KSP "Facepalm" Moments

[EvilotionCR2]

When I was updating to a newer Kethane version,and then,when I loaded my MPS Nautilus it said that I miss some parts (they were renamed).

[Sparker]

Ran out of kethane while refueling my huge ship to get kerbals into orbit of Eve. So I had to cheat and edit the .cfg file a little.

[UH60guy]

I had only been playing KSP for a week and I figured I'd build my first space station. I built a module, added docking ports, and launched it into a 150 km orbit. I then launched another identical one and worked out the rendezvous. This is still before I ever tried any mods such as MechJeb, so it was a proud moment when I got them close for my first ever rendezvous in space. Even prouder when I got the docking ports aligned, and...

*bump*

hmm, shouldn't this couple? Do I have to magnetize the ports?

*bump*

*bump*

*bump*

I sent Jeb out for an EVA inspection. He noticed the docking ports on both identical modules were installed backwards. Furthermore, this was a space station- he had no return vehicle, and no way for a return vehicle to dock to bring him home. (I did eventually rescue with a near-rendezvous and an EVA though)

Edited August 29, 2013 by UH60guy

[LameLefty]

... it was a proud moment when I got them close for my first ever rendezvous in space. Even prouder when I got the docking ports aligned, and...

*bump*

hmm, shouldn't this couple? Do I have to magnetize the ports?

*bump*

*bump*

*bump*

That reminds me of my first major face palm. See below and spot the problem:

Yes, the small ship has a Clamp-O-Tron Jr. The larger one has a shielded but otherwise regular-sized Clamp-O-Tron. D'oh!!!

[Nerfherde]

When you are going to land on the mun and notice you forget the landing legs...

[Brapness]

Once launched from the surface of Duna to dock with the command module and burn for home. Lander had only just enough fuel to make orbit, once I got to orbit I started to organize a rendezvous. As we drew closer I noticed that the command module was in a retrograde orbit with a relative velocity something like 3km/s. Had to waste the command module's fuel changing to a prograde orbit, and then wait for a refueller to be sent from Kerbin.

[Alexander_Kerbing]

That moment when you realize you forgot fuel lines...

I've been trying to make a ferry for a Mun base so that I can send crew to my base without having to launch a lander from Kerbin. The first iteration, I used inefficient engines and didn't pack enough fuel. The second time, I thought I got it right. Get in orbit around the mun, rendezvous with the old ferry, release the new ferry from my ship, and dock the new ferry to the old ferry. Realized then that I forgot to transfer fuel into the tanks of my new ferry. So I went back to dock with the transport ship, and I realized half-way there that the engines weren't drawing fuel from the main fuel tank. My old ferry was out of fuel and still needed to be de-orbited so then I had to go back and re-dock with the old ferry which proved to be more of a pain in the ass than the first time. I think I'm about to just scrap the whole Mun base plans and bring all my Kerbals home

[Jaxx Blackfox]

First Manned mission to Eve...

Spent several days designing a Space Plane that could land and take off from Eve, once satisfied with the results I send the ship there taking my time to land perfectly so that nothing falls off and once I come to a complete stop, YEAH! Celebration time, But first need to plant the flag! Exit cockpit and..... forgot the latter. No worries though I can fix that! Lower landing gear let plane tip slightly to the side and Kerbian on Eve! Plant flag, take a leak and admire the purple then back to the Plane, where I find that Kerbian's suck at jumping and the later was just out of reach $%! 20 minutes of button smashing and SUCCESS! Kerbian in a space plane! Go to raise landing gear and.......plane snaps in half......well &%$#. Alright, time for a rescue mission! Back at the space center I start thinking regular landers are boring I want one that looks like a giant spider mech. So I design a giant multipurpose lander and used structural wings for the legs. It gets into space great and makes it to Eve just as planed, Mech Jeb an exact landing at crash site and promptly remember that Eve has an atmosphere and the wind passing over my structural wing spider legs made the ship point straight done with no hope of recovery and smash into the surface of the planet not 300 meters from the other ship. *$%^#@$#%@$! Two stranded Kerbals on Eve to this day. I do have high hopes about my new Battle-Cruiser rescuing them from low Eve Orbit using a beaming laser, but we shall see.

[shoveycat]

*Finishing transfer burn to Eeloo for a space probe and im switching to Ion Power*

*space*

*space space*

*space*

*looks at back of probe, sees no engine*

"F**** this S*****"

Ragequit

[Merinsan]

Sent a huge mission to Duna. The ship had a space station core, 4 satellites and 4 rovers.

Deploy all the satellites in orbits I like - 2 polar at 90 degree angles, one equatorial and another 45 degrees to the equator.

Get into a nice circular orbit in preparation for rover deployment.

Send the first one down, with a 12km periapsis. It gets down to 8km and I deploy its parachute. It's still going at about 300m/s and I start to worry.

A few seconds later, the chute rips off and the rover proceeds to smash into the ground.

My conclusion - these 4 rovers are never going to be able to land. And this was the primary mission objective!

[KerbMav]

these 4 rovers are never going to be able to land. And this was the primary mission objective!

Maybe sent them more hardware, three lander cranes - if they do not have docking ports, you can use KAS.

[el_coyoto]

"Wait, landing gears have lights on them? This is going to make night landings soooo much easier..."

[nimbim]

I planned a Lander+Carrier mission to Vall, Bop and Pol. Only the lander had a NERVA, the carrier RCS fuel to dock again. After having landed everywhere I would return by undocking the 3man capsule from the carrier and docking it with the lander, thus making only the return part a bit inefficient, since the lander had the 2man lander can attached. I got into orbit of Vall, only to undock in a highly eccentric orbit, which I usually do to set up an easy rendezvous afterwards. However, the Carrier didn't have the engine, so rendezvous was impossible.

I killed every Kerbal involved to remove the evidence.

Edited August 30, 2013 by nimbim

[hugix]

Forgetting parachutes.

Again.

Noticed during Re entry...

[dr_jt]

The other night I tried to launch another part of my Minmus base and the rocket took a hard right at launch and crashed. I had used the same launcher for the other parts so I knew it worked. I rebuilt the launcher many times and they all took a hard right to a crash. I built a very simple rocket of capsule, tank and engine. It also took a hard right and crashed. I started to remove mods and still crashed. Then I saw the problem which was sitting in front of me the whole time. The night before I had hooked up an old game pad to use for docking and EVA. After about 3 hours of head banging and rebuilding I unplugged the game pad and my rockets flew fine.

[dr_jt]

I always forget power and run out. Once I ran out about a meter form the port I was trying to dock with. Another I killed off three Kerbals because I ran out during reentry. Many other times I've run out halfway through a transfer burn. Many a Kerbal has died because I forgot to add power to a ship.

[zekes]

I was hovering over the streets of Kerb City and tried to sideslip under the freeway.... whoops.

[I_do_robots]

Using a heavy lifter I have already used 2 x successfully, except I changed out the RT-800s for more mainsails instead...Great lift, Real time is around midnight with work in the early morning fast approaching...Get to around 16000 meters and decide to do a short hard burn (80% or so) just to get m/sec up....Panel's all green, target is good, clean straight line, fuel looks concerning, but getting better as atmosphere thins...Nice time for a controlled burn to speed up a little and help the rest of the fuel last to stable orbit altitude...All of a sudden (No overheats or anything) as soon as I reach 80%, Bang, something around 3/4 of the way up the stack explodes and starts a chain reaction back down to the clustered mainsail tanks....owww....What a EPIC FAIL...So depressing...What did my Kerby freakin' TOUCH!

Think voice and line of the Russian cosmonaut in Armageddon, where they stop at his station to refuel (Noting the scary parallel to my situation, since I was bringing up a station add on assembly) "I tell them...TOUCH NOTHING...But they're a bunch of cowboys!"

Wow...I didn't even take the time to look what went wrong...Still thinking work in close AM...I just "Really leave?" reluctant click on "YES" exited the game...I'll check it all out in the VAB this evening.

I don't give up easily but WOW does that take the wind out of your sails or what?

Edited August 30, 2013 by I_do_robots

[Kerbart]

Well, I just had mine...

I'm anal retentitive at launch time. So when I'm desiging a rocket I always make sure the exhausts of the bottom stages are as close to the ground as possible.

I also like to put my support tower as close to the top as possible. After all, that's the best place to keep your tower from toppling over.

Lesson learned: the support tower not only supports horizontally, but vertically as well. That seperation module at the top couldn't hold the weight of the entire rocket and broke loose. But as the rocket was so close to the ground I never noticed that. I just couldn't figure out why my engines wouldn't ignite...

[kodemunkey]

Attempted to insert an ion powered probe into an orbit of the Mun, ended up in an inclined orbit that when "over Kerbin", "under Jool" and eventually got caught by the sun. This didn't kill the probe. It was still in orbit before ksp messed up on me. I probably shouldn't have called the probe "Little Billy"

[WeirdCulture]

when you try to maneuver to a rendezvous and realize that all monoprop tanks are on the orbiter and none at the lander

[ATRM93]

Launching an unmanned probe to the mun.

Launch, Orbit insertion, Trans-munar injection all go well...

Time-warp out to mun capture, attempt to turn to retrograde

And realize I failed to open the solar panels which would give me power.

*Facedesk*

[Zeroignite]

when you try to maneuver to a rendezvous and realize that all monoprop tanks are on the orbiter and none at the lander

To be fair, if I'm planning to dock only one vessel ever gets RCS. I never like packing more mass than I need to,

[Lazro]

Built a radio observatory for my station, then realized it couldn't dock to the station correctly after flying it into rondez-vous. Went and rebuilt the ship, turning the observatory upside-down so the docking end would point to the station...Since I was feeling lazy, I decided to use Mechjeb.

Remember that proton launch that went wrong because they installed the sensors upside-down? Yeah. That's what happened.

[goldenpeach]

I was doing an apollo style mission.

It was the time the dock the CSM to the LM,the CSM is separate from the LM(at launch) by to set of decoupler(so I can get them out of the way by jettisoning them after I turned the CSM around).

The problem is that when I first press the spacebar,it didn't worked

I pressed it a second time and the command pod separated of the SM,I had to dock with a free-flying command pod with the LM,luckely I was able to save the kebals.