Constitution Class interplanetary vessel [Pictures]

[arsmith]

So, this is my first play through of KSP, everything I know how to do I learned from the Wiki, Scott Manley, and blowing things up until they worked. Currently I am using the following mods: Protractor, Kerbal Engineer, Kerbal Alarm Clock and Kerbal Attachment System.

On my first interplanetary voyage, Jeb, Bob and Bill took Constellation to Duna, orbited it and Ike, almost ran out of fuel (This is where I learned how important correction burns are, and how to aerocapture), and safely returned to Kerbin with enough science to unlock half the fourth tier. After successfully landing I did a short mission review and decided on a couple of things:

1) Landing the habitat section is unnecessary. You can fly up, rendezvous, get science, and fly back.

2) Modular construction is a good idea, but the side engines needed a better alignment scheme than "eyeball it."

3) The vessel should be able to transport parasite ships for landing/bases/etc.

Hence, the new Constitution class.

After several entertaining mishaps (one particularly heartbreaking one where Jeb performed a perfect docking from 115 meters out only to not have a docking port installed, another one where the habitat section flexed in the middle on takeoff) we finally go the ship assembled:

So, 79 days till moho launch window...

[Vanamonde]

Yikes. What is the part count on that?

[arsmith]

That's a good question. How do I look that up in flight?

[Vanamonde]

On map view, there's a button on the right with an I on it. Clicking it brings up information on your currently focused object, whether that is a world, moon, or ship. If it is a ship, you'll get some info which includes the current mass and part count. Also, in the VAB list of designs you've got, the name and part count of the ship design are listed, though of course, that wouldn't work for ships you've already assembled in space, like the one in your pictures.

[arsmith]

Ah. Part count 450. I'm going to go a little less nuts with the struts next time.

[arsmith]

Also, that's with the landers, they're about 50 parts apiece.

[Taki117]

I've seen worse, but in your last pic your engine Nacelle appears to be misaligned, that might cause issues when you go to fire it up.

[arsmith]

Yeah, turns out Oreney isn't as good a pilot as the others were. I tested it out on an f5-revert and there was some twisting but it steadied down.