Orbital Achievement Thread

[Johno]

So this is a thread for those who'd like to brag about their achievements. Some of you got into orbit on your first go. Others took days or weeks to get there. Either way, let the record show what has happened!

As the game expands, we'll add other records. Right now we can simply state the date and altitude of the first successful orbit.

So:

Johno's KSP achieved Kearth Orbit for the first time on Sat 16th July 2011 at or around 1:40PM.

Approximate altitude: 300-310km.

Booster: Delta IVb

The capsule splashed down into the great Kerbific ocean at 2:28PM. At the time of splashdown the three Kerbonauts (Bob, Bill and Jeb Kerman) were unharmed. Representatives of the Royal Kerbonese Navy believe that there is some chance of locating the capsule within a month.

[Entropy]

Entropy's KSP achieved a heavily erratic but stable orbit around Kearth at around 9 PM 7/14/2011. Two large solid-fuel rockets achieved liftoff and a large liquid-fueled rocket engine achieved and maintained orbit. Unfortunately, due to budget constraints, the ship was launched without a de-orbiting module and as such remains in orbit around Kearth, likely indefinitely. Funeral services will be held on the 17th, accompanied by either the launch of the new Kearth Orbiter or a spectacular fireworks display.

[Sinprex]

First near perfect orbit launched about an hour ago. The ship has been sitting between 385260 and 385200 km above sea level at a speed of exactly 1893.3 for the past 45 min or so. Possibly have enough fuel to return to surface, ground crew refused to comment, Jeb refused to stop smiling.

Edit: Made it out of orbit, sadly due to some kind of bug the capsule was destroyed on landing T_T All three were smiling at time of death, they will be remembered as the bravest of Kerbos

[Scorch]

My best Orbit has to be a LEO at 33km perikee to 35km apokee. It was achieved with a very simple 3 stage rocket. I almost fell back to Kearth on the first orbit, at perikee I started to hit the atmosphere and had to drag myself back up a little bit, luckily with a full tank I was able to mess around for a bit then fly back down to Kearth on my 5th pass over the Space facility's launch pad.

Basically I was trying to get the lowest orbit possible so that I could see if it would maintain itself. I didn't have the patience to go for another few orbits though.

[Angelerator]

I read other people's orbits and it seems like they have their ship all the way out to 300k meters. I got my ship going in like, an oval around Kearth going between 100k and 180k meters. It was my first orbit, and I had ran out of fuel. Of course Jebediah is oblivious to the helpless situation.

[Jouzu]

My first circumnavigation of Kearth, deorbit and powered ascent with parachute for landing stability. I was using Sunday Punch's parts (two KSP30 boosters) and everything else stock, was a great feeling.

Pic of the landing site, the engine disintegrated on contact (was doing 6-7m/s) :-[

[Galactic Nexus]

The Galactic Nexus Kerbal Space Program achieved it's first rudimentary orbit on 14/7/11. Unfortunately due to a heavily unstable orbit, the 3 brave Kerbals were lost deep in space after their 3rd orbit resulted in a slingshot and achieved escape velocity. RIP.

The first stable orbit was performed on 15/7/11 at ~140,000m.

[dodgyman]

My first orbit was earlier today between 42km and 54km.

It ended with a vielent explosion as the capsule collided with water at 12m/s.

Currently working on an orbit using a rocket which consists only of standard parts.

Current apogee: 53155m

Current perigee: 52443m

Still tweaking the orbit but im almost out of fuel but hoping to get the apogee and perigee within 100m of each other.

EDIT: Managed a near circular orbit on a different rocket.

Apogee: 47,227m

perigee: 47,213m

It's interesting to note that the altimeter is in the command thing, so flipping the rocket over changes the altitude and can make it hard to judge apogee/perigee

[Jebediah Kerman Husbando]

I started messing around with orbits last night and had a bawlin' time.

I modded the liquid fuel engine so I could see how stable an orbit I could possibly get, and I managed to be at 40k with apogee and perigee difference of around 300m.

I also really like orbiting as low as possible, atleast so the game renders the ground. Shit's cool man.

[Aralonia]

I'd post screenshots if I were at home right now (currently being a bum at an Apple store), but my computer is currently simulating probably the 17th hour of an orbital hold between 923 and 925 kilometers. Circularity was 99.91% last I checked.

It was stable at hour 13, at least.

I've also gotten stable orbits at 189-190km (99.81% or something) and something in the 490s, I forget which.

Circles are fun.

[teleets]

First attempt I basically flung Bill, Jeb and Bob out into space.

Second attempt was haphazard at around 300km, wasn't really a stable orbit.

Finally achieved orbit this 19th day of July 2011. Apogee is 144.9 km, honestly the perigee is unobserved (but mission time T+02:21:31 and i know that there is a perigee).

Huge shoutout to the Orbital velocity thread: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=647.0

[Shakermaker]

I finally joined the sunset club.

It was my first and only orbit. It was janky as hell and Bob, Bill and Jeb were regretfully killed during the landing, but it felt good nonetheless.

[Panichio]

Edit: Made it out of orbit, sadly due to some kind of bug the capsule was destroyed on landing T_T All three were smiling at time of death, they will be remembered as the bravest of Kerbos

Same thing happened to me. Why does the command capsule explode when it lands?

[McLuv]

Same thing happened to me. Why does the command capsule explode when it lands?

On the dark side of Kerbal, or when you're more than 90 dergees of either latitude or longitude away from KSC, there's a bug where everyone dies when you touch the ground.

[cjameshuff]

Second attempt was haphazard at around 300km, wasn't really a stable orbit.

In KSP as it is now, without other gravitating bodies or other influences such as radiation pressure, any orbit that doesn't touch atmosphere. Your orbit doesn't need to be circular to be stable. (Extremely eccentric elliptical ones can be more sensitive to error from the physics model itself, but should still be reasonably stable.)

[Assassin2]

I have made an orbit but I was trying to get back to the surface during the larger part of my orbit. My vertical velocity was in the negatives for a while so I knew I was going down, but suddenly it went back up to 0 and slowly increased. I then realized that I had sling-shotted around the planet and am currently leaving the atmosphere at a rate of about 2000m/s. I have been running it for about half an hour and it has just gotten to the 900km mark.

[Samo]

I finally achieved my first stable orbit. After almost 19 hours my altitude is varying from 100k to 103k.

[KSP orbiter]

First verified orbit achieved yesterday with initial apogee of 246963, perigee of 66444m, and speeds varying between 1916m/s and 2435m/s.

KSC believes it was decaying as perigee dropped about 20m between the first and second orbits, but decided to bring the boys back anyway. Safe landing within sight of the VAB!

Next goal is a stable orbit, circular orbit, or better yet both.

[juicest]

After watching illectro's video for pointers on how to easily enter and adjust an orbit, popping open the orbital speed chart, and a little mid-flight Wikipedia surfing, I managed a few orbits at 144.4km Apo to 143.9km Peri, staying within 1-2m/s of 2178m/s. Aimed for the KSC as a landing zone but waited way too long to do my reentry burn and lost sight of it over the horizon at 15km altitude, headed for the middle of the ocean.

Sort of takes on a zen garden, bonsai tree thing when you get into it.

Also, Assassin2: Were you aiming directly at the surface of the planet when you tried to come back, or in the opposite of your direction of travel?

[Coldie]

So far my brave Kerbals have been in flight for 37 minutes, after being launched from the ISV Coldie Mk. IV.

Notable events include (so far):

An extremely bumpy liftoff. Without interference from my brave Kerbonauts Bill and Bob (Jeb didn't do anything), the ship would have never made it outside space.

The orbit went successful until...

Jeb accidentally jettisoned the reserve adjusting fuel while searching for his sunglasses.

Fortunately, a solid-rocket final reentry burner had been installed, so they still have a chance of getting back.

More news on the orbit soon.

[One Winged Angel]

I think I got really lucky, I achieved orbit on my first go. What makes it special for me, was that I wasn't even aiming to get into a stable orbit, I was just screwing around with a single HKM liquid engine, just seeing how fast a single engine at full throttle could go. At about 50km up, I nosed over to horizontal, and decided to go for orbit. I ended up leveling off at 125km, doing about 3400 m/s. I turned my ship around, hit the gas, and backed the speed down to the 2210 m/s dictated for stable orbit at that altitude. It's since stabilized at 2206 m/s at an altitude between 124665m and 125245m, and I have a 10th of a tank to knock myself out of orbit.

Sunrise baby!

I think I'll let this run overnight, and try to de-orbit in the morning. Which is better, pointing at the planet, opposite your direction, or somewhere in between?

[Coldie]

Personally, I always tried to go straight down. But that's just intuition, and probably wrong.

My orbit just went crazy.

I'm at 875k, and still heading up. My speed has since decreased to 1300 m/s.

This has happened before. What am I doing wrong?

My basic strategy is to have a main rocket that just shoots me straight up. Once that rocket runs out of fuel, I jettison my orbiter, turn torwards the horizon, and fire until I get to a speed according to my altitude, based on the orbital calculator.

[One Winged Angel]

Do you still have any vertical velocity? If so, that could be your issue, you're flying sideways while still flying upwards. You could also be in an eccentric orbit, or you could just be flying through space in a stable, nearly circular orbit and don't know it. I didn't suspect I was actually in a stable orbit till I noticed I was at the same altitude two hours later.

[Sagan]

Been able to maintain several orbits today, the longest of which lasted just over an hour. Attempting a semi-eccentric orbit tonight at an altitude of 42.5 km, I have much confidence in the Kerman's to succeed!

[One Winged Angel]

Killed off my previous orbit after 5 hours. At the altitude I was at, the orbital velocity table said my orbit time was 34 minutes, so I completed just shy of 6 full orbits (though I passed over the launch pad 6 times). I've just achieved my second orbit at just under half of my first orbit altitude, 62km @ 2309m/s. Apogee looks to be 62205 and perigee looks to be 62050, much more stable than the previous one. I used the HKM engine with one of the black hole tanks, with 3 detachable SRBs to get me off the ground.

Sunset baby!