Hello! This is my first post and first question I have not been able to resolve with Google or trial and error. I am hoping someone can shed light on my conundrum. I have been playing KSP largely with unmanned probes. I've sent kerbals to Mun and Minmus and returned them to Kerbin successfully, but in both cases I used a lander that was also its own return vehicle, i.e. it landed with enough fuel to return to Kerbin (barely - but that's another story ). I decided to start experimenting with a tug/transfer stage from which a lander can detach and then return to, but I can't seem to figure out how to do this with an unmanned probe. It's to the point that I wonder if it simply can't be done. I modified one of my standard probes with a docking port on its top, and placed one on the transfer stage as well. I successfully did a flip in orbit, undocking from the launch configuration and redocking for transfer, a la the Apollo LM before TLI. I then headed out to the Mun and undocked. At this point I can no longer find my transfer stage. I can see it visually, but I can't control it, take control of it, or find it in the Mission Tracking screen. Undocking from it pretty much rendered it a spent stage as far as KSP seemed concerned, even though I didn't actually stage - I undocked. My hypothesis is that a decoupled stage is only "active" or "useable" if it has a kerbal on it - i.e. leaving a pilot in the command module while Jeb goes down to plant the flag. I haven't tested this yet as I'm very protective of my kerbals, having not yet lost one Can anyone shed light on this? Is it possible to have an unmanned probe and a transfer stage in the configuration I'm describing?
