EVA fails

[Pinchy]

Something I am doing is clearly wrong, because everytime I EVA from the surface of a planet/moon - I press space to release, but as soon as I press space I just fall to the ground and land like a sack of .....

Surely this is not normal - and I can actually EVA without falling to the ground first and somehow engage my RCS before I press space and fallout the pod and then gracefully land or even fly from where I am? What am I missing?

[nekogod]

You can't activate the jetpack whilst holding onto the pod but you can hit space then immediately hit R and shift to activate and slow your descent. It doesn't always work since bumping things seems to deactivate it and you often bump the ship the moment you let go.

[Gaarst]

Maybe try using ladders

Anyway, neko is right, you can't activate your jetpack while holding a ladder or pod; then again, I don't see what's wrong with your first step on another planet being a bit... firmer

[Dilli]

For graceful try Shift + S (W/S/A/D all should work) + Space to jump backwards off the ladder

Edited July 2, 2015 by Dilli
copy and paste from wiki

[Pinchy]

I always just fall and expect my helmet to smash and my Kerbal to explode!! If its just accepted that falling "gracefully" is what happens then so be it but yes I get the same problem when I bump into the side of the ship and the pack deactivates and ragdoll mode goes into operation

- - - Updated - - -

ooh - I didn't know that one Dilli - will try that. didn't know you could take a leap of faith in a direction

[cephalo]

I find that faceplanting from 50 meters up, on the planets I've been to, is just fine.

[xtoro]

I wouldn't worry to much about falling. I've deorbited a Kerbal while eva'd and survived lol

[Reddeyfish]

I wouldn't worry to much about falling. I've deorbited a Kerbal while eva'd and survived lol

you can't deorbit them alone in 1.0.4 anymore; they'll overheat at about 65k.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/127610-Is-this-even-possible-Does-someone-want-to-try-it

They'll survive everything else if they don't overheat, though.

Also, kerbals tend to be more resiliant when landing on their helmets, not the other way around.