My first heavy lifter.

[Comrade Jenkens]

Though I've lifted plenty of warships to LKO I usually use all their fuel getting there and also have to rely on their engines as a boost. I finally set myself the challenge of getting an orange tank to a 500km orbit and this is what I came up with. The launcher weighs around 630 tons on the Launchpad and is around 330 parts.

I know that loads of ppl can do it but this is a first for me.

I've now managed 60 tons to LKO with this and if I replaced the skipper with a mainsail on the second stage it would probably be able to lift 72 tons (2 orange tanks) I'm not sure if this design counts as asparagus as the boosters use fuel crossfeed.

Sorry for the dark pics but a swear its always night at the KSC.

Manned Version: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zr2jjg37l0srtj8/Jool%20VI.craft

Lifter Version: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yv03bve9y8x9v4t/HLV.craft

I ended up with this in a 500km orbit with both the jumbo tank and the engine attached still full so I'm now going to test this things limits to get into a 100km orbit.

I tried to lift two tanks but the second stage didn't have enough power, despite easily having the fuel.

Manned Version

Edited January 11, 2014 by Comrade Jenkens

[GusTurbo]

Looks cool. How many mainsail on the core?

[Comrade Jenkens]

Core stage has 4 mainsails. I'm about to see if it can get 2 orange tanks to a 100km orbit.

[GusTurbo]

Craft file?

[wasmic]

My first asparagus-less stock heavy lifter was capable of putting a lot more into space than this, but it also looked a lot uglier. Good job on this thing.

[Comrade Jenkens]

Ok craft is up and some screenshots when its not dark. I'm going to work on the aesthetics now as its pretty ugly lol.

[GusTurbo]

Ugly? I think it looks great.

[jrphilps]

Ok craft is up and some screenshots when its not dark. I'm going to work on the aesthetics now as its pretty ugly lol.

Yeah, no offense, but it looks like the leaning tower of pisa with a couple booster rockets strapped to it.

[Comrade Jenkens]

Yeah, no offense, but it looks like the leaning tower of pisa with a couple booster rockets strapped to it.

See the Kerbin Launch System for the nicer looking version.

[Forestgreenstaff]

My first heavy lifter was two of my moon rockets duck taped onto a payload. It's about 2000 parts and can lift a fully completed space station into orbit.

This is my standard rocket for everything. Also my interplanetary drive is about 470 tons and only has one engine.

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Edited January 13, 2014 by Forestgreenstaff

[TaVo]

This looks badass! great job

[Burtsp]

Thanks for the craft file. This one has become my workhorse. I used it to finish out the last couple nodes in career mode with a trip to Duna. Thanks man! Wish I could design like this. Maybe I could but I cant stop backward engineering everyone else's designs. I suck.

Edited January 15, 2014 by Burtsp