What did you do in KSP1 today?

[CatastrophicFailure]

Having finally unlocked the full tech tree on my 0.25 save I designed a new launcher for hauling stuff into LKO and specifically to my station. Nothing exceptional, it can lift up to 30 tons to the station (150km altitude) without issues, and could probably lift 40 tons into a 75km orbit. What's nice about it is it doesn't have too many parts and stages, making it convenient to use. I use it to bring the second power module up to my station here (procedural fairings, realchutes):

It was mostly to practise direct launch-to-station rendezvous. Oh, and I also put a rover on Duna, but I landed it kilometres away from where I wanted to and accidentally flipped it over while roving, so, big fail

FYI: Procedural Fairings has a built-in payload strut system (no, they're not visible). It's in one of the right-click menus but defaults to on. Attaching regular struts to fairings rather than the base can cause weirdness. If your fairings aren't going anywhere when you jettison them, this is why.

That's NICE! Really well done. But I got two questions, if I may:

Did you set an autopilot pointing always prograde?

What's that UFO at the very end? Is that an asteroid?

Keep up the great work!

-Edit-

I just noticed the second quote was you again, CatastrophicFailure. Woo.

Yeah, I always use MechJeb to keep my low-orbit stations oriented, just like the real thing. Me, personally, I don't like things drifting about willy-nilly without a reason. I like an identifiable "top, bottom, front, & back." LOL that "UFO" is the Mün. I'm using the Better Atmospheres pack and it makes all the bodies much brighter, but is a bit wonkie in 6.4x

[Bacterius]

FYI: Procedural Fairings has a built-in payload strut system (no, they're not visible). It's in one of the right-click menus but defaults to on. Attaching regular struts to fairings rather than the base can cause weirdness. If your fairings aren't going anywhere when you jettison them, this is why.

Ah, good to know, thanks!

[Janos1986]

I...

played. Just played. Started a new career, no mods, just normal mode. And then I played.

It was awesome.

Best way ever to deal with KSP IMHO.

[Theoderich]

I played some more career, and those survey contracts really give a reason to build planes. Something I always feared, but in stock air it isn't that bad.

Here is my fist survey plane after my first survey contract. Can't go too far if it wants to come back, and has no landing gear (not unlocked yet ) and shouldn't go too high ( getting the second survey was tricky, above 19km the engine does not get enough air with just one intake). But it flies fine and one can land it pretty good if flying in low and slow and then deploying the chutes for the last meters. My next goal is getting landing gear, so that those contracts that require landings get easier.

In theory this plane could do them by landing on the tail and then lifting off again like a rocket, it got the TWR, but that is probably beyond my piloting skills.

Edited December 16, 2014 by Theoderich

[Fizwalker]

Ah, good to know, thanks!

His info is false. The INTERSTAGE has struts, the FAIRINGS do NOT (I am looking at my payload sagging out to one side of my procedural fairing as I type this. )

Edit: don`t know the effects of strutting the fairing shell tho.

[MartGonzo]

Today I repeated a really long flight that I messed up yesterday.

I took a couple of fine print contracts (still in 0.25 waiting for mod updates) for aerial recon without realising they were both on directly the other side of the planet.

....so several hours later flying back to KSC I got a little high and fast and burnt off my front landing gear

the landing was.. not successful.

so today I did it again being careful not to burn anything off in the upper atmosphere.

nice partial eclipse in the second shot.

Edited December 16, 2014 by MartGonzo

[Lt.Havoc]

Well, I got that stock satellite in orbit, but I had to rebuild the delivery system for it, because the stock rocket was well, not sufficient for it. The orbit is a bit wonky but I will try to get something else up there soon.

[Xacktar]

Started a new 0.90 game. All I can say is WOW. Such a huge change in feel and a lot more challenge in the early game. Survey missions are particularly fun/hard, especially before you get plane parts. Doing all of the early stuff with no maneuver nodes was new to me, but it turns out I'm not too bad at eyeballing it. At the moment, I'm building up some cash by rescuing stranded kerbals with the Hourglass 1.

[capi3101]

Well, I got that stock satellite in orbit, but I had to rebuild the delivery system for it, because the stock rocket was well, not sufficient for it. The orbit is a bit wonky but I will try to get something else up there soon.

Most of the stock stuff sucks on purpose; you should feel free to redesign as you wish. The KSP gods demand as much...

[CalculusWarrior]

I've been loving the new editor gizmos and are making good use of them to build a stock space shuttle! Well, it's more of a stock Buran, given that the main engines are on the lifer stack.

[TokiTech]

Pretty much only done recreate all 0.25 SSTO spaceplanes in 0.90 today. I'm thinking about screenshot and categorize all pre-0.90 craft designs and use for reference access/idea. Some designs don't even have any specific use for now, until official multiplayer is out (i know there's DMP).

Edited December 16, 2014 by TokiTech

[Norpo]

Messed with Blender and Unity all day to try to get a wooden block fuel tank into KSP.

AND IT WORKED!

..sort of, the green node points were all off, but I can fix that with cfg editing, the hard part of 3D modelling, UV mapping and all that jazz is DONE.

DONE!

Just gotta mess with cfgs and it'll be an actual part

edit: holy crud this thread has a million views

Edited December 16, 2014 by Norpo

[electronicfox]

I got the the Mun and landed before unlocking patched conics. Then returned safely.

It felt rather good.

[monophonic]

Downloaded 0.90, extracted part details to my dV spreadsheet and noticed something interesting. So I decided to mess about. This is my very first flight of my very first rocket in KSP Beta! Only I forgot to grab those couple of contracts for extra science... (Also I forgot to grab those more scenic screenshots, I fly from map view mostly.)

Javascript is disabled. View full album

TL;DR

Starting tech SSTO rocket, with enough fuel left to return to Kerbin. Weighs in at 17.9 tons which is just under the 18 ton limit of the starting launch pad. I emptied the monoprop from the command pod but that was not necessary.

[Theoderich]

I flew some more surveys for money and a bit of science, unlocked wheels, landed on the runway after a flight halfway to the south pole. Which is a first to me, never did do much with planes, so I really need to work on my landing skills.

And then I took a rescue mission, forgetting that I still had the basic tracking station..well. I got my orbit pretty close.. but so far I didn't get my ship closer then 5.8km to the target.

I mean..I could do without maneuver nodes, and even without close distance to target indicators...but I can't even set the poor soul as a target to see relative velocity

Will try again tomorrow.

[Cotux]

Got my very first SSTO into orbit and back.. in one piece!

[urbansys]

Started a new 0.90 game. All I can say is WOW. Such a huge change in feel and a lot more challenge in the early game. Survey missions are particularly fun/hard, especially before you get plane parts. Doing all of the early stuff with no maneuver nodes was new to me, but it turns out I'm not too bad at eyeballing it. At the moment, I'm building up some cash by rescuing stranded kerbals with the Hourglass 1.

http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/26224536575459079/BA5ACF8CDC7C33CC474ECA9CC59B7A5A16DF340D/

What does your launcher looks like for this setup?

[Camacha]

http://imgur.com/a/9ITUs

That thing looks an awful lot like the SSTO I built a long time ago. Different scale, same idea.

Coincidentally I built another useless SSTO today.

[Hodo]

Lets see today I updated and backed up my .25 install. Glad I backed it up, because .90 is horrible for me right now without a few mods. But I am patient and I will continue to play .25 for the next month while everything gets updated.

[Jouni]

I experimented with my ideas for interplanetary ships and launch vehicles built around Mk3 fuselages. The fuel tanks are huge for their capacities, but their mass ratios are better than anything we had before.

Maybe I should build a giant triple-hull interplanetary ship next.

[annallia]

I updated.... Was going to do it last night but by the time I noticed the update was out it was 1am here and while I was debating update or sleep my net went out and solved the problem for me...

[NecroBones]

Bigger SRBs for shuttle-goodness.

[cantab]

Built an ion glider

Like most of my planes it's not great. Liftoff is touchy, I need to be careful not to shoot up them slam back down. Level flight is no problem, maintaining around 160 knots (80 m/s), but turning requires real work to maintain co-ordination, inattention will easily result in a spin.

Nonetheless, I'm flying it through the pass in the western mountains now.

Also, checked out your parts NecroBones. Some really great stuff there, and will have a place in my career.

[monophonic]

That thing looks an awful lot like the SSTO I built a long time ago. Different scale, same idea.

https://secure.tweakers.net/ext/f/LIaH69Q3dFv2PPF96p5ykqgo/full.png?nohitcount=1

Coincidentally I built another useless SSTO today.

http://tweakers.net/ext/f/JKfoOQcv03H0wKFdw9HxG5sZ/full.png

Those look really nice. Nothing that looks nice is useless in my opinion. I was mainly amazed that I could actually build a SSTO with zero-level tech and the fact that I did manage to fly it to orbit. I'm still thinking about starting a "serious" save and take the start slow. Do all of those altitude record contracts in turn and so on.

[Speijker]

The new 0.90 is hard enough to force me to try new things; never needed money before to get to the Mün and land (orbit was achieved (return was sticky)), but I need a bigger assembly hall.

So, survey missions all around, and learning to build planes along the way: did get a nice picture of the Mün with some mountains.

Survey at 19 km, and made it back to the runway for full recovery.