Your Craziest Mishap During a Mission

[TheDarkStar]

I keep having problems with my larger modded rockets (like that awesome BFE-5000) clipping into the launch tower when I am trying to build a rocket. Whole thing goes bouncing sideways. Crazy.

Use the clamp parts and raise it really high.

[SNapple]

Use the clamp parts and raise it really high.

I did that once. Then this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_PmxdHQHac&feature=plcp

You meant raise it many kilometers into the air, right? I just can't get it to stay stable at that height.

Edited August 20, 2012 by SNapple

[illectro]

I had the coupler between the launch stack and the upper stage break during launch as the boosters emptied and the thrust/mass ratio hit about 10. The rocket pushed forward, destroyed the2 tanks on the upper stage and the radial tanks tore the external boosters off their mountings.

What I was left with was a 3 large tanks, a large engine and a capsule balanced on the front with no control. The rocket continued on to Kerbol escape velocity before burning out.

Wish I'd had that one on video.

[kodemunkey]

One of my first multi stage rockets with the detachable socket things fell apart on the launchpad liked a freshly peeled banana.

[darkwolfpaw54]

my fail was bad and epic this is how it go's[ATTACH=CONFIG]31580[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]31582[/ATTACH] i was gonna make it to the pole but ran out of fuel and crash landed due to my glider plane thing i landed safely blowing up and lived LOL. the other one was i was test piolting my plane due to its body it crash landed

Edited August 20, 2012 by darkwolfpaw54

[Kizarvexis]

Reminds me of a couple of missions I did at the start of 0.16:

After downloading the new Kerbal update, I make a rocket with the single Kerbal capsule and (after a few tries) made it Mun-capable using some new parts. Jeb is at the controls! Surprisingly, Jeb sticks the landing like the boss and makes himself the first Kerbal to set foot on the Mun while it is still attached to his body! Naturally, after some photo-ops, I use the EVA pack to fly around the Mun. On my way back to the lander, I realize to my horror that I have had my finger on the throttle for far to long and Jeb splatted onto a slight drop off nearby the lander and died. He would have wanted to go that way...

My next mission involved me designing a Mun-capable rocket with a full, three-man crew. It took far more tries to get it right then the single capsule, but it was finally ready for launch. My new mission: Recover the previous rocket currently landed on the Mun! I had never tried to land close to another rocket on the Mun before, but now was the time to try it. I got far closer than I had though myself possible on a first try, but the stranded rocket was within visual range. However, the area of the Mun that the rocket was stranded on happened to have fallen into night. I gingerly approached the surface and hoped for a good landing spot. As I came down, it became clear that I was about to land at a bad angle....on a suspiciously familiar drop-off. As the lander started to fall over, I realized my RCS was used up trying to keep my hastily designed craft on course early on.....my only hope was to gun the engine and gain enough altitude to reattempt a landing. No luck, the craft had too much momentum to stop the tilt and crashed down the embankment in a glorious fireball. After holding my head in shame, I looked up to see a surprising sight: Three Kerbal thumbnails staring back at me. As the fire and smoke cleared, the only thing left of my lander was the Command Capsule.....not even the parachute on top survived! So what did I do? I hopped one Kerbalnaut out of the capsule, flew him (Gently!) over the embankment and across the short distance to the derelict lander, climbed the ladders to get in, and made a flawless return home.

.....Now, in full KSP fashion, I need to rescue the rest of the rescue crew....

That is too funny. I would love to know the total number of rescue missions to get all of the Kerbals back.

[that1guy]

3 words, Spontaneous Shuttle Detonation (for absolutely no reason)

[Gojira]

I failed to land my plane (I landed it but it was kinda missing engines and since I right clicked to retract the gear it fell apart) but ejected and the parachute deployed right before the seat hit the ground at 40m/s plus, slowing it down to about 5m/s. Oh, and the plane's remnants flew past, less than two feet from the seat.

[Bandock]

Here are some of my past mishaps (some crazy and some not so crazy):

Mishap 1 (Happened in 0.15): Originally, I was planning on a challenge for my Flairiet aircraft to see how far you can return to the runway with no fuel. That plan certainly went a bit awry as I was beginning to drop a bit too much and lack the necessary power to even return. Fortunately, I managed to land on a small island several minutes later (went on for an estimated 20-30 minutes without fuel). Not so bad if you're closer to the runway a bit, but I was definitely too far with this mishap. I probably should've used a real glider for this one.

Mishap 2 (Happened in 0.15 mainly): After some time getting to close to orbit, I jettison the first stage and pressed 'space' again to activate the next (with throttle on max). Certainly wasn't a smart idea (especially when the engines are still apparently stuck together or real close) and caused one of the engines to blow up. Fortunately, I had spare engines and even another stage to utilize (though can't travel as far due to one engine being destroyed). It definitely helps to have spare engines similar to real mishaps or failures.

Mishap 3 (Happened in 0.16): During EVA on the Mun, I had one Kerbal (forgot which one it was) explore the Mun and make nice photo shoots. I found a relatively interesting Mun mountain (not the Mun Arch mind y'all) along with some interesting areas and make haste. That was a huge mistake because that poor Kerbal lost control of his EVA Suit and eventually died upon crashing on to the Mun. Sent another one (since it was a three-kerbal lander) to try to explore that same area. Fortunately, he survived and decided to make a return home (with one death). It was either Angry Kerman (yes, that name exists) or one of the other Kerbals who died that faithful day. :|

I'll provide more mishaps if I have anymore to offer.

[Panichio]

The rocket did not explode. We did not expect this... Maybe that pre-recorded message explaining there purpose in the Research & Development Program was unnecessary, we're in a bit of an awkward position now...

[TheProdigy]

I had to rely tottaly on the map. The purple markings wernt working.

After getting my space dock into space (the crew ar no other than jeb,bill, and bob) i finally decided to launch rockets to build my interplantary ship. After assempling it, and spawning it in orbit i then notice it was full of lag. It was so strange. I then sent Bill out from the space dock out on a EVA to investigate. As he approached it i got lag to the face. Still managable though. I then realized that it was just the ship. The lag was getting worse and worse. I hurried to get bill back to the space dock, but the lag got to me. As i was 30m away from the dock, Bill started spinning out of control at 2 frames a second. 1 minuite later the lg stopped, and the dock was no where to be found. I wasnt far from it, but it wouldnt give me the purple markings to show where it was. Bill was getting farther and farther. He then made a desperate attempt to get back to the dock. But it was difficult seeing he was on a trajectory almost dipping into the atmoshphere. With RCS fuel running out, I made the deccision to stabalize my orbit. I went back to the dock where Jeb and Bob were. They made desperate attempts to save Bill. The Dock grew nearer and nearer to bill. I switched over to bill, but the Dock was wayyy below him. And just zoomed below him at crazy speeds. He tried to chase, but his RCS pack reach 5%! I went to the dock again to try and take a more calm appraoch to this. I did douzen and douzens of orbits around kerbin to slowly meet up with Bill. According to the map i was real close to Bill, but seeing he was so tiny, there was no way i could see him. I went back to bill and started searching...nothing...5 mins later...nothings...WHERE THE HELL IS IT?! Then i saw a small space ship in the distance slowly flying past me. Thank god. Finally i was in range, but i decided to play it safe and make Bill do the rest. I was still far away so i did short quick bursts of RCS to conserve my fuel. Finally I reached outside the space dock with 1% of fuel left. And when i grabbed the ladder there was only 0.5% of fuel left

The total operation time was about 30 mins irl, 1 day in game. It was crazy and had my heart beating

[YURI KAGARIN]

Terror, on the icy slopes of Minmus:

[flaillomanz]

Terror, on the icy slopes of Minmus:

-snip-

Dear god, that's hilarious.

[Cykyrios]

Very good one

My craziest "accident" happened while experimenting with artificial gravity: I took a Kerbal in EVA, put him against a cylindrical part, and spun it. Another Kerbal then went out of the command pod while the thing was rotating at full speed, and he crashed, dying on impact...

[SNapple]

I had to rely tottaly on the map. The purple markings wernt working.

If you can't see the ship markers, try pressing F4.

[kodemunkey]

Kodemunkey Aerospace is pleased to announce the first successful test flight of a spaceplane prototype, it was a complete success and the pilot is on an extended holiday at one of our beach relaxation facilities.*

*I had forgotten that shift controls the throttle and space bar starts the engine. Somehow, the nose landing gear had fallen off just sitting on the runway. The spaceplane scrapes along the runway, before i remember the aircraft controls. The nose pitches up vertically on full power, does a quintruple barrel roll into the upper atmosphere, half a dozen loop the loops getting perilously close to the rocket launching area, the sea and the ground.

Since this was a prototype, i also installed four very large parachutes, you know for safety reasons. All four parachutes deploy at the same time, causing the aircraft to fold in on itself, and spit out the cockpit like a spitball leaving a straw. The cockpit somehow manages to make contact with the ground at just the right angle and it then rolls around the airfield like a hubcap released from a car wheel. Somehow every single piece of debris manages to miss the cockpit.

Elapsed mission time, 30 minutes and one jibbering wreck of a test pilot.

[Nikolai]

Terror, on the icy slopes of Minmus:

<pictures snipped>

I had something kind of like that.

I landed on Mun successfully, and wanted to show off to my kid. Unfortunately, the Kerbal himself disappeared between the landing and when I started the program up to show her. So there was a rocket there, but no Kerbal. Oops. (Maybe I clicked "End Flight" instead of "Space Center"; I'm not absolutely sure.)

But I had a rescue pod on Mun if I needed it, and that was good, right?

So I mounted another mission to Mun, but cut off the landing engine too early and fell the last three meters or so. The impact was enough to split the lander into two parts: (capsule + ASAS) and (everything else). The capsule and ASAS slid a few centimeters on the rest of the stack and stopped, balancing delicately in place.

But I had a rescue pod, only a bit over 40 km away! So I could get my hapless pilot home after all. I just had to get him to the spare lander.

With Minlun Kerman just outside the hatch, the capsule was now imbalaced enough to fall completely off the stack -- and it did, with Minlun smooshed underneath. The lander had landed on an incline, though, so the capsule and ASAS just rolled off down the hill. Minlun was flat on his back, but alive.

Forty kilometers is a long hike, when it comes down to it; I thought I'd cheat just this once and give Minlun infinite EVA fuel. After getting him up and dusting him off, I powered up the jetpack and sent him flying over the surface. It still took quite a while to get to the abandoned lander, but I managed to arrive in one piece.

It turns out that my rescue lander didn't have enough fuel to escape Mun's SOI. My girl had been watching me for quite a while by this point -- she's extraordinarily patient -- and I really didn't want to crash after everything Minlun had had to put up with, so I turned on infinite fuel for the lander and powered my way back to Kerbin.

Speed up time, let Kerbin get huge in the window, slow down time again. Get to about 60,000 km up, where I realize that I had failed to include a decoupler to separate the capsule from the rest of the lander. Rookie mistake!

Fortunately, I was headed toward the ocean. I used my parachute and my lander's engine to slow the descent; thankfully, the entire lander floats. So Minlun returned home safely with a few bruises and such, but only because I cheated. I expect that if I hadn't, this would have ended in disaster in running out of EVA fuel while riding over Mun's surface at high speed, or if not that, with an emptied rescue lander impacting the Mun's surface. Or if not that, then a lander smashing itself to bits falling into the ocean under a parachute that was too small. All in all, it left such a bad taste in my mouth that I had to re-design my main rocket to carry a lander large enough to get back off the surface of Mun after landing there.

[Tassyr]

I was heading to Mun; just as I'd completed my burn to orient to the Mun, a chunk of debris from an earlier launch whipped around and smacked into my craft with enough force to tear off my mechjeb unit, my stage two (of three) unit- essentially leaving me with just a cockpit, my lunar lander, and one tiny tank of fuel. I managed to slingshot around the Mun and bring my Kerbals back home.

[incineration]

As I was going in for a landing on Minmus, I used mechjeb's autopilot to correct my course, as I am horrible at landings. Soon after, mechjeb suddenly began to spin my rocket out of control. I turned it off and tried to correct my rocket, but it was useless. 2 seconds before the crash, my last words were "Damnit, Je-*boom*.

[incineration]

I have a second one too.[if my other one gets posted that is] Just today I was using the CART as a basic mini rover on the mun. I unfortunately land 200km from my original coords. So after detaching the rover and beggining my long treck halfway around the mun, my brother rings the doorbell and scares the living crap outta me. Next thing I know im doing a legit stoppie and then a un-legit front flip and I land on my pod and failed horribly. Next was a few min of yelling at him for it. If only his name was...Jeb.

[rasheed]

Oh my god. What are the odds of a orbital collision..... i see many posts in this thread about orbital collisions. Also make sure u are careful around jumping of mountains on mimmus. I died falling at high speeds. D:

[SNapple]

After building a highly modded skycrane, I decided to make a stock one. Many explosions followed... And no deaths? But really, I missed the times when people just messed around. But alas, I already had a Mun rover, so I decided to skycrane that down... And fail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orvsHepqTms&feature=plcp

It's a miracle no one got hurt... But Jeb has other feelings on the matter. But anyway, I decided to design a new rover, perfectly symmetrical, and then it worked. I landed it on the Mun and... I put the decoupler UNDER the ASAS. So my skycrane was assymetrical. D: And then I launched it again, this time without the Fail. It worked

[Fendleton]

Back in 0.14, my Mk.41 rocket was my first craft to get close to the Mun. Entirely by accident.

Somewhere in LKO, one of the side-mounted engine-pods on the orbital-insertion stage ran out of fuel because of a glitched fuel line. This of course meant I had 3 out of 4 engines running (the 41 used an odd design for its second stage, a central LVT30, and 4 LVT45's. Because of dodgy fuel line setups, the early versions had the 30 cut off significantly before the 45's), and asymmetric thrust. Being new to the game, I couldn't really do much manually with this....so I figured I'd see how high an orbit I could get with a damaged craft. With ASAS on, I could put the throttle onto a VERY low setting, and the craft would, more or less, stay in the right heading thanks to the wonders of vectored-thrust engines. This ended up putting me into the right orbit to (eventually) get captured by the Mun. Unfortunately, on separation of the defective stage, some wacko glitch broke up the rest of the rocket and sent debris sling-shotting into solar orbit.

Once I'd sorted out the fuel issues and beefed up the structure to guard against Kraken damage, the 41 went on to be probably the most reliable rocket I've ever made, with variants doing everything from satellite delivery to Mun landings. But the first flight was an AMAZING failure.

Edit: I too have also had something similar to the "Icy Slopes of Minmus" scenario, only it was an entire 3-man lander, minus the engine and landing legs. Sidzor's EVA-pack saved him. Not as crazy as going to the Mun with asymetric thrust then blowing apart in a massive glitchy cascade that made even JEB scream, but getting that way.

Edited August 22, 2012 by Fendleton

[tbrown85]

Probably trying to set a lander down on the Mun using only RCS thrusters. Might not sound like a bad idea but when your lander is a 6-person crewtank with ASAS, Unmanned Command Pod and 3-metre nosecone on top, and 4 LEM landing legs on the bottom it's a bit like trying to stop a bus by blowing at it with a drinking straw...

[khmnc]

ok, i'll add a few of my own stories to the mix

during a take off i had an all too common failure and had to abort, the pod got safely away from the wreckage and deployed its chute. everything looked good up until about 50-100m from the ground when a bit of debris hit the pod and knocked the parachute off. everyone died with a smile on their face...

while making my orbital ascent i was costing to my apoapsis ready to make the burn to raise my periapsis and circularize my orbit, my ship was steady and giving no indication that something was wrong. but then my engines suddenly decided they had enough of this ride and wanted off, so they all spontaneously popped off

during a mun mission i had fooled around a bit and forgot to keep an eye on my fuel gauge, so i had to make my trip back running on fumes. i ran out of both rocket and rcs fuel when my periapsis was just barely skimming the atmosphere. warping at 2x i was spending about 2 minutes real time in the atmosphere during each pass, so i had to sit there and press the warp button every 2 minutes while my apoapsis slowly dropped down to the point where i was sub-orbital...it took 4 or 5 hours real time...

during my first mun mission of 0.15 i decided i would just land where ever, i crashed into the side of a mountain. while some parts survived, none of them were attached to the command pod, not even the parachute that many of us take for granted. seeing that there were survivors, i said to my self "i'm going to rescue them, after all how hard could it be, all i need to do it pick up a pod off the ground and take it home"...many swear words, kerbalnuts, and rescue craft later, i succeeded in getting it safely home <.<

i could go on and on, but i think i'll stop there V_V