ElWanderer

I don't see any struts between the SRBs and the tanks they're attached to. Are there some well-hidden ones? If not, putting in some would be my recommendation. Edit: on looking at this on a larger screen, I can indeed see some struts. I can see your payload poking out through the fairing. I thought that was meant to get auto-strutted from v1.1 onwards... perhaps try recreating the fairing?

How much ablator does that heat shield under the pod have? Try it with 0 (as well as going more sideways if possible). The extra mass from the ablator reduces how quickly the pod will slow down. Ditto for replacing those radial chutes with a single Mk 16.

If you want to launch into a Low Kerbin Orbit that matches Minmus's inclination, you need to wait until the orbit plane passes over the launchpad (happens every three hours), then launch towards a heading of 83.5° or 96.5°, depending on whether Minmus is ascending or descending. This is not so easy without some kind of aid. I've written a kOS script to automate launching at the right time and keep the right heading, which usually gets me about 0.1° relative inclination. Even then, I still match planes (at much less cost than it would be from an equatorial orbit) to make the transfer easier.

The best place to ask kOS questions is the kOS sub-reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Kos/

That fairing looks quite large. Are you aware that the fairings are currently a bit buggy in that drag is applied in the wrong place (way out in front of the rocket where it does much more to encourage flips)? This is to be fixed in v1.1, or alternatively Claw's "stock bug fix" mod has a temporary fix. The aerodynamics generally encourage taller, pointer rockets with fewer boosters. Do you need that many?

If you want to calculate this mathematically, here is a good resource: http://www.orbiterwiki.org/wiki/Launch_Azimuth

Try going back to the space centre then coming back to the station. That might jog it. Did you start this career under v1.0.5 or an earlier version? Some contracts accepted under earlier versions go a bit funny after upgrading. If it seems valid but won't complete for no apparent reason, you can use the Debug menu (alt+F12) to complete it. It's not cheating if the contract seems bugged!

Was this a rescue contract? I don't think they should generate those so low, though given how they will sometimes spawn with a Kerbin orbit that'll splat into the Mun sooner or later, perhaps there are no guarantees.

Orbits fluctuate due to the way they're continually being recalculated (unless you're on rails e.g. in timewarp). As such, really tiny manoeuvres (~0.1m/s) will dance all over the place by themselves as they're below the noise level of these fluctuations. As your vessel rotates, particularly if it is applying force via reaction wheels or RCS, the location of the centre of mass will typically change. That, again, will change the calculated orbit. This will cause small manoeuvres to jump around, but how much of an effect there will be depends how small they are compared to your orbital velocity (which is where Minmus is more trouble than other bodies), how far the centre of mass is from the root part and the ratio of SAS torque/RCS thrust to ship mass. Doing really fine burns manually is probably easier than using automation - hit caps lock to enable fine control, enable RCS, turn off SAS and gently tap the translation keys until you're happy with the orbit. Don't try to rotate (except perhaps initially to be pointed roughly at the node)! The joys of RCS with fine control are that it shouldn't cause any rotation unless the RCS thrusters are badly placed. It's also easier than a main engine burn as you can change the orbit in any direction without rotating. If you overshoot, just tap the opposite direction. I've been writing kOS scripts to perform various tasks. Until recently, my node execution function had a similar problem to what's being described here: for small manoeuvres (<0.5m/s, mostly), the node would dance around as my ship rotated, so it would never be pointed in the right direction long enough for the engines to fire (it'd loop forever... *sadface*). For small burns I now find out where the node is currently pointing then store that vector as the aim point. Because this is fixed, that allows it to consider itself pointing in the right direction and so fire the engines... but not for very long. The burn ends when the current manoeuvre node is deemed to be pointed away from the original node, which can happen very quickly if the node is dancing around. I've not worked out how to deal with that yet.

This thread reminded me of this xkcd what-if: https://what-if.xkcd.com/24/

Try hitting F4. That toggles the visibility of those indicators on the main view.

Is this early in a career game? IF you can EVA you can "get out and push" a ship until the orbit dips into the atmosphere. Just don't run out of EVA fuel or you won't be able to get back in. Each time you go back in the pod, you'll start again with full fuel if you EVA again: it's a bit magic. More boring but much less gamey is to design another rescue rocket and bring a bit more fuel than your last attempt. Bring one of them home, then repeat for the other. Assuming you aren't using a mod that adds life surface requirements, they'll not mind waiting until you get to them, if you need to do other things to afford another rescue mission e.g.hiring another pilot or researching a probe core so that the rescue can be unmanned. Edit: I've realised that if you can't EVA (early career it's not available until you upgrade a building or two) then you can't transfer anyone to the rescue ship... so I assume you're past that or not playing career.

My understanding is that newness usedto be based on the mission elapsed time, which could be fooled if you docked an old craft to a new one, where the composite craft was based off the new and so retained its (recent) MET. Now the game tracks the launch id of each craft and either retains both or uses the oldest one when two craft dock together. That caused some problems with asteroid bases as the launch id of each asteroid was set to 0, predating every contract.

Yes, you can assemble a station in orbit. However, you have to make sure that everything you attach was launched after you accepted the contract. So I'm pretty sure the answer to your second question is no. Once you have completed a station contract, you should occasionally get contracts to expand it. I don't know if those will be satisfied by attaching previously-launched pieces you had floating around.

Did anyone else mis-read the title as "badger PC"? My box dates back to 2011, mostly, and I don't have the time or money to bother updating it.

I said 180° because (a) it's a round number and (b) the wiki says 3.14 radians, but also tends to round values to 2d.p. (e.g. parts with mass 0.025t are shown in the wiki as having a mass of 0.03t) so I assumed the value was really pi. If you've found a slightly different value in the game's data files, I'd probably trust that, unless testing shows otherwise.

The kOS mod is able to return the rotation angle of each body, that is the angle between the solar prime vector and the body's zero longitude/prime meridian. A kOS script run just after starting a game would return something very close to the starting values. I wouldn't be surprised if they're all started at zero. I'm not at my PC so I can't test this. If kOS can get this data from the game, other mods should be able to as well. From the wiki, as Kerbin's mean anomaly at epoch is 180°, but the longitude of the ascending node and argument of periapsis are both 0°, I think that means the prime vector as seen from Kerbin points directly at the sun at the start of the game (which fits with KSC at longitude -74° starting off in sunlight: it'd be early in the day about 1h15m from noon. Again, I've not tested that).

If you have a mod that'll tell you your position relative to the universal reference direction, it'll let you work out when you're under the Ascending Node of the orbit. The Longitude of the Ascending Node is given in the contract description, but in stock there's no indication what this is relative to. When your universal Longitude is similar to the LAN of the contract, launch and turn Northwards the appropriate amount for the target inclination. I've been writing a kOS launch script that will calculate this (and launch in the right direction at the right time) but I've not tested it yet and this is probably more complicated than what you're after. It does show that the information you need is available to mods, though. I don't know what other mods expose this information but hopefully it's given you a target to search for.

RCS usually has the advantage that you can slightly alter your orbit in any of six directions without having to change the way you're pointing. Not having to turn around if you overshoot is very handy.

This thread is from 2013. Even if they're still active, any craft is likely to be very outdated.

I've not tried it, but everyone who has reports that the drag doesn't seem to change on closing/opening any intakes.

If the contract specifically says "haul" you don't need to trigger the part, only have it on your ship when you meet all the other (altitude, speed) conditions.

Will a science junior fit inside a 2.5m service bay? Or fit two (or more) FLTx00 tanks on the side and stick a science junior plus a nose cone on top of each one. If you want to land, this gives you wider places to stick on legs.

LKO to Jool, I'd allow 2.5km/s (plotted burn of about 2km/s, plus corrections and an inclination change). Getting into medium Jool orbit without any gravity assists cost me 1.5km/s last time I did it, but by slinging around Laythe or Tylo you should be able to get a Jool orbit for much less. Still, that doesn't leave your shuttle much if any fuel to do anything further. Is your final destination just any Jool orbit or are you hoping to visit the moons with the shuttle? Are you intending to come back to Kerbin?

The square indicates that vessel is the target of a contract e.g. to move it to a different orbit.