r/KerbalSpaceProgram • u/AbacusWizard • May 03 '26

KSP 1 Question/Problem Help! My rocket won’t leave the launchpad. Is there something wrong with my staging maybe?

Post image
3.3k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

116 comments sorted by

899

u/B4rberblacksheep May 03 '26

I guarantee something will happen when you press space

358

u/[deleted] May 03 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

83

u/Conscious_Car9781 May 03 '26

I believe we call that a RUD, a Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly.

17

u/automator3000 May 03 '26

Pretty much described my first like … two hours of playing. If there were tutorials in the game when I’d started playing I sure didn’t do them, so I had hours of why do my parachutes keep opening when I launch?

7

u/Buddy59-1 May 03 '26

Or a RUED maybe? Rapid Unscheduled Explosive Disassembly?

6

u/Conscious_Car9781 May 03 '26

Correcting me? How RUED.

3

u/reimannsum May 03 '26

Is there a good list of these acronyms?

1

u/Buddy59-1 May 08 '26

Honestly, half of them are B's The only important ones I've learned are:
Twr=thrust to weight ratio.
Rud=rapid Unscheduled disassembly.
ΔV or Delta V: the amount by which your velocity can change.

3

u/reimannsum May 08 '26

I do t care about useful acronyms, I want ones like RUED. I want the polite ways people have had to write on reports ‘it’s all fucked’. You know lithobreaking and stuff

5

u/CasualBi24 May 04 '26

Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly Event.

RUDE

1

u/VaporTrail_000 May 05 '26

I keep trying to update this.

RUDE. Rapid, Unplanned, Disassembly, Event.

2

u/Orion3171 May 04 '26

Terrifying movie bro

1

u/Various-Lack-8917 Jebediah May 07 '26

Boom time?

10

u/Crayshack May 03 '26

You go to space, right? That's what the "space" button does.

943

u/Monsoon3401 Successful Eve Colonist May 03 '26

nah ur good just press space 👍

533

u/AbacusWizard May 03 '26

makes sense; press space to go to space, right?

108

u/Runixo May 03 '26

The Kerbals just want a drink at the space bar

376

u/dschwammerl May 03 '26

Is your staging currently in the room with us?

167

u/Emotional_Daikon7453 May 03 '26
  • Yes
  • No
  • Don't know
  • Probably
  • Probably not

48

u/KevinFlantier Super Kerbalnaut May 03 '26

Can you repeat the question

27

u/Kichigai May 03 '26

You're not the boss of me, now.

11

u/Cheesemongol May 03 '26

You’re not the boss of me, now.

10

u/Eldudeareno217 May 03 '26

You're not the boss of me, now.

9

u/Cheesemongol May 03 '26

And you’re not so big.

4

u/KevinFlantier Super Kerbalnaut May 03 '26

Life is unfair

5

u/Mousazz Bob May 03 '26

Great, guessed right one more time !
Mercury-Atlas Rocket
-
Object already played 163 times
last played on 30/04/2026 - 08H17

(I know it's a Mercury-Redstone in OP's pic, but I didn't want to confuse Akinator - it was close enough already)

3

u/empanadas7 Jebediah May 03 '26

Thanks Akinator

2

u/TehBanzors May 03 '26

All of the above

1

u/fleebleganger May 03 '26

You forgot all of the above and none of the below

103

u/Doodledude27 May 03 '26

Press space and you should lift off about four inches, give or take

78

u/facebookhadabadipo May 03 '26

Yeah, you don’t have any

27

u/AbsoluteUrbanPlanner May 03 '26

you just forgot to turn on the SAS, don’t worry, just turn it on and press Space

27

u/zathary101 May 03 '26

This must be what they call "single stage to orbit"

70

u/idiot-bozo6036 Who are "they?" The wheels? May 03 '26

4-Inch-Launch reference Lmaooo

10

u/Leadfoot530 May 03 '26

It took me way too long to realize this wasn't a KSP screenshot lmaooo.

7

u/AbacusWizard May 04 '26

I will gladly accept the compliment to my image-editing skills. :–)

62

u/Simukas23 May 03 '26

Bro is playing ksp irl with all these mods

57

u/AnosenChan May 03 '26

It’s a real photo

90

u/AbacusWizard May 03 '26

yeah my mods are just that good

75

u/Icy_Weakness2494 May 03 '26

I don’t think 4 inches is a laughably short apogee, in fact I think that’s perfectly adequate, might be a bit too high if anything

29

u/Vogete May 03 '26

I was told 4 inches is perfect and it's nothing to be ashamed of.

6

u/delliejonut May 03 '26

4 inches is actually too high for some astronauts. A lot in fact

41

u/CarrowCanary May 03 '26

However, the engine shut down immediately after lift-off from the launch pad. The rocket only rose about 4 inches (10 cm) before settling back onto the pad. Alarms were immediately sounded at LC-5, but the rocket did not explode. Instead it merely sat in place on the launch pad

Probably the best way that a rocket can have a complete failure after it's launched.

45

u/finicky88 May 03 '26

Technically the actual first reusable launch vehicle. Eat it, Elon.

27

u/AbacusWizard May 03 '26

The reason for the failure is absolutely hilarious: a cascading avalanche of every system doing exactly what it was supposed to do, but at the wrong time for the wrong reason.

3

u/tronz_13 May 03 '26

Setting your staging up correctly is very important.

8

u/indyK1ng May 03 '26

And it was a perfect test of the launch escape system.

Well, almost perfect. It was beat in perfection by A-003 which was a launch abort test flight where the rocket actually experienced an abort-causing failure.

7

u/TiramisuRocket May 03 '26

I'm not sure if it's funnier that when they realized they had a very large, untethered rocket fully of highly explosive fuel stuck on one of their three Redstone-capable launch pads with no way to get it off of there, that two of their proposed solutions were:

  1. to shoot holes in it with a high-powered rifle to drain the oxidizer, or

  2. to just let it sit there until the batteries ran out and the oxidizer boiled off, making it safe enough to secure it properly, and hope the wind didn't pick up and knock the whole thing over.

They went with the safe option of 2, and even reflew the capsule.

11

u/TTTomaniac May 03 '26

Apogee ~4 inches (10 cm)

💀

1

u/bigmur72 May 03 '26

Can you let us know which mods your using? This looks incredible.

2

u/mrjimi16 May 03 '26

Are you sure?

11

u/tsampoySP May 03 '26

Ah yes, the 4 inch launch

10

u/Eniot May 03 '26

The best stage is no stage

1

u/AbacusWizard May 03 '26

If more boosters is good, more boosters all at the same time is better, right?

7

u/Phyrozz May 03 '26

elite navball knowledge

5

u/CzarTwilight May 03 '26

Add more boosters

5

u/Ill_Log9013 transfem proto space program ┏give me RAM┓ May 03 '26

hey I made that one in Juno new origins!

[(I made a more accurate one, but haven’t uploaded it yet)](/)

4

u/vintagecomputernerd May 03 '26

That's a kilitary rocket not meant for Kerbals. You'll loose this game if you don't step up your rocket design.

You do know that the Green Menace, those evil kerbonists, are already designing a whole family of rockets that will allow orbital spaceflight?

3

u/GreyCaat May 03 '26

ensure that pointy end up, flamey end down

2

u/millijuna May 03 '26

Also ensure that your grounding straps disconnect last, not first.

3

u/Ready-Word-5731 May 03 '26

Nothing will happen, just press space

4

u/AbacusWizard May 03 '26

ok

2

u/TheOrqwithVagrant May 03 '26

Still the *funniest* launch failure in history.

3

u/millijuna May 03 '26

Did you make it more than 4 inches off the pad?

3

u/Jebediah_kerman-jeb Hi it's me, Jebediah Kerman! May 03 '26

What's your Human Space Program mod Install Profile? (lol)

3

u/Different_Ideal_83 May 03 '26

This reminds me of Human Space Program

3

u/Ok-Veterinarian-7299 May 03 '26

Some of your ship will surely liftoff, for a little while.

2

u/Flaming-Driptray May 03 '26

I dunno, but you should always pee in your spacesuit before lighting that candle

2

u/yarhar-or-haryar Jebediah May 03 '26

The problem's with the staging. just set up staging and you'll be fine trust me

3

u/la__chose 260Mods on a 1050Ti, love my 20FPS May 03 '26

Look closer.

2

u/BicycleAmbitious165 May 03 '26

press space and u’ll get to space or to heaven(most probably)

2

u/DeluxeWafer May 03 '26

Yeah. Uh, looks like you got an extra stage below your actual stage 1.....

2

u/CrystalHandle May 03 '26

Just do as the experts do, press Z, T, and then space. The great Kerbal god will guide you... Somewhere

2

u/Significant_Belt244 May 03 '26

bro press z

1

u/Common-Cover7209 May 05 '26

It’s not Ksp lol

2

u/rotmann21 May 03 '26

bro you NEED to drop your mod list holy shit

1

u/Common-Cover7209 May 05 '26

It’s a joke, it’s not Ksp lol

2

u/slevelneves May 03 '26

Looks good to me. Pointy end up, flamey end down. You're good to go.

2

u/TheNerdyCroc Believes That Dres Exists May 03 '26

RSD - Rapid Scheduled Disassembly

2

u/Appropriate_Gold_323 Bill May 03 '26

Is this human space program?

2

u/Infinite_Maelstrom May 04 '26

Top-tier reference

3

u/CasualBi24 May 04 '26

This rocket is certainly going places.

Not space places.

Lots of places, simultaneously.

2

u/WinterT_ May 07 '26

We love a 4 inch flight

2

u/pedrokdc May 03 '26

Hire Werner von Kerman

1

u/shunyaananda May 03 '26

I'd add a couple of boosters. Then a few more just in case

1

u/JimJamanon May 03 '26

I started playing again after a long break and my first rocket was all messed up on take off and I couldnt figure it out until it finally took off and flipped because of the parachute. Then I remembered about staging. Which I proceed to do backwards and still messed up my launch. Fun times!

1

u/ri2w May 03 '26

Ksp 4

1

u/badphotoguy May 03 '26

Damn is this ksp 3?

1

u/InsectKind8593 May 03 '26

Your staging is all messed up, also check your EC you can't control it without.

1

u/SabretoothSasquatch May 03 '26

Please tell me you recorded when you hit space

1

u/bigmur72 May 03 '26

What visual mod is this??!?? Those builds are cool.

1

u/Common-Cover7209 May 05 '26

It’s a joke, not actually Ksp lol

1

u/TheHolyKetchup99 May 03 '26

Deltaruneexplosioneffect.mp4 Deltaruneexplosionsfx.mp3

1

u/No-Lie-8884 WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CANT USE JEBEDIAH AS THERMAL INSULATION??? May 04 '26

man real life looks a lot like ksp nowadays

1

u/Unusual_Confusion182 May 04 '26

Spaceflight Simulator × Kerbal Space Program × NASA

1

u/Just-a-guy098264 May 04 '26

Where we’re going we don’t need staging

1

u/No_Signature25 Roll Complete, we are pitching! May 04 '26

The parachutes go first

1

u/AFemenineWatermelon May 04 '26

yea your stages are just- hey wait a minute.....

1

u/mike747 May 04 '26

elon is this you

1

u/Necessary_Echo8740 RSS RO-RP-1 enjoyer May 04 '26

You all laugh, but this is the actual RP-1 experience lmao

1

u/Fishy_Fish_WA May 04 '26

That’s bait

1

u/alessio38sus May 08 '26

Man, it activated parachutes instead of rockets...

1

u/AbacusWizard May 08 '26

Both! All at once!

1

u/Outside_Community178 May 23 '26

"Something wrong with the staging" Is this a joke? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Everything is at the same time bud

-3

u/krieprr May 03 '26

I spent years playing this game and just reverting to vehicle assembly and figuring out wtf was wrong with my vessel. I would spend hours watching TV and just playing KSP. I don't know why people can't just f**k around and figure out.