Now I get a third post in a row. After seeing that this game had a big update for satellites and requires them for communication, I jumped back in and this time around I got a whole lot better at the game.
I built a rocket with the intent of collecting data from a high munar orbit and with some research stumbled upon how to design a extremely efficient rocket.
This is her after completing the mission. Trying for efficiency, she's using the atmosphere to slow her down over multiple passes rather than burning fuel to slow down. I ended up using stage 1 though after I got too aggressive and was on a final approach at nearly 2Km a second. Luckily she's built purty good and she landed with no damage and I was able to retrieve all 160 science points from her trip.