Nice to see others here that enjoy flying above the atmosphere too.
By no means an expert at the game, but got good knowledge about the principles of spaceflight, and have three stations, a dozen or so landings on Mun and way too much gametime to show for.
Havent read through all the pages in this thread so this might already be suggested, but to spice up the game and make it more enjoyable and realistic I suggest the following mods:
-MechJeb (guidance, autoflight ++. Makes everything a hell of a lot easier and closer to real ops)
-KWRocketry (lots of great rocket parts)
-DeadlyReentry (should speak for itself... Forces you to plan reentries and equipment)
-Kerbal Joint Reinforcement (less wobblies = more real)
For additional challenges I also have the Kethane pack (surveying and mining on celestial bodies) and I use CrewManifest for transferring crew on my station flights.
..and remember: Never leave a Kerbal behind!
