FullMetalMachinist

Well, yes it is a real world thing. But it's also something that is implemented by RO (if you have test flight installed) that will cause engines to malfunction if you burn them longer than they're rated for.

Go into the action group menu and then left click on the thruster. That should pull up the config menu for the thruster. Works that way for engines and parachutes as well. Yep, RSS/RO is hard. Because real space flight is hard. If you're having trouble, NathanKell has a really great tutorial series on YouTube. I highly recommend it. It is from a few game versions ago, but I don't think that should make much difference. Here's the first episode:

I'm not certain, but I believe you middle click on the engine while in the VAB.

@StahnAileron gave a great explanation for why that's the case during launch. There is a different reason to shy away from too-high TWR when you're in orbit. Basically it means that you have more engine mass than you need, which causes your dry weight to be higher than it needs, which causes you to have less dV available for going places. For (a very rough, off the cuff) example, imagine a ship is in orbit and it has 2000 m/s dV and a TWR of 4. That means that the engine it has is way overpowered for orbital maneuvering. If you took that same ship and replaced the engine, and that was the only thing you changed, you could possibly see the available dV go up to 2500 m/s or more. Yes, this lowers the TRW which means that any burns you have to make take a little longer. But IMO that's a small price to pay for 500 m/s of free dV. A TWR of 0.5 is usually fine once you're in orbit.

@Ed Jaws there's also this one: It hasn't been updated in a while, but it's still pretty accurate. The only thing I know of that's different now is the default key for 'reset focus' is no longer backspace. It was moved to back quote (the ~ to the left of the 1 key).

Another quick word of friendly advice, be careful about KSP videos on YouTube,especially older ones. Almost 2 years ago the game got a big update and drastically changed the aerodynamic model to be more realistic. Videos from before then can be very misleading about what is currently possible (or just way harder now) in the game, especially 'how-to' videos.

The short answer is that you're trying to throw a dart backwards, with the fins in front and then being surprised when it flips around. All those fuel tanks and engines at the back are very heavy, and your payload is big and light. This makes your CoM close to the back, and lots of drag at the front. Like a backwards dart. So it's most stable orientation is for the engines to be at the front. The reason that you get up to around 8km up before it flips is likely a combination of that being the first air density boundary and how fast you're going. In the thick lower air your fins at the back have enough 'bite' to counter the drag at the front, and you're going slower so the drag at the front isn't so bad. Once you get higher and faster those two things switch, and you flip. You can fix it a few ways. Personally I'd get rid of the structural girders that are holding the landing legs, and then wrap the whole payload in a fairing. Edit: I always forget this part. Welcome to forums; and to the wide, wonderful, frustrating, and rewarding world of KSP!

Not sure why you tagged this as "weird", looks perfectly normal to me. What exactly are you not getting? I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you don't understand why your TWR would change as a function of mach number. The reason is pretty simple. Every air breathing engine has a thrust curve, where the amount of thrust produced (with everything else being equal) changes depending on it's speed. Too slow and there's not much, too fast and you get the same problem. But there is a certain spot for every engine where it will produce optimal thrust. Don't ask me to quote hard numbers, but I know that's the case for the game, and I'm pretty sure that's how it works IRL as well.

That's a different phenomenon, and is actually accurate. The runway is perfectly flat, but it's sitting on a round planet. This makes the center of the runway very slightly closer to the center of Kerbin than the edges are. This makes it act like it has a slight 'u' shape, even though it's flat. If you give it enough time the plane will actually settle in the middle.

That depends on if you care what your final inclination around Moho will be when you get there. If you don't care too much about it being perfectly equatorial, then no inclination for your departure orbit is fine. The best way to Moho (disregarding an Eve assist) is to leave when Kerbin is lined up with Moho's An/Dn, which happen to be in the same spots as it's Ap/Pe. More info here:

Intended. There is a Data cap of 750 and a Science Point cap of 500.

This doesn't help you now that you've already re-built it, but you didn't have to do that. A much easier and quicker way would have been to use the 're-root' tool. It's meant for exactly the thing you wanted to do. Press 4 on the keyboard (or click on it's icon, the fourth button in the top left corner of the screen, just to the right of the parts list). Then click anywhere you want on the craft, then click on the part that you want to be the new root. That's it.

There's also a good reason for a specific orientation if you have off-center thrust. This is one of the reasons that the shuttle flew mostly "belly up". Your general idea is right, but you've got your terminology switched around. Standing on the ground would be 1 positive g.

It's certainly not by design. Must be a bug, but that's a new one to me. Are you running any mods?

You are aware that in map view you can right click and drag to rotate the view, yes?

Is there a chance that the upside-down rover probe core is the only probe core on the craft? If so then that is likely the problem. Any slight deviation and the probe core will use SAS to try and correct it, but since it's upside-down it 'corrects' in the opposite direction, making the problem worse. A fix would be to put a second core on the transfer stage somewhere, and then use the re-root tool to make it the root part. (you don't necessarily have to make it the root part, but if you don't you'll have to remember to right click on it and select 'control from here'.)

@Syrius that would be my suggestion. Try to isolate what is causing the issue first. I find that an ore tank with the contents adjusted so it masses the same as your original payload works well. From there you should be able to work out if the problem is with the payload, the transfer stage, or the booster. If it's not obviously caused by one of those things, I would suspect a bug, most likely from one of your mods.

To add to @Snark's excellent advice, there's a handy trick you can do with the camera. First right click on your docking port and select 'control from here'. Then right click on the target vessel's docking port and select 'set as target'. Now press 'v' to cycle the view type until you get to 'locked'. The forces the camera to have the same orientation as the control point. Then right click and drag to rotate the view so you're behind and slightly above your ship. Now when you press 's' to pitch up, it actually corresponds to 'up' as you look at the screen. Same thing for translation controls. This will also match up with the icons that are on the Navball.

I'm pretty sure that the mirror axis is tied to the coordinate system for the VAB, and there's no easy way to change it. One way to work around it would be to take off your cargo bay, rotate it using q or e, and then place it. Then place your mirror parts, then take off the cargo bay, reset the rotation using space bar, and then put it back on. (disclaimer: it's been a while since I've had to do this for myself, so it might not work, not 100% sure)

Lab location doesn't factor into sci/day conversion. Only the number of scientists and their xp level. (edit: and the amount of data present. Conversion speed goes up the more data you have loaded waiting to be processed) Where lab location matters is when you process experiments into data.

If you indeed have a scientist aboard and are processing data into science, then it will empty out, it'll just take a really long time. The lab converts at a 5:1 science to data ratio, so that 750 data will eventually get you 3750 science. But at only 5 sci/day, it'll take a long time. If you time warp for a few days you should see the data amount go down some.

To illustrate @bewing's point, here's a picture. https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blunt_body_reentry_shapes.png That little cushion between the shockwave and the ship actually insulates it from the worst part of the heat. And KSP models this.

Press 'v' to cycle through the view modes until you get to 'locked'. Then rotate the camera so you're behind and slightly above your ship. Now pitch up is up for the ship, left is left, and so on. Same for translation directions.

Something that can help with that is to use 'fine controls'. Press caps lock to toggle it on, you'll see the pitch yaw roll indicators in the bottom left go from orange to blue. It makes the RCS thrusters fire at less than full power, which is usually enough for the reaction wheels (if there are any) to counteract any imbalance with the placement of the RCS thrusters.

Mods. That is currently the only way to get clouds. Usually those 'hi-res' videos and screenshots use some combination of SVE, Scatterer, Planetshine, Distant object enhancement, and EVE.