What is your proudest moment?

[Nor9864]

Ah, the mighty KSP universe! It's full of things for you to do, some things,you can take more pride of than others, but what exactly is your biggest/proudest achivement? Mine has to be... hmm... Either the time I landed on and returned from Minmus , or the first time I managed to actually dock without autopilot(Mechjeb, screw you!) So, what's yours? Doesn't have to be anything too spectacular, just something that made you think: "Man, I'm awesome! "

[troyn123]

First, it was landing a stock parts craft on the Mun. For a while, I just could NOT keep the nose pointed in the right direction. Finally got the hang of it, and was really proud of my first successful landing!

Then I managed to take my Mun lander, take off, return to the Kerbin, and land at the KSC. Took a freakin' boatload of trial and error to figure out how much aerobraking you get... So once I had a ship that had gone to the Mun, and showed up in the Tracking Center as "Landed as KSC", that was my proudest moment.

That got blown away once I successfully docked the last component of my refueling/space station.

That felt easy compared to linking up the final module on my manned base on Eve! The heavy gravity made landing without breaking anything a real pain.

Designing a new Mun lander to meet up with my Mun base, and then managing to stick the landing on top of a medium-size docking clamp felt AWESOME!

And then just yesterday, after more spectacular failures than I can recall, when my first successful SSTO finally docked at my 150km LKO station, that is now my proudest moment... Each new achievement sets the bar a little higher for myself! :-D

[Xellith]

It was landing on Duna. It took me AGES to finally get there (maybe a few hours due to my derps). Eventually I was able to get an intercept and I almost screamed like a little girl.

I JUST got done building an Stock SSTO VTOL for use on laythe. Now I just have to set up a mothership for transportation and hopefully I will have a new "proudest moment".

[mobkillertman]

I would probably have to say my proudest moment was an interception with Jool. I had always wanted to visit the Joolian system and I finally did it. Had to try aerobraking a couple of times before I finally got it.

[NGTOne]

Thus far... definitely the moment when this behemoth lifted off the ground. I actually saluted when it reached orbit

(Click pictures for more information)

[99TheCreator]

It has to be landing on the moon for the first time. This was back when we didnt have landing legs and had to land on winglets. Those were the days, now these newbies get all the fancy stuff just handed to them

[jpem]

I think the first Mun landing has been one of the most satisfying moments in gaming. First time getting into orbit, learning how to dock finally and building a space station and also assembling a Duna ship in orbit and then making it back safely are up there too.

[Caesar15]

It has to be landing on the moon for the first time. This was back when we didnt have landing legs and had to land on winglets. Those were the days, now these newbies get all the fancy stuff just handed to them

Tell me about it I couldn't land on the mun when it first came out, I had to wait for the hotifx that added landing gear. Was it even a hotfix? Or was it an update? I don't remember anymore..

[magnemoe]

http://imgur.com/a/dahmU#0

The Jool "Landing"

[99TheCreator]

Tell me about it I couldn't land on the mun when it first came out, I had to wait for the hotifx that added landing gear. Was it even a hotfix? Or was it an update? I don't remember anymore..

Pretty sure it was an update, landing on the winglets was hard. Had to come down a lot slower than you have to these days.

[FlamedSteak]

---

Landing on Eeloo, there was no way for them to get back (especially since I used an unmodified Duna lander for it too, parachutes and all), but there's something about making it to the farthest point of the Kerbol System that I loved.

Giant pain in the ass getting there though.

Edited September 27, 2013 by FlamedSteak

[SkyHook]

It would have to be my fleet of reliable, fun as all get out shuttles. Those things are so difficult to build, but i know that anytime I need to get something to orbit, the shuttles can do it!

[Specialist290]

I have to say, my first landings on the Mun and Duna are both very high up there in terms of personal accomplishment.

In terms of craft, however, I'd have to say that this little wonder is my favorite ship to fly and my favorite rover to drive.

Edited September 27, 2013 by Specialist290

[Guest]

Eeloo, stock, in 0.20. E: 3-man craft with a 20-ton lander.

Edited September 27, 2013 by regex

[pantner]

So far my 2 proudest are landing on the Mun and planting a flag. Getting that lander home using RCS to burn retrograde as my main fuel had run out and I was in orbit of Kerbin after just escaping the Mun's gravity.

And then just today getting my first probe to Duna! currently orbiting at ~165,000m in an almost polar orbit (baaaaad intercept from Kerbin, as a first go, running stock, im quite happy )

[Prome]

Only new here but my proudest moment so far was my first orbit of kerbal.

[omegamatrixhh]

For me it would probably be building and landing my minmus base in .20. The science module was the toughest bit, I had to land it horizontally instead of vertically which was a bit odd for me. The crowning moment was completing the mission by returning all 6 kerbals to KSC. I hadn't tested any of my craft and I pretty much winged the entire thing. It wasn't much fun to play with because my KAS kept glitching, causing the winches to engage automatically for some reason, and it was laggy as all hell.

[Trajan]

So far my proudest moment was achieving stable Kerbin orbit and a quick EVA done by Bill Kerman .... but that feels awesome Mun here i come

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

One of these 3:

1: a laythe base with 5 modules, including a plane, the plane was transferred via a big vertical stack of fuel and nuclear engines docked perpendicular to the plane. And since that plane has wings, I entered laythe a atmosphere at 3000 m/s and the lift from the wings spun the craft around until the force ripped the nukes off. I needed those to fly out of the atmosphere, I was despaired, but then I realized, my trajectory was near my base (I was suborbital at this point, but I was ment to burn into orbit with the nukes) and that my re-entry path would bring me into the ocean just off the coast.

I timewarped around laythe, started up the jet engine and I made a successful landing at my base.

Then I never used the plane again.

2. My rescue of jebadiah.

I was testing a prototype TSTO rocket plane (where the jet engine fuel and wings detach) I was in orbit with 12 fuel left, then NO PARACHUTES. So jeb looks around for something to EVA to. My station was 50.0km away, too far, however I had a recent Soyuz launch, that was only 13km away. But as jeb approached it, it was depressingly obvious that it wasn't the habitation module, it was the orbital module that was separated before re-entry.

Up goes the rescue craft, rendezvous with him, he had no EVA fuel, so I got close and he could grab the ladder! I was about to return when, NO PARACHUTES.

recuse craft mkII, finds them, docks NO PARACHUTES on the mkII

Sends up rescue craft mkIII, docks WITH parachutes, but not enough fuel to de-orbit.

Sends up rescue craft mkIV, docks, transfers fuel, RCmkIII deorbited the station.

Long story short. Parachutes snapped of and unplanned lithobraking jeb got back down.

And finally: 3. My first mun landing, I was coming in fast, bob throttled up, the legs came down and I touched down, after the capsule came off, I didn't care, I WAS ON THE MUN. I got bob out and he did a jump, flew around, went to investigate a crator and ended up with a 12min walk back.

I've now got 3 bases a comms network and a station around the mun

[NJC2]

I've only had it a couple of months, so I'm still new at this. Pretty much the last thing I do successfully is my proudest moment, and tonight was no exception. When I first got it a couple of months ago, I dove right in without reading any tutorials or guides, but I did do the built in tutorial when I played the demo. I slapped together a rocket and actually managed to get it into orbit after several tries. I then stuck a stayputnik satellite on it and I got the satellite in orbit on my first try, but it was a wild elliptical orbit, ~425k Ap ~95k Pe and offset about 30° and going counter to the rotation of Kerbin. I couldn't deorbit the rocket because I didn't put a control module on it, so I could control it after decoupling the satellite.

I was determined to get a satellite into orbit and return the rocket leaving no junk in orbit. I read some guides on the Wiki on getting into orbit, and it turns out that was pretty much how I was already doing it. By some coincidence, the rocket I built staged perfectly with the guide to getting into orbit. I used three solid rocket boosters which burned out just above 10,000m, then I ditched the SRBs and lit the second stage liquid rocket and pitched over 45°. I didn't put an SAS or reaction wheels to help stabilize the rocket so whenever I pitched over 45° it was just whatever direction I could hold it, which led to the wild orbit.

I made modifications to my rocket, I added reaction wheels and a 3rd stage and this time put a control module on the rocket stage and tried again. I got a good circular orbit going 90° East at ~75k, detached the satellite, but still couldn't deorbit the rocket. I quickly realized my mistake, I had stuck the battery on the satellite, so even though I had a control module on the rocket stage, there was no power to control it. On my 3rd try I changed some more things around. I put solar panels on the satellite and moved the battery down to the 3rd stage rocket. I got the satellite up in a good orbit, and after detaching it I still had control of the rocket. I was too excited controlling the rocket and watching it deorbit and parachute back to the surface that I forgot to extend the solar panels on the satellite. So while I was successful in getting the satellite up and deorbiting the rocket, I still called it a failure because the satellite wasn't functional. I did a 4th launch with exactly the same setup as the 3rd, but this time I extended the solar panels before detaching from the rocket.

So now I had 3 satellites and 3 pieces of junk in orbit, and I wasn't happy about the junk. I wanted to do something about it, and not cheat by deleting it from the control center. I was still getting the hang of going to orbit, so I turned my next objective into getting a Kerbal in space. I used the same rocket design, but replaced the satellite with a manned module. I did two successful unmanned test runs by attaching a control module to it and not putting a Kerbal on board before I went for the real thing. My niece was interested in watching me and wanted to see me do the manned orbit, but she had to leave. Two weeks past before she came back over, and I didn't mess with it between that time. She remembered and still wanted to see the Kerbal go into orbit, so I loaded it up and went for it. I was rusty and used too much fuel. I think I could have achieved orbit, but I didn't want to take a chance and not have enough fuel to bring the Kerbal home, so I let it come back down. I tried a 2nd time and let him orbit a couple of times before bringing him back.

It's been several more weeks since I played, and that space junk has been nagging me. I finally decided to do something about it, and tonight I finally managed to successfully knock the first piece out of orbit. I learned how to match an orbit and intercept another object in space. I then came up with a design. I put some landing struts on the tip of the ship, and the plan was to lower them (which will open them), get close to the junk and raise (close) them. I was hoping this would snag the junk and I would then be able to deorbit the rocket and parachute both back safely to Kerbin.

I decided to go for the defunct satellite first because I figured it would be easier to capture than a rocket and fuel tank. The tutorials I found for matching orbits all showed getting a lower orbit and using your faster speed to catch up to your target. The satellite I was going after was orbiting at 72-75K, so going lower wasn't going to cut it. I figured I could just go for a higher orbit and wait for the satellite to catch up to me and descend on to it. That's what I did, but it still took me three tries before succeeding.

The first time I simply didn't have enough fuel, so I added extra fuel to both liquid rocket stages. The second time was just inefficient use of fuel and several mistakes in matching orbits and intercepting. The third time I almost aborted again due to low fuel. I made a couple of mistakes and had to burn extra fuel to correct for it, but I thought I'd still be able to do it. I was 5 minutes from making my last burn to intercept the satellite when I had to quit and go run some errands. I came back a few hours later and when I loaded the game, the landing struts had disappeared from my rocket. I was using the auto save instead of the quick save, but I don't know if that would have made a difference. I decided to keep going since I was so close, but I would have to push it instead of trying to grab it. Now that I think about it, those landing struts probably would have broken anyway when it grabbed the satellite, and then I would have had extra junk to clean up.

I made the final burn to match the satellite's orbit. When I cut the fuel, I was 1200m away from the satellite, and with so little fuel left that at first I wasn't sure if I cut the fuel or ran out. The fuel meter looked empty, but the numbers showed I had a little over a tenth units of fuel. I used the RCS to maneuver up to the satellite and swing around so that my engines would be pushing toward the satellites retrograde. I slowly inched forward until I was touching the satellite, then I hit the throttle, and the engines only fired for half a second and I thought it was a failed mission. Then I switched to the map view and saw both the satellite and the rocket's Pe were going to be just under 69k, which should be enough for them slow down in the atmosphere. It was a tense last few minutes for me because I couldn't remember if it was 68k or 69k when the atmosphere actually began. I knew I could at least use the rocket's RCS deorbit it so there wouldn't be more junk in orbit. Luckily they hit 68k and began slowing down. The satellite splashed down in the middle of the ocean almost as if I planned it, and the rocket's parachutes opened and it safely landed a few km away.

I wanted to jump up and high five a bunch of people like you see them do in footage of NASA control rooms, but there was no one around to share my triumph.

[Silverchain]

Manual crewed Tylo landing and return, stock, no quickloads.

[Kasuha]

I think my proudest moment was when I ran out of fuel on the way back from Minmus and left the ship on highly elliptical orbit around Kerbin. I managed to prepare a rescue mission which made a rendezvous with it even before it reached periapsis, transferred the crew and landed safely. It was shortly after I bought the game and I had only a few days experience with it.

I made greater things since then but the sense of achievement was never that strong.

[Vlk]

I drow off a big cliff on minmus with my low-gravity tester vehicle, and while falling, went to eva, released the vehicle, went a little farther with my jetpack, made a few screenshots, then went back into the vehicle, and landed it (with the aid of thrusters, ofc). it is not hard to do things like this on minmus, but i felt badass

[mellojoe]

My space station. All done with NO MECHJEB!

This was the biggest thing for me, was learning to dock without MechJeb. It took a long time and lots of practice, but now I have it. I went through a series of missions replicating NASA's Gemini missions, using a replica Titan launch craft. Several of those in order to practice docking maneuvers without MechJeb. And all the while learning about orbital maneuvers, the Nav-Ball, and what is possible when you put your mind to it.

It all culminated in a huge project. This TRIDENT space station. Its got 4 orange tanks full, tons of RCS, lots of living space, and a full backstory. I'm absolutely in love with it. Sure, I've continued on and done more and more, like putting a station around Jool, flying a plane on Laythe, constructing a huge base on the Mun. But, honestly, the breakthrough moment that created this space station was the pivotal moment. I CAN DOCK! I CAN DOCK!

[PS: Those satellite dishes are also a proud moment. I built them using the 4x4 flat plate, but it was creating huge lag for everything. So I edited a stock adapter plate to be 4x as large as stock and turned them into satellite / radio dishes. They reduced part count by over 150.]

[fatfluffycat]

I really don't understand why people say, WITHOUT MECHJEB

anyways, crashing into the mun