Rock5

Um... sorry for the bump but did you perhaps miss my post?

@linuxgurugamer, are you actively developing this mod or are you just keeping it working? I ask because I have a feature request. As far as I know no docking mods offer support for aligning the claw with target ships. I can sort of see why they haven't, but I have an idea as to how it could work. Seeing as this is my favorite docking mod I thought I'd make a feature request here. What I suggest is that when you target a ship, alignment markers appear at all the 6 cardinal locations. I'm assuming that ships have an overall alignment that can be used for this. Then, as you approach your target from the side you want to attach to, and roughly aim in the correct direction, you will see the marker you need to aim for to be aligned. Of course you might need to translate to where you actually want to attach but at least you can be sure you are aligned wherever you attach. What do you think

Ah, you missed a previous post. I said I used to do that but had to change my methods when I had to recover the debris or rescue kerbonauts. Actually the last mission, in which I recovered the first stage, I didn't go to it immediately because I remembered that it wont degrade until I follow it down. So I continued my mission then went back to the first stage later, even waiting for the best orbit to have it drop as close to KSC as possible. I haven't done this yet but, theoretically, you could have multiple recoverable stages and just ignore them until the end of the mission. As long as they are in degrading orbits over 25k they'll wait for you.

I deleted the first pod after my first rescue and then decided that was a mistake. I haven't deleted any since. The only thing I delete are stray decouplers. No chance in hell I'm going to go on a mission to clean up decouplers. My first choice is recovery. I've designed few missions, especially around Kerbin, where the first stage nearly gets me to orbit. After a short burn to get my second stage in orbit, I switch to the first stage and follow it down as it deploys it's parachutes and lands safely. Then I switch back and continue. Usually I return the second stage after the mission is complete. If I can't recover, then burning up in the atmosphere is acceptable.

I did that at first but, when I started needing to save Kerbals and retrieve parts for contracts, I had to change my methods. Plus I like the idea of salvaging parts instead of just burning them up.

Well... it does have Tail Fins, so it can be flown. And of course the whole body is like a wing. In this case I was just gliding it in.

So here's the story. I'm at a point where missions and debris has been building up around Kerbin. When I've been doing Kerbin orbit cleanup, I've been sending up a tug on a rocket and then deorbiting with the target. This was taking too long so I decided to take a shuttle plane with multiple tugs. I redesigned the tugs so they fit in 1 cargo bay and put 3 cargo bays and 3 tugs on my shuttle. All was going well. First target I encountered was poor stranded Sierigh. Next was an upper stage rocket I failed to deorbit. Then, as I was getting to my third target, quite pleased with myself I might add, I realize I had no crew. I could have swore I added a pilot and tourist at one point. Grrr.... I immediately realized that I've been using the tugs to control the plane. If I decouple the last tug the plane will be stranded and I'll have to add it to the list of orbiting junk I need to collect. First I had the idea to try and carry whatever the target is in my cargo hold but when I finally saw what it was, I realized it wasn't going to fit ... or is it? This was my solution. I was amazed I was able to pull if off. Definitely the most skilled docking I've done to date. Just to be clear here, I never undocked the tug. This was all done while still connected to the plane. More pictures here. https://imgur.com/a/sgB5h