Kryxal

Anything I land and don't need again, I either delete or lift off with again (and probably just smash into the ground). Satellites, I'll usually try to return without parachutes unless I'm too low on fuel for that.

I'm pretty sure the fuel snaps to 10% increments.

Something to think about, you could use the bi-coupler with an 800 and a 400, that would bring your initial TWR down nicely and you'd have just as much fuel ... a pair of 800s would give MORE fuel and probably an even better TWR for FAR.

Retrorockets may not be needed ... so long as there's an engineer on board, parachutes could be used so long as you have the balance right.

That circle may or may not be better than launching from LKO. It's about how much of a savings the Oberth effect gives vs. how much of a savings starting with the higher energy gives.

I don't think it matters which part you click first, you can click the same part twice so long as you move the mouse between the clicks.

I thought it was the object being docked TO that gave the name to the object. I could be wrong, though.

They'll still work in physics warp, but that would do it if the OP has cleared atmosphere and gone to 50*.

This is basically saying that you do mostly all of the transfer burn before you leave the atmosphere ... your periapsis can't be above where you burn from, after all. You just go from a low PE to having it be not far below you and watching the AP go sailing off into the FAR distance, then probably make a small correction burn once you clear atmosphere.

It's for this exact reason that my typical craft isn't pod-only these days. It's handy having SAS still active when you EVA or have something other than a pilot.

Or not-so-magically ... it's a real consideration with Minmus refueling operations (Kethane/Karbonite mods). You're actually better off dropping your orbit first, I believe, but it's even better if you can establish that elliptical orbit (LKO plus over 900 delta-v for a cost of 200 delta-v or so, so long as the periapsis is in the right place).

First things first, pics are never a bad thing. Second, describe your flight path, noting the difference (if any) between surface-prograde and your current heading. Also, noting altitude of each staging event couldn't hurt.

I wouldn't be surprised if the deviation allowed was a percent of the periapsis instead of a fixed value, that would make elliptical orbits quite touchy on the one end.

Given that he's considering a refuel in the parking orbit, I wouldn't go for the high OR the low orbit, I'd take an elliptical one. It's the best of both worlds really.

The deorbit burn is going to be done with the tanker mostly empty, so delta-v is not such a large issue then (though you'd better know how much you need). Still, I'd rather use an orbital tanker than a lander, all things considered. This might be different for you if you're comfortable with precision landings or using mechjeb.

You're right, it "consumes" negative fuel, but the convertor is in a stack with the orange tank so that part should work. Of course, if the orange tank is full, you need to transfer fuel out to the side tanks, which will NOT be automatically filled (and due to fuel flow with Kethane, still won't if there's a fuel route from the orange tank to them).

Also, a bit of prograde/retrograde and some radial in or out and you'll adjust arrival time without doing much to your periapsis. This is also useful for avoiding Ike.

Landed on Jool? I doubt that ended well...

That looks like a highly elliptical orbit, it MIGHT be reasonable to go from the one to the other ... the first step would be to raise your orbit (probably at the AN/DN) at least to near the Mun's orbit, maybe as high as near-Minmus. Execute your inclination change when you're out there and have your orbit intersect the target orbit (inclination is more important, intercept points can be fine-tuned easily with pro/retrograde). At an intersection point, use pro/retro and normal/anti-normal to match AP, PE, and position of AP and PE.

Assuming you use KER or MechJeb, why not just establish a standard deorbit burn? From a known orbit (say 60 km circular), burning maybe 50 m/s retrograde at a known point should do the trick with a fair bit of precision given a good TWR.

As a side note, if your approach is along the radial/anti-radial axis, your difference in orbits is going to cause you to approach the docking target instead of drifting to the side.

I'd suggest at least dropping a node to plan the burn, and likely splitting the burn. I'd expect the two values are current-stage and remaining-stages.

I could see being able to increase your total thrust by limiting your individual engines ... the last pusher is pitching hard left and down, so reducing thrust on the lower-left engine should help.

I put together and launched a spaceplane with a satellite in the cargo bay ... and didn't notice until too late that I didn't have any kerbals on board, so I couldn't deorbit it!

It might be possible to do a gravity assist off Jool ... failing that, I'd push your apoapsis even higher, then make your plane change out there.