Who uses Liquid Boosters, or Solid Boosters?

[Captain_Party]

I never use the stock SRB's. Short burn time, miniscule thrust... I just use stretchy SRB...

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

I use LRB and SRBs, rarely jets, I do sometimes make the ENTIRE bottom stage jets, but then they aren't boosters are they

[turbo917k]

I totally went through a whole phase of making the bottom all jet engines, (it's kinda fun throttling it up), but now I'm over it... In general there are always solid boosters on the outside of big liquid boosters.

[Garek]

My lifter cores are almost always liquid fuel rockets. But I use SRBs if I need want just that bit more delta-v or first-stage, e.g. my first Orbital Flight in my current carreer save was the last suborbital design with two SRBs tacked on the sides.

[InterCity]

I use liquid + solid combination, since Thor HT from KW rocketry has AWESOME TWR. Anyway, i use flight engineer to determine Delta-v and add fitting boosters.

[Arran]

I use whatever is needed, to get where i want to go.

Like IRL, i have a default core rocket, that i expand accordingly to it payload, and at times it needs more.. SBR are light and pack a nice bit of punch.

With the addition of tweakable thrust, they have even become even more versatile, so that i have allready made rockets with ajusted thrust in second stage, just because i fell a bit short.

In general, i can say, it all depends on the Rocket, and the payload..

[irongut]

I use either depending on the ship. SRBs are nice because they are one part so I don't have to assemble nose cone, tank(s) and engine(s) and my cpu likes them better. But, as I progress towards heavier loads and my first interplanetary mission I'm starting to find liquid boosters and asparagus staging necessary.

[FlamedSteak]

I'll use boosters over the first 10,000 meters, then liquids from then on out. I treat solids like a farm animal, they're there to do some heavy lifting and then sod off.

[SRV Ron]

A combination depending on the mission and distance to travel.

Heavy payload

[Xacktar]

Did somebody say....

BOOSTERS???

[pigletx2]

I use either depending on the ship. SRBs are nice because they are one part so I don't have to assemble nose cone, tank(s) and engine(s) and my cpu likes them better. But, as I progress towards heavier loads and my first interplanetary mission I'm starting to find liquid boosters and asparagus staging necessary.

The nosecones only add drag, which on rockets is bad.

[Madrias]

I tend to experiment and use weird combinations of engines for boosters. I've done jet boosters, I've done RAPIER boosters once, solids, liquids. On one craft I built with the Firespitter pack, I had a lower stage built with Propeller boosters. Modified Ion engines and used as boosters for small Xenon driven probes. Got to Orbit once with a purely solid booster craft. For me, KSP is a way to say "Screw the rules, I'm building this and I'm going to MAKE it fly." After all, what good is it if you build a plane out of structural panels and can't fly it? I follow a simple rule: "If it's not flying, you need a bigger engine."

[Guest]

I use whatever works best for the needs of a given design. Limiting yourself strictly to one or the other is a bit silly.

[1096bimu]

The only reason to use solid is to either reduce part count, or you're too lazy to do liquid. Because liquid is simply better in every way, and there is no concern for safety or cost.

[Lazro]

The only reason to use solid is to either reduce part count, or you're too lazy to do liquid. Because liquid is simply better in every way, and there is no concern for safety or cost.

Enjoy getting liquid fuel scot-free while you can.

Personally, I use SRBs for small boosts to TWR and delta-v if I need it. If I have to add liquid boosters I don't use asparagus because RP and fuel pumps and that kind of thing.

[Godot]

The nosecones only add drag, which on rockets is bad.

Since 0.22 the Nosecone (even in Vanilla) IIRC is actually useful

[ammonia_ocean]

I tend to use asparagus-staged liquid boosters with a couple SRBs to get them through the lower atmosphere. Although one early-game design I made had SRBs on donut-staged liquid boosters on asparagus-staged liquid boosters. It actually had a lot of delta-V, it managed a Duna return with no problem from a pretty small package.

[Lazro]

Since 0.22 the Nosecone (even in Vanilla) IIRC is actually useful

They do add a little stability, but with reaction wheels you could do the same for your whole vessel and not just for your boosters.

[lajoswinkler]

What's the difference between a liquid fuel booster and a radially staged rocket that falls off? If there is none, then I'll say I use everything I need.

[Captain Sierra]

I use almost exclusively liquid fuel boosters. Given our crappy choice in SRBs (unless I'm running KW rocketry), it's so much more practical to use liquid fuel. I can easily set up exactly how much I need and change flow routes to contour the power curve. Also, with nose cones now partly helping in the control department (aside from looking pretty), it validates my overzealous use of them. XD

[EndOfTheEarth]

Almost all my rockets use SRBs in conjunction with liquids for the first half-minute or so after launch. I find that it helps give my heavy lifters just enough extra kick to get off the ground.

[Djolox]

I use For little rockets Only one liquid core.

For slightly bigger i use Liquid Core with 2 RT-10 solids on the side

For medium rockets i use 2m liquid core.

For big i use 2m Liquid Core with Rockomax BACC boosters with their amount depends on size of craft.

For even bigger interplanetary rockets i use Multiple liquid Cores with Liquid boosters but no solids.

[Herbert McCheese-Wang]

I just have a love affair with Solid Rocket Boosters, I love the ones that come with KW rockertry

[rdfox]

I use a liquid-fuel core and then engineer from there. If I need a significant amount of additional delta-V, but have plenty of TWR to burn, I'll use a liquid-fuel upper stage. If my TWR is such that I don't want to increase deadweight, but need significant delta-V, or my delta-V is good but I need a lot more thrust at launch and for a significant portion of ascent, I strap on onion-staged LRBs to ignite in parallel. (If I'll need the extra thrust all the way up, I'll just change it from onion-staged to a fixed outer booster ring on the core stage.) If my delta-V is good and I'll have a good TWR after 30 seconds or so, but need a bit of extra kick off the pad, or if I just need < 400 m/s or so additional delta-V, I'll strap on a ring of onion-staged SRBs.

And each time I add it, I re-evaluate the TWR and delta-V figures to find out what further changes I need.

The only time I use solid motors in my core is if I'm building a ballistic missile or a booster intended for suborbital missions, be they testing or sounding rocket-type Science. Their total delta-V is too low, once you put a payload and liquid-fuel orbital insertion engine on, to be useful in the core of an orbital mission. (The only reason that real satellites often use solid-fuel "kick" motors for final orbital insertion is that they used a liquid-fuel setup to get a very precise apogee and apogee velocity combination, plus a carefully calibrated delta-V for the kick motor to complete the insertion. If you don't have them fire on a precise vehicle attitude at a precise location and velocity, with a precise total mass, you'll need a thrust termination system of some sort to get any kind of precise maneuver out of a solid rocket. And since KSP doesn't have a TTS available, that means that it's rarely a good idea to try and use solids as anything but "extra initial loft" motor.)

[Skorpychan]

I use liquid fuel, AND boosters on my boosters.

I use combination onion and asparagus staging. A core rocket, with onioned boosters on it, then they have asparagused boosters on THEM for the first few KM.

Turns out, the little stack-mount orange rockets have the exact same ISP at sea level as the Skipper, so I stuck them on the bottom of the asparagused fuel tanks I was using to get my rockets that little bit of extra DeltaV. Then stuck smaller tanks on top for that bit extra.

From launch, there's a couple of little stages; one goes at about 1k, the other around 4-5, depending on payload. Then the regular boosters pop off a while after the gravity turn, leaving just the core stage for getting an orbit. That tends to end up left in orbit somewhere, though, which is pretty bad.