Orbit 101 engine start

[Rmack]

What am I doing wrong? I went through all the tutorials twice, up to Orbiting 101, and even though I'm lined up, none of the usual commands (spacebar,left shift, Z) seem to work.  I'm lined up good; I did it both in SAS mode and hand flown, but no prompt when the node passes and the commands don't work.

Do I have to stay on map mode for the timing or something?

[Superfluous J]

If you're in map mode, spacebar won't stage.

You can activate a deactivated but not staging engine by right clicking it and clicking "activate."

Other than that, I'm not sure. I'd have to try the tutorial myself.

[bewing]

Well, you don't usually really want to wait until the node passes -- you want to burn a few seconds before the node happens.

In the tutorial, the engines are already staged for you. All you need to do is hit "z" -- and have the navball active, and have SAS active, with "prograde mode" selected on the SAS. That may be where your problem is.

SAS has up to 10 modes (depending on the sophistication of the kerbal or robot pilot). The default one is "stability mode". It keeps your ship pointed in the direction it is already pointing.

Mostly vertically below that one is the button for "prograde mode". It points your ship in the direction the ship is already moving. That is the mode you need to use in the Orbiting 101 tutorial. The symbol on the prograde mode button looks like an airplane viewed from the back end.

And no, I tried it both ways and you do not have to stay on map mode.

 

Edited May 12, 2016 by bewing

[Plusck]

Maybe you accidentally hid your NavBall?

Controls only work while the NavBall (number pad ".") is visible.

Also, are you really really sure that you're facing prograde? The retrograde marker has three equally spaced lines and a cross in the middle, while the prograde has two horizontal and one vertical line, and no cross. The engine will not fire until you are lined up.

You are supposed to be looking at the map for this tutorial - there isn't really much worth seeing outside.

Final possibility - you have staged the decoupler and now you have no engines... : p

Edited May 12, 2016 by Plusck

[Streetwind]

To add to all of the above - make sure you are not in timewarp.

Inside the atmosphere, you will be using "physics timewarp", where the full simulation runs just a little bit faster (up to x4); but once you are above 70 km, the game will give you "analytic" or "on-rails timewarp". While on rails, you cannot control your craft. And since the lowest step in that mode is x5, it can feel very similar to no timewarp at all, or to the x4 physics timewarp you might have been using earlier in your flight.

[Rmack]

It was my nav ball not being visible in map mode.  That fixed it.