unmanned flight in career mode: How To

[grumpydaddy]

In sandbox mode I just throw a OKTO2 command pod and off I go. In career mode this part isn't available right away. How do I try out new designs without killing poor Jeb? It seems that in real life they fired rockets without command modules, but I can't get the darn things to launch without one, they just site on the launch pad without the purple launch light ever turning green, hitting the space bar does nothing. Am I doing something wrong?

Also, I experienced a big change in my orbit after detaching my last fuel tank/engine. Is the force of the separator firing enough to cause this? And what can I do to prevent this from occ

Edited November 24, 2013 by grumpydaddy
Marked as Answered

[Johnno]

You can't do unmanned flight until you unlock the probecores through manned flights, change their science requirements or change the pod config file. If you want to play the career mode as it currently is in the stock game without altering any files yourself you'll just have to do manned flights until you unlock the probecores.

And this is a computer game not designed to 100% mimic historical spaceflight, so any argument or expectation there is moot.

To prevent decouplers/stage separators from having too much force you can use struts to connect the stages to eachother.

[grumpydaddy]

There will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst the Kerbals over this news.

[phuzz]

You can get plenty of science by sending Jeb to go visit all the different biomes on Kerbin itself. You can reach four just by walking (KSP itself, the beach, the sea the grasslands).

After picking up some quick science there, a small suborbital ship, or a spaceplane should get you to enough of the other biomes to unlock unmanned tech.