What is your most facepalm-worthy moment regarding KSP?

[magimix]

My face-palm moments are relative small-fry, but red marks on the face they left nonetheless...

Just yesterday, I'd finished building my largest and most ambitious launcher yet.  The biggest vehicle I'd ever made.  Crossed every 't'; dotted every 'i'.  *Didn't* check the staging.  With a palpable sense of excitement, I activate the engines and...  Oh, wait, did I say engines?  I meant the launch clamps, causing the vehicle to drop a metre to the ground and explode in spectacular fashion (and taking more of the launch facility *in general* with it than I'd ever have anticipated).

In terms of things that actually *launched* okay...  My first attempt at a crewed Duna mission was hairy. I decided to assemble the mission vehicle in low Kerbin orbit.  I intricately, and *carefully* planned and built my lander, and the 'tug' stage that'd do the heavy lifting (as it were).  The whole flight to Duna went really well, I entered low Duna orbit, and...  Why is the vehicle delta-V 2500+ less than it should be?!  Yep, I didn't properly account for the mass of the lander module when building the tug that'd be moving it.  That said, it was also the first mission where I really had something go wrong deep into it (normally they fail fast), and so had to try and puzzle my way out of it.  I *barely* had enough dV even to get back into the vicinity of Kerbin, let alone slow down at all.  I had one shot only to do a burn; it had to be right the first time.  In order to not just fly back out into the vasts of space, I had to go *deep* into the atmosphere.  At 50km, I was pulling 5,200m/s, and 3,878m/s at 25km.  The most intense aerobraking I've ever done. 

I then had a secondary facepalm.  Realising my mistake, I reworked the 'tug', this time with the lander assembley on it, and wound up with a vehicle that could launch and do the whole mission as is.  All that faffing around, building a vehcle in orbit, was entirely unnecessary!

[Fett2oo5]

Built a complicated SSTO/Transcontinental aircraft, with all the abilities including all experiment apparatuses, ladders, docking, cargo, etc.  Adding more, and more parts and capabilities, up-sized the landing gear... build, build, build..... →  Launch... ground clearance problems, revert, fix. → Launch, landing gear out of alignment? what?  Fix them, move gear a little down, a little out.  → Launch.  Success!  I get it to Kerbin north pole, Pilot jumps out to celebrate and plant a flag!  Woohoo!  Ok, let's get back in and go home.

..... Ladder doesn't reach the ground because I made the landing gear too tall.

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Needed to make a low budget science gathering journey to Mun, it was incredibly difficult (for me, at the time) finally get it all designed, under budget, and with JUST enough dV to get there and back.  Launch, fly, fly, fly, mechanic of the orbitals, sketchy landing... nothing broken... alright!  Science time!

..... forgot the experiment equipment.

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(years later...) Planning Mun mission to collect all possible science from each of the Mun's biomes, wonderfully designed, allowed for beautiful execution of the mission.  I collected tons of science from each of the biomes, it took a while, and careful course plotting (biome hopping) to use as little dV as possible.  Leave the Mun, return home, checking the list of science collected, notice an absence of gravity scans.  That's odd.  Those experiments don't have to be reset after they are run...  What the heck happened?!?

Go to the VAB, load up the craft ..... not a single Gravioli Detector was installed on the craft.  Have to go back to each Mun Biome. 

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More Science experiment woes:
Early in career mode, need science points, load up a craft with the science equipment I have unlocked... ok let's do this!  Get to destination... No Materials observation?!?! 

..... I had installed a Mobile Processing Lab, and not a Science Jr. because the parts look exactly the same.

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Needed a satellite around Kerbol, designed one, launched it, burn to make Kerbol orbital insertion burn... Success!  Time warp out of Kerbin SOI, into Kerbol SOI to circularize orbit... warp, warp, warp.....  go back to normal view from map view...  Can't control anything?  No connection?!?!?

..... chose the wrong antennae, I was out of range.

Edited April 2, 2018 by Fett2oo5

[Lego_Prodigy]

Probably almost every single flight I have made up to this point can be included here.

[Confused Scientist]

The other day I flew a full-on Gilly mission that included

1.) A nuclear tug to send all of the other components to Gilly;

2.) Crewed landers with fuel to fly to any other point on Gilly and return to the starting point;

3.) A large surface base;

4.) A seperate, smaller ISRU generator, which was sent down to the surface first. It was supposed to refuel the landers (using KIS and KAS) so they could do multiple sorties.

 

Well, I took the ISRU module to the surface and spend half an hour waiting to fall to the ground. Then I warped to daytime and deployed the drills. It's important to note that I was using the largest size drill, which is longer than the longest landing gear. Luckily, I'm fine with not having to fly those landers all around Gilly, because I hate that gravity. The kerbals on the expedition will just have to sit around in almost zero-g (the worst kind of g) for a year and a half to wait for their launch window to open. I don't envy them. Frankly, I've got a flags-and-footprints mission to Eve on the drawing board that's probably going to go a whole lot smoother than this (or at the very least more exciting.)

 

EDIT: No, wait, forgot the time that I designed a massive Duna ship, whose file was immediately corrupted. I had to redesign the whole thing. Needless to say, this ludicrous bug occurred in 1.1.x.

 

EDIT (2): Wait... I have KIS/KAS. I can move those drills up. (Facepalm)

Not that I really want to. I'm never going to Gilly again.

Edited April 3, 2018 by Confused Scientist

[Vanamonde]

9 hours ago, Gilph said:

Sometimes, it's really dark in space and on the surface,  and sometimes a Kerbal has to EVA into the darkness to do stuff. For about 18 months, I would squint and fumble about until I clicked the light button at the top of the screen and found that Kerbals have lights on top of their helmet.

Bet that was a real light-bulb-over-the-head moment, eh? 

[Atlas2342]

5 hours ago, Vanamonde said:

Bet that was a real light-bulb-over-the-head moment, eh? 

I had the same problem and just found out a while ago. I guess I’m not too bright either 

[W. Kerman]

On a modded install. Lifesupport, KAS, and KIS.

I had KerbinLab-1 and I sent up a capsule up to dock with it, and then....

No parachute.

No engineer to put one on from the station's stores.

1 month of food.

Now that was a fun rescue...

[PyramidPug]

I remember some of my first ever space station missions were done very inefficiently:

1. i didn't do gravity turns

2. didn't know how to dock/rendezvous

3. executed burns exactly at T -0

after discovering all the correct ways to do those things i face palmed...

[Corona688]

My most facepalm-worthy moment was packing a satellite in the middle of a craft.  Had to undock everything to get rid of it - after which I realized

1. The lander was bone-dry due to a crossfeed error.
2. I'd undocked every drop of fuel.
3. That satellite had been the only qualified pilot aboard.

Doing rendezvous on pure RCS with an unbalanced, fuel-less lander without even stability assist was Fun.

Oh, another:  Watching Jeb roll six hundred meters downhill from the remains of his rocket unicycle.  That's several straight minutes of low-gravity ragdolling.

I also had that happen to a low-budget tourist craft, almost nothing but an airplane tube and a parachute.  It landed on a veeeeeeeeery slight slant and rolled for ten freaking minutes, with timewarp.

Edited April 12, 2018 by Corona688

[Jetpackmaniac]

I used to forget action groups for afterburners on a panther powered jet. I would revert to hanger to fix it, only to get distracted and launch  again without setting the action groups. I say used to because after that happened several times, I began using the whiplash for high performance jets. 

[dr.phibes]

It is always the most ridiculous things too...spent an hour tweaking this-and-that on a transport aircraft which I then crewed and 'launched'. Engines started, by nothing. I checked EVERYTHING only to discover I had put no fuel tanks. I added a 8inch note to my monitor that says, "FUEL TANKS YOU DICK!", but in big, red letters.

I'll take it down when I remember fuel tanks every time. In my defense I have had a couple of strokes, but to forget fuel tanks is unforgettable.

[Kernel Kraken]

I feel like every rocket launch I have ever done deserves to be here. Planes are a different story. I once was using TweakScale'd B- Wings to make wings for my cargo liner, but I couldn't lift the huge body without huge wings. I made the wings huge and the lift force tore off the wings.... I had unbreakable joints on. At least it took off before snapping.

Edited April 15, 2018 by TheMadKraken2297

[Jetpackmaniac]

On 4/14/2018 at 8:30 AM, TheMadKraken2297 said:

but the lift force tore off the wings.... I had unbreakable joints on.

No crash damage will not protect your vessel at high speeds. I’ve had stuff hit the water and have nothing left, even though I had both no crash damage and unbreakable joints on. 

[SpacePigeon]

Not paying attention while docking and crashing into the station that I was trying to dock to.

Yes, I fly my spacecraft at higher than recommended speeds, about everywhere.

 

[GrouchyDevotee]

In Career mode, I launched 2 expensive probes each with; a lander, and a detachable relay satellite to Duna... I didn't include ANY relay antennas.

I have also forgotten to switch to Sandbox to test out build ideas a few times now, very costly.

[53miner53]

Launched a shuttle with a reusable kermanned booster... but I forgot to check the CoL/CoM after extending it for more fuel, so way too stable. Barely made it on the runway, where I crashed it... with the cockpit surviving. As a side note, FMRS doesn’t like it if you crashland something with only the root part intact, so I had to try again. Decided the water was a better landing spot that time!

Edit: facepalmed about the design flaw

Edited April 16, 2018 by 53miner53

[Jetpackmaniac]

I tried to land a rover on a mountain on Duna. Unfortunately the summit was over 5000 meters, the maximum deploy altitude of the parachutes I was using. Stupidity induced quick loading.

[Geonovast]

20 minutes ago, a_space_oddity said:

I tried to land a rover on a mountain on Duna. Unfortunately the summit was over 5000 meters, the maximum deploy altitude of the parachutes I was using.

Parachutes altitude is based off of terrain, not sea level.  Something else cause them not to deploy.  Either pressure or a bug.

[MaverickSawyer]

No doubt pressure, at that altitude on Duna.

[W. Kerman]

*Accepted nice looking ‘go here’ contract by KSC*

Realized that it was actually on the opposite  side of Kerbin.

Facepalm.

 

[53miner53]

Designed a new rover for playing around on Eve, but didn’t include an antenna. *facepalm* Sent a few relays to near Eve space to set up for the orbital insertion (mainly planning and fine tuning, luckily comnet settings allow partial control). Realized I forgot a decoupler for the final stage, so a lot closer on fuel than I thought, especially after a test to see if ion engines can cause explosive decoupling (they can’t). *facepalm 2* At least I thought about correcting it for the craft file so I won’t forget.

[Bill Phil]

Once I had to return Jeb from the Mun. He got stuck in kerbin orbit with no jetpack fuel... that rescue was hair-splitting...

[suicidejunkie]

After a very classic mining rig-with-no-radiators goof, Val was sent with some spare parts for the local engineers to bolt on.

She's in low Munar orbit, with roughly 550m/s in the tank.  Rather than wasting time docking for more fuel at the orbital station, the thought occurs that she's landing at a mining rig, and might as well fuel up on the surface.

All of the 550m/s is needed to cancel the orbital speed, but the difference between surface and orbital speed should surely cover the extra for descent if it is a well done suicide burn, right?

 

Many of you, unlike me at the time, will instantly remember that the tidally locked Mun's surface velocity is only a couple m/s... Thus, despite a perfect suicide burn, this left her about 30m/s short at the surface.

 

The craft was decimated in the non-traditional sense, leaving only the mk1 capsule, a docking port, and two loose landing legs scattered a couple hundred meters from the mining rig.

[Kernel Kraken]

During my massive- wing cargo plane project from earlier that was in no way a disguised BDAc Gunship, another weird thing happened due to lift. I had too much, so I got some unbreakable plane mods. This worked well until the lift pulled the plane off the runway into an uncontrollable tumble. By pulled the plane off the runway, it was like strait up hovering up because of the rediculous lift force. I deleted the craft file in disgust and proceeded to slam my face into my desk white plastic folding table.

Edited April 18, 2018 by Kernel Kraken

[Mark Kerbin]

I may have kinda sorta de orbited the wrong space station.....