What was your biggest payload you have launched into orbit?

[TerLoki]

I can't remember off the top of my head how much the whole thing weighed, but I DID get get two of those KW 3.75m orange tanks and around 20 tons of payload up SSTO, with a few bells and whistles attached to make sure the thing could circularize, deorbit, and land after delivering the payload. Had to be around 300 tons on take-off, but probably less than 100 in orbit.

[Kasuha]

350 t of my E class asteroid tractor just recently.

[XyllyX]

Idk how heavy this is

The solar panels made this an absolute chore to get into orbit

[Redshift OTF]

Went a bit bigger this time.

I didn't put any discernible payload on this one but I think it could lift 2000 tons. Really inefficient and slowed the PC down to about 1/20th of normal speed. 288 SAS modules needed to turn it.

Literally fills the VAB.

Edited April 10, 2014 by Redshift OTF

[Horn Brain]

...my policy is to go to just under orbital, then shed extra tanks and engines, that way they drop into the atmosphere and keep LKO clean.

I never thought of Whackjob as a pragmatist.

[TerLoki]

I never thought of Whackjob as a pragmatist.

Well if my debris was that big I'd be a lot more worried about clean orbits too.

[Whackjob]

My stuff pales into insignificance next to the power of the Whackjob.

Don't knock your own builds! All big builds are GOOD builds.

Well if my debris was that big I'd be a lot more worried about clean orbits too.

LOL!

[Othuyeg]

Not really anything special, just normal space station parts.

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If I remember correctly, it does have 48 000 units of liquid fuel. Or something like that. I won't be running out of fuel when refueling my probes.

[NecroBones]

My new heaviest payload to orbit... and heaviest lifter.

The lower stage or the portion in orbit has half it's fuel left for an escape burn, after circularizing, which was intentional in this case, so I'm including that in the "payload". On the pad it was 2805 Tons. What made it to a 147x150 orbit, weighs in at 508.8 Tons. Instead of building the booster under the Orbital/Interplanetary stages, I had to build the boosters around it laterally, otherwise I ended up with a rocket that would bend over and explode on the pad.

[chriscraft132]

my biggest payload in one trip was a 16t spacestation in a ssto. it kinda looked like starhopper. without the bosster

[Superfluous J]

Wow fun walk down memory lane there. Surprised I didn't post in this thread back when it was new, seeing as I think what is still my largest payload was launched just a few months after the last post here.

Joolpollo back in 0.23.5 was just over 370 tons when it was in space but not quite in LKO. Sadly I cut the video before circularizing and didn't come back until after ejection, when the ship was down to 178 tons. So all I know for sure is it's between 178 and 374 tons in LKO, and is probably much closer to the high end.

Seems it took almost 200 tons of fuel (and tanks) to go from suborbital to a Jool ejection.

(Video for reference. The cut mentioned above is almost exactly 12 minutes in)

Spoiler

 

 

[magnemoe]

On 7/18/2019 at 8:36 AM, 5thHorseman said:

Wow fun walk down memory lane there. Surprised I didn't post in this thread back when it was new, seeing as I think what is still my largest payload was launched just a few months after the last post here.

Joolpollo back in 0.23.5 was just over 370 tons when it was in space but not quite in LKO. Sadly I cut the video before circularizing and didn't come back until after ejection, when the ship was down to 178 tons. So all I know for sure is it's between 178 and 374 tons in LKO, and is probably much closer to the high end.

Seems it took almost 200 tons of fuel (and tanks) to go from suborbital to a Jool ejection.

(Video for reference. The cut mentioned above is almost exactly 12 minutes in)

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Stuff is so much easier now.

700 ton on pad, 200 empty. an 5 meter saturn 5 setup who used 4 large srb to help it so almost SSTO. Needed the large tank as its an fuel depot in LKO. 

[Eriksonn]

A while ago i did this:

i dont have the save anymore but i threw together a similar mock up and i would guess about 100 tons on it(on the large core module, the whole thing would be 150 tons maybe). I usually dont do much heavy lifting as i tend to focus more on ion powered probes and gravity assists and smaller rockets.

[cantab]

How KSP has moved on.

Anywhere it's nowhere near my biggest stuff in stock, but I set my RSS record as part of my Saturn V recreation: 186 tonnes in LEO.

LEO established by cantab314, on Flickr

Mass in orbit by cantab314, on Flickr

Of course this invokes the old discussion of what counts as payload. You can argue the 186 tonne mass is "payload to LEO" in the context of a Moon mission, but that doesn't mean it can put 186t of whatever you like to LEO. I think a fairer payload figure in a case like this would be to count the upper stage remaining fuel, but not its structure, on the grounds that if you short-fuelled the stage you could add that much payload. In my Saturn V's case, subtracting the 39 tonne dry mass of the stage gives a "true" payload of 147 tonnes to LEO.

But then it could probably actually lift more. It's hard to know exactly without testing because adding more payload but not removing fuel will affect TWR and delta-V across all stages. For a rocket that already has a low TWR that may be an issue, especially in stock with high payload fractions.

 

 

[Star-Eagle]

On 7/21/2019 at 7:45 PM, Eriksonn said:

A while ago i did this:

i dont have the save anymore but i threw together a similar mock up and i would guess about 100 tons on it(on the large core module, the whole thing would be 150 tons maybe). I usually dont do much heavy lifting as i tend to focus more on ion powered probes and gravity assists and smaller rockets.

Do you by any chance know what mod/s you used for it?

[GRS]

Largest was like 1750 Tons, though only like 1000 Tons of Payload is included...

[DStaal]

2 hours ago, Star-Eagle said:

Do you by any chance know what mod/s you used for it?

That looks to be nearly all various Near Future (electrical, structural, propulsion, solar) mods and stock.

[purpleivan]

As is my answer for about half of the "what was you X most mission/ship/anything" questions, it was the Eve Party Boat.

This four man Eve return vehicle weighed in at 747 tons at on top of its launcher, but some of that was fuel, as it went up about 1/3 full. Dry it's 427 tons, but not all fuel was used getting to orbit, so probably was at least 500 tons once it got up there.

Wierd thing is I launched this about 3 months into playing KSP, which I've been doing now for 5 years, and I've not done anything near as crazy since. Well except driving a boat around the entire coastline of Kerbin... but that's a different kind of crazy.

Edited July 23, 2019 by purpleivan

[Eriksonn]

7 hours ago, Star-Eagle said:

Do you by any chance know what mod/s you used for it?

The mods i used was most of the near future technologies mods

atleast i think that those were most of the important ones, might still be a few "trace parts" from other mods too but the NFT mods is by far the majority

[Star-Eagle]

@DStaal @Eriksonn

Thanks for the info, I've been looking for a mod with struts and completely forgot about Nertea's mods

 

 

[Ratwerke_Actual]

vid

You didn't specify whether big or massive, but here's the only vid I have. It's a 75m station spine sent up in a single launch.

Have also launched 100m and 250m sections for later projects, without vids because framerate killed PC and physics.