What has most surprised and delighted you during a mission?

[JenBurdoo]

In the sense of achieving something you didn't expect.

As an example, my first week of playing, after a lot of disastrous failures to get Kerbals faster than suborbital speed, I took a page from real life and launched a Stayputnik instead. I strapped the probe to five short SRBs, hit space, and...

Five minutes later, it was in solar orbit. I had no idea they were that powerful (though in retrospect, it's probably the lightness of the probe). The first object ever to leave Kerbin's sphere of influence did so completely by accident.

That was also the point at which I said, "This game is awesome!"

[baberbot]

mine was when my ship exploded for absolutely no apparent reason (I was only on a munar decent and out of fuel:sticktongue:) the kerbal in the pod teleported out of it as it exploded and flew out of kerbins SOI:huh: and crashed into the sun and bounced of the sun at the speed of light or close enough :confused:then my pc overheated and crashed:mad:

[TimePeriod]

Realized that my angle of attack at 3rd stage for my rocket was far too shallow, so I changed it and suddenly my rocket went to LKO with 60% fuel.

[NASI Director]

Not lithobraking after an extremely long journey.

I think it's true for nearly everyone.

[JimmyAgent007]

In my early days when i thought i could just aim at the Mun and power towards it I ended up with many Kerbals leaving the solar system. Then there was the day when i actually learned how orbital mechanics worked and finally got into orbit instead of going to far or ending up back on Kerbin.

[Sovek]

Getting Laythe and Eve flybys by pure accident. In the case of Laythe, that was intending to go to laythe, but getting a flyby without hitting Jool is cool too. Eve was a "I wonder if I can get there" bit with a solar probe. Its on its way and I'm thrilled. Think I need to build an Eve probe and crash it into the atmosphere. Wonder how much dV I can get with a heat shield and scientific equipment on an Ion probe.

[theend3r]

Building an SSTO hoping it would reach a stable orbit and ending up with so much fuel I ended up landing on Mun and back at Kerbin. Krakening to lightspeed was also fun.

[BagelRabbit]

The first time I landed on the moon in 0.22, my craft ended up about 100m from a Munolith. I didn't even realize that the little twinkly thing was a Munolith until maybe 300m from the surface, so I landed there purely by accident. It was a lovely surprise.

Then it sent this really powerful radio beam in the general direction of Jool, and a few Kerbals were sent to Vall with a Probodobodyne H.A.L. to keep them company. But that's another story.

[SkyHook]

Seeing that Bright Blue Ball after a long interplanetary journey..

[Bobnova]

Accidental suicide burns that end up working perfectly are pretty hard to beat. The rush from "OH NOOOO" to "WE'RE ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!" is nice

[Thomas988]

My Starreach 1 mission.

The goal was to pop out of Kerbin sphere of influence, do science, burn retrograde, return home. I was expecting a super low thrust-to-weight ratio, so I brought along two extra engines and extra fuel.

Well, it went a lot better than expected. Instead of using the three engines and all the fuel on the spacecraft, I did the entire mission with just the first Poodle engine, and with fuel to spare. It was a great learning experience for future missions!

[RTS321]

I have a few:

Firstly, after landing a rover and then a Kerbal to drive it next to a Munar arch, I decided to take a 400m trip south to a crater biome to get more science. I did not realise until it was far too late that 300 of those 400m was a vertical drop. Several seconds of panic followed, cut short abruptly by the impact. Miraculously, although the rover bounced off into a very rapid spin, every one of the five-or-so collisions after that were absorbed by the wheels until it landed upright and settled. The rover had survived with every wheel and every solar panel but one broken, it was quite simply incredible.

Secondly, aiming to return a probe to within 20 kilometers of the KSC. Without any further input after the deorbit burn, it landed on the roof of the Spaceplane Hanger.

Lastly, I think what delighted me the most was the fact that my SSTO spaceplane to Laythe actually worked. I sent two, they didn't have near enough fuel to make it to Laythe from LKO, so I came up with a system of undocking the ascent rocket engine and replacing it with an LV-N, which in turn could be decoupled to reveal a replacement rocket. The first one deorbited and flew fine, but the landing site was too bumpy and it ended up crash-landing with minor structural damage and only one out of three engines. I wasn't particularly hopeful about the second, as it was identical to the first and in the time between launch and reaching Laythe my spaceplane building skills had advanced enough to realise it didn't really have enough wing area. But it descended and landed at a flatter site perfectly, ready for refuel!

[CrotalusAtrox]

I think... the first time I landed on the Mun. Nothing went as planned, and I wound up pulling off a fairly severe suicide burn. 'twas worth it!

[palioxis1248]

Managing to land with ion engines probably tops my list.

[Sauron]

I just accidentally docked a CSM and lander! The lander was out of electricity, so I used the CSM to rendezvous with it at a safe distance of ~25m. I went EVA to move my kerbal over to the transfer stage and to do some fiddling with parts and the the CM somehow managed to dock with a spinning lander without me controlling either ship. I didn't even realize for a bit because I was on the night side of Bop--too dark to see that they'd docked.

Also, a payload survived an 800 m/s impact into the Kerbin's ocean 100% intact--so the kerbals are probably just going to stick it on the next rocket

[LarryWallwart]

That I didn't kill Jebediah on his mission to land on Mun.

[Klingon Admiral]

That I was able to sucessfully recover a munar probe that had toppled over by "sliding" up the hillside it was located on until the slope became slightly more shallow, allowing itself to get back to Kerbin. I did not expect to recover that probe.

[RocketPilot573]

Crashing into the launchpad (or water pipe)...

IN SPACE....

Something more delightful was when I landed Kerbals on Tylo without a quickload.

[Javster]

I was in Minmus orbit, quicksaved, quickloaded, and then I was on a direct trajectory down. Which was good because it was a landing mission!!!

[TheDarkStar]

I once managed a near-perfect suicide burn. I decelerated from several hundred m/s 0 and ended up less than 10 meters from the ground.

[I_Killed_Jeb]

Landing on the Mun atop the engine of my lander following a RUD of the landing legs mid-flight

[jmiki8]

When I sent up my first space station, I forgot to equip it with a probe core or a pod, so it started to spin like mad when I tried to dock my ship to it. Somehow I still managed to dock, and saved the station.

[panzerknoef]

My kerbal surviving a drop from 250km up, without chute. And my brave kerbonaut who was shot out of the solar system by a laythe encounter, he will always be remembered...

[Pecan]

First mun lander fell over on a steep incline. Discovering the pod's reaction wheels had enough torque to get it upright again was a great relief.