Why is my pod breaking up when landing in the sea?

[Naesstrom]

So, I'm just getting started with the career mode _(again)_ since I quit last time for the exact same reason!

I build a rocket, go up in orbit and does a bunch of science, head back down again and the bloody thing breaks apart and all I get is the crew reports and not anything else of the experiments!

I can't get around figuring out why it keeps breaking up when I hit the water even tough I have the parachute deployed?

[Pds314]

Just one mk 16 is not nearly enough to stop you. If you hit at once 8 m/s, it isn't much of a parachute.

Landing in the ocean means that any part moving faster than it's impact tolerance will break.

[SRV Ron]

Way too much weight for one MK 16. You need an additional pair of parachute to get the landing speed down

[Skorpychan]

More chutes, maybe a drogue if you have one. A single small chute is fine for JUST the capsule and a little more weight, but you're moving a mini lab, three goo containers, and gubbins down.

[Captain Sierra]

Try mounting all the science stuff where it will be dropped on entry, then bring it into the command pod EVA before you re-enter. The mk 16 is far to weak to tackle that much weight.

[Kerba Fett]

First thing is that if you go EVA and collect the data from the goo containers and science jr it won't matter if you lose them. The data would be in the pod at that point so you'd get the return amount of science.

Second thing is that sometimes the stuff just falls off but isn't destroyed. (I think they use water based glue to attach parts)

Any parts that are not destroyed can be recovered separately from the tracking station. Just select the debris tab and take everything with the correct ship name. Sometimes you get lucky and recover one of the experiment containers.

[m4rt14n]

They should still be available to recover by mission control. Just gonto the screen select debris. Find them on the list and recover.

[Wooks]

Try adding a couple radial parachutes to the sides of the SC-9001 Science Jr.

[Kryxal]

You can parachute down with 2 mystery goos (possibly 3 but I've never tried), but the rest is a bit much. See what happens with your decoupler RIGHT under the pod, but run a few ladder rungs down if you want to collect from the Science Jr easily.