The Funniest Deaths/Losses of your Space Program

[Rainbowtrout]

All kerbals must die at one point... Be it a basic crash, or a flagship that went too deep at Jool, killing 50 kerbs. Share the best deaths of your space program!

(We here at the LumpySpaceProgram Commemoration Department consider a death as Killed in Action, or lost beyond return.)

I'll get us going: Alnand Kerman, died from skydiving at 30KM above Kerbin's sea level.

[Padishar]

I was testing some modifications to a lander/rover design to prevent issues with the kerbal in the command seat being thrown out while docking, usually resulting in the death of the kerbal. I made various changes and was pretty confident that the kerbal should survive because, if he did get ejected, it should be in a direction away from the vessels, so I "asked for a volunteer" to test it in LKO. Jeb wanted the job but I wasn't that confident so I gave it to some random kerb I can't remember the name of now and when he docked, sure enough, he still got thrown out of the seat and he did survive, but he somehow managed to achieve an orbital velocity of over 100 km/s so he was definitely lost beyond return...

[Linear]

Laythe mission. Too few parachutes. Time acceleration. No parachutes. Extreme Lithobreaking.

[KerbMav]

I tend to "simulate" launches until they are successful - and I also use the EVA parachutes mod - so I dont have lost any Kerbals for quite some time.

Bill was AWOL for a while because his parachute drifted from Jeb and Bob, but after a tour of drunky he returned in a better mood than he was after the their craft popped during reentry.

[cantab]

Way back in the demo I pulled off a rescue mission that entailed making my first ever rendezvous (with a ship in an inclined Kerbin orbit) and inter-ship EVA. Then 500 metres above the ground the parachutes opened and tore off, leaving both Kerbals to slam into the ground in a fireball.

[Guest]

One time... I got Kirrim Kerman... So obviously I put him on a dangerous mission... and 3 days before that I made a huge cloud of debris.... I underestimated the power of the Kessler Cloud.... and It destroyed most of my orbital probes.... and a Space Station....

So I sent Kirrim on a rocket-launched spaceplane to the Kessler.... Sadly he was hit by debris..... It was more heroic than funny but, Who the hell cares!

[Bishop149]

I'm Kerbal death adverse . . . I have lost a total of two kerbs (not including Kraken attacks) in my career game. I test the hell out of everything before I stick a Kerb in it.

Anyway the two I lost:

1) Rolling down the runway having landed an SSTO at KSP following a successful mission in orbit. . . .I applied the brakes, this cause the nose to pitch down by the tiniest of tiny fractions. . . which the SAS (which as still on) MASSIVELY overcompensated for and for some reason decide to introduce a small roll too. Wing tip hit ground and there followed a chain reactions of bits falling off and exploding killing poor Doodmund Kerman!

Lesson learned: SAS OFF before brakes ON.

2) Something random (I can't remember what) happened which really pissed me off, I uncharacteristically rage-aborted the mission. . . complete with Kerb.

[Xacktar]

I just started a new save and Jeb died from falling two feet from the capsule to the ground after a perfectly successful mission.'

Love it when that happens. You just stare at the screen and go:

[cantab]

I just started a new save and Jeb died from falling two feet from the capsule to the ground after a perfectly successful mission.'

Love it when that happens. You just stare at the screen and go:

When I had the same thing happen (but not with Jeb) when a Kerbal fell two inches, I didn't hesitate in using Crew Manifest to revive him. I'll accept "genuine" deaths, but not blatant game bugs.

[BagelRabbit]

Once, for a Mun landing, I ditched the second stage while it was still burning fuel at about 10% throttle. I fired up the next engine and put about a kilometer of distance between the two... and then, about twenty seconds after I cut the throttle, BAM. The second stage hit the first, utterly destroying it.

I was displeased.

Also, there was this one time where I was trying to land at the KSC after an orbital mission. I parachuted down, and landed with two landing legs on the VAB and two off. Despite the best efforts of the SAS module, the craft fell off of the VAB and crashed.

(sigh)

[Tex]

I was testing a new capsule design (the Artemis), which I one day hope to release on the spacecraft exchange, when the booster rocket exploded, and I quickly deployed the parachutes. A piece of debris clunked into the command pod itself and cut the parachutes, and there were only seconds left before the capsule hit the ground. I quickly sent a Kerbal EVA and popped the parachute manually. That ensured that the capsule was safe, but the g-shock flung him down to the ground where he died...

That was a heroic moment!

[aman608]

sending a kerbal on EVA during physics warp

... which in turn launched him 1km up to fall to his death

[problemecium]

While I never kill Kerbals "for real", I do occasionally "run simulations" using the Revert / Quicksave mechanics.

And most recently, I built a cannon out of Kerbodyne boosters able to launch a nosecone from the beginning of the runway all the way into the ocean. Then I replaced the nosecone with Jeb in a lander can. Fun times!

Actually, wait... he survived that. Still.

There was also a time when I had a Kerbal EVA in front of a side-facing LFB, which ended up launching him at about 4 km/s straight through the VAB and out the other side. Cannons are fun!

[Felsmak]

All of them.

[SpenSpaceCorp]

I was relatively early in a career mode save, Jeb had just landed on the Mun, and started to launch back into orbit. I got on a sub orbital flight, as I had run out of fuel, so he EVA'd into a stable orbit, using all of his propellant. A rescue mission was sent when RCS was developed (I tried maneuvering a ship before without RCS, but he would not grab the ladder!), and Jeb still would not grab the ladder. He just floated there, huge unchanging smile, so I turned the ship, fired the engines to leave, and the exhaust hit him sending him into a sub orbital flight. With no propellant. Spinning furiously.

[Robotengineer]

I sent a early career mode Mün orbiter, and saw I had a lot of fuel. Tried to land. 'Nough said.

[Piper]

The only "official" death I have in my space program, was when certified "badS" Orkin Kermin was testing a spaceplane prototype (his very first mission as well), and decided to fly out to the mountains west of KSC. At the start of the flight, Orkin had piloted it above the clouds, but as he approached the mountains he began a decent below the clouds. Moments after breaking through the bottom of the cloud deck, Orkin discovered just how close he was already to the mountains, and next thing I knew Orkin and the prototype spaceplane had formed a brand new crater in the side of a mountain. As a pilot in real-life, I felt extra dumb for descending through the clouds into a mountain range, and forced myself to not revert the flight, and accept Orkin's death.

The whole spaceplane program had tons of comical disintegrations due to aircraft going out of control and crashing. In fact, I think I still have some debris at the end of the runway I need to clean up (that's no joke, I keep seeing it every time I launch a rocket and I keep forgetting to recover the debris). Thankfully I set up the spaceplane's cockpit with a decoupler and a couple of parachutes to act as a way to eject. Luckily this system worked surprisingly well, and Orkin was the only Kerbal to die in that program.

[Crimsonraziel]

I had a debris taking its turns over Kerbin's in somewhat excentric orbit. Its periapsis was inside kerbin's atmosphere so it slowed down with every revolution and after several ingame days (weeks) it finally hit the ground. Unfortnately right next to a car north of KSC killing Jenfry Kerman while I was taking a surface sample with the copilot.