What's the highest mass you've ever put into Kerbin orbit with a single ship?

[Jason Cox]

Arounds 40 tons. The vessel was an assemble-on-site space station bound for Duna. That was a fun day of and playing with RCS tugs getting her assembled!

[Jarin]

Just over 80t. My computer starts doing weird things at around 500 pieces, and ships just flat fall on the launchpad (regardless of strutting) apart after 700.

[Whackjob]

Just over 80t. My computer starts doing weird things at around 500 pieces, and ships just flat fall on the launchpad (regardless of strutting) apart after 700.

I can offer advice there. The last rocket I put together (Arkingthaad Lander Tower), on the pad, weighed exactly 2,073,465kg.

#EDIT: Never mind, you meant 700 pieces, not tons. I'll be OK. Ignore me!

[Thorbane]

1050 tons with my Goliath MK3.

7x 3.75 by 15 meter KW tanks delivered to LKO (250 km in this case) and still some fuel in the ascent stage.

This is an out-of-date design that no longer works sadly. The new Bearcat 5x engine models are wider causing it to fly apart on the pad. Mark 4 also explodes on the pad, or if you're lucky manages 1-2km up. The Mark 5 has a nasty case of rogue booster syndrome, I can't get the damned things to stay attached.

[Soda Popinski]

Are we talking about payload or Kerb Weight of the whole rocket ship? I think some people are answering the mass they actually get into orbit, while others are answering including the launch vehicle.

[Spatzimaus]

My new largest payload is Gateway Station, at 871 tons (and only ~750 parts):

But that's not my largest weight in orbit. Before separating, the SSTO booster adds another thousand tons to the mass; it's in a stable circular orbit before separation, so technically it IS orbiting as part of a linked whole. But that sort of thing really shouldn't count for this.

[Commissioner Tadpole]

Probably 416t.

[ecat]

I don't think I've tried for more then about 400t, still, it's been fun trying.

[stock] Early heavy lifter... probably reusable

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/35743-200-kerbal-tons-to-LKO-worth-it?p=451799&viewfull=1#post451799

[stock] Major redesign of the above... again, probably reusable

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/35743-200-kerbal-tons-to-LKO-worth-it?p=463563&viewfull=1#post463563

[stock] All in one station/lander/proposed kethane platform... reusable

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/22251-Showcase-SPACE-STATIONS!-Post-your-pictures-here?p=531483&viewfull=1#post531483

[b9] One of my all time favourites, reusable, 6 jumbos to orbit with ease

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/33503-Show-off-your-B9-Designs!?p=508910&viewfull=1#post508910

[User Unrelated]

So I'm not the only one who launches absurd things with turbofans

My heaviest is around 200T, no pics of that, though. I was trying to just launch the heaviest thing I could. Stacked a bunch of 3.75m nuclear reactors on top of each other

My biggest payload without trying to build big was my most recent Kethane miner bound for Minimus.

I think it was around 40 or 50T...not really even that much.

got to an apoapsis of 35000m using only a single tank of liquid fuel!

Edited December 3, 2013 by User Unrelated

[ecat]

So I'm not the only one who launches absurd things with turbofans

My heaviest is around 200T, no pics of that, though. I was trying to just launch the heaviest thing I could. Stacked a bunch of 3.75m nuclear reactors on top of each other

My biggest payload without trying to build big was my most recent Kethane miner bound for Minimus.

I think it was around 40 or 50T...not really even that much.

got to an apoapsis of 35000m using only a single tank of liquid fuel!

heh. I went through a phase

Loved the jet noise, loved the efficiency, hated the lag!

I've just checked out the second craft in my previous post. 1992 parts! But only 850t which considering the payload is 11 jumbos + engines, almost 400t of that reaches orbit, yes, I love the efficiency

[Kilmeister]

Some crazy pics in this thread, very impressive. I've never set out to put a huge mass into orbit, I've only built enough to serve my needs. I think largest generic lifter I have in my arsenal right now can do approx 125 tonnes to orbit. Think largest thing I've done was about 165 tonnes to orbit, but I special designed that lifter.

[Hodo]

My recent heavy lifter, to replace the SP-400.

SP-406 SSTO space plane, it can lift 108 tons into an orbit of 100km x 100km orbit

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[alex the killa]

http://i2.dealtwith.it/i/n/dbd1b52e898673df2db0884e0ddd09a1/screenshot4.png

http://i2.dealtwith.it/i/n/145f3a85d897f42685cae546ab29cd36/screenshot3.png

This with full fuel tanks (441t or so)

AND THIS with full fuel tanks (because it had so many parts I didn't want to dock with it) @771tons

http://i4.dealtwith.it/i/n/7e31e134468fdf1bc50b44a3c6da0644/screenshot27.png

[Moar Boosters]

Here is the launch rocket.

No asparagus staging, just brute power.

Here is the payload. All fuel tanks full.

[Bothersome]

I don't know the mass right off the top of my head. As I was more concerned with how much fuel went to space for refueling missions.

But I've put 18 full orange tanks into orbit quite a few times.

Link to the craft page

[FlamedSteak]

Mother of god!

I've put some FPS killers in orbit before, but some of these things are beyond insane. I'm amazed they even load to the launch pad.

[ecat]

Mother of god!

I've put some FPS killers in orbit before, but some of these things are beyond insane. I'm amazed they even load to the launch pad.

IIRC my worst case launches were about 1 hour real time to orbit, this certainly gives you an incentive to get it right

[TYRT]

I don't remember the mass, but it was "the Navy Carrier".

[m1xte]

1050t (payload only) with "Orange Monster"

[Beachernaut]

Not sure how much weight, but with rockets I can reliably put up 2 full orange tanks. Any more than that and the launch stage brings my computer to it's knees. Using my heavy SSTO I can take 2 orange tanks to a 90k orbit (barely). IMO the limit to what you can lift is directly related to what your computer can run.

[Madrias]

I've carried 2 orange tanks to orbit on the back of a spaceplane. My proper SSTO design (jet engine + turbofan + 2x LV-T45) can haul 2 orange tanks plus one strapped to the docking port beneath the plane, though it makes takeoff a bit perilous. With rockets, I'm lucky to chuck enough debris in orbit to call it a payload.

I think the single heaviest thing I'd brought up was my space station, though it went up over the course of 50, yes, 50 launches, carried up section-by-section on the backs of spaceplanes. Sadly, that save was in .20 and I don't have it anymore.

[3mon]

This bad boy here is 220 Tons, with buttloads of DV:

Launched with this:

[KvickFlygarn87]

250 tons I believe. I was building inefficiently as $#!7.

[agentKmurph]

Biggest rocket I ever built weighed in at 1,095,860 kg. It sent an 80,000 kg interplanetary booster into LKO for sending a previously launched 24,000 kg space station to Eeloo. It could lift far more with asparagus staging but my poor dual core processor was already having a fit at the 250 part mark.

If you include the weight of the almost-empty stage when it reached orbit, the heaviest thing I have put into space would be about 130,000 kg. Correction: 150,000 kg. Forgot about the white tanks.

Edited December 8, 2013 by agentKmurph

[MonkeyFuzz]

My usual Apollo-style flights involve lofting about 56 tons to LKO via a two-stage launcher. Stage one is five Mainsails and 270 tons of fuel with stage two as five Skippers and 180 tons. It's my most frequently used heavy lifter (though "heavy" around here seems to mean in the several hundred tons ) since I'll tend to fly a long series of exploration flights to the Mun and Minmus.

After some upgrades to that launcher (now with stage one as seven Mainsails and 378 tons of fuel and stage two as seven Skippers and 252 tons of fuel), I now field a 72 tons to LKO launcher that I use for my interplanetary flights and monstrous construction projects. Combined with a nuclear third stage, it's at least plenty to send a single-launch 3-man landing ship and rover to Duna.