Frustrating Launch

Thanks for the info. A lot of things to take away from all the suggestions!

I do have 4 Deluxe Winglets on the tail of the central rocket. To the best of my recollection, it looks something like this:

Hex probe (I was trying to launch it unmanned, and I'd bring crew up later)

Cupola (I'd swapped this out with an adapter to make it less blunt, to no avail)

Science Lab - 4 Clampotron Sr. ports radially attached

Hitchhiker's Room

Clampotron Sr.

Fairing (to close the space around the Clampotron)

8 support bars for stability

Decoupler

Medium Fuel Tank (the Mainsail size ones from here on down)

Poodle Engine

Decoupler

Big Orange fuel tank

Mainsail

The boosters are the cone fuel tank, a medium sized one, and an engine on the bottom. 4 of them total, radially in pairs. First pair drops when fuel is spent, then second pair. However, I never get to the point where the fuel is spent to drop the first pair.

This is happening just at the end of the first portion of the atmosphere, just as I'm starting to see the visual effects of resistance. It makes sense this is entirely a drag issue.

I was NOT draining tanks from bottom to top--I thought you go the other direction. This would only really affect the boosters. I'll switch that around.

I'll turn on the aero readings, and pay attention to that. I didn't even think of that as something to look at.

I'm thinking, maybe I need to go with a slower launch until I get to the mid-atmosphere. I am considerably off from Prograde on this launch, so that's certainly something else to watch.

Thanks very much for the info!Frustrating Launch

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