Most important lesson you've learned in KSP?

[Jordanpumah]

wow, it even says in the desc.

there's no such thing as "enough parachutes"

[Aragosnat]

That it is fun making rocket planes and Jeb when in control seems to increase ones success rate.

[AlamoVampire]

Always remember your building basics. Something might look trivial to add to a rocket, but may have huge implications once you light that candle!

[Galacticruler]

MOAR BOOZTARZ is not a good mind-set.

[WestAir]

Long rockets flip over and always want to explode.

Fat rockets always make orbit just fine.

[JimJones]

Don't turn on RCS on a space station with random RCS equipped vehicles attached to it... at least that's what I think I did to get my space station oscillating wildly.

At least I think that's what started it.

If someone can see what else I did wrong then that's the lesson I will have learned :-P

[Tassyr]

Well, for one, that central hub/core/whatever is -really- weak... that thing's gonna snap in seconds o.o

[AlamoVampire]

less is more, more is less, less is best

[Joshington]

Find the right balance between weight and thrust.

small craft+small thrust=Good

large craft+small thrust=explosions

small craft+large thrust=waist of fuel, explosions again

[magnemoe]

HAHAHAHAHA! Oh Kerbol's light YES! I cannot count how many probes have gone on ballistic trajectories for not following this rule

Even then following the rule you are not safe. I sent an rover on a test run to Mun, it was a probe rover build around an small fuel tank and a 48-7S so an drop tank took it from LKO to Mun.

Now on an rover you only add solar panels on the top, as I was burning toward the full Mun they was in the shadow and out of power then I wanted to do an correction burn. It was on impact trajectory.

Another manned mission had a solar eclipse all the way to Mun a minute of sun light before I went into Mun shadow, as it was manned I was able to burn and got into high orbit.

[JimJones]

Yea, adding some supports between there would of been a good idea. I was able to get it under control though... It's kind of cheap but I restarted the game and it got rid of the oscillations. Now I'll always have the shame of cheating, but I couldn't sit there and watch my station rip itself apart :-/

[TheJoseph98]

Always transmit data when you have Solar Panels

[[email protected]]

You can never have enough parachutes...BUT you can have too many of them mounted to the wrong equipment.

Always mount at least some of your parachutes directly to the lander can...lest you land your reuseable fuel tanks and engines safely in the crater made by your return capsule. I may have done this a time or six.

[thunderstar]

never eat all the snacks before flight

[Aragosnat]

Any crash you can walk away from. Is a good one:

[NASAFanboy]

I'm going to rank them.

- You don't go to the moon by going straight up.

- You don't automatically enter orbit after launch

- How to correctly perform mathematical equations for interplanetary missions (Which has helped me send probes/manned ships to Eve and Duna and Jool)

- Mar-Duna, *cough* has low air pressure.

And, for some reason.

It's easier to go to Eve/Duna once you've gotten used to the equation/calculators/nodes, because you don't have to use retrorockets (Exactly why I nolonger bother visiting bodies without a atmosphere)

[TheBeardyMan]

If you want to use pitch instead of yaw for an eastward gravity turn, you don't need to roll after launch; you can set the initial orientation by selecting the root part in the VAB and rotating it.

[kelmv]

Regarding the "Always bring solar panels"; Always attach one or two radioisotop generators. They never stop working.

[Gauss H2K]

Build redundant systems, like RTGs and Solar panels. Wings and Parachutes. Landing Legs, and Plane Gear. Because you never know when the second system you thought was just extra weight and had no necessary applications, saves your ship, and or crew from total destruction.

[Floule]

Any crash you can walk away from. Is a good one:

When you can walk away from, then I call it a landing

[Merinsan]

No matter what they say, don't trust SAS. It just wobbled part of my Munar station to pieces when I was going in to dock.

[O Nerd]

I made it... In the first try.

[J.Random]

less is more

^ this one.

[SkyRender]

Always be closing. No wait, that's Clerks...

KSP's most important lesson is that space is hard. If you haven't learned that by your first successful orbit, I don't even know what to do with you.

[Iron4venger]

To test thoroughly before sending someone to die out there.