Kryxal

Keypad + and - also do the trick.

There's always the "get out and push" method on the way up ... see how well it works before you get up there. Does that really not use monoprop?

If the Mun isn't going to cause an issue, you can also break orbit early and do an orbit and a half instead of half an orbit.

You can parachute down with 2 mystery goos (possibly 3 but I've never tried), but the rest is a bit much. See what happens with your decoupler RIGHT under the pod, but run a few ladder rungs down if you want to collect from the Science Jr easily.

If they're bother centerline mass, during should work well enough, and keep the throttle down before that maybe?

I have some trouble (on a PC) getting the left-click menu to show up if I'm look at it from too far away, try altering view angles and range.

Once you're close (that is, under 1 km), the forces acting on both craft, in the semi-short term, can be considered near-identical. You shouldn't have a problem closing up on the target at several m/s, then docking in the .2-.5 m/s range once you're lined up and close in (under 100m, slowing some more within 50m). Your second point applies better to orbital maneuvers than to docking operations, just don't take 20 minutes about things in close proximity and you should be good. I sort of wonder if you aren't giving yourself too MUCH of a safety margin and having gravity give the two craft differing accelerations...

Also, for those fiddly little adjustments when you're half an interstellar orbit away, try using single taps of RCS, does wonders (but plot a maneuver node first so you know what it will do!)

What sort of orbit are you in right now anyway? If your apoapsis is outside Kerbin's orbit, your periapsis inside, and you're same-plane you can likely get a Kerbin intercept with minimal fuel, but we'd need numbers for this really ... and if you get into Kerbin atmosphere, can your Kerbals deorbit?

If you want to use the linear port for forward translation and NOT allow rotation, you'll need to have the engines mounted off the centerline, of course ... or you can just say "I don't need RCS THERE, I have LOTS of thrust!"

Incidentally, if you use some of the fuel from the wrong tanks, you can just manually shift fuel back once you dock the tanks but before you detach the "booster" tank.

I've noticed a tendency for my craft with 6-tank asparagus staging to rotate once they drop the first pair of asparagus tanks, might this be similar? I usually mount extra SAS on the final two asparagus tanks and just live with it ... and maybe throttle down a a bit when the spin gets a bit much. If it's a similar problem, start your gravity turn early and make it shallow, don't try to maneuver in an excessive spin, and just fix things once you steady out.

If you can fly about a bit, the Barometer will allow a fair bit of science just biome-hopping on Kerbin, I think. Then again, you can go do the same thing on Minimus better with Mechjeb (though probably only one or two biomes per trip) and you'll get quite a bit of science that way ... all things considered, though, I'd go with the science boost. Of course, whatever you do, you should add MOAR BOOSTERS!

You actually CAN have two high orbit mystery goo reports, I think, you just can't have them for the SAME high orbit (so Duna and Ike high orbits should be fine).

Regarding having a spacer, a battery or some RCS fuel might work well ... honestly, I'd probably go with the battery, it's a pain to refuel something you can hardly see.

I would think it would be enough to JUST escape Kerbin's SOI, you could then get back in with maybe a few dozen m/s burn ... and if you manage it straight from LKO, and aim your burn to be at Kerbin and a bit retrograde, I would think you could deorbit right off. It's probably best to quicksave just before you leave the SOI, though.

Thanks for the quick fix! I only purchased KSP fairly recently, but this tool is a lifesaver for knowing good times to launch!

I wonder if the update might be why the KSP Launch Window Planner seems not to want to plot for me ... oh, I think the "Optimal" transfer type is broken, was trying to plot from Jool to Kerbin at 6 years, 30 days, aerobrake.