Pls help, I can't rendezvous

[Rutabaga22]

I do all the things the tutorials say, I play with my maneuvers, and no matter what I do I can't rendezvous.

[king of nowhere]

it would be easier to give advice if we had an idea why exactly you can't rendez-vous...

anyway, you can try this foolproof way:

1) make sure you have 0 inclination. exactly 0.0

2) get into a matchin orbit, that's only a couple km offset. if the ship you want to rendez-vous with is in a 80x80 km orbit, get into a 78x78 orbit.

this way you'll get a rendez-vous eventually, though it's not the most efficient method.

 

Oh, by the way, there are some bugs with the close approach marker, sometimes it disappears. don't let yourself be fooled when you know you have a rendez-vous.

[Dinlink]

Ok, I will add my recommendations for a perfect rendez-vous :

1) As said previously, match the orbital inclination of the Target vessel

2) Make sure your orbit crosses the orbit of the target vessel, changing your apo/peri apsis

3) Now, the interesting part: plan a manouver near one of the points where orbits crosses, having the targe vessel as target, plan a prograde manouver until the markers meet... Move your manouver around the crossing of the orbits until the markers meets on the crossing of the orbits... That way you can plan a rendez-vous as close as possible... I recommend to plan it for the closest approach... About a couple of hundreds of meters... 0.1-0.4 km

4) Execute the prograde manouver

5) Check the markers after removing the executed manouver, and fine tune to get the closest approach with small pro/retro grade burns

6) Sit and wait one Orbit until both vessels are about to meet, then change navball to target mode and point retrograde... When getting closer (about a kilometer) start burning and reduce your speed to a couple of m/s ... When close to some hundreds of meters burn retrograde to your target until getting 0m/s ...

7) Finally, point towards your target and burn to get 1-3m/s... When been about 20-40m of your target, burn retrograde in target mode to 0m/s again... Now you can point each vessel to each other if you plan a nose-to-nose docking... Or you can use your RCS for more complicated dockings

 

Hope this can help you!, Have fun having rendez-vous !

 

[Superfluous J]

  

I've been told this video of mine has helped. It's part 1 of a 3-parter, and when you finish it you should be relatively stationary less than a km or so from your target.

Spoiler