First Manned Duna Mission ... with return to Kerbin

[Chrisd857]

I finally managed a full manned mission to Duna, with Bob and Jebediah making the journey. I had a lander and a drive section, assembled in orbit. Unfortunately, the last few meters of several thousand is the worst, and this is how I landed:

Album

I tried to right myself; I'm not sure it helped...

[Curs0r]

Any landing that you can walk away after...

[DaRocketCat]

Any landing that you can walk away after...

is considered successful in KSP!

[bbwonder]

Ha ha, very cool, and so familiar!

I checked out your imgur album, great set of photo's too.

[thes50]

Nice album, I guess not every landing can have a safe ending.

[The Jedi Master]

I like how Bob and Jeb are just like "wat this is normal".

[thes50]

I like how Bob and Jeb are just like "wat this is normal".

Well this is KSP. They get plenty of practise.

[NeoMorph]

I think the best landings are the eventful ones. I get disappointed when I do a perfect landing... is that bad?

I remember one moon landing that was epic (sooooo wished I had recorded it). I landed hard on the legs, bounced, flipped right over, caught it again, bounced... did that about TWELVE times before I managed to land it again. Crew cheers and does an EVA.... walk around and then get back into the lander.

So now it's time to head back to orbit and dock with the return stage. I hit the button to detach the upper stage of the lander for the trip to orbit (like the Apollo LEM) and THE DAMNED THING JUST BLEW TO KINGDOM COME. Bit's flying off everywhere... and when everything settled, there was the crew module sat on the surface of the Mun with Jeb, Bill and Bob with their jaws hanging to their knees with a classic "WTF JUST HAPPENED?" look.

I couldn't stop laughing for about 15 minutes... When I would stop I would just look at Jeb looking around the capsule as if to say "OK, NOW what?" and start laughing all over again.

I'm guessing that the repeated flips and bounces had stressed the rest of the vehicle until it was JUST about to self destruct and firing the release bolts was the feather that broke the camel's back.

[Master_Cheez]

Haha, I have noticed the flights that start out bad always end out good. Why?...