Hi and SOS.

[cryhavoc]

Hi all - I'm just getting back into ksp and have found that, to phrase it like i thought, excrements is wack.

So, i decided to take a pretty standard lifter, strap a station on top and try to start out in my sandbox game. (see pic)

1st separation goes smoothly (asparagus design, pair, then pair), but the moment i ditch the last pair of side boosters my spacecraft decides its had enough of breaching the atmosphere and pursues a career in midair gymnastics, much to the dismay of myself and my payload.

CONTEXT:

Final sep. occurs at about 10k

Pic (cause my browser is weird):

(diagram of staging, boosters on all, swivel booster on main)

PAYLOAD ON TOP

        1

2   main    2

        1

[Dman979]

Hey, @cryhavoc, and welcome aboard!

10km is pretty low to be running without a fairing. My guess is that you had more drag at the top than at the bottom, so the ship did a 180 on you, kinda like if you shot an arrow feather-side first.

There are a few solutions that work to fix this: place fins at the bottom, place a fairing over the payload, and CHECK YO STAGIN!

A picture would be a good help to figure this out. Most people upload to Imgur (you don't need an account, but it can be helpful). Then copy the image location, ending in something like .jpg or .png.

[James Kerman]

Welcome to the forum,

I wonder if you are using solid rocket boosters connected to your main stage?  The SRB's in KSP don't gimbal like a swivel and they provide increasing thrust to weight as they burn that can make them difficult to control.

[cryhavoc]

Just using reliant engines on the side, with swivels in the middle.

UPDATE: 

With some tweaks to lifter stage (aka, strapping a load of fuel on and a bigger rocket - gotta love the big orange boi)

My station is in orbit!

now, a funny story: when I was arranging an intercept with a hab module, I got the second intercept to 5.4km. Pretty good, I thought, so I would just wait till the second one.

This was, of course, when I realised I had just slammed my periapsis into cold hard earth. Oops.

[Vexillar]

Hi @cryhavoc, and welcome!

2 hours ago, cryhavoc said:

when I realised I had just slammed my periapsis into cold hard earth

And welcome, also, to the cadre of unintentional lithobrakers.  A similar faux pas is to carefully set up your manoeuvre node, warp to it... only to remember that you forgot to extend your solar panels and now you have no battery left and no control. 

[cryhavoc]

ironic, seeing as, when i was literally within touching distance with the module i was going to dock i ran out of power so could no longer orient it. spent 10 mins flailing about before knocking off one of the stations solar panels and clicking revert.

 

[James Kerman]

I admit I'm also a serial solar panel non-extender.

[Delay]

I extend my solar panels before the gravity turn is even finished an I'm coasting to the apoapsis - at roughly 60 km or so.
The fact that I have never run out of electricity due to my own stupidty after I started doing it this way shows its efficacy.

Edited August 26, 2018 by Delay