Kevin W.

OK, I'll do that tomorrow after I get home from work. I'd do it now but I have to get to bed for an early wake-up tomorrow. Curse you opening shifts! Also, is there a specific time when I should switch the indicator on the navball from surface velocity to orbital velocity?

Well, I guess it all boils down to one thing now: the fine control. I understand the mechanics of how to get to orbit. I know what to do. I know the procedure. Now I just need to practice the turning. This part is going to take a while. Practice makes perfect, though. One thing I'm noticing is that when I do the 10KM gravity turn and then let SAS re-activate by letting go of F, the SAS tends to snap me back westwards a little bit. I know it's supposed to be on 45 degrees. How far should I turn so the snap-back goes to 45 instead of even further back?

Here's my three step process. 1. Try to build and launch something. 2. Fail. 3. Proceed to step one. You will fail. There is no avoiding that. It will take a while to succeed. I should know considering I still have yet to successfully achieve orbit. Regardless of that, just keep trying until you succeed. Do not give up, no matter how hard it is.

Well, that last flight went poorly. I added a second fuel tank to the second stage and upon separation, the second stage flipped over. Back to the drawing board...

No harm no foul. I appreciate all the help.

Sorry for the slip-up. I've fixed it and I'm trying again.

Come on, comments like that are unnecessary. I'm trying here. I'm frustrated but I'm still trying. I'm not trolling anyone.

OK, that answers my next question. I knew I had to throttle back at some point but I wasn't sure when. Anyway, here's the rocket I'm using. As you can see, it's 100% stock and is as simple as a two-stage rocket can be.

Alright, I've solved the wobbling and the control issues. Now, going off of what he said to do in the video: I'm running out of fuel before I can finish my orbital burn. Ugh. What's the recommended apoapsis height to cut my engines at?

OK, I'll do that.

1. The only thing above the crew pod is the parachute. As I said, I built it exactly like he did in the video. 2. I didn't have an SAS module on the rocket and I didn't turn it on. 3. No MechJeb. This rocket is entirely stock.

No. Stock parts. I built the rocket exactly like he built it in the video.

I'm launching straight up but it inevitably ends up moving off the center of the navball and when I try to correct it, things go to hell. The one time I managed to get up to 10KM without much trouble, I tried to do the gravity turn and it wouldn't work properly. I can't get it to stop at the proper point and trying to correct it again just makes things worse. I swear, this is with as basic a rocket as possible. I'm not trying anything complicated.

Once again, I am at a loss. I went back to basics. I watched Scott Manley's first KSP 101 video to make sure I was doing everything right. I built my orbital rocket EXACTLY the way he did. One-man command pod, parachute, fuel tank with engine, decoupler, 3x fuel tank with winglets and engine. Sure enough, just like every other launch, it started to wobble and I can't make course corrections without the rocket immediately swinging back the other way and wiping out the correction I just tried or over-correcting and missing the direction I'm aiming for. I really don't want to give up on this game but I am really starting to get upset.

And thus I have a reason to be glad that I'm still in the basic stages of this game and haven't built anything of consequence. My save being wiped out won't change a thing.