Saving debris

[Andy_Moz]

Hi all, first post here and first time player. Playing on the PS5 in career mode. Is it possible to recover rocket engines that crash back to Kerbin? Obviously I'll need to attach a parachute to each part to slow it down. I'm thinking along the lines of SpaceX and reusability/ getting funds back. Is this feasible or a waste of time?

Thanks.

[jimmymcgoochie]

It’s technically feasible, but very difficult to do- you’d need to launch the second stage high enough and fast enough that you can get the first stage down to the surface and land it, then switch back to the second stage before it reaches apoapsis and put that into orbit.

[Vanamonde]

The reason for jimmy's answer is that while in atmosphere parts which leave simulation distance from the ship you are flying will be automatically deleted by the game. Also, parts which get within a certain radius of a planet or moon will be auto deleted. You would need game mods to get around these problems. 

[jimmymcgoochie]

Further to previous comments- below ~25km, anything in an atmosphere but not within physics range will be automatically deleted by the game. To recover your first stage, you’d need to have that one focussed and land it first, then switch to the second stage which by then should be in space and hopefully not falling back into the atmosphere; doing it the other way around will just delete the first stage before you can recover it.

Mods can help with this, but you can’t use mods on a console so you’re stuck with the hard way .

[Kerbal Productions]

5 hours ago, Vanamonde said:

You would need game mods to get around these problems. 

which is impossible as the person who is asking here is on console (PS5)

10 hours ago, Andy_Moz said:

Is this feasible or a waste of time?

I would call it a waste of time. Debris in the game doesn't cost anything in sandbox, but in career. I think it does, but it's extremely hard especially in console. So I would suggest not doing it.

[Andy_Moz]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I think I'll just leave it. Didn't realise it auto deleted anyway.

Cheers!!