Would you ride your own rocket?

[Renegrade]

Uhh.. question: Would I be riding in KSP?

I don't care how many safety features or what sort of track record any rocket has, because as long as the Kraken is waiting behind the scenes with the NaN bug or some other pleasant surprise....the answer is no.

Kraken explodes my savegame: Meh. That's what backups are for.

Kraken explodes/crashes me: Uhhh, I don't have any backups of me!

[Taki117]

I would definitely ride on one of my rockets. Each one is built with at least two abort modes. Abort Mode 1 is in effect from immediately prior to launch until the apoapsis reaches at least 80km. In this mode in the event of an emergency the LES is activated, the pod is decoupled, and all engines are given the Shutdown command. Abort Mode 2 is effective from the time apoapsis reaches 80km until a stable orbit is achieved. In this mode all engines are given the Shutdown command, and once they are verified shutdown the command pod is decoupled and reoriented for reentry.

[Pecan]

I would not consider igniting the engines on a rocket that had not already had unmanned ground-test, including escape system, manned ground-test and escape system.

After each test I revert to the VAB because it's quicker than recovery, space-centre, VAB.

I check and test at every stage and there's still likely to be staging separation failures when the thing flies - then the escape system gets used for real.

Chances are it's not until its fourth or fifth flight that a vehicle goes from launch to orbit.

Most of my designs are likely to have had at least 20 test 'flights' while I'm checking alternatives and optimising mass/cost.

So, yeah, by the time they're cleared for operational use I'd fly one from launch.

Re-usable, permanently in space vehicles I'd definitely fly on.

On the other hand there's no chance I'd be test pilot for any of my planes, space or otherwise.

But I'd get hitch a ride with Cupcakes in one of his ^^.

[Frank_G]

I never launch without various precautions taken... yes, of course i would.

[montyben101]

Only if i could go on my space shuttle (i wouldn't dock to a station though)

[Rus-Evo]

No. The designer of my rockets (me) often forgets parachutes, antennae, good staging.

[lajoswinkler]

God, no.

[Boris_T_Roach]

I'd ride one of mine into orbit without a second thought...

Riding it back down to the surface I would'nt since most of my landing profiles consist of getting back down as quickly as possible and if it suffers 22G on aero braking... too bad

[Thomas988]

My rockets rarely go bad, actually. I'll ride!

[Felsmak]

No! There's a reason why I use Kerbals to begin with!

[Norpo]

Me? Hop into one of those 10% success rate, unreliable, often-forget-parachutes death-traps?

No.

[Colserra3]

Depends on what the ship's mission is.

If it's a lander: No f*cking way! I'm terrible with first-time landings!

If it's an interplanetary vessel: Nope. I'm not going to waste 4 years of my life in a sweaty space suit!

If it's orbital/part of a space station: Yeah, sure! They're usually quite safe!

These were the last words of Cpt. Serra before a strutting error on one of the SRB's caused the ship (K.I.S.S. refueler) to explode on the launch pad.

[No one]

Maybe. My rockets are pretty reliable. I would add an Abort system if there was no reverting though.

Only thing is, getting home. Since realizing that there is massive profit in leaving Kerbals somewhere, I have started doing that. They sit on a planet/moon in a lander can and plant flags when a contract requires it. And that's it. They COULD hypothetically get home, all the landers include a thing capable of getting them home and I don't land Kerbals anywhere I don't know I can return from, but they don't return home because there's no point. Also, I send them home using external command seats. There is no way that the ride home or the reentry is comfortable.

[Mohole]

Like other people said, I would only go in my safe ones:).

Wait, then that would mean I cant go in my rockets, because they are metal deathtraps.

[Bobnova]

Sure, in stock.

With the realism overhaul and all the related mods? Hell no.

[FonVegen]

Well, I want to go to space, and I usually design my rockets with accidental emergency staging (for some reason, everytime I make a mistake upon reentry, FAR tears my rockets apart, except for the parts that need to survive; 100% survival so far, and beautiful fireballs over Kerbin). So, why not?

The rockets I would not want to get in are my interplanetary one-man landers, which require the pilot to sit in a chair for half a year.

[TotalNewb]

If I could steer with AWSD and there was no chance of malfunction, why not?

[Brody Peffley]

Most of my rockets are planes strapped to boosters and it works pretty well too

My first attempt worked perfectly and I cleared 80000 m and went sub orbital.

[Rithsom]

I would rather "fly" my rockets than "ride" them. That would be one scary flight if I had to sit on the outside on a command seat...

[GusTurbo]

Only if the "Revert" option is available

[Tripzter]

For safety yes, I however need food and air so a 10 year mission to jool with no air or food is a nono.

[Tortoise]

Depending on the rocket, yes!

I'd be scared about who's flying it though.

As long as theres FAR.

Some of my most reliable rockets only have 4,050 Dv to get into orbit. You can't do that so cheaply with stock.

Edited August 3, 2014 by Tortoise

[merendel]

Sure, I'd probably go establish a long term moon base to chill out on. Close enough to return in an emergency and ping signals off satalites for internet access(even if its high latency) but far enough away that the crazy crap politicians try to pull wont effect me much. My rockets, even the large ones have a better survival rate than the RL space programs. Missions fail all the time but always in a recoverable way (aka got stuck in LKO cause transfer stage broke on seperation, easy to get down in a pinch)

[SlyReaper]

Like this?

[SelectHalfling0]

Only my crew shuttle (it has an escape tower)