The J. Kerman Prize

[Jeb KerBoom]

Welcome, contestants of the J. Kerman prize! Jebediah himself challenges you to build a suborbital spacecraft, launch it to at least 69,078 m, and then manually return it safely to the ground. Reasonable mods allowed*

Can be carried up on a "mothership" to altitude, where it launches off. The mothership must parachute back, and use only atmospheric engines.

*Example-DRobotics, DAerospace, NovaPunch

[Giggleplex777]

Impossible, plus, there is already a thread similar to this.

[bsalis]

Ignoring the "mothership", which seems optional.

Is this not just the K-Prize but without the orbit?

People have also been building and testing craft for other planets by landing on Kerbin and ascending again. It's all very possible.

[TheHengeProphet]

I am quite sure that several of my failed K-Prize craft are quite capable of this challenge, and none of them require a "mothership", or utilise the fuel bug.

[MaverickSawyer]

Let's see... does a parachute count as reusable?

[L99thebeaver]

I got to 5,477,000+ with my MOLD X(Roman 10, not X) and parachuted down safely into the water

[Boex]

He said 'can' be carried up on a mothership, meaning it's not required, and he says nothing about the suborbital craft having air breathing engines, so just build a rocket capable of going straight up to space, and back down on a parachute...I don't think this challenge was very well thought through...

Edited September 8, 2012 by Boex

[Whatshtisthis]

In other words, just get a rocket out of the atmosphere, decouple the pod and let it parachute down?

[Mr_Brain]

It says you should manually get back, so maybe he meant a powered landing on Kerbin (of course without MechJeb)? He only said that the mothership would have to be parachuted.

[Jeb KerBoom]

Parachutes count as manual.

[Bluejayek]

There doesn't seem to be anything that says this has to be reusable.. So I can just launch a normal rocket to 69000m, and then decouple the pod and parachute down.

[MaverickSawyer]

No, I think you need to reuse EVERYTHING, i.e. no ditching the spent rocket. Just add another parachute, and you should be fine, or add more fuel and do a last-minute engine fire to kill some velocity.