Episode 28 of the GopherCraft Great Space Race is a day of launch pad tests. Basket spends science on the big Mainsail engine and tries to fit it to a Mun lander. Six launches leave the pad across three versions, the Mun Lander VII, VIII and IX. None of them gets far, and by the end the big engines are coming off again.
Heavier Rocketry
The video opens in Research and Development. Basket buys Heavier Rocketry, and the Rockomax "Mainsail" Liquid Engine shows as purchased. Science drops to 26. In the VAB, the Mun Lander VII is the last lander with "four times the amount of landing legs," plus four of the huge new engines for an extra push at the start. Lemgas Kerman takes the Command Pod Mk1. Before launch, Basket runs through the rest of the program: "I still need to send that one mission back," the one in orbit, and "the other two are currently stranded on the Mun."
The first test
The rocket goes up, but it spins. "It's not very stable, although we are going up." Basket stages everything, and the capsule drifts back down under its parachute near the pad. Lemgas climbs out to take readings. The temperature scan comes back "quite literally, nominal," and there's a barometer reading too, but most of it is done already. "I've already done all this stuff."
Mun Lander VIII
Back in the VAB, the engines move down a stage so they don't fire and drop off at the same moment. The Mun Lander VIII doesn't make it off the pad in one piece. "Oh no, it's even worse!" The Flight Results window reads "Catastrophic Failure!"
A stop at the Tracking Station shows the rest of the program. Orbit V is still orbiting Kerbin. The Mun Lander VI is listed as landed at the Mun, next to a "Second Mun Landing" flag set on Year 1, Day 15.
Mun Lander IX
Doodred Kerman flies the next four tests. A slower throttle-up doesn't help: "No, it's not gonna work." More connections and supports for the big engines don't help either, and the rocket breaks apart again. Each time the capsule comes through. "Oh, you're alright. Good job, survivor." Basket sums it up: "I can't use those big guys on the side, I guess, is the moral of the story." A last try with smaller Skipper engines ends the same way. "Run away, run away!" The capsule lands safely under its parachute once more.
Where it ends
Basket decides to drop the huge engines, "at least the way that I had it set up," and come back with a new plan. "To be continued..." comes up over the Space Center. Nobody has made it to the Mun and back yet.