Failure occurs when something goes wrong in a rocket during a mission. It may be minor or major. Minor failures (e.g, parts not working correctly) can be easily fixed; major failures (e.g. crashing into a celestial body) usually end up in ending the mission or making a backup one. In Spaceflight Simulator, there are mainly 3 types of failures. One is crashing into a celestial body, crashing to another rocket, and the last is overheating.
When a failure is done, a popup menu appears, saying "FAILURE CAUSE: [event]" and tells you to restart the mission to the launch, revert to the Vehicle Assembly Building or resume the gameplay.
The failure menu will, however, only appear if the entire rocket is destroyed.
Types of failures[]
Crashed into another rocket[]
This happens when the rocket crashes into another rocket. This may cause severe or total damage to both rockets when they have a high relative velocity. If they have a low relative velocity, then minor damage can be created on one of the rockets. The failure menu will not pop up in this case.
Crashed into a planet[]
This happens when a rocket crashes into a celestial body's surface. This may be caused by a high speed during landing. If part of the rocket crashes into the celestial body, then the failure menu will not show up.
Rocket overheated[]
This happens when a rocket overheats due to engines heating themselves/other parts, or the atmosphere disintegrating the rocket wholly.
Ways to prevent failures[]
There are many causes of failures, but most of them can be prevented.
Make a good rocket design[]
Sometimes, there is a flaw in the construction on the rocket, so it will fail during some point in the mission. To avoid this, redesign the rocket.
Landing softly on a celestial body[]
If you land at a fast speed at a celestial body, your rocket could be destroyed. To avoid this, put landing legs on the rocket and land at a celestial body at a speed less than 5 meters per second.
Entering a planet's atmosphere with a heat shield[]
When entering the atmospheres of planets, make sure the rocket has a heat shield to avoid breakup in the atmosphere. If the heat is too intense for a single heat shield to withstand, put more heat shields on the rocket.
Docking softly[]
If you dock too fast, one or both of the docking ports on the rocket(s) would be destroyed. Make sure to match the orientation and position of the docking port before "stopping" and dock slowly.