Thanks everyone for the replies and the welcome, hopefully you'll keep that attitude after my millionth question :-). Handy to know about comms not being effected by orientation, it was more for the SCAN missions, i put a satellite in orbit to scan Kerbin, 75% is required but half the time it is pointing into space rather than at the planet! Thanks for the links to the help, i'm going in now to check them out. Perhaps that will cut my questions down a couple.
BTW love the game, i scream at the screen then normally burst out laughing as it's something incredibly stupid i've done. Truly great game when you can fly to the Mun, get all the science, get back to Kerbin, slow your descent and then forget to switch off the engine before separating and burn up, then "happily" start again!