Drop your pod, near or on the KSC.

[derhp]

So I like to think I\'m pretty good at guesstimating things in this game, DV requirement, orbits, transfers and all that guff. However one thing eludes me, de orbiting my pod and having it land as near as possible to the KSC. Preferably I would get it just off the coast.

What I\'ve been doing retro burning until the low point of my orbit (no, I refuse to use the proper terms. That\'s not kerbal ;P) is around 39,000m in the middle of the ocean of Kafrica (the continent with the KSC on it). The idea is that I still have enough forward momentum to reach the KSC but low enough that I get caught by the air. However, this is not going as planned.

I usually go to shallow and overshoot completely, or even shoot back into space with just my pod in which case I get caught by the air on the second loop. I tried to compensate by coming in steep, this just stripped off too much forward monentum. In one instance, I subjected my kerbals to 150g aero-braking from ~3000m/s!

I tried using an old copy of the moach heat shield which acted as wing, but that made ascent an absolute balls out nightmare. The idea was that I could glide the thing falling brick style. Nope.

Any thoughts?

[Xivios]

This works for me, it\'s quick and dirty and I damn near hit the tower afterwards.

Enter a roughly circular orbit 100 to 200 thousand meters up, with the space center somewhere under the predicted path (should be unless you\'ve done a plane change) When you are on the other side of the planet (use the [m]ap or nav ball to judge when), turn retrograde and then 'up' about 45 degress, and fire the boosters. This raise your orbit about 90 degrees out while de-orbiting the ship 180 degress out - giving you a steeper approach - where the space center is. Use the map to fine-tune where you actually enter. Give yourself some breathing room, it\'s easier to slow down than speed up and the atmo will plenty of that for you, so your predicted end point should be somewhere over the ocean, not the KSC itself - assuming you orbit east like I do.