Kerolyov

When I first downloaded 0.20 my first act was to launch a Kerbal X to the Mun to plant a flag, as it was stock with no mods at that stage I didn't notice that Kerbal X didn't reallyu have enough deltaV to get to the MUn and back. I only realised during Mun descent! Just made it onto the surface (running out of fuel about 4 metres off the surface!), so Jeb and co survived to plant my first flag. So today I designed and launched a successful rescue mission with a nuclear power and both 1 and 3 man capsules but crewed but just 1 Kerbal. My first ever rendevous landing was ok but not great at 800m away, near enough to rocket pack Kerbal X crew over and return them home.

Really nice ship Tokay! Hope you can sort your fuelling issues, be great to see a pic of you in orbit in the Jool system

Glad to know I'm not the only one Gabe & 23278! Ok tried with split staging (ie stage to decouple, then pause and stage again to light the nuclear bomb stapped to Jebs backside) and boom! Tried moving the RCS tanks and staging in one go and it worked. So I'm just going to accept the length of the re-design and get to those planets (serves me right for trying to be clever), wish me luck on my first trip beyond Minmus (I'm off for an orbital trip to Eve and back).

Actually this is a low level test with less boosters after my first ship blew up upon staging in orbit scattering debris everywhere, this way I test at low altitude until I have the nuclear staging working. The craft will be interplanetary when I've got it working hence the nuclear engine. Thanks for the advice, looks like either mount 2 nuclear engines radially or keep the fairings clear of fuel tanks. Why do nuclear fairings come off so much more explosively?

Having trouble with centre mounted nuclear engine as nearly always hav an issue with an explosion after staging and it seems it is possibly the fairings of the nuclear engine that hit external fuel tanks or monopropellant tanks or the engine itself detaches. Has anyone else had this issue? EDIT: Below are of low level test after first failure in orbit. Craft will be interplanetary, hence the nuclear engine design, I'm not intending going anywhere after staging jsyt see if it works then spalshdown. My originhal aim was first mount fuel tanks radially around the central engine to avoid the craft being long. This always exploded so tried bigger tank and monopropellant at the back....., still exploded as seems the nuclear fairings can hit and tanks near them Going ok..... Then stage and boom!

For me pebblegardens Phoenix videos on docking was how I learnt and I've only had the game 3 weeks and can dock easily without aid now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5fHnNRbKME Other tips:- - Use chase camera for final approach. - Make sure RCS thrusters are in line with centre of mass - Set fine control with caps lock key

SSTO spaceplanes for me. Never managed a successful flight and landing yet..... Any good tutorials you can recommend? Thanks :-)

Had a succesful test flight to the moon with my nuclear Apollo. This design means the outboard nuclear engines can do the TMI and Munar insertion burns without having to detach the lander and dock.

I do wonder what your friends lecturers taught him if he cant see the appeal of KSP. I'm a hobbyist games programmer myself and I think its a very innovative design not just a kids education game! This game brings so many fun elements together and one of the rare games that is fun without needing to shoot something (other than Kerbals into space!)

Bought KSP a week ago and been hooked ever since! What a great concept for a game, combines humour, exploration, building and pretty good space physics. I learnt more about orbits and rendevous in 1 week with this game than years of occaisional reading about the space race, I love the map view as its so intuitive! Hope to post more soon and get some ideas of what more fun I can have with this excellent game.