Which type of launch looks cooler?

[michaelphoenix22]

How to do u prefer your launches to start out? do you prefer a bat out of heck (not sure about the forums policy on the other word) or a slow lumbering launch that barely clears the clams and slowly gains speed?

[malkuth]

Delta V wise about in the middle.

[Geschosskopf]

The important thing is to use the blue stack separators between the stages. That way, then the upper stages fire, they blow the rings back at high speed into the spent boosters and make pretty fireworks

[Superfluous J]

I personally like my launches to be about in the middle, as malkuth does. Too slow and I know I'm wasting dV pushing against gravity for longer than I need. Too fast and I know I'm wasting dV pushing against air faster than I need. So I like to get it up to atmospheric efficiency of 100% and then chill out there. Ideally, with a well crafted rocket, I'll get there fairly quickly but not go over it without too much having to throttle back, all automatically due to the construction of the craft.

Oh yeah, now that's a launch that looks the coolest

[regex]

I think they look cooler at lower TWRs.

[SkyHook]

I like my shuttles to slowly climb to orbit, and my traditional rockets to go like a bat outta hell.

[Tex]

Depends on how you want it to look!

I've done some experimenting with infinite fuel and a mainsail engine, and I can escape Kerbin's atmosphere in 27 seconds, screaming and on fire the whole way! It looks effin' awesome but as for regular launches, I'd stick with the above nice people.

[Scotius]

Slow, lumbering beast...with enough SRB's to quickly reach optimal atmospheric velocity Then level out there until it's time for gravity turn - above 11 km's. Then throttle all the way up, decouple last two boosters just before circularising the orbit, which leaves me with last stage still carrying some fuel left in tanks. Depending on payload's destination this extra fuel might be used for orbital maneuvers, or as an additional transfer stage with (usually) about 500 m\s dV.

[Ascension Islander]

Then level out there until it's time for gravity turn - above 11 km's.

There's gonna be a lot of people screaming at their computers when the aerodynamics model gets updated

[problemecium]

Unfortunately KSP doesn't do this as much as I'd like, but I like seeing tons of environmentally-unfriendly exhaust coming out of the back of the ship and spewing all over the space center when it starts up.

[Merinsan]

I like to see flames licking the windows on the command module as I push through the atmosphere, because it looks cool! Normally though I aim for middle of the road. I need to get up to 200m/s as soon as possible, and stay there until able 10km, then push it all the way up.

[ArmchairGravy]

I like the TWR on the 0-10km stage around 2, and around 2.5 for the 10k-70k stage.

[Arran]

Depends, my heavy lifters ith stationparts/refuel tanks, often tend to go slow, with as much thunder and smoke i can give them , my light unmanned drone/sattelites i tend to go off like a kannonball, but my normal flights with krew, i stick like the others to as much efficient launches i can do them.

Guess i go for all sorts of launches

[Xacktar]

Whichever explodes the prettiest.

[Kasuha]

Cool launch is when you get reentry effects on ascent.

It's not very effective, though.

[adinfinitum]

Even though I know it's horribly inefficient, I think the coolest looking launches are the ones with towering rockets that seem to linger just above the launch pad before slowly accelerating skyward. When a rocket just hops right up of the pad with a TWR of around 2 or so, it seems more like a missile launch than a hundred ton vehicle bound for space.

[magnemoe]

The important thing is to use the blue stack separators between the stages. That way, then the upper stages fire, they blow the rings back at high speed into the spent boosters and make pretty fireworks

Good idea, I remember adding extra seperators on boosters to ensure that they impacted each other rotating after separation.

[CalculusWarrior]

With my computer, any launch is a slow, lumbering launch!

[kelmv]

While my last few launches involved 4 SRBs strapped to a lightweight core (including the fun effects), I tend to favor a working launch. Frankly, I find the initial launch of ANY rocket to be the most stressful part of any flight and while straping a Mk1 Command module atop a Mainsail w/ infifuel looks cool, when your Mun rocket is wiggling around like an epileptic worm at a disco, you tend to favor the "Whatever Works" approach.

That said, I don't think anyone here would look down adding sepratrons to boosters just so they colide together behind the rocket and make pretty fireworks.

Or launching your SRBs early and watching them explode ahead of you while your rocket flights right through the middle of the fireball.

[Red Iron Crown]

I like the look of a launch where the initial TWR is just enough to get moving, really gives you a sense of immensity for the rocket.

[Thomas988]

My launch stages are always pretty efficient, so they clear the first 100 meters in a few seconds.

[XxDaSTaRXx]

When you see your rocket blast off and barely make it past the clamps with SRB's included you know you're going to have a bad time.

Those kinds of rockets are the ones that fear me most, because I have a nasty habit of designing a rocket, implementing new features, and not testing the darn thing before I try to go on a full fledged mission.

Missions are my tests!!!

Poor Kerbs.

[Spartwo]

Easily slow launches,I even restrict the throttle to make it happen.TWR ~1.2

[Dkmdlb]

I like the TWR on the 0-10km stage around 2, and around 2.5 for the 10k-70k stage.

I like to keep that second stage really low - 1.5 to 2.0 so that by the time I get to 70km my Pe is already at 20km. That way my circularization burn is small. I know it isn't the most efficient way of doing things but I don't care.

[costermonger]

In an old mod-using career save of mine I built an SRB-assisted heavy launcher that taught me that too much TWR really is a bad thing with solid motors. I used it to launch a couple light probes (mostly because the launcher was really effective - with heavier payloads, that is) and hit a TWR over 10 by the end of the SRB burn. First time I saw the re-entry effects for a significant portion of the departure.

Not easy to hit a precise parking orbit with that kind of thrust.