Hello, Ascimator here

[Ascimator]

Asc for short.

All that I want to say is that I love this game, for its sheer epicness (for some reason, I love the most the moment when you decouple stages, just feels so epic).

I've got 3 rocket designs right now - the first one was my first attempt of building a rocket (as I did not yet know about symmetry tool, it was unstable as hell, so I crashed every time). The second one was the rough copy from the wiki. I was not satisfied with its power, so I built Serious **** MK3, the three-staged one. This one is less maneuverable, but provides moderate takeoff, enough fuel to mess around with on the orbit and the landing stage.

Today I tried landing on the mun for the first time. In fact, I did, but everything except the command pod was just a little bit disintegrated (was too lazy to kill the horisontal speed). I have also performed a mun slingshot around the sun twice, both times accidentally (the second time I had a chance to get to Kerbin again, if not for Space Kraken).

So here is the question: how do I get my takeoff stage to activate its parachutes?

[sal_vager]

Hi Ascimator and welcome to the community

You'll want to make sure the chutes are not in a stage with stuff like engines, and that they are above most other things, usually they will automatically go in the stage with the command capsule, but if that is not the case, you can drag them from wherever they are in the VAB or hangar side bar to another stage, you can even add a new empty stage in the VAB or hangar.

I like to put mine at the top of the stage list so they are always the last thing to activate.

[Ascimator]

I have dragged them in the stage I am decoupling, but when I decouple it, they do not seem to activate, neither if I put them in the stage the corresponding decoupler is in. I have no problems with activating the chute on the command pod, but I want to put them on the first stage so it comes down gently.

[sal_vager]

How high are you when you activate them?

[Capt'n Skunky]

Happy Launching!

Arrr!

Capt'n Skunky

KSP Community Manager

[Ascimator]

Still in the atmosphere, too lazy to go up all the way just to test.

[Binky]

If you're high enough, the chute doesnt pop immediately. I don't know offhand what the altitude is that they do pop, but if you hit '[' or ']' just after you decouple it switches your view to nearby objects, like spent stages, and you can watch them to see if the chute deploys lower down. But you won't be in control of the upper stage anymore, until you change back. I think also that if the upper stage gets too far away, you can't change back.

Edit: and Hello, as well

Edited August 20, 2012 by Binky
I'm a rude sod and didn't say hello