLE, PEOPLE! If I'd grinned any wider, the top of my head would've fallen off! 

[purpleivan]

For me it was probably the flight of the Eve Party Boat, a huge Eve lander that took four kerbals down to the surface of Eve in a Hitchhiker can then returned them to Kerbin.

Everything about it was huge, the lander had 25 orange tanks on it for the ascent from Eve (plus another 4 for the descent phase that were left on the surface at lift off) and was put into Kerbin orbit about 1/4 fuelled, so required a major tanking operation to fill it, then had a couple of massive transfer vehicles docked with it to lug the thing to Eve.

I'd scouted out a landing site that was pretty much flat at at 6000m with some rovers I'd sent previously and was using one of them that was parked on top of the plateau as a landing marker and landed so close to it I almost crushed it.

I'd say everything I've done since, even including the Jool 5 challenge with a separate kerbal going to each moon, has felt a bit small by comparison.

Edited April 21, 2017 by purpleivan

[Gman_builder]

Holding the stock turboprop absolute speed record for a period of time was my proudest moment.

[The Flying Kerbal]

There's an awful lot of achievements in the comments above this one that are indeed things to be proud of.  I too have one that stands out head and shoulders above everything else I've managed.

It's actually pretty mundane really... I guess most of you will laugh when you see what it is, but even now I still pat myself on the back when I think of the first time I managed it.  It's isn't docking (though it should be as that took months and was bloody hard work), nor landing on the Kerbin moons and surviving to tell the tale, nor even my latest accomplishment of getting a probe to Duna.  No, even though it was much simpler than any of these, my proudest moment... was when I first put a vessel into orbit around Kerbin!

Laughable I know, but there you have it, my proudest moment. 

Edited April 21, 2017 by The Flying Kerbal

[sal_vager]

Quite liked seeing my scenarios make it into KSP.

[Dynastic Labs]

When i landed on the Mun 3 times in a row using 3 rockets

 

[Ultimate Steve]

Over time (What I did in the next one surpassed the previous one, this is a timeline):

1. Landing my first probe in the Mun over a lot of quickloads.

2. Docking to my first space station after hours and hours of misses.

3. Landing a Kerbal on Minmus for the first time.

4. Landing a Kerbal on the Mun.

5. Landing a Kerbal on Duna.

6. Building a replica of Kuzzter's Dipperkraft and having it actually work, in a career mode (At least, I think it was career mode... I can't remember...)

7. On that same Eve flotilla mission, rescuing two Kerbals that I accidentally jettisoned, wile in solar orbit, and still making it back to Kerbin (albeit half a year late).

8. Making the first working Ion plane in KSP 1.1 (or was it 1.0? I can't remember!)

9. Landing my Eve ascent vehicle on Eve after several tries getting it not to tip over.

10. Walking on Eve.

11. Ascending from Eve.

12. Managing to land 916 Kerbals on Minmus in one launch.

[cantab]

Oh actually, I should have remembered earlier, I still like bragging about this thing:

https://flic.kr/p/yjiteS

Even though it lagged like heck and needed fuelhack to make orbit. Now that KSP runs faster and I have a faster PC, I should break it out again and improve the launch system to fly it legit.