Your most trusty craft

[DeepSpaceDutch]

Please post your oldest continously used craft. Your most trusty tug, tanker, interplanetary mothership, etc!

For me it's my LKO Tanker Mk1, I've created it when I was playing KSP only a few weeks (somewhere in May I believe) and it has served me very well the last 4 months. It's perfectly balanced, quite nimble for it's size and I use it for all my refuelling needs in LKO.

Two of a slightly updated version will be send to the Jool system to support the Laythe Colony under construction there.

Just after launch and just before the circulization burn;

Approaching a Jool Colony Crew Shuttle for a top-up. The Crew Shuttle will run a regular service between Laythe LLO Station and Laythe Groundbase;

Almost there, I just love docking

This poor specimen has outlived its useful days;

Edited October 1, 2013 by DeepSpaceDutch

[ZeroTech Solutions]

While my oldest craft on my current game is probably my MunCraft 3 (1 and 2 were in older saves), My most dependable and commonly used craft is probably my FELIX rover.

A FELIX package coming in for duna

Starting polar circularization

Landed! The FELIX has a top speed of around 20 M/S, but a safe top speed of closer to 12.

[magnemoe]

probably this humble lander.

48-7S engine, 45 liter fuel, octo2 probe, seat, four probe landing legs.

Has an junior docking port on one side, ladder on the other, three small solar panels, mechjeb and an small battery.

2800 m/s dV has landed it on Duna, Vall and Moho and any other place with lower gravity as part of two grand tours.

[Scotius]

X7 Heavy Lifter.

I use this configuration since 0.19. For pretty much everything that goes beyond LKO. This lifter can muscle 70+ tons into LKO,, so it is probably a bit of overkill in some cases. But it fails only when i place too heavy payload on top or bork the ascent.

[Scotius]

X7 Heavy Lifter.

I use this configuration since 0.19. For pretty much everything that goes beyond LKO. This lifter can muscle 70+ tons into LKO,, so it is probably a bit of overkill in some cases. But it fails only when i place too heavy payload on top or bork the ascent.

Agghhh. Double post due to network hiccup. Admins, please delete it.

Edited October 1, 2013 by Scotius
Double posting.

[pa1983]

My Falcon X Jumbo. I built a complete modular base on Duna with it and delivered a base to Laythe. Its no longer in use and was replaced by the Falcon XIII B/C Galaxy STOL for version 0.21.

[Warmblood]

Sirius class interplanetary ship.

Good for spacetrains whether pushing or pulling, adaptable to many missions, 5 crew capacity, 9-10k delta-v, and it fits well on top of a regular 7 tank asparagus staged booster.

[Rainbowtrout]

I kinda like my Puffy Clouds suborbital rocket. I don't have pictures, but it has a 100% success rate!

[Odo]

I had a rocket I called the Lokie, which was basically a russian Proton that was built for me in one of the rocket builder threads, and then I ended up modifying it with one stage of orange tank boosters with asparagus staging..

It pretty much did everything for me. I dont have it anymore htough, it was lost in the update

[SuperWeegee4000]

My light-medium lifter, the Minmush I (not a typo). Capable of putting a Manley-style Minmus lander into Minmus orbit, and even performing the Minmus deorbit burn. It's quite simple. Picture will be posted later.

[Tw1]

The Z4/ZX rescue rocket. First thing that reliably returned from the Mun. Its sturdy, many legged silhouette has been a welcome sight for so many stranded kerbalnauts..

Used to have this this big transfer stage, which sometimes survived landing. But it was pretty wasteful. Infact, a lot of the getting to the Mun part was wasteful.

The Z4 is no longer in use. It inspired a far cheaper, and more efficient craft, the ZX, which is still been able to return from the poles of Mun and Minmus provided it is well piloted. Which it normally is.

Edited October 1, 2013 by Tw1

[-Velocity-]

My Low Gravity Rover Nuclear (LGRN). It's got a (Kerbin) starting TWR of 0.4 and a delta V of 5800 m/s. It's perfect for exploring low gravity worlds with no atmosphere, and it even works on the larger of the low gravity worlds- like Mun and Vall.

The lower the gravity of the world, the less the rover actually drives and the more it flies around on sub-orbital hops, and low-altitude, sub-orbital skips. For example, on Pol, such as the shown in the screenshot above, the LGRN is capable of at least 4.3 HOURS of level flight, usually a lot more depending on how fast you are going.

Edited October 1, 2013 by |Velocity|

[wasmic]

Maybe my nameless asparagus-less heavy all-stock launcher. It is capable of putting heavy stuff into orbit, probably at least 100 tons, I have never tested. Its first stage is also allergic to SAS, activating it will make it shake apart quickly, resulting in ten free-flying mainsails. Otherwise, I tend to use specialized crafts for most missions, and the crafts I have made in an attempt to standardize are all untested.

[Geschosskopf]

My standard lifter lifting my standard transfer tug. I've probably used the lifter about 50 times and the tug about 20. The non-asparagus lifter can put 30-40 tons in LKO without the payload having to burn any fuel. When attached to such a payload, the tug provides on average about 4200m/s delta-V for the assembly, which is enough to go just about anywhere. Thus, I break all my interplanetary missions up into flotillas of 2-part ships, mission modules of 30-40 tons each pushed by such a tug, and launch all the parts with this same lifter.

[magnemoe]

Sirius class interplanetary ship.

Good for spacetrains whether pushing or pulling, adaptable to many missions, 5 crew capacity, 9-10k delta-v, and it fits well on top of a regular 7 tank asparagus staged booster.

Pretty genial design however is it stable with all the clipping.Has to remember to put cockpit at the side

[rottielover]

My Falcon X Jumbo. I built a complete modular base on Duna with it and delivered a base to Laythe. Its no longer in use and was replaced by the Falcon XIII B/C Galaxy STOL for version 0.21.

You sir, are my KSP hero! I stumbled on your youtube channel and downloaded your craft files. Pure beauty . You've inspired me to build things a little more "outside the box" now.

[Silverchain]

Brigantia Id Addicted To Bad Ideas in orbit above Kerbin. The latest in a very long line of similar models. Ship mass at this point is ~270 tons and the top lander can reach, land and return from all the low-gravity worlds, though I usually add extra chutes and whatnot if I'm sending them to Duna.

These were my absolute staple ship first time round, and now that I'm playing KSP again I'm trying to work with some fresh ideas... but I keep coming back to them.

[Llez]

This is an older model, my newest version has a little rover attached to the side to zip kerbals around after landing, and a SR docking port on the bottom to add extra fuel for those long missions.

[Hodo]

This is my most reliable craft, and my most used cargo hauler. I have since replaced it for larger loads by haven't taken any pics of it yet.

I think this is my SP-201 "K-Lifter" cargo capacity of 54 tons. And can achieve any orbit out to 250km with that cargo load.

And then there is this monster.

SP-400, it has a max cargo limit of 63 tons, only limited by space. It can cram 2 36ton orange tanks in the cargo hold but I have to remove the smaller docking port for light loads. The funny thing is, it looks like its an airhog, but it only has 3 intakes per air breathing engine.

Edited October 1, 2013 by Hodo

[SkyRender]

No craft I build gets used for long before I find a way to improve upon it. About the closest you'll find is themes to my vehicles, and there is one theme that shows up a lot.

My landers are almost universally set up as double-side-engine craft.

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

I love my Refueler A & Refueler B. Both docked together form a deepspace Gasstation that can rescue almost every Mission

[Brofessional]

I've yet to come up with a simpler, more reliable design that gets two kerbals into LKO and back than this little guy.

[regex]

I've yet to come up with a simpler, more reliable design that gets two kerbals into LKO and back than this little guy.

Did you use any part clipping or trickery on that guy? I might copy that design try to build something similar, I really like it.

Edited October 1, 2013 by regex

[Proxima]

Can't find any pictures right now, but probably my Mun+More launch vehicle. It was originally designed for my Mun mission, all my smaller rockets had failed, so I thought, the bigger the better. It is the clunkiest and biggest vehicle I have ever used, but it has taken me as far as Duna so far. As for efficiency, all I can say is when career mode comes out, I probably won't use it anymore!

[Wayfare]

Probably this little buggy I originally developed for the Munshine V Apollo-style Mun rocket:

Weighs less than half a ton and comes in at just 12 parts. Its small profile has let me tuck these things into the nooks and crannies of all sorts of landers, giving the crew a quick and stable ride around their landing site.

Here it is strapped to he side of a Mun lander:

And I brought a couple of them to Duna too: