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I need help with Setting Rendezvous, i wanna get closer but can't, this is all with cheats, what do i set to what to get closer so i can dock.

Subject as per title... Example mission: Launch a multi-part vessel Relay/fuel tank stays in orbit at the destination, lander descends Lander may include rover and contact multiple biomes Lander returns to orbital relay, picks up more fuel, returns home By all reasonable thinking, this body is done with, explored, and I'd like to move on, yet the next exploration contract insists I return to the same body to perform a crew transfer, or a docking (because they were the same vessel). What a boring, tedious, mundane thing to put under the heading of 'Exploration'. Exploration can be reasonably considered to be: flyby, orbit, landing, flag planting. If those four things are done, the contract system should suggest a new destination. Exploration is about... exploring new places. Not about technical operations at destinations you already went to. Please. This is so simple, and I think, so logical. I'm really tired of editing my save files to get past these make-busy contracts, and I wonder how many players just sit with "crew transfer around Mun" forever and ignore the exploration contracts because of it.

hi, I'd like to post this video to show a trick based of the previous mission, when I've docked 2 vessels in kerbin orbit then I've transferred them to jool in order to save fuel. In this case I have to RV these vessels that are arrived in jool orbit already docked. The video shows also a bug or a behavior I've not understood: when the distance between the 2 ships is greater than 2.5Km, the navball prograde/retrograde indicators just disappear until I double-click the target again. https://www.dropbox.com/s/9q0d5gyl4udu68i/2020-04-16 14-44-46.mkv?dl=0

I am new to the game. In Career mode, I am now trying to orbital rescue missions were I must get close enough to a craft/Kerbal to transfer between the vehicules, and re-enter the atmosphere. I know the orbital basics and how to create maneuver nodes. So far I have managed to capture one Kerbin, but luck played a bit part. Once I have a stable orbit at approximately the same altitude as the target craft, I don't understand how I can catch up (or get caught up) with it with a range small enough that I can RCS my relative velocity out. I can set basic intercepts but by playing around I can mainly only get my closest intercept to ~20km, or waste so much fuel that I am left with none, or I can cross the path but only extremely briefly. The orbits are also very close to Kerbin which makes it difficult to distinguish the paths clearly in the Orbital Map view (by zooming to the maximum, I can see paths are made up of straight sections for display). I have found this thread about orbital maneuvers: I understand the gist of it, but am mostly still stuck in the very same orbits as my targets, but with a phase angle. Additionally I have found this thread, where user Iodestar provided an example of a calculation for adjusting and out of phase orbit, but I am missing important intermediate steps and cannot reproduce the calculations. Any help would be appreciated. Stock game, Career mode, some elements of the 90 level tech tree unlocked.

My asteroid catcher has pulled a class C asteroid into a 38000k orbit around kerbin, and my mining ship is currently in a 1000k orbit. Now, the asteroid catcher has a scheduled burn in 10d 2h 55m to adjust the inclination to an equatorial orbit, and I'm wanting to set up a maneuver for my mining ship to intercept the asteroid catcher and the space potato it has caught, and the time to the mininig ships maneouver node is 10d 3h 50 minutes. My question is, when I'm setting up the maneouver node for the mining ship prior to the asteroid catcher's maneouver, which "orbit" is the closest approach showing for? is it showing for the asteroid catcher's current actual orbit? or is it showing for the asteroid catchers orbit after its maneouver will have been performed? Regards, John

Equatorial orbit docking is fairly simple, when the target ship has side mounted docking ports. You set the target ship in a "Normal" or Anti-normal" position...and the thing stays that way pretty much forever, even after you go back to another ship. As you approach this target ship the only thing you might have to do is rotate it so a clear docking port is facing your approaching vessel (to make life even easier). Polar orbits, at least AFAICT, are way harder. There doesn't seem to be a way to have the target ship maintain any kind of orientation as there is in an equatorial orbit? So far I've had to constantly re-orient the target ship to my approaching vessel, as I approach it, for a smooth dock. Am I missing something or is this one of those "it is what it is" moments?

Guys i had a rendezvous vessel and ready to go the mun. The poblem is how to switch active navball on others vessel... Thanks.... Note : ASAP

I have just gotten a contract from world first saying that I need to have two vessels rendezvous in orbit of the mun, transfer crew, and do a spacewalk. i have completed the spacewalk however am having trouble actually getting my two orbiting craft to rendezvous. any help would be greatly appreciated thanks in advance

This seems to be the big hurdle in space travel and I have not managed it yet. If someone can recommend a good document or video I would appreciate it. I've seen Scott Manlys and some others but they are frustrating to watch and sometimes run right past where the detail is that you need. I can navigate close to my target, like within 10 clicks, but after that I panic and go all wonky. I would PAY for a pause button with this sim like EVERY OTHER sim I've ever played or heard of!!! Has anyone ever learned why KSP does not have that feature? In my glorious sim career I have torpedoed the Yamato and lander a Viper with the HUD blown out but I would never have learned what was going in without being able to pause and see things from different angles. Anyway. End of Rant... Anyway when I'm under 10K and closing on my target I get disoriented. It's not just the whacky Newtonian physics when in orbit but the disorientation of direction and the poor camera controls. Any help in the way of references would be appreciated. I refuse to give up.

When I first started playing KSP, I really wanted to build a space station. I spent probably an hour looking for a good tutorial, but never found one. I eventually used a combination of real life examples and common sense to eventually get it. Now I want to spare people the pain I felt. So, here is how to rendezvous. Tip- try to use normal docking ports, and refrain from using the seniors and juniors unless you really want or need to. Step 1: Get a ship you want to dock with into circular orbit. I usually aim for 125 to 135 kilometers. I would make sure this ship has a probe core that can focus on target with SAS or a pilot that can, because it makes docking easier. Step 2: Get the ship you want to dock with your craft in step one into a lower orbit that craft 1. I try to make the orbit around 20 kilometers lower. This ship must have RCS fuel and thrusters to dock with craft 1. Step 3: Now you should have craft 2 in a lower orbit than craft 1. Then you need to click on craft 1 and set it as your target. Now you should see 2 new markers, labeled Ascending Node and Descending Node. These tell you how far off your inclination is from your target. Make a manuever node at either of the 2 and pull normal (at descending node) or anti-normal (at ascending node) until the number it shows is 0, 0.1, or -0.1. Step 4: Now you need to make a manuever node and pull prograde until you see an intersect marker. These tell you how far you will be from your target at your closest approach. Drag the manuever node around your orbit until it is the closest . If your separation is less than 9 kilometers, then you can go right to Step 5. If not, then right click the node, and press the add orbit button until your closest approach is much closer. Then drag it around some more until your separation is less that 9 kilometers. Then wait and excecute the burn. Step 5: Now set your navball setting from orbital to target if it isn't already. Then when you are at or near your closest approach, you need to, with your main engine and not RCS, burn retrograde until your relative speed is 0. The focus SAS on target, and burn, while keeping an eye on your closest approach in the orbital map. Stop burning when the closest approach stops getting shorter. Then, kill your relative speed, burn to target, and repeat until your closest approach is 0.3-0.0. Now, you don't need the orbital map. Step 6: Now when you are within 300 meters, kill speed relative to your target and ditch the main engine, switching to RCS. It's a good idea to quick save before doing this. Then burn to your target, and come to a stop when you can highlight parts on your target when mousing over them. Right-click the docking port you wish to dock with, and burn towards it until about 25 meters away. Step 7: Now, you should be stopped around 25 meters from the target. Now right-click the docking port you want to connect with your target, and click control from here. Make sure your SAS is set to target. Then switch to the target craft using [ or ], set the target craft to be facing the docking port you wish to use on your other craft, and make sure you are controlling from your targeted docking port. Now both docking ports should be lined up. Using craft 2, press H and accelerate towards your target at a very slow speed, making sure your prograde is staying on the target marker. I recommend quicksaving at this moment, especially when using senior docking ports, as they repel away from the target if the connection is not perfect. Now slowly drift towards your target until you are docked! Now you can eat a celebratory cookie and admire your work! I hope this guide is helpful! Sorry if it is WAY too long, I tried to make it as detailed as possible. Happy flying!

Hi there, I've experienced few times a bug when I reach a target on rendezvous. Once I get close enough to load the target (2.3km) it suddenly chage it's velocity to mine and therefore changing his orbit. Here is the video : https://youtu.be/96WTRDT5eQo The target is a big station 106 parts and take a while to load Any idea ? Cheers

I know what rendezvous and docking are but I can not seem to grasp how they are obtained. What kind of burns are performed and compare to ksp how are they performed in real life? In ksp you can perform a Homahn transfer and get a rendezvous in two burns. In real I heard spacecraft perform multiple burns could someone walk me through this. In real life how do they manage to stay so still and have a relative velocity of 0?

Title, I usually use the latter method, as while it's unrealistic and wasteful of delta-v, it's much easier to do then timing your launch.

Based on everyone's experience, durign rendezvous, IF I enabled SAS on the target, which one is easiest: stability hold, or one of the orientation hold? (eg prograde/retrograde)

I have returned to playing KSP after a couple year break and have had an issue when building a space station. The station has a low eccentricity and inclination 225km orbit. To add new parts, I launch from KSC at about 70 degree pitch with the station a few minutes from passing overhead. With an apoapsis just over 225km I have a pass at about 3km. Once up there, I burn prograde and work toward rendezvous. When the station loads at about 2250m, I have about 80m/s closing velocity. As the station loads, the game skips for a second and my closing velocity is dropped to about 1.2m/s. When checking the map, my orbit is now matched with the target, and we are both suborbital. I thought that maybe the game was thinking my exhaust was impacting the station from absurdly far away, so I tried again and made sure not to point my rear at the station with the same result. Has anyone heard of this happening? I know more info will be requested and will get mod list and pc specs up when I get home from work. I'm running this on a 6 year old laptop and know well that's a problem, but I'm not sure if it causing this particular issue.

It does not matter which vessel is selected. Always the other one (not active) explodes. (tbh not always, almost always. So far I have tried like 30 times, one time it didn't, all the rest... booom)

i did a hohmann transfer rendezvous but i have no idea what's next... slow myself down to zero at 15,000 m like the in-game tutorial showed? I hate the KSP tutorial because its just complete BS and it works very differently. in the tutorial, your target speed allways reduces naturally, and the prograde marker alligns up with the target marker... i used to slow down to 5.0 m/s and then speed up to 10.0 m/s back-and-forth-back-and-forth until i managed to get close enough but then both craft started to spin like they wanna orbit each other, and drifting away, and dancing around, and i have no idea what to do cuz im tryin' like for 3 days now and i'm frustrated!!!!!!

I need rendezvous and dock with a ship in orbit for career. How do I time the launch?

I think I finally got my Lunex like ship working (no, it's not for that Lunex Challenge), but I couldn't help but to wonder: would it have been more efficient if I go with the two other methods? Direct Ascent obviously is most simple in operation, but I ended up with what I considered to be a Nova rocket (AKA: Mammoth with 4x Liquid Booster running with Asparagus Staging, along with an orbiting stage AND a Translunar stage). Had I not run it in sandbox, it would have costed me 350k dollar units! So what does everyone do for their Mun landing - in career and Sandbox?

Wow the thrill Only started playing KSP a week ago and what a game so far, playing career mode. I ran out of scientists and 1 of them was stuck in orbit. The last couple days has been trial and error non stop and finally today i successfully brought him back home. What a night, sounds weird [snip] but this was one hell of a thrill catching him in space. Great game, thanks for listening to my experience

Hi all, This is a challenge meant more for the newbies however given what I did the other day it might also be interesting for the experienced as well. Basically, perform a rendezvous maneuver with two crewed craft in a new career save in as little amount of launches... Without upgrading the tracking station. (Fulfill the Contract Explore Kerbin - Rendezvous). Rules: 1. Open a new career save on Normal Difficulty (you can have any G-Force or CommNet options on, doesn't really matter). 2. Never upgrade the tracking station. 3. No mods allowed. 4. KSP 1.3, 1.4 or enhanced edition allowed. 5. Cancel velocity of the two crafts within 2.5km of each other. Scoring: Number of total launches required to achieve rendezvous is the scoring. Might come up with a better scoring system because this technically allows rendezvous at the second launch. Lowest score gets first. Please post evidence of all launches and their highest achievement, as well as the resultant rendezvous. Also name each craft. Example Scoring: Six craft: Hopper I, Hopper II, Hopper III, Stayputnik, Hopper IIIA, Hopper IIIB Score: 6

Una mano por favor! Saben de algún turorial de encuentro espacial bueno? El inglés de missisipi de alguno de los voluntarios me confunde, amén de que van algo rápido y con excesos de comentarios. Muchas Gracias!!!!!!

So I have this rescue mission and I've seen tutorials on rendezvous but I have no clue how to do it other than in low kerbin orbit. https://imgur.com/a/ilYESDb this right here is where I'm at, and you can see the pod near the Muns orbit.

So it was just a normal day in KSP. I was screwing around testing some stuff on a planet I'm working on, and decided to hop to another location. On the way, however, I remembered I need to repack my parachutes. So at about 80km and 600 m/s, Jeb hopped out of the craft. I didn't expect there to be much air up there, but there was. Jeb was thrown 12 km away from the ship, and I was just testing, so I thought I should revert flight. "Wait a second!" I told myself. "You could totally get Jeb! 10km isn't that far! It's just like a normal rendezvous! I've done tons of those!" So I turned on my rockets and went right back to catch up with Jeb, passing him by over 2.5km and 250 m/s. Woops. My altitude was probably around 55 km by this point. Try again. Jeb has a lot of drag, so he has basically stopped moving horizontally and only falls vertically around 350m/s. I'm about 4 km away, so I move towards him a little more slowly and deploy the airbrakes to slow me down to a similar speed as him. I turned on infinite propellant because, again, I was just testing stuff. Manage to park right next to him for a while, except that the airbrakes aren't enough and I'm still falling way faster than him. I use Jeb's EVA pack (pressing control the whole time) to get close to the ship. The only issue is, I can't find the hatch. Playing in 1.3.1, so the MK 2 Command pod has that weird door still, and I couldn't find it. The rocket is tilted to the side at about 45 degrees, so I switch to it and make it hold vertical so I can find the hatch easier. Quick look around shows the hatch is on the far side, so I switch to Jeb to fly him over there. But Jeb isn't there. When I wasn't holding control, he floated right away, and was now over a kilometer above the rocket. I was in target mode so I couldn't see my speed well, but I was around 18 km up. If I was careful I probably could have landed the rocket, and then landed Jeb before he crashed into the water That would be pointless, though, because I could have done that all along, and now I was committed to catching him. I pointed the rocket to surface radial out and thrusted until I had the same vertical speed as Jeb, then throttled down to keep that speed. Jeb was still a kilometer or so above the rocket, so I flew him down and and was about to get in. I moved towards the capsule and... Bounced off. I hate when that happens. I was going, like, 1 m/s, but still bounced. Jeb was incapacitated for 5 nail biting seconds as we fell toward the water. This time, I moved in hurriedly but slowly to avoid that accident again. Jeb finally got in the capsule. I finally look at the altitude gauge and find I'm less than 2 km above the water, moving at 180 m/s. 12 seconds more and Jeb would have died. Luckily this ship has 3G acceleration, so I floor the throttle and head towards land. About 30 seconds later we are safely landed, and I have completed my first ever atmospheric rendezvous in KSP.

Hi, When planning to dock with my space station or fuel dump, I found some of my launches end up with a easier rendezvous in orbit than others. While some have a horrendously long burn time and still nowhere near the target. Does it help waiting for the target to be in a certain place in its orbit in relation to the launch pad? For example, is it more fuel (or delta V) efficient to wait for the space station to be just passing the launch pad overhead before sending the rocket up to it, compared to launching straight away when the target could be the other side of Kerbin? What markers do people use to judge when its the right time to launch ? Once you are in a lower orbit do you want the target slightly ahead and if you're in a higher orbit do you want the target slightly behind? Thanks.