Single stage to Laythe and back three times, unrefueled

[camacju]

This is a mission I have been thinking about for a long time, but I haven't gotten around to actually flying it until recently.  Flying from Kerbin's surface to Laythe's surface and back three times is at the very edge of what a liquid fuel only SSTO craft can accomplish. Consequently, this is the first mission I've flown that required close to optimal piloting, and a lot of quicksaves and reloads.

I use no ISRU, no docking or refueling, no part detachment shenanigans. This is a purist single stage craft that I fly as far as it can go. I don't use ion engines either, because I don't like ions - they're a hassle to work with. If I were to use ions, I might possibly be able to do a fourth landing, but I'm not willing to try it.

Note that the Laythe Star is not quite at the peak performance of a liquid fuel craft. I've had better performance with three Rapiers and two Nervs for a 105 ton plane. However, the part count means that landings and takeoffs have to be done at quite a low frame rate, and vacuum TWR will be lower, requiring more periapsis kicks. In other words, it would be a lot less fun to fly, and the plane as-is can pull off the mission.

Stats of the mission:
The craft is composed of a Rapier and a Nerv, as well as six strakes, which I've arranged into a star shape purely for aesthetics purposes. Almost all of the rest of its 39 ton mass is Mk0 fuel tanks.
In this mission, I perform 49 gravity assists, which is more than I've ever done before in a single mission. The bodies used were: Mun x15, Kerbin x13, Eve x7, Tylo x7, Laythe x6, Minmus x1. The Minmus assist was to prove that a Kerbin-Mun-Mun-Minmus-Mun-Kerbin-Mun-Eve route was viable in a real mission rather than just a proof of concept.

All gravity assists and burns over 1 m/s are shown in the video.