King Arthur

Generally speaking, most orbital manuevers are better done at a higher altitude if you're flying there as the associated slower velocities mean you spend significantly less dV than you would at lower orbits.

Except that the only time I actually got confused with the docking ports was when I first got KSP (it was 0.20.2 then) and was just beginning to understand how docking worked. I can't speak for everyone obviously, but since then I've had not one in-reverse senior docking port because I actually pay attention to the parts I'm laying down.

Oh god the nostalgia, I used to play that game a lot. Good times they were.

Unfortunately, we have an astronomical truckload of social, cultural, and political issues (with no clear answers in sight) that we first need to deal with right here on Earth before we can even consider moving out into space.

Just what universe-gigantic monstrosity are you building in the VAB such that you can't get a clean visual on the docking port? Also, of the 3 pictures you posted asking us to point out which is the port placed backwards, it is pictures #1 and #3; the port-side "rim" of the docking port is obviously pointed the way of the Hitchhiker.

The problem we need to answer regarding us not going back to the Moon is simple: Why should we land more humans on the Moon? The Apollo missions were more than sufficient in performing and returning scientific lunar data only humans would be able to do, and we haven't found anything new to research about the Moon that requires direct human presence since then. Long-term human presence on the Moon (let alone LEO!) is a (very) expensive endeavor and oftentimes the cost and point of long-term human presence in just LEO is brought to question (read: ISS), if we're having such a hard time just trying to justify humans living in LEO, the Moon is literally a whole lightyear out of the story. Life support systems are expensive, the supplies and habitat a human needs in space is prohibitive to upkeep; we need a huge justifiable reason to keep humans in space (let alone the Moon) and we simply haven't found it yet. Now as for the OP's query of who won the space race: Looking at individual countries, the USSR/Russia won the Space Race on the whole (the Soyuz is still on-going for one, and is currently the only consistently available form of manned space travel) while the USA won the Moon Race. Looking at Earth as a whole, mankind took one giant leap and won.

The "port" side of the docking port has a protruding rim that comprises the actual docking port, it's not hard to differentiate the two sides. Failing that, you have the port on backwards if you have a yellow arrow in the center of your senior docking port.

The Gigantor CFG in my installation of 0.20.2 is identical to the Gigantor CFG in my installation of 0.21.1. If the Gigantor was changed at all, it was prior to 0.20.2.

For simple orbit-raising circularizing, perform your prograde burn at your apoaps to boost your periaps up to approximately the same altitude as your apoaps. To circularize at a lower orbit, do the opposite by burning retrograde at periaps.

To all of you having so-called angle/orientation "problems", right click your command pod/probe core/remote guidance and click "Control From Here". I'm surprised so many people are not aware of this nor confirming where their ship's point of reference is.

Personally, I would love to see NASA get axed completely and all of its assets reorganized under a new organization(s) from the ground up. With "programs" like the JWST, Constellation, and now the SLS (which fully I expect to go the way of Constellation) I do not expect NASA as a whole to be worth the money they're currently eating. Sure, NASA has awesome programs/missions in progress like the HST, Mars Rovers, and New Horizons, but on the other hand they also have huge money sink programs in progress mostly for politics than anything else.

Thank you!

As a workaround, you can go into your save file with a text editor like Notepad and change a vessel's name and designation rather easily. Seeing an option for this in the tracking station would be nice though!

It's justified, to be perfectly honest. Unlike US-Russian cooperation in space that ultimately resulted in benefits and technological advances for both (the ISS, no matter how dependent it may be on the ROS, is ultimately a symbol of this), China will only bring to the table their awesome skills of stealing others' technologies and calling them their own, the US does not want anything to do with China specifically because of this legitimate concern. Simply put, the US has nothing to gain from "cooperating" with China. Everything the Chinese do have, we can learn in more detail from the Russians; China meanwhile is salivating at the chance to look at US aerospace technologies and steal them wholesale.

As far as this part goes, we need only look at what space is like today: 1. The Russian Soyuz is the only available form of reliable and consistent manned space travel. 2. The "International" Space Station cannot function without the ROS (Russian Orbital Segment), more specifically the Zvezda service module. 3. Following retirement of the Space Shuttle, NASA and the US government are literally headless chickens about what to do next. To be clear, the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs were the pinnacle of human engineering, and a lot of what we take for granted today (knowledge about our Moon, computers, fuel cells, solar power, life support systems, navigation systems, orbital mechanics, aerodynamics, etc.) benefitted immensely from these programs. To say that they were merely "technological stunts" is nothing short of ignorance to the highest degree. That said, while the US and NASA might have won the Moon Race hands down, ultimately we (Americans) lost the Space Race. EDIT: Corrected mistyping of the Russian Orbital Segment, or the ROS, on the ISS. My apologies.

Ah, so that's why KSP was going head over heels trying to load some of my .craft files while I had that part installed. =p Thanks for that, I'll change it as appropriate here until Nova can officially fix that.

I've been finding that this part makes any crafts using the stock "TR-18D Stack Separator" part completely unloadable in the VAB, freezing KSP and the VAB and forcing me to ALT+F4 to get out. I unfortunately have nothing odd in the logs and the like so I can only report this bug from what I've just experienced, can Nova or someone else confirm if this bug exists and if it does fix it properly?

My god, that second rocket is simply beautiful.

That's still trying to tie in human values to Kerbals, though. For all we know, Kerbals might value funding for their space program to be far more important than lower taxes or improved healthcare, leading to Kerbal politicians that push for higher space funding to get re-elected. Though of course, I still stand by my original opinion that KSP is likely not the place for politics. So what if Kerbals are launching manned spaceships in a quest solely for the ultimate intergalactic KerbalSnax? It works for them and human politics has nothing to do with them. EDIT: Original post I was replying to seems to be gone? Please disregard. o_O

While it's certainly not a planetary base, I built my Space Station Archangel just because I wanted a cool space station in Kerbin orbit. T'was even the first thing I did when I first got KSP; I also learned a whole lot about orbital mechanics and rendezvous and docking maneuvers while I was going about the process of building it.

While the people suggesting that "recovery" not apply globally have some merit, do we really want to bring in real-world-esque politics into a game that's mainly supposed to be about go-happy rocket science? I don't know about you, but I have enough of politics from the real world already, KSP is a place I can go to and do some science. As for, That is assuming there are multiple countries on Kerbin and assuming that some of those countries are antagonistic to each other, which again wheels back to the question of introducing politics into KSP. Also, take a step away from the Cold War-era and look at today's landscape: If a Russian Soyuz needed to make an emergency landing in US territory today, or heck even a Chinese Shenzhou, do you really believe we would treat the astronauts/cosmonauts inside as POWs? There are plenty of venues to illustrate the Cold War strife regarding the space race or just political animosity, but I would just like to humbly put forth my 2 cents and suggest that KSP is neither the time nor the place for it. If a Kerbal successfully lands anywhere on Kerbin, he should be welcomed home with open arms.

I have went to the Mun countless times using MJ 1.9.8 with its "TRANS" function under Orbital Operations in 0.20, so I can confirm that it does in fact work. To the OP, what kind of orbit are you starting your injection burn from? MJ assumes a circular, equatorial Kerbin orbit with a +/- inclination divergence of <0.1 degrees for its injection burns; if you are in an elliptical and/or eccentric orbit, MJ will fail to execute an injection burn.

Cookies for you! (￣▽￣)ノ Archangel was recently visited by the Dagger Unmanned Resupply/Booster Vessel, docking to the rear-most large docking port on the Ptolemaios II module, and has been boosted to a 200km orbit from 150km to get further away from the 130km debris-riddled parking orbit. She's still flying strong even in the face of other ships (especially those around the Mun) being poked by the Kraken!

Hey there everyone! I'm posting screenshots of Space Station Archangel, my primary all-purpose space station in LKO. Daytime: Nighttime: I named her the Archangel because, besides watching over all of the other ships, probes, and satelites orbiting Kerbin, I wanted her to be a grand station that can and will weather through any and all odds to fly on. Those of you who can accurately guess the inspiration for her name (hint: anime) gets cookies! She is a modular space station by design, built around a "Core" 6-Way Module. Towards the front is the Command Module "Archangel", where Jeb (commander!), Bill, Bob, and Derdred command and oversee the station. Above and below the 6-way right behind the CM are the two primary Service/Habitation Modules "Eternal" (below) and "Freedom" (above) that also serve as lifeboats and secondary solar array modules. The two SMs work in tandem together with the CM to manage and housekeep the station, checking each other for any errors in their calculations, providing redundancy and accuracy to help ensure a safe flight! Towards the rear is the Communications Module "Ptolemaios I" where Archangel keeps in touch with KSC and all other appropriate vessels, and further behind it is the Docking Hub Module "Ptolemaios II" where all visiting ships dock to the station for refueling, resupplying, and crew boarding/deboarding. To the port and starboard of the station from the 6-way are the two Solar Array/Habitation Modules "Aile I" and "Aile II" (inner starboard and port respectively) and the two Solar Array/Greenhouse Modules "Ptolemy I" and "Ptolemy II" (outer starboard and port respectively), the two Aile+Ptolemy modules provide the primary means of producing electricity for Archangel as well as food (KerbalSnax!) in the case of Ptolemy I and II. Archangel is in a ~150km circular equatorial prograde orbit above Kerbin, usually its front pointed towards Kerbol for maximum solar array efficiency with a Normal+/- vertical orbital orientation for easier stationkeeping and docking. When 0.21 rolls around, I am hopeful that I can get her up and running again so she can keep on flying. (￣▽￣)ノ