LEO challenge - Real size Earth

[Darthan]

How much delta-v did your craft have in total?

delta-V
stage 1+boosters: 2662.8 m/s
stage 2: 2633.4 m/s
stage 3: 4274.0 m/s
total: 9570.2 m/s

Stage 3 was originally two stages but it made the rocket a bit too tall so I merged the stages into one. If the 6m headshield was not needed (it wouldn't be if the re-entry was not attempted) you could fit a 4th stage under the fairing at the top.

Like I'm trying to send a 10 ton payload to LEO with less than 2000t and I'm getting so close (the 2% payload fraction is real)

10/2000 is 0.5% .For my attempt, total mass in orbit/launcher mass was 26.43/2433.54 or about 1.08%. However, the payload+fairing+separator was 9.08t with 3.28t leftover fuel in the 3rd stage - closer to 0.508% if you could arrange for all the leftover fuel to be payload instead (and minimise separator and fairing). Your aim looks only borderline possible.

 

[Axiom]

10/2000 is 0.5%

I'm dumb, I've gotten within spitting distance of it (nearly 10.6t with only 2030t and got it to 100m/s from orbit)

 

[floatingfuel]

Here's my try! I did this in a different world. My rocket uses Altaïr's Shappire Titan engine placement at the bottom.

The flight profile started with ascending with minimum turn, so that the rocket passed 100km altitude quickly. Then, the turning was done so that the apogee was kept around 200km. Finally, the ship circularized at 500km x 500km.

The reentry in this world and TSADSS is insane! I tried reenter with no heat damage on, and the temperature reached 11000+ºC! Is reentry on Realistic Mode this hard?

 

[Axiom]

Is reentry on Realistic Mode this hard?

Set the minheatingMultiplier to something like 5 to prevent yourself from burning up instantaneously

 

[Axiom]

Well here's my last shot at it

With a mass of just over 2 kilotons, I will send 10 tons to LEO in realisitc on TSADSS

I remember what my uncle said "WIth great challenges comes goofy ahh solutions".

Final stage unused

 

[Marmilo]

Final stage unused

Well yeah, it's the payload

 

[Axiom]

Well yeah, it's the payload

That makes sense, but I was inspired by This reddit post where the guy said he needed to use 700m/s of the satellite to get into orbit

 

[Marmilo]

That makes sense, but I was inspired by This reddit post where the guy said he needed to use 700m/s of the satellite to get into orbit

That's a skill issue lol, good on you for actually leaving the payload unused

 

[Axiom]

That's a skill issue lol, good on you for actually leaving the payload unused

Thanks! It was actually quite difficult, providing 10000m/s with SFS engines is no mean feat!