Which type of launch looks cooler?

[spyker92]

The one that requires more boosters.

Massive, super complex, pure SRB surface-to-orbit launches are the best. There's alot to be said about rocket design when you're completely comfortable ramming a 200T monster into orbit using nothing but SRBs.

[Boris_T_Roach]

I prefer 3 styles of launch

1. Badly designed : this is where you start your 7 mainsails to get your super heavy booster carrying 120 tones of space ship into orbit and notice that releasing the launch clamps also de-coupled the SRB boosters so vital for getting you ship of the launch pad, with the result the SRBs go off on a wacky trip of their own while your ship drops back onto the launch pad......

2. Badly flown : Throttling up your 7 mainsail engines to 100% before lighting them makes the impact of the thrust tear your ship apart before you have a chance to notice that #1 above is going to happen

3. Just plain bad : So you've fixed #1 ,avoided #2 , you've dumped off the SRBs and started your gravity turn at 9Km while not remembering that as the fuel is burned off the TWR increases, and you get down to your last 200 kilos of fuel in the first stage with all 7 mainsails at 100%........ and you notice the first stage has just gone through the second stage..... and the 3rd stage, and the orbital tug.... the crew capsule.... and the payload. It was quite an impressive explosion though and the remains still made it to 70Km on momentum alone..

Boris

I'm left wondering why Kerbals dont have parachutes is that they'd jump out of our rockets/aircraft the first chance they could get

[Madrias]

Depends on what save I'm playing.

If I'm playing my Career save, I'm careful and want the nice gentle launch, somewhere in the middle.

My War-Zone save, clearing the clamps in a tremendous spray of rocket exhaust at 6 m/s is an awesome start to dropping all sorts of heck on KSC 2.

And for my general KSP Sandbox save, lobbing a space-plane skybound, leaving fire trails, smoke, and re-entry plasma wash in its wake, ascending at a 50 degree incline and trying to level out and orbit at 150km, ending up with an orbit at 340x180km, then trying to figure where to go, lighting off my LV-N's. Alternately, strapping a Mainsail to a craft normally pushed around in space by an Ion Engine can be real bloody amusing. Fastest space probe ever.

[TranquilTempest]

High TWR launches that look slow because of a low max ∆t per frame. You know, something like 25 mainsails and a bunch of SRBs that takes about half an hour to make it into orbit.

[Whackjob]

When you destroy forty percent of the atmosphere on the way out.

[AlamoVampire]

While Sir Whackjob there, poses an atmospheric threat of unparalleled proportions, I myself prefer a more elegant launch.

[Sargent890]

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.

Now THAT would be cool

[AlternNocturn]

Allow me to be that guy that goes way into detail. I like launches that are between medium and "bat out of hell." Too fast and I worry about drag. Too slow and I worry about gravity. Too average and it's not as fun.

Additionally, I enjoy any launch with side-mounted boosters, liquid or otherwise. Even better are side-mounters with multiple engines. There's something about an excessive number of exhaust effects that makes me irrationally happy.

Off topic: Ever wonder what would happen if we strapped S-IC stages to the sides of a fully built Saturn V stack? I wonder if it was possible to do that? How far would it take us?

[Whackjob]

Off topic: Ever wonder what would happen if we strapped S-IC stages to the sides of a fully built Saturn V stack? I wonder if it was possible to do that? How far would it take us?

Something like this?

[Boris_T_Roach]

Whackjob does'nt ever launch his rockets from Kerbin , his rockets launch Kerbin.

Boris

[Arran]

http://i.imgur.com/3bKqWW9.jpg

When you destroy forty percent of the atmosphere on the way out.

IF i would launch such an contraption on my PC, it prolly WILL melt the whole PC into a puddle of molten silicon and plastic

[-RanZ-]

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.

not sure what fuel KSP uses but the space shuttle exhaust was 97% water vapor so not really environmentally-unfriendly

[InterCity]

I go for pure efficiency. But when i was young and stupid, i was able to use a mainsail to power less than one orange tank, with epic TWR of 7, but wasting about 5000 Delta-v on it.

[costermonger]

I was playing around with Stretchy SRB last night and at the end of the first stage burn the TWR passed 25. The probe I was launching was still suborbital, but had an AP above 300k after the first stage.

I'm going to play around with it a bit to work out a heavy lifter SRB-based SSTO design. Yes, it's basically cheating, but launching stuff gets kind of monotonous after a while.

[PDCWolf]

Posted this a million times. One more can't hurt.

Can't wait for realistic aerodynamics so that I have to start pitching down as soon as I clear the tower.

[Red Iron Crown]

Posted this a million times. One more can't hurt.

http://i.imgur.com/YQJ8MTr.gif

Can't wait for realistic aerodynamics so that I have to start pitching down as soon as I clear the tower.

What is the point of the first stage? Just awesomeness?

[PDCWolf]

What is the point of the first stage? Just awesomeness?

I waited too much to separate the pusher though, that's why it started so slow on my gif.

[cantab]

Slowly lumbering off the pad looks more "realistic", if not more cool.

Something I wonder about. True, going too slowly "wastes" delta-v fighting gravity - but can that be made up, within reason, by carrying lighter engines?

[Red Iron Crown]

I waited too much to separate the pusher though, that's why it started so slow on my gif.

Awesomeness it is, then.

[SkyRender]

Most of my rockets have a starting TWR of 1.2 to 1.4, so the initial lift is somewhat sedate. I tend to pick that particular range for simplicty's sake: it means I don't have to actually mess with the throttle that much as I go up.

[jdmgto]

I like launch speed to be inversely proportional to rocket size. Small single stage 1.25m rockets need to shoot off like bottle rockets. My big 800 ton monstrosities should lumber into the sky.

[PDCWolf]

Awesomeness it is, then.

That and you don't want your expensive silo to be burnt down with all the people inside it by the rocket exhaust.

[CaptainKipard]

A TWR of 1.5 looks nice and seems quite practical to me.