The Greatest Rendezvous I've Ever Done

[EndIris]

So it was just a normal day in KSP. I was screwing around testing some stuff on a planet I'm working on, and decided to hop to another location. On the way, however, I remembered I need to repack my parachutes. So at about 80km and 600 m/s, Jeb hopped out of the craft.

I didn't expect there to be much air up there, but there was. Jeb was thrown 12 km away from the ship, and I was just testing, so I thought I should revert flight. 

"Wait a second!" I told myself. "You could totally get Jeb! 10km isn't that far! It's just like a normal rendezvous! I've done tons of those!" So I turned on my rockets and went right back to catch up with Jeb, passing him by over 2.5km and 250 m/s. Woops. My altitude was probably around 55 km by this point.

Try again. Jeb has a lot of drag, so he has basically stopped moving horizontally and only falls vertically around 350m/s. I'm about 4 km away, so I move towards him a little more slowly and deploy the airbrakes to slow me down to a similar speed as him. I turned on infinite propellant because, again, I was just testing stuff. Manage to park right next to him for a while, except that the airbrakes aren't enough and I'm still falling way faster than him.

I use Jeb's EVA pack (pressing control the whole time) to get close to the ship. The only issue is, I can't find the hatch. Playing in 1.3.1, so the MK 2 Command pod has that weird door still, and I couldn't find it. The rocket is tilted to the side at about 45 degrees, so I switch to it and make it hold vertical so I can find the hatch easier. Quick look around shows the hatch is on the far side, so I switch to Jeb to fly him over there.

But Jeb isn't there. When I wasn't holding control, he floated right away, and was now over a kilometer above the rocket. I was in target mode so I couldn't see my speed well, but I was around 18 km up. If I was careful I probably could have landed the rocket, and then landed Jeb before he crashed into the water

That would be pointless, though, because I could have done that all along, and now I was committed to catching him. I pointed the rocket to surface radial out and thrusted until I had the same vertical speed as Jeb, then throttled down to keep that speed. Jeb was still a kilometer or so above the rocket, so I flew him down and and was about to get in. I moved towards the capsule and...

Bounced off. I hate when that happens. I was going, like, 1 m/s, but still bounced. Jeb was incapacitated for 5 nail biting seconds as we fell toward the water. This time, I moved in hurriedly but slowly to avoid that accident again. Jeb finally got in the capsule.

I finally look at the altitude gauge and find I'm less than 2 km above the water, moving at 180 m/s. 12 seconds more and Jeb would have died. Luckily this ship has 3G acceleration, so I floor the throttle and head towards land. About 30 seconds later we are safely landed, and I have completed my first ever atmospheric rendezvous in KSP.

[RealKerbal3x]

That’s really cool! Great job

[DAL59]

I did something like that in Orbiter 2010 once.  I accidentally EVAed someone while ascending from Venus, and had to go back and catch them.  I barely had enough fuel to enter a stable orbit.    

[obney kerman]

DRAMA! EXCITEMENT! EXPLOSIONS?

Eh, 2/3 ain't bad.

 

Great job! Love the 8 aerospikes on that lander.

[EndIris]

If anyone is wondering the planets can be found here:

 

[Bill Phil]

Nice. Reminds me of when I had to rendezvous with Jeb. He was out of EVA fuel, though...