My first thought was that is was odd that for rescue operations I now had Kerbals as icons in orbit.
My suspicion was comfirmed as I got closer to the "vessel" to rendez-vous with...
Lo and behold! Just to the right of the exhaust of the rescue vessel... there it is, the elusive lonely Kerbal to be rescued from space! I thought they were all in vessels now... Apparently, not!