Bad Part Linkage

[Display Name]

I have an issue where one of the items on my ship is apparently crashing into the ground (according to the log) 25 seconds after a successful liftoff.  The ship immediately is subjected to thousands of gs and explodes, as if a structural part abruptly decelerated to zero.  I found the part that's causing the bug, but when I delete it, I get the message "Part 4290288842 is Missing" when I go to launch, or load a variant of the craft without it.  Note the part in question is a Modular Girder Adapter, and it's one of three on the craft (I can delete the other two without issue), it's not giving me the error when the part is on the craft, it's giving me the error when it's not (so it's not an issue of the part not being in the game folders).  I'm guessing it's one of those cases where a part has 'attached' to the craft but isn't actually attached, and it's somehow about 2000 feet below the craft, and it's hitting the 'bottom' of the ground on the way up.  When the Modular Girder Adapter is removed, perhaps the game can't find the link between the craft and this phantom part.  Anyone else come across this or know of any way to 'clean up' a save file?

No mods, current version.

I think I've posted this in the wrong area, but I don't know how to move it or delete it, and I don't want to be spamming it all over the place.

Edited March 13, 2020 by Display Name
I'm new and I wanted to add that last line.

[Geonovast]

19 hours ago, Display Name said:

I think I've posted this in the wrong area, but I don't know how to move it or delete it, and I don't want to be spamming it all over the place.

No worries.  You can't delete or move your posts, but we can do it for you.  If you ever think a post (yours or even someone else's) should be moved, just use the 'Report Post' button at the top right of the post and let us know it needs to be moved.

I've moved your issued to our unmodded tech support forum.  Good luck and welcome aboard, @Display Name!

[Display Name]

Cheers, thankya!

[OHara]

On 3/12/2020 at 10:39 PM, Display Name said:

I found the part that's causing the bug, but when I delete it, I get the message "Part 4290288842 is Missing" when I go to launch, or load a variant of the craft without it. 

It sounds like you might mean that you edited the text in the *.craft file to remove the troublesome part; if so, yes, it is very tricky to clean up all references to that removed part.  

I think the most reasonable solution is the rebuild the craft, or the troublesome part of the craft, in the VAB editor.

[Display Name]

I didn't edit it in the file, no.  I've looked into editing them before, but it confused the heck out of me.

[jimmymcgoochie]

It sounds like you have a corrupted craft file, it's rare but it happens and others have also reported rockets that spontaneously explode when they reach a specific altitude. The only way to fix it is to delete that craft and rebuild it from scratch, unfortunately.

[RoninFrog]

13 hours ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

It sounds like you have a corrupted craft file, it's rare but it happens and others have also reported rockets that spontaneously explode when they reach a specific altitude. The only way to fix it is to delete that craft and rebuild it from scratch, unfortunately.

Oh no.

*Dreadful feeling in stomach*

*Goes and checks KSP saves*

Phew, all my craft are still good!