Mün and Minmus

Naturally, after Kerbin´s orbit has been conquered, the next steps are Mün and Minmus.

Single staged Mün lander vessel with overall ~3000dV is en route.

Polar orbit got a bit screwed. Unfortunately, an exploration contract has one nav point exactly at the south pole, so I miss it with this orbit.

Touchdown, and some ~200 science points to take back (plus the ones from orbital experiments). Unfortunately, after several tries, I realize that the lander has not enough deltaV to return to a low Kerbin orbit. I have to send another spacecraft for a retrieval, which is best done around Mün orbit and not out there in some high Kerbin orbit.

And if I need to send a second vessel, it might as well be one with a science lab! This rocket is extremely unstable because of a high drag on the upper part. This means, no gravtiy turn and thus more deltaV is needed to achieve orbit. But it is all accounted for... except for I have to revert flight because I had forgotten solar panels on the first version; a true classic!

... as the launch stage is the same as for the Spacefish class, which has plenty deltaV and is built for a (moreless) controlled reentry and recovery.

Unfortunately, I did not plan a proper re-entry location (did not have enough deltaV) and thus a recovery on the opposite side from the Space Center on Kerbin only recovers 15% or about 5,000 Credits. Hardly worth the effort.

At this point, my career game has already again about 15 missions active, which all take some time to fulfill. Sigh. Why am I just bound to overwhelm myself with task management complexity when I just want to fly stuff in space? Ok, one last launch of a lander to Minmus, followed by a science vessel, in order to do the science grind. That last science vessel also carries "attachment manifolds" for a dust-old test contract in Minmus orbit. Unfortunately, I screw the stage order, and the manifolds blow off on the last stage. Damn. There´s a curse on this test contract.