[Guide] Orbital rendezvous

[avpx]

So, I was looking for a thread like this for some long time, but after countless attempts to rendezvous with my space station (circular orbit of around 300km around kerbin) I was finally able to transfer a crew-member of each ship to the other one. I would like to share the knowledge of how to do it, in the simplest and most basic way.

First few times I used mechjeb to get into the same orbit, its easier and takes less time but not required.

So, our orbit has 2 heights - AP, PE.

EP is the lowest point of the orbit, AP is the highest.

Our space station is in orbit of 300km around kerbin. In order to approach we will need to enter this orbit.

1.Launch the space-ship.

2.Get into low-orbit around kerbin.

3.Hit the throttle again slightly until you reach AP of ~300 but not above 300. I always stop at, say 280-295.

4.Remember that you cant change your height at the current moment, your position is an Anchor. Therefore if you want a circular orbit of ~300km, wait until you get to the AP of 300km and then adjust the PE height.

5.Point your nose forward and be ready to burn once you reach the AP point and your altitude is 300km.

6.Keep burning until PE is at 200km. Now why would we do that? Remember that low orbits are faster and higher one's are slower. We might be in the same orbit but far away from each other, your ships will never meet. You want the 2 orbits have the same anchor and hit the warp button until you see then get closer every lap.

7.Once they are close enough you can raise the PE a bit to 250-280km, depends on the distance of the 2 ships and continue the "pursuit".

8.At this point, when you can see the ship on the screen as a purple object, get your EP to ~300km.

9.Usually the distance is 40-50km so I point at the other ship with my ship's nose or the direction it's flying and burn a few sec's until the distance is getting shorter.

10.When you are ~10km of the target burn to the other direction and try to match target speed and direction. I hate this part because it involves lots of guessing, even with mechjeb (which by the way has "rendezvous information" that might help you match speed with the target).

11.After matching the speed and staying at some distnace from the target, cut the fuel flow to the engine so you wont engage them by mistake and use only RCS to get closer to the target.

Good luck!!!