Your Absolute BADASS Moment in KSP

[Mister Kingdom]

Sadly, there are no pictures, but my minimalistic Minmus lander had a very close call. It was never meant to leave Kerbin manned, but I had a new Mun station and was itching to use it, so I loaded my best pilot into the can, slapped it onto my standard lifter and took off; what could go wrong? Next thing I know, it's on a collision course with the surface of the Mun, after a successful Minmus landing, and it's run out of fuel. I do the only thing I can; Gravity it. The pilot kisses goodbye to the lander, gets on EVA and burns for his life towards a tiny little marker 20km away, and he makes it with almost no fuel left. God, I felt badass.

[RexKramer]

I recently decided to EVA a Kerbal at 60km, during a vertical free fall from about 130km. To get an upper atmo EVA report, because why not.

He of course promptly fell off the vessel, which did not have SAS engaged. I hit Jebs EVA RCS, and frantically maneuvered him towards the wobbling and rotating ship. Got him aboard about 20km later, and even managed to click and get the EVA report I was hoping for. Was very exciting.

[DeepSpaceDutch]

He of course promptly fell off the vessel, which did not have SAS engaged. I hit Jebs EVA RCS, and frantically maneuvered him towards the wobbling and rotating ship. Got him aboard about 20km later, and even managed to click and get the EVA report I was hoping for. Was very exciting.

That is proper bad-ass Good Sir!

[boa3532]

No screens, but it was intense for me and my best event yet. Playing a stock copy in career mode and "landed" on the Mun with Jeb. By landed, I mean I lost control of ship as I touched down resulting of it tipping over. Couldn't get it to get back upright. So I decided to try to use the engine to "slide" the rocket to a nearby incline, went too fast and the engine and fuel tank exploded, leaving poor Jeb stuck in a capsule.

Eventually I got enough science to unlock the 3-kerbal pod and with an empty seat, I set off on a rescue mission. Without KER to aide me in figuring out delta V, I realized during my transit to Mun, that I would need to be ultra conservative with my fuel as I was down to 95% fuel left on last stage. Got into Mun orbit, targeted the landing site with minimal fuel used. Only then did I notice I was landing in the dark and I had no lights installed on my ship. Not enough gas, to get back into orbit and try again later. Knew I needed to do a suicide burn and waited until the alt reader said 6,000 meters and did a full power burn til the speed read around 30m/s At that point I noticed the alt said 450m and knew I was very close to the ground. 30 secs later, I touched down in the dark a mere 1124m from Jeb!!!! Considering the closest I've ever been able to land to a ground target before this was 5.2km, I was grinning big time! Walked Jeb over and got him aboard.

At this point I realized that the ship had about 40% of its fuel remaining and I was VERY worried about getting them in Mun orbit, much less home... I actually opened the debug menu and thought about turning on infinite fuel, then thought... screw it.. I'm going for it! Put the engine on quarter power and got the ship in a 12km orbit, prob down to 10-15% fuel at that point. Decided to go directly into the Kerbal atmosphere. Set up the node and fired. Cut off the engines with 4% percent fuel remaining. Landed, recovered Jeb and brought home almost 400 science!

I wonder how I'm gonna top that?????

[Kesa]

I forgot the brakes on a Mun rover, so I catched it rolling down at ~12m/s on EVA jet, hovering near it, and finally manage to get the RMB menu open long enough for me to click it (but not to take a pic )

[waterlubber]

Landing a spaceplane first try with a joystick perfectly on the runway.

[Fryer Mike]

One time I was heading back into Kerbin atmosphere, when I got out to get an EVA report in the upper atmosphere... Jeb lost his grip apparently and fell off his ladder. I tried to get back to the hatch, but I seemed to be falling much much faster than the ship. I tried my hardest to slow down as much as I could, but still ended up hitting the ground at 200 m/s. Somehow he survived and immediately my hands went up in the air hahaha

[kStrout]

I was re-entering a spaceplane and overshot, so I decided that instead of a normal turn, I would nosedive, then turn around and pull back up. I started at 20km, activated the rcs at 2km, and managed to pull into a level flight at 600m and land safely.

[Tex]

I was doing a scientific flight in a jet plane I had created. During the mission, the CoM had shifted from the fuel I had expended (I have since learned to check the shifting CoM when I design new planes!) and made the aircraft extremely unstable. Because it was during a time where I had little experience building spaceplanes, I had safety parachutes on the craft, which I deployed when things got hairy.

However, about one-fifth of the way down, I decided that it was going too slowly for me. I then took the huge gamble of cutting the chutes and trying to land the wild plane myself- which I did! It was the coolest thing I'd done up to that point.

[Mitchz95]

My first Laythe landing was a spectacular failure. I landed safely, but I didn't have enough fuel to return to orbit so I had to wait for a rover to arrive from Kerbin with extra LFO. And even after returning to orbit and docking with the mothership I didn't have enough to return to Kerbin. Poor Will died alone and far from home.

I didn't want there to be any such mistakes during my second attempt, so I went big. A massive mothership (U.K.S. Will Kerman) with two SSTO spaceplanes capable of landing and returning to orbit. Just to make absolutely sure, I also sent a big tanker at around the same time.

Well, things did go wrong. Some pilot error and inefficient planning resulted in my being several k/s short what I needed to get home. But using KAS and some ingenuity, I was able to merge both the Will Kerman and the tanker together into a single ship that got me just enough to make it back. Solving a major logistical problem in the distant Joolean system was an amazing experience and one that I still look back on with pride.

[The DigitalAlchemist]

Before I got the hang of balancing my space planes so they were stable while full AND empty, at one point returning from orbit I had burnt all my fuel, and my CoG moved so far back, that the plane was actually more stable flying in reverse, and I ended up landing backwards.

[Whackjob]

Hrm. I suppose even though I'm largely inactive, I ought to contribute.

The landing of the original Arkingthaad Tower Lander on Duna. Right at sunrise.

[Alchemist]

I just had one of those moments yesterday. One of those moments for which I feel myself both badass and idiot.

SSTO returning to KSC. Slight overshot. Turning down and around. Dropping almost vertically on the eastern end of the runway. Stabilizing horizontal flight. Realizing I'm already over the middle of the runway and still too fast. Trying to turn around above the end of the runway. Ending approaching center of the runway at minimal velocity at 60 degree angle. Gently turning in the proper direction and landing softly. Contemplating for 5 minutes why the heck did I do this. What a terrible pilot I am.

And another thought of the same kind: I finally got properly working SSTO planes that I can fly reliably... right before the new aerodynamics...

[DunaRocketeer]

I rescued a Kerbal from LKO, and performed my re-entry burn. As Re-entry progressed, I realised that I was flying just a little too high and fast to easily land at KSC, so I figured as soon as I had slowed down to about 400m/s I'd put the vehicle into a steep corkscrew dive and pull up just as I approached the runway threshold. The vehicle had hardly any fuel so was light and nimble compared to launch, it pulled up and smoothly touched down with its main gear and rotated the nose onto the runway, just like the Space Shuttle.

Felt happy after that.

[samstarman5]

Let Jeb land on the Mun using retrograde control, which for level-terrain landings, is a very handy tool. What I did after all the science and flag and EVA'ing about, was fail to forget to tell him to go back to default attitude control. Which meant, upon liftoff, the lander immediately tried to nosedive into the ground. After a few seconds of adrenaline and terror, I managed to actually prevent it from doing so, and then realize I still needed to turn off retrograde piloting. It was like riding a bucking bronco, exciting as hell, and exhilarating having accomplished not crashing in the process. I would definitely recommend people give it a shot, just to get a feel for how the controls go when you are fighting with your pilot. Jeb is one stubborn individual and will stick to what he has been told to do with honor.

[celem]

Heh, been there samstarman5... The other fun aspect of that particular oversight is if you overdo your suicide burn and actually hit the hover above the surface, probably at like 100m, you thrust a tiny bit too much and retro becomes straight down. As you mentioned, its the adrenaline and panic thats fun, you correct heading, have time to wonder why your SAS is having a fit, before realising he's tracking retro. You correct, enable stability assist, then realise you are now doing -35ms vertical at 40m altitude. Good Times.

My particular highpoint recently was in a new 'hard' difficulty career I just started. Designed a shoe-string mission that would put a probe lander down onto the mun, take materials and temp and return to kerbin. Designing a craft to pull it off wasnt very easy with minimal funding and the starting building limits. Managed to put something together with the help of some experimental parts, got it to the moon and dropped it into a crater (with a stayputnik, sas lock is over-rated). Grabbed my sci and took off again, left the moon on a free return and made 4 aerobrake passes to get KSC to line up underneath me for maximum fund returns on recovery and began descent. At 5km I hit stage and turn to make a coffee, before noticing out of the corner of my eye that...gee...guess you didnt bring a chute. Thankfully the probe contained about 250dV which proved to be just enough for a suicide-burn splashdown at 7ms, lost my lv-909 but saved the sci. First time I've ever made a powered landing without intending (and therefore designing) for it.

[tntristan12]

I recently ended up in a deadly flat-spin with one of my early rocket-propelled aircraft, and Jeb was unable to recover it. At the very last second I EVA'd him and jumped out of the plane without a parachute. He bounced about 50 feet into the air, but was otherwise unscathed. The plane crashed behind him and exploded, looking very much like that picture in the OP.

[SaturnV]

Deorbit and power landing with the last liter of fuel

[Flixxbeatz]

When you've docked something very large, and you've achieved the expected results. NO WOBBLES!

Euphoria has been achieved.

[hellion13]

Building the simplest single seat jet i could imagine and getting my first real success with the airplane aspect of KSP. Maxing the G meter doing corkscrews around the tower at ~300m/s. Jeb had a huge smile most of that flight.

[Camaron]

How to: Docking

[both are legit ships, actually launched from the ground! NOT Hyperedit.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Edited March 4, 2015 by Camaron

[SmashingKirby148]

I don't have one... :[

[StrandedonEarth]

Getting a toppled ship off the ground on Ike...

[samstarman5]

Heh, been there samstarman5... The other fun aspect of that particular oversight is if you overdo your suicide burn and actually hit the hover above the surface, probably at like 100m, you thrust a tiny bit too much and retro becomes straight down. As you mentioned, its the adrenaline and panic thats fun, you correct heading, have time to wonder why your SAS is having a fit, before realising he's tracking retro. You correct, enable stability assist, then realise you are now doing -35ms vertical at 40m altitude. Good Times.

My particular highpoint recently was in a new 'hard' difficulty career I just started. Designed a shoe-string mission that would put a probe lander down onto the mun, take materials and temp and return to kerbin. Designing a craft to pull it off wasnt very easy with minimal funding and the starting building limits. Managed to put something together with the help of some experimental parts, got it to the moon and dropped it into a crater (with a stayputnik, sas lock is over-rated). Grabbed my sci and took off again, left the moon on a free return and made 4 aerobrake passes to get KSC to line up underneath me for maximum fund returns on recovery and began descent. At 5km I hit stage and turn to make a coffee, before noticing out of the corner of my eye that...gee...guess you didnt bring a chute. Thankfully the probe contained about 250dV which proved to be just enough for a suicide-burn splashdown at 7ms, lost my lv-909 but saved the sci. First time I've ever made a powered landing without intending (and therefore designing) for it.

I am beginning to hate water landings because those are so much more likely to cost me an engine and maybe even more (like science modules...grrr) than landing on ground. I am not sure why that is, as I thought water was supposed to provide for a softer landing.

As for the retrograde pilot, I have yet to hit that hover point, since my attention is more on my speed and throttle and less on attitude. Before, when I had to pay attention to attitude, I would screw up throttle too many times and have to wait for gravity to help me back down again.

Your little story got me to thinking that it would be cool if we can use the resource collector to also take samples with drone-piloted craft. If one worries that this may cause using kerbals less, collecting science on such drone-collected samples could also come with a hit to prestige. The logic being the companies that provide the contracts would prefer kerbals accompany the mission(Unless it is a satellite or the like). Of course, that is with career mode. Whatever someone does with sandbox or science mode is their business.

[AbacusWizard]

Once I was launching an uncrewed delivery ship up to an asteroid carrying a bunch of detachable klaw modules (my intention was to place many stabilizer wheels scattered evenly around the asteroid). I had reached a stable orbit or close enough to it, so I pressed the stage button to blow the decouplers, detach the launcher, and activate the main nuclear engines. Unfortunately something went wrong... I don't know if the decouplers were attached badly, or if the launcher was off-balance, or if the nuclear engines ignited the remaining fuel in the launcher, but one of the big orange fuel tanks began to explode. I freaked out and cut all power to the engines, but it was too late; the explosion triggered a chain reaction and the rest of the launcher quickly became a huge fiery blast. In a blind panic I almost instinctively push the throttle to MAX and at the same time hit the screenshot button, ending up with an intact ship and a perfect shot...

...of outrunning the fireball.