What is your proudest moment?

[mellojoe]

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

Manual vs. Autopilot.

MechJeb has a feature that just says "here, dock this" and you don't do anything. It also has a "here, rendezvous for me" button. It also has a "make this launch for me, too", so you could (and I have done before) launch a craft into orbit, rendezvous, and dock, all while completely hands off.

Doing it manually means so much more. At least to me. I didn't have the skills before. Now I do. Huge moment for me.

[briansun1]

wow that brings back so many memories.

(landing on winglets)

Edited September 27, 2013 by briansun1

[Bishop149]

A little list from me:

Early on, I think my Minimus / Mun Tour.

The first time I landed on the Mun I forgot / didn't know how to plant a flag, thus on the next mission, a Minimus landing and return, Jeb having finished up on Minimus decided to also land on the Mun on his way back. He got down, planted the flag and then headed safely back to Kerbin. I think it was so satisfying because it was early in the game (I didn't even know hoe to use maneuver nodes so was doing it all by "I think I need to thrust THIS way!"), was a spur of the moment idea and done using a craft not designed to do it.

Later on my mission to land a rover on + probe in orbit around Gilly I remember being an absolute bitch and was very happy when I managed it.

The first time I successfully deployed and flew an aircraft in another bodies atmosphere (which was Eve) was a good moment.

I recently achieved my first orbital rendezvous and rescue of two Kerbals stranded in orbit, it was great to get the little guys back safely!

Last night I returned a failed (manned) interplanetary craft into Kerbin orbit using areobraking only. It didn't have nearly enough DeltaV left to do it the "traditional" way!

For the future I soon hope to establish a base / colony on Laythe. . . if I get the whole base I have planned down then that will be quite an achievement!

Edited September 27, 2013 by Bishop149

[Spatzimaus]

Manual vs. Autopilot.

Exactly. If you use MechJeb to do the toughest parts of the flying for you, then it's not much of an accomplishment to say you did something. Even if it's something you've done yourself previously, a mission in KSP involves many stages in sequence and letting the mod do even one of them for you means you're not doing the full accomplishment when it matters. And then, of course, there are the people who've never actually done these things manually in the first place; docking is a good example, as a task that's extremely difficult your first time but gets easy with practice.

But back to the OP: it's a tough question, because you should feel a great sense of pride upon return to Kerbin after any new accomplishment. That's kind of the point of this game, doing new things you can build on to do even tougher things.

For me, it's a toss-up. There was my return from Duna using a demo-part ship with no fuel left and only 7 RCS fuel. There was the end of my Grand Tour, landed within sight of KSC. There was my first spaceplane landing, and then my first spaceplane return from a Mun trip. And finally, there was the time I landed a large mobile refinery on Mun, intact (probably my toughest ever landing). So it's just not something I can give a simple answer to.

[JeanHavoc]

Hmm well, I don't know that I've ever felt actual "pride" when completing a mission in KSP but I can think of several instances in which I was very much pleased with the results of my efforts.

The first thing that comes to mind would be my first landing on Mun, which was my first encounter with a body other than Kerbin. In retrospect my lander was too tall and spindly and so it was very difficult to land, particularly manually, but after crashing 10+ times I finally made it. Hard to top that particular event since it was the first success along those lines that I ever had.

Then there was my manual landing on Laythe which was, well even harder than what I described above. My lander was low on fuel, and I had to hit a tiny island target from a polar orbit while accounting for rotation and my angle of descent. It took many attempts and failures to get it right but boy was it satisfying when it finally worked.

I would also point to another mission, easy by comparison, wherein I landed a probe on Ike, took off again and then parachuted to the surface of Duna. One lander reaching two different sites on two different worlds - I always thought that was a cool thing to do; and it justified my inclusion of parachutes when I could have removed them before launch to save on weight.

Anyway, interesting thread thus far.

[bainbridge]

Getting into a stable orbit around Kerbin was the pinnacle for me. First Mun landing was good, as was exploring the system, but just getting into space was my highlight.

I run the game with stock parts and settings and still can't dock!!

[WafflesToo]

My proudest moment thus far would be not panicking when my Munar rendezvous went all wrong

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzBVIeFgDLI

Edited September 28, 2013 by WafflesToo

[Cydonian Monk]

The first docking after finishing my first large space station. Slid the crew transfer ship up to it, stopped opposite the docking port, spun the craft around 90° to face said docking port, and the magnets kicked right in. No RCS needed.

That was when I realized I'd mastered docking, and had become one with the void.

[csanders]

Landing and returning from Eve.

[karolk]

Must be my first Successful SSTO Mission

All back in .18

In orbit:

Docked to my station.

I've landed it safely on the KSC runway later on, the screenshots got lost.

Edited October 4, 2013 by karolk

[vetrox]

Im with bainbridge.

Actually designing and getting ym first craft into an orbit was by far the best feeling i ever had. Considering back then it was just slapping rockets together, keep flying up and hoping it would make orbit.

It seems trivial now as its just second nature now and what was once a fantastic sight, watching kerbin rotate below me as i watch the sun rise behind the blue atmosphere with that gentle music, its now just the norm and the only time i really look at it any more is when im docking stuff at the refueling station in kerbin orbit because its kinda hard to miss.

Sure there have been several benchmarks since then. Like discovering the node system, landing rovers on various planets, building ssto's that will make orbit...but i think that initial 1 kerbal i sent up into a stable orbit after so many had died was a great feat and i can rememebr just putting ships in orbit thinking "im a freaking rocket scientist god!"...those were the days

[briansun1]

on the first flight back from the moon and getting an eclipes

[Whackjob]

Argh. Really, really tough call. Three way split for me. So sorry ahead of time for the pagespace I'm about to eat up.

Originally thought it'd be impossible to get something like this into orbit. Achieving that opened up all sorts of possibilities to me.

My first serious "mission victory". Orginally a test run. Succeeded so thoroughly I was caught off guard. I didn't even bring the orangesuits along, expecting it to be a short trip.

The Arkingthaad Lite Tower Lander's big brother. A work in progress, but I'm already beyond pleased with it. Still need to greatly tweak its engines packages, modify the absurd booster system it will require, but I don't doubt its eventual, though laggy and slow, success.

[Redstar]

The first time i got a orbital rendezvous, this was before we has the ui to make it easier, i just put one in a slightly higher orbit and waited

[AceofPengwins]

When I first rescued a kerbal (Jeb, actually) I stranded in a lonely orbit around Kerbin (because I didn't know about the EVA rcs and I pressed space...), and brought him down to the ground safely...

[Starglider]

For me, it was landing Jeb on the Mun and returning him safely to Kerbil, using the demo. As a reminder, there was no docking and the part selection was very limited. I couldn't even plant a flag (that came after the demo), but I got there. It was a beast of a rocket too, with row after row of solids just to get it out of atmo.

[LtHeckard]

I'm quite proud of my Mun base. Edited October 4, 2013 by LtHeckard
URL didn't work. Fixed.

[nine_iron]

The first time I got rocket into a stable circular orbit. IIRC it was at about 120k, soon followed by a satellite.

Once you have done that you are halfway to anywhere as the saying goes!

[LtHeckard]

I'm not yet finished with my Mun base, but it's getting there.

Edited October 4, 2013 by LtHeckard

[Just_Testing]

Getting this thing to Laythe and bringing Jeb home after. It's similar to Manley's craft, I know, but I was proud nonetheless.

[Starwhip]

So far, landing a rover on Eve was my proudest moment.

I'm currently planning an unmanned multi-rover launch to the Jool system

[Lazro]

My first return mission from Duna. I had considerably more fuel than I needed, and carried no science, but hey! I did it all the same.

[SaturnVee]

Landing on Eeloo and returning

[PotatoOverdose]

Doing a complete eve round-trip in a single launch ~300 ton rocket.

Here's the lander just as it's about to touch down.

And here's the entire related album: http://imgur.com/a/8tqU2#0

[Dooz]

Returning my eeloo lander to kerbin i even played heroic music as they hit the atmo