How to get into Orbit

[BeigeSponge]

I have got a ship, about 80,000 feet I know i should start gravity turn, but how to?

[dt890]

I am waiting for the ship to reach the highest point before starting to fall again. And burn the engines horizontal in the direction i am traveling in, the direction is indicated by a yellow circle on your navbal.

and then you just wait until you have achieved orbit, about 3000-4000 m/s is the orbital speed needed.

[Bluejayek]

Orbital speed is somewhat less then what dt described, it is closer to 2300m/s for a 70/70km orbit, and less for anything beyond that (although you still need more delta V to get out there).

The most efficient way I have found to do the turn is to start turning, slowly, once you leave the thickest part of the atmosphere bar, around 8000-10000m. Then, turn over slowly so you are at about 45 degrees at 30km, and fully turned over by 50km or so. Once here, check your apoapsis. If you have done it perfectly (unlikely, hard to do), you should be just below apoapsis at this point with it rising with you. If it is far above you as is normal, cut your engine and wait for apoapsis. When you are about 10s below apoapsis as seen on map view, do a horizontal burn as dt described in order to bring your velocity to around 2300-2500m/s, and you are in orbit

Happy flying

Note: What dt described works fine, it just wastes more fuel then the earlier turn.

Note2: You should turn towards the 90 degree marker, as this is the direction of kerbins rotation and it gives you a couple hundred m/s boost.

[Vespasianus]

3000-4000 metres? I only need around 2500 m/s. But then, I start turning at around 20000 metres, and when I am around 70000 metres, I turn to 90 degrees, and wait until periapsis is where I want it.

Cheers

[BillWiskins]

Just turn off any SAS/ASAS you have running (hit 't') and use WASD to pitch your rocket over slowly. Head for 90 degrees on the navigation ball for best results. In all honesty, you'll probably want to do your gravity turn a little earlier - I tend to start mine at 10,000 meters, but of course it depends on the craft. You want to be horizontal by the time you leave the atmosphere (just under 70,000m). Then, as stated - burn in the direction of the yellow circle, which should hopefully be at the horizon on the nav-ball at 90 degrees by this stage. Wait for your Periapsis to appear on the other side of Kerbin, and then watch it rise until it's out of atmosphere as well. Then, you'll have a nice, stable orbit.

Edit - predictably beaten to it. Oh dear.

[EndlessWaves]

I have got a ship, about 80,000 feet I know i should start gravity turn, but how to?

80,000ft is a little low, you're still well inside the atmosphere at 24,000m and will have to contend with drag and potentially making a second burn later to get the lowest point of your orbit out of the atmosphere if you fluff the angle/timing. I would wait until you get to 70,000-80,000m and then turn as it simplifies things.

If you want a normal equatorial orbit for something like a mun mission then you want to turn to 90 or 270 degrees heading and have your nose pointing at the horizon (the bit where the blue and orange halves of the nav ball meet). Then start the burn, open the map view (M key) and keep going until your periker (periapsis) is at 70,000m as well and then throttle down to zero which turns the engine off.

It does require a fair amount of additional fuel to go from suborbital (i.e. crashing down again) to a stable orbit - it's not a quick five second burst.

[sal_vager]

Hmmm, how about you try my preferred method, launch as normal, then tilt about 45 degrees due east when you reach 12km, take it slow on the pitchover maneuver with large rockets though.

Pitch again to about 70 degrees east at 24km, then again to 90 degrees when your apoapsis reaches about 50km (check the the map)

Cut off the engines and coast to near apoapsis, then burn once more to circularize your orbit

[Endeavour]

I have got a ship, about 80,000 feet I know i should start gravity turn, but how to?

Do you mean 80,000 meters? If so, turn towards the horizon and burn.

[Zephram Kerman]

For anyone interested in optimizing their gravity turn, there was a very thoughtful challenge thread on the subject. I posted a graph of 40 flights using different combinations of turn start altitudes and curve shapes.

[Monkster]

I usually start the gravity turn at 20km, with it finishing at around 70km. I shut off my throttle until about 10-15 seconds before apoapsis and then get a nice long burn going to circularise my orbit. Also have a look at Pebble_Garden's awesome tutorials, I found these to be of great help http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/15652-Orbital-Mechanics-101-A-Kerbal-Space-Program-Tutorial