Apollo13

Typo: I meant $45k not $450k. LOL Where is this file located? I looked throughout the directories. Thank you for that info. I feel better now knowing I'm not wasting money on chutes.

Where do i reset the budget? I'm millions of dollars in the red, so I can never get out of debt. I looked in save game files, such .sfs, etc. No joy. I'm glad to see this. So, if I put chutes on boosters that are expended and fall back to Kerbin; if they touchdown in one piece, then their values are recycled and added to my bank account? I assume that applies to any other salvaged parts?Another question: Why is the mission payout considerably less than the contracted amount? For instance, i just completed a satellite mission for $208k. Yet, I was paid about 450k.

Yes, I use those nodes constantly. Forgot to mention in my OP, I use the nodes and it takes two or three maneuvers to achieve circular orbit. I'm looking to do it all in one maneuver, like Mechjeb.

Pecan: thanks. I do that as well. Given that achieving periapsis requires a very long burn, this solution hasn't helped me.

When I have this problem, my periapsis is NOT higher than the apoapsis. As I mentioned, the problem occurs just after the periapsis goes positive and is way below the apoapsis. For instance in a launch just a few minutes ago, my apoapsis was 240k, my periapsis was was -504k. As soon as the periapsis climbed upto 0, the apoapsis changed dramatically.

Still having trouble with this after hundreds of launches. Time to get this right. I've searched the forum and YouTube videos; no joy. When I launch and hit my apoapsis, I cannot achieve periapsis without significantly increasing apoapsis. Prior to apoapsis, I ensure the rocket is tangential to the surface curve (navbal is half brown (right side), half blue (left side). Just before apoapsis, I kick on the engines to full burn. Everything goes well, the periapsis increases (from negative) with minimal disturbance to apoapsis. Immediately after the periapsis goes positive, suddenly the apoapsis skyrockets into a very elliptical orbit. During the burn, I ensure the rocket is constantly tangential to the surface. WTF am I doing wrong? For learning purposes, I've used MechJeb to see how it accomplishes this task without increasing periapsis in hopes of discovering the secret. It appears to be doing as I do; rocket tangential...full power burn. So, no help there. Any hints and guidance will be appreciated. If you know of a video or tutorial or forum thread, a URL would really be appreciated.

Thank you for the quick responses. I'll take another look at FAR. Thanks to phoenix's link there is a discussion concerning fairings that answers the question.

Background: I last played KSP in August 2013. A recent Manley video on MCE got me interested in KSP again. I see there have been a lot of improvements. The best one is that "moar struts" are no longer needed. I'm glad spacecraft parts counts no longer require struts to be half the count. So, back in August, aerodynamics did not matter. Fairings, such as Procedural Fairings, and such were purely cosmetic. Has that changed? Do fairings help? Do they make the craft more aerodynamic to burn less fuel?

Nice. Thanks for posting.

Starwaster suggests that you go back to KSC to resolve this. Before doing so, try a simple QuckSave/QuickLoad. That always resolves the issue for me. If that fails, then, go back to KSC.

Yes, the current KAS works with KSP vers 0.21. Don't know about the version being demoed here.

And yet, nobody has mentioned the MechJeb Maneuver Node Editor. It provides a very fine granularity for modifying nodes. Even if you're adverse to using MJ for anything else, this one feature will resolve your issues. Just add Kerbal Alarm Clock to remove the tedium.

1. Use Docking mode versus Staging mode. It's more intuitive given that you're already used to it. I've also programmed a mouse button to switch between rotation and translation to change quickly. 2. Install Docking Port Alignment Indicator.

Docking Port Alignment Indicator by NavyFish is a must-have. I also vote for: -- MechJeb -- KAS -- Kerbal Alarm Clock -- EditorExtensions -- SelectRoot -- Targetron -- CrewManifest -- PartHighlighter

The forum attack was from a Syrian pro-Assad group calling themselves Security Lion Hackers. The guy who hacked it calls himself Security Dragon. The front page had a bunch of pro-Assad images and photos of bombed and burned-out buildings. Squad locked-down the forum until it could be brought up again. Was it somebody masquerading as a pro-Assad group? Who knows.

Read it here. http://unity3d.com/gallery/made-with-unity/profiles/squad-kerbal-space-program

Every part on a spacecraft has an origin, an x-y-z position. This x-y-z position (along with rotation about these axis) are related to the origin of the spacecraft itself. At launch, these parts are all "next" to each other. As the spacecraft moves, the x-y-z and rotations of the individual parts are all constantly recalculated. Visually, the spacecraft appears to be a single mass. However, as the craft proceeds into deep space at millions of kilometers from the launch site, the recalculated individual parts' x-y-z positions and rotations begin to "drift apart" (due to rounding errors). At some point, the spacecraft is no longer a single cohesive unit, and it explodes. This is the Kracken. Squad worked around this problem. Instead of a single origin for the universe from which all x-y-z positions are related, the origin moves with the spacecraft. In effect, the visible spacecraft that you see on screen is the ORIGIN of the universe. All parts of the spacecraft relate to that origin. The planets, moons, other craft, buildings, etc. have their origins relate to the origin of the spacecraft (or EVA Kerbal). Thus, we are no longer dealing with astronomical distances, but relatively short distances which can be handled with 32-bit precision arithmetic. If the Unity3D engine ever becomes a stable 64-bit, then the KSP universe can have a single universal origin. There is a 64-bit Unity engine, but it is highly unstable in Windows. All x-y-z positions and rotations calculations can be computed from that single point. The ability to go beyond 4 gigabytes of RAM would be a side benefit. Felipe explains this far better than I during his Unite 2013 presentation. You may view that in my other thread, Building A New Universe.

I WOULD advise new players to use MechJeb. I was having such a hard time docking, that I absolutely hated KSP. Yes, I was using Docking Port Alignment Indicator. Yes, I viewed and read a tons of tutorials. Simply put, my execution sucked, for whatever reason. MechJeb auto-docking is far from perfect. It wastes RCS mono-prop while failing to dock. I found that by using DPAI and toggling auto-dock on about 5% of the time to assist, I enjoyed the game again. This method wastes no mono-prop. The self-satisfied/self-righteous critics of MJ auto-dock are going to say "Learn to dock. I did on my first try." To those critics, I respond. you play your way and I'll play mine. Otherwise, I use MJ for planning and information readout, but not executing.

This is an interesting presentation by Felipe in which he discusses the challenges of using 32-bit Unity engine to deal with distances in KSP that really require 64-bit precision. If you haven't seen it, pop a cold one and sit back. As a programmer/developer for over 40 years, this was definitely cromulent to my interests.

Well, you know Syrians from Security Lions Hackers, specifically Security Dragon...they just don't like the freedoms that all Kerbals enjoy.

KSP vers. 0.22 includes a built-in subassembly manager, making this mod redundant. I assume it will no longer be maintained as players transition their subassemblies to the built-in manager.

I jettison about 50k to ensure the service module deorbits.

Actions On The Fly

Yes. .

Kalista, KOS did not work when I included it as you suggested. MechJeb worked, but not KOS. On the Launchpad, I right-clicked the command module and clicked the "Activate terminal". A gray area the size of the terminal appeared, but it did not activate; no text, no prompt, the gray area was not solid. Upon reverting to the VAB, the light-gray, transparent terminal continued to display. When I moused over any part, there was no pop-up for the part. When I tried to quit the game, I did not get the "Yes, Really", "No, not really" buttons. I had to terminate via the Task Manager. When I added the KOS part and went to the Launchpad, everything worked fine.