Kerbal Space Program

[Snotty]

I saw this and I thought of you. If any of you have played the excellent bridge builder game, You will know how much silly physics fun is to be had with this kind of game...

except this time you're building space rockets!

And the other great thing? its FREE, as it is currently in alpha.

http://www.kerbalspaceprogram.com/

From their website:

KSP is a game where the player creates and manages his own space program.
Build spacecraft, fly them, and try to help the Kerbals to fulfill their ultimate mission of conquering space.

The game is currently under heavy development. This means the game will be improved on a regular basis, so be sure to check back for new updates.
Right now, KSP is in Alpha state, but we want you to try it out and have fun with it. The first versions are free to download and play, and will remain so forever.

I think this video sums things up quite well, although there are many more, and more successful, videos out there

This video from their website showcases some of the features of this game

[Proteus_MST]

I like it
I hope they will give us a way to duplicate already assembled Rocket Parts however
and a way that we can ensure, that all the Rocket Parts are aligned at the same height
(in order to ensure that all of the parts take their same share of the rocket weight while standing on the launchpad
and you don´t have one part getting destroyed, just because it was sticking out from the others by maybe a cm )

Without these 2 mechanisms it seems to be rather painful to assemble larger rockets (although, even with these limitations I managed to build a rocket that lets me orbit Mun (haven´t dared to land on it yet, however)

(it is definitely a great feeling, to float in space, far from the boundaries of Kearth)

[Proteus_MST]

0.14, the first commercial version (or rather the beta/experimental version of it) is out btw.

Everyone who preordered KSP at some point in the past can download it now via his "Purchased/ÃœPreorderes Games"-Section in the KSP Shop.
(it features a persistent world ... i.e. multiple missions possible at the same time and parts that are left in orbit / Kerbin / Mun stay there and can be encountered by later missions)

It´s still a little bit buggy however (according to the threads in the KSP forum)

[H Tower]

looks promising. downloading the demo now. 0.13.3

[H Tower]

some very spectacular crashes so far, not even close to getting into orbit. Trying to cluster several fuel pods together when building the ship is very hard. I would very like to be able to assemble my rocket in pieces, and be able to clone them, adding whole assemblies to the craft at once.

[H Tower]

Maybe it's just me, but when you call something a tutorial, maybe it would be helpful if it helped you get out of the atmosphere? I am not spending another 40 minutes trying to use their clunky interface to strap more rocket boosters on that craft. DONE.

[Proteus_MST]

I can assure you that even with 10 fuel tanks, connected to less than 5 engines you are able to get into Kerbins Orbit
I recommend this thread (this is just about the highest altitude reachable with 10 fuel tanks, but instead of flying straight upwards you could also try to turn the remaining thrust after reaching 76 km into an orbit )

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=7142.0

Another 2 tips:
If you haven´t discovered the symmetry tool yet ... it is very useful
and
In the program folder there is a settings.cfg ...
if you set "vertical snap" to true, you get a good vertical alignment of your fuel tanks and engines
(which is often necessary in larger rockets ... if one of the engines is sticking out just a little bit, it has to bear the full weight of the rocket ... and most probably breaks)

Oh and the KSP-forum is, also outside of the linked thread, a rich source of information