Heaviest Rocket

[RedPandaz]

What's the heaviest rocket you've ever launched, [In-VAB weight]? Mine is 3.5 kT, or 3500 tons

[OhioBob]

Not very big, really.  About 740 metric tons.  I like to keep things as small as possible.

[Helmetman]

Same as OhioBob in most if not 'any' cases. I like to build small and efficiently for gameplay purposes. A +kiloton rocket is usually not necessary for gameplay purposes, unless you ment RSS which I don't play that much.

But I did a few monstrosities, like a 4.1 kiloton rocket for a large LKO fuel base I constructed in 1.05.

[Geonovast]

So far, just a little shy of 4,000 tons.  I'd have to check the exact number when I'm home.

[Guest]

I can't remember the LV total mass but I put about 575 tons into LEO once, and with a payload fraction of about 2% that'd be about 29,000 tons.

Edited October 10, 2017 by regex

[Geonovast]

3 minutes ago, regex said:

I can't remember the LV total mass but I put about 575 tons into LEO once, and with a payload fraction of about 2% that'd be about 29,000 tons.

How do you even assemble stuff that big?  My twins barely fit in the VAB.

[RedPandaz]

1 minute ago, Geonovast said:

How do you even assemble stuff that big?  My twins barely fit in the VAB.

Probably Hangar Extender

 

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Geonovast said:

How do you even assemble stuff that big?  My twins barely fit in the VAB.

Procedural tanks. Whole thing was less than 100 parts. The 23 RD-171Ms were a good chunk of the part count, and there were 16 more from the eight Titan-series UA boosters. 30 meter lower tank and a 15 meter upper tank, looked like a giant bullet with the fairing on.

E: ferram4 has most everyone beat though, his testing craft for KJR put like 5000 tons into LEO, which is about 250,000 tons at 2%.

Edited October 10, 2017 by regex

[IncongruousGoat]

My first Eve mission, clocking in at 6,167 t:

https://imgur.com/XNBeNnX

Edited October 10, 2017 by IncongruousGoat

[Geonovast]

I'm gonna have to get this Hanger Extender and make some 10 second per frame wonders.

[Xyphos]

back when I first started playing, I would add more fuel, then more engines, then more fuel.... I think the biggest one launched was 4500 tonnes, but it RUD and never made it to orbit.
some time there after, I discovered the wonders of keeping things small, haven't "go big or go home" since; because I went small, and gone across the system.

Edited October 11, 2017 by Xyphos

[Omaha]

Wow, I suddenly feel insignificant.  Once I start getting over a pad mass of 400t, I start to think I'm approaching the design wrong.  It's one of the reasons my Eve program is stalled.

It looks like my most massive, current, active design is about 433t; the payload is an LKO tanker.

[Cpt Kerbalkrunch]

My Retro Solar Rescue Rocket. Huge, but I've since surpassed it. Over 1,700 parts, 6800 tons.

 

 

My Jool 5 rocket, just completed, with the Mk1-2 Command Module and five separate landers. No nuke, ion, or jet engines, so it's a bit heavier than average. Over 1,300 parts and 10,000 tons.

 

 

Full album here: https://imgur.com/a/Yog1d

 

Also, currently in the middle of an Eve mission with the Mk1-2. It's at 1,900 parts and 7,400 tons at the moment. That could change, though. The ascent vehicle works well, but it's huge. Getting the Mk1-2 off of Eve takes a bit of doing. Getting the whole thing off of Kerbin and delivered to Eve is proving to be just as much fun.

 

I tend to favor large, multi-Kerbal rockets anyway. So I no longer surprise myself with these monstrosities. Luckily, I have a monster gaming laptop as well, or the game would probably be unplayable sometimes.

 

 

 

 

 

[Geonovast]

7 minutes ago, Cpt Kerbalkrunch said:

Staging that thing must have been a bear.  The staging system in KSP is really one of my only complaints.  I would love to see a mod add a staging option to the PAW menu.

[Abpilot]

You should see mu replica N1-L3, a whopping 4000 ton monster

 

[Cpt Kerbalkrunch]

1 hour ago, Geonovast said:

Staging that thing must have been a bear.  The staging system in KSP is really one of my only complaints.  I would love to see a mod add a staging option to the PAW menu.

Absolutely. It's one of the toughest parts of large rocket design. It gets a bit confusing, as you add boosters and move things around. I usually have to launch a few times before I get it lined up exactly right. When launching behemoths, my true goal is just getting to LKO. From there I'm always confident things will go well, but getting there can be an adventure. I really love it.

[Whisky Tango Foxtrot]

I consider a rocket to be on the excessive side if it uses a Mammoth engine.

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, Whisky Tango Foxtrot said:

I consider a rocket to be on the excessive side if it uses a Mammoth engine.

You can put ~190 tons into LKO with three Mammoths and a Rhino, but you can do the exact same thing by clustering Vectors or Mainsails. So if I put 190 tons into LKO using Mainsails you wouldn't consider that excessive, but if I used three Mammoths you would...

[invision]

jebs mom

[Geonovast]

51 minutes ago, Whisky Tango Foxtrot said:

I consider a rocket to be on the excessive side if it uses a Mammoth engine.

I usually build my rockets around the Mammoth engine... or 4 of them.

[Vanamonde]

This exchange of spacecraft (for such it will prove to be) has been moved to the Spacecraft Exchange subforum. 

[Cpt Kerbalkrunch]

Boo!

[Whisky Tango Foxtrot]

2 hours ago, regex said:

You can put ~190 tons into LKO with three Mammoths and a Rhino, but you can do the exact same thing by clustering Vectors or Mainsails. So if I put 190 tons into LKO using Mainsails you wouldn't consider that excessive, but if I used three Mammoths you would...

Wow. There's stretching, and then there's this.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Whisky Tango Foxtrot said:

Wow. There's stretching, and then there's this.

So a single Mammoth is excessive. How about a bunch of Vectors, is that excessive? Twin Boars? How many Mainsails is excessive?

[He_162]

I launched a rocket that was a total of around 15,000 tons (currently rebuilding it for the latest KSP version before release)
It takes 3000 tons to an 80km orbit.
https://imgur.com/a/k7nqB