Do you still use Asparagus?

[Toxicblue]

Been using NEAR, so, no. Even before that I pretty much stopped doing asparagus unless absolutely necessary, especially with the cost of boosters vs extra tanks and engines. Even if I was launching something big enough to require it I would still just add extra boosters if I could get it to work that way. Screwing around with fuel lines and decouplers gets old after the 3,491st asparagus staged rocket design.

Now if your dead set on sending a 1000 ton orbital station in a single launch or trying to get off eve, yeah..

[r_rolo1]

I use it ... when feasible, economic and necessary. That was always my policy , even when decouplers were not outrageously expensive.

[heng]

Asparagus staging is good enough for the SpaceX Falcon Heavy, so it is good enough for me.

O.O They are going to use asparageese (asparagasis?) in RL?!? mind->blown

Woah. Did not know that. Awesome!

Ok, that seals it, next rocket will have lots of fuel lines and staging errors...

[TheKutKu]

Before 23.5 , i used every times, but with the 3 M part and the new career mode, i almost never have to use asparagus staging in stock ksp( but i still use it in RSS)

[iFlyAllTheTime]

I try to use but everytime now the discarded tanks will rotate and explode. People have been talking about this bug other threads, hope it gets fixed soon.

Give this a try!

[Pixel of Life]

No. Two 3.5m stages, two or three 5m stages and a set of the largest KW Rocketry SRBs is enough for anything I do. It could easily launch a whole space station all the way to Jool or Eeloo.

[moogoob]

Nope. Well, one really heavy lifter design I use does wire up one set of liquid boosters this way, but it'd function pretty similar even if I didn't

[Rithsom]

So many people here don't use asparagus... I can't get anywhere further than the Mun or Minmus without it.

[Superfluous J]

I switched to FAR at about the same time 0.24 came out and the double whammy of cost and aerodynamics has cut my use way down. I still try to drop tanks asparagus-fashion for heavy, long distance ships but that's all in space where everything's different. For the first few minutes of flight (where traditional asparagus staging is most used) it's all SRBs and tall, thin(ish) craft.

[Spartwo]

Never used it, never will.

[Overfloater]

I stopped using fuel lines as soon as I noticed how they caused my 200 part rockets to lag just like my 800 part ships ._o

[Dirty Bob]

I used to use it all the time. When they made the joints stronger in the stock game I really didn't find the need. Pancake rockets were always easier to make stable that tall thin rockets when the joints were weak.

[Ikaneko]

Due to the brilliant FAR plugin, I use a standard lifting body consisting of main booster core and 2 SRBs (Slim ones).

Asparagus is way too fiddly and makes everything spin.Like this kerbal's eyes!

[Jas1126]

Due to the brilliant FAR plugin, I use a standard lifting body consisting of main booster core and 2 SRBs (Slim ones).

Asparagus is way too fiddly and makes everything spin.Like this kerbal's eyes!

Not once, even from a few versions ago, have I had an Asparagus setup cause spinning. Not once. Perhaps you are using too little struts?

[LethalDose]

Like some other people here, I've never had much use for Asparagus staging. I keep my payloads light enough I've never needed the extra lifting power to get my payloads to LKO.

O.O They are going to use asparageese (asparagasis?) in RL?!? mind->blown

The Falcon heavy is planned to be able to cross feed fuel from two outboard boosters into the central core (a 3-core design). I don't know if I'd consider that asparagus staging, which usually describes 5 or 7-core designs that peel off in pairs.

Edited November 1, 2014 by LethalDose

[cantab]

Asparagus staging is good enough for the SpaceX Falcon Heavy, so it is good enough for me.

Even then, keep in mind they're using a core and a pair of boosters, each having nine engines. Not a core and thirteen pairs of boosters with a single engine each.

[Whovian]

I'm using RealFuels with a 6.4x scaled stock system, so a lot of my interplanetary journeys need a LOT of delta-v. Getting all that up into space requires more twr than one can easily get out of asparagus staging, so no, though that might change in the future.

[NecroBones]

Asparagus is way too fiddly and makes everything spin.Like this kerbal's eyes!

There are ways to address that.

[bigyihsuan]

If I need tons of deltaV, then yes, I use it. Normally, I just do a simple onion design with 4 boosters on the outside.

[LABHOUSE]

My best rocket does not use asparagus, but it is just for sandbox because it uses kerbodyne parts ):

But in career I use it for space stations, lay the missions, space station and base delivery, ike and gilly missions, duna missions, and eve missions.

[Madrias]

I don't tend to use Asparagus staging. It's clunky and awkward for me to set up, I end up exploding half my rocket trying to set it up, and so I stick with Onion staging plus an atmo-lander (basically the capsule/cockpit is designed to be able to glide on return-to-Kerbin) for most super-heavy rockets.

What I tend to do is make spaceplanes, and in some respect, I do an Asparagus Equivalent with drop tanks.

[turkwinif]

I would only use asparagus staging if I were doing an Eve accent vehicle or if I'd built something so massive that it required asparagus to get into orbit. Onion staging, though, is more commonly used by me.

[Norpo]

I never use asparagus nowadays, mainly because SRBS are WAY cheaper.

If I was playing sandbox, or had to, say, maybe get off eve or tylo then I might have to use asparagus, but I haven't used it in a very long time. I generally just have a core (orange tank + mainsail/whatever), and 4 boosters for my first stage of basically every lifter I make.

Edit: And if you need to know why I need that big of a first stage: the answer is this:

The K.S.V Red Lumal. The pilot, Lumal Kerman can be seen screaming.

I'm not sure why he's always doing that...

Edited November 1, 2014 by Norpo

[Wjolcz]

Used to use asparagus. Now Im more focused on SSTOs since they are cheaper and can be recycled. It slows down my career progress, though. Partly because i went for plane parts first, and left rockets for later.

[Torquemadus]

I didn't use asparagus previously, so the fact that I still don't use it shouldn't come as a news flash.

Asparagus is a supposedly "efficient" staging method that saves fuel (which is cheap) by throwing away lots of engines and empty fuel tanks (which are very expensive). My strategy is based on the use of expendable solids and recoverable fly-back stages.