How to reach orbit. For beginners.

[Xd the great]

You have a working, flying rocket. You have to get jeb to orbit. Assuming you have more than enough fuels, this guide is for you.

Launch vertically, with full thrust and SAS and RCS on. Stage when engines stop burning. Repeat this, until you go to map view and see that you highest point (ap) is above 70000m. Stop burning. Timewrap until you are 1-2 minutes away from ap. Burn horizontally. Stage when appropriate. Cut off engines when your lowest point (pe) is also above 70000m.

Congrats now you are in orbit. How to get home? Burn retrograde. The circle with a cross. Use SAS to help you. Burn until pe is about 30km. Cut off engines, and hold retrograde. Stage away everything except the parachutes and the capsules.

When you slow down enough, aka less than 300m/s, stage the parachutes. Watch your capsule drift home. 

Done.

Troubleshooting:

1. My rocket cannot launch! I press spacebars, all engines on first stage are burning, but the rocket stays there!

More boosters. MORE BOOSTERS. MOAR BOOSTERS.

2.My parachutes wont open.

You stage the parachutes too early. Or too late.

3. I cannot reach orbit! I dont have enough fuel!

Bruh, add fuel.

Feel free to ask others for a case by case analysis.

[Tyko]

okay...I can't disagree that your explanation above a simple way to get to orbit, but you should qualify your tutorial by explaining that it's one of the least efficient ways to get to orbit. It wastes a ton of fuel which means having to build ridiculously huge rockets for a very simple task.

Here's a launch that's not ideal, but almost as simple and a lot more efficient. It's a simplified gravity turn and it works because you really need to be flying fast sideways, not upwards, to achieve orbit. The launch profile below lets you start thrusting sideways while you're also climbing. 

1. Launch with full thrust and SAS set to hold Prograde  
2. at 100 m/s speed tilt the rocket 10 degrees to the East. Your prograde marker on the navball will start angling towards 10 degrees too. This is your actual direction of travel. When the prograde indicator is also at 10 degrees you can stop using the keys and let SAS hold you on course.
3. Your rocket will slowly continue to curve more towards horizontal. This is a good thing.
4. You want to be tilted to 45 degrees when you get to 10,000 meters. The rocket will tend to fly itself, but depending on how you built the rocket you may have to manually angle it up or down a bit to hit that 45 degree target at 10,000m
5. the rocket will continue to climb and slowly tilt eastward on its own. Your goal is to be flying close to horizontal at 40,000m. Again, you may have to use some manual control if you're tilting too fast or too slow, but aim to be flying horizontal, directly East, at 40,000m
6. Switch to map view and watch your AP. When you're AP gets to 80km, cut your engines and coast towards AP. Your AP will slowly drop because the atmosphere will slow you down, but it won't drop much because the atmosphere is really thin at high altitudes.
7. About 30 seconds before your rocket reaches AP make sure your SAS is still holding Prograde and fire your engines until your PE (lowest point of your orbit) is above 70,000m.

Again, this isn't an ideal launch, but it's closer. If you want to learn more check out this forum post that explains gravity turns in great detail:

 

Edited August 2, 2018 by Tyko

[Scarecrow]

I'm all for helping new players to learn the basics of the game, but the method of getting to orbit as posted by the OP is awful.  Tyko gives a much better method that is way less wasteful of fuel.

[Xd the great]

On 8/20/2018 at 5:11 AM, Scarecrow said:

I'm all for helping new players to learn the basics of the game, but the method of getting to orbit as posted by the OP is awful.  Tyko gives a much better method that is way less wasteful of fuel.

My method is for absolute beginners, so it has to be simple. Gravity turn is good, but that can be learned later.

[Scarecrow]

 

8 hours ago, Xd the great said:

My method is for absolute beginners, so it has to be simple. Gravity turn is good, but that can be learned later.

Even as an absolute beginner, I never used the method you describe.  There are plenty of tutorials on Youtube that show how to get to orbit around Kerbin, and you only need to watch a couple of those to grasp the basic concept of what is required.  If someone does it the way you describe, they may feel happy enough to always do it that way, which may hamper them later in the game when they try to move on to bigger and better things.  I've always believed that if something is worth doing, it's worth doing right, and wouldn't advocate teaching someone bad habits from the get go.

[Tyko]

11 hours ago, Scarecrow said:

Even as an absolute beginner, I never used the method you describe.  There are plenty of tutorials on Youtube that show how to get to orbit around Kerbin, and you only need to watch a couple of those to grasp the basic concept of what is required.  If someone does it the way you describe, they may feel happy enough to always do it that way, which may hamper them later in the game when they try to move on to bigger and better things.  I've always believed that if something is worth doing, it's worth doing right, and wouldn't advocate teaching someone bad habits from the get go.

Everything @Scarecrow said and I'd add that the "go straight up and turn right" method takes a lot more fuel meaning more complex rockets. So you're not making the entire thing simpler, instead you're just shifting complexity from the launch to the  rocket design.

[Xd the great]

On 8/24/2018 at 4:28 AM, Tyko said:

Everything @Scarecrow said and I'd add that the "go straight up and turn right" method takes a lot more fuel meaning more complex rockets. So you're not making the entire thing simpler, instead you're just shifting complexity from the launch to the  rocket design.

And ksp solved that. MOAR BOOSTERS.

Still, you guys made a great point.