'Explore' Storyline Contracts

[RoninFrog]

I am currently doing a No Contracts Career, which relies solely on the autocompleting 'Explore' contracts.  Some of these contracts are vague.  I have some questions.

1.  The 'Return from surface' contract.  What qualifies as returning from the surface of another planet?  I know I have to recover something on Kerbin.  I see four potential options:  A science experiment, a kerbal, a command pod, or any part.  Which is it?

2.  The 'Dock in orbit' contract.  I have gathered that the vessels have to be launched separately.  But can I reuse the same two vessels for different celestial bodies?  If the vessels are launched separately, do they have to stay separate until their destination?

3.  The 'Transfer crew' contract.  Is it wanting me to transfer Kerbonauts by docking and then using 'Transfer Crew', or does an EVA transfer count?

[bewing]

1. Command pod or probe core.

2. You can reuse the vessels. You can launch them, dock them, get to the destination orbit, undock them, and dock them again.

3. EVA counts. (Not that you are doing it in your career, but rescuing a kerbal counts too.)

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Bewing provides the correct answers... Also, FYI you can often click on the plus symbols in the mission tabs to see what you need to do to accomplish the mission. 

In my case I transferred kerbals from an out of fuel Mun lander to a return ship and missed the mission.  The note said I had to return a ship that landed - so I got to fly another trip to complete the requirements