How long did it take you to dock ...

[Odo]

Took me about a week. still I'm horrible at it, I'm forceing myself to build a space station in orbit. the hardest part for me isn't rendevouz, but getting the docking ports aligned and connected, takes me about 20 minutes to rendevous, 70 mins to dock, usually I rage quit while trying to dock though... only have docked... 3 times ever. no cheats or mods used.

[Cby]

Back in 0.17, I learned to do an orbital rendezvous before they implemented the manoeuvre nodes. Later, I got a docking mod which helped me learn how to dock. Once docking was in the game, it was easy.

[xclusiv8]

took me an hour to figure it out.

[soranno]

A long story short, 9 hours unrelenting effort the night I bought the game.

The euphoria of that moment I will not soon forget.

[Wanderer]

I built up to a full rendezvous and docking by first just launching a couple of modules that were docked the wrong way around. So undocking them then reorienting (and moving one off to the side to make it a little harder) and redocking. Super easy, but I got a feel for the controls and the sensitivity.

I feel like I had complete beginners luck on my first rendezvous though. I think my first go took about 25 mins. Next time I had some real issues and it was over an hour of overshoots and retries from quicksave. I would mostly just run out of mono-propellent.

[StainX]

Back in 0.17 i learned how to "dock" with flipped over landing gear... still cool to grab stuff that has no docking port on it

Long story, short: Took a while without manoveur nodes and relative target infos

[rotorwashed]

The thing that helped me the most is putting your velocity vector markers on top of the target marker once you have your close approach. This is done by "pulling" the prograde marker, or "pushing" the retrograde marker. These days I usually dont ever need to burn towards the target. I just adjust my flight path by pushing my retrograde maker, slowing down while also getting closer. If your prograde marker and the circular target marker are on top of each other than you are headed right for your target. it will shift around a little, but thats when pulling it around comes in.

[Nibb31]

Rendez-vous and docking are two different things that require different skills.

Rendez-vous requires some knowledge of orbital mechanics and fully understanding how the navball works.

Docking as quite similar to thrusting around a Kerbal in EVA mode. If you can spacewalk in EVA and bring a kerbal back to the airlock, then you should be able to dock.

I just posted a quick and easy step-by-step guide as an answer to this thread: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/39396-Why-can-t-i-dock-%21

[Merinsan]

First time took about 30 minutes. Now I do it in about 5-10 minutes, depending on how stable the craft is. I frequently dock ships that are not balanced, which are difficult but still possible. First time I docked an unbalanced ship took me about 45 minutes.

I'll admit I watched a few videos before I started, and it gave me a good understanding of how to do it.

[koshelenkovv]

The way I play KSP, docking is unneeded.

(very small rockets, carrying the whole ship, lightweit landers, and rovers which are basically emmergency return donuts on a wheels)

I've docked once so far. It's pretty easy with proper ship.

(Much easier than close rendezvous of one-engine lifter with TWR over 10 and return ship)

[Xeldrak]

well, the first few tries where rather nerve-racking, but I think within a day I more or less got the hang of it.

While building my first space-station (6 seperate pieces) it got more or less routine.

[Lachned]

For me the rendevouz became a lot easier after I learned to read the markers on the navball correctly. When i get within 10km it's all about killing relative velocity and approaching again and again for me. Don't know if that's the most efficient way to do it but it works for me. The actual docking part is harder but I usually manage it in a "close enough" kind of way...

[Xjph]

I succeeded on my first ever attempt at docking, following the guilds on the kerbal wiki (Gemini 7 and 6A historical mission), no automation.

I actually find mechjeb is often very bad at docking, or at least takes an eternity doing it and uses way more monopropellant than it needs, especially with larger vessels. I can usually do it faster and with less fuel by hand.

[SargeRho]

The first time took around an hour.

Now I can manually dock ships within less than a complete orbit.

[Whackjob]

I am also now a proud member of the has-docked-without-dying club :>

Was my first try.

[Xaiier]

My first "dock" was before docking ports and nav aids, so I can't be blamed for using mechjeb (not automation, just for rendezvous planning and killing relative velocity). Managed to semi-permanently connect three ships. Now I could do it by hand no problem, though I generally still use mechjeb for rendezvous.

PRO TIP:

The maneuverability and RCS capability of your ship matters more than anything. If your ship sucks, you aren't docking unless your a wizard, but if your ship is maneuverable and easy to control, its a piece of cake.

[Khrissetti]

Not too long, I practiced rendezvousing and transferring crew back in 0.16 or .17 (whenever EVA was introduced...) getting to within 20m is child's play, it was always the last few metres which scuppered me.

[Nexustrimean]

... I Still haven't. But part of that is that the last few attempts have been with oversized space station sections, lag was a factor.

[durk]

First time ever went surprisingly smooth after reading some tips on rendezvous.

I ended up a bit over 1km from the target and the docking went perfect.

My other times? Not so much..

[Decoherent]

After failing the first few times, I sent up 2 capsules that were basically giant RCS tanks, and spent 4.5 hours getting the damn things docked. The next time only took 30 minutes, now it takes me 3-5 if I do it by hand. The real keys were learning to use the translation controls properly (HJKL etc), and keeping Kerbal "down" so the ship moved how I expect. Typically I like jetting over to ~50m by hand, then letting MJ take over for the final dock.

[Diodon]

If you count failed attempts, probably several hours. My first 'dock' was an exhilarating and proud moment... until I realized that the docking ports were of differing sizes. To add insult to injury I accidentally tapped the space bar thus separating my command module. I was about to just abort the flight when I realized that I could make this a rescue mission to practice orbital rendezvous. I EVA'd all three kerbonauts to the incorrectly designed satellite as temporary housing and managed to return to pick them up. I suppose I could have left them in the command module but I wanted to practice EVA as well.

Here is the technique that worked for me:

I'm not sure how efficient it is compared to other methods but it is the easiest for me to wrap my head around to consistently execute.

[asmi]

Was successful on first try. Having done many dockings in Orbiter, in KSP it's much easier.

[Van Disaster]

Took a fair amount of swearing & back-off-calm-down-retry ( much like learning air-air refuelling in a flight sim ), but I think it was the first time I ever made a rendezvous, I was determined to connect the things & back then I took way too much RCS fuel. I use SmartASS these days, no reason not to. Kill-rot is really handy for spaceplane docking with the port effectively on the roof.

[AustralianFries]

You can't go wrong with north/south orientation, so there is no reason why you shouldn't.

But then your orientation to the target is messed up (the ship will roll, basically). For instance if I want two solar beams to be attached I want them as lined up as possible, N/S orientation will screw this up. Yes, you can switch between ships and fix the orientation, but E/W will keep it the same. For lining stuff up, I go with an E/W orientation, and for "it doesn't matter just dock the damned thing" dockings, I go with N/S.

Edited July 9, 2013 by AustralianFries

[Brabbit1987]

I used mechjeb for a while because I had no idea how to dock or rendezvous.

I decided I didn't like using mechjeb because it sucks and I attempted to dock myself. (Yes I am one of those people who started by using mechjeb, but now no longer use it, because I felt like I needed to do it myself). It took me about a half hour to an hour. The second time I docked it was pitch black and didn't install lights ... oops lol. I managed it though. I actually find the nav ball is your best friend when docking. To me it's even more useful than all the mods currently out. The docking cam is great, but I have tried using it and find I don't even pay attention to it and end up using the nav ball.

So in short, after actually attempting it myself, I found it wasn't actually all that hard, just takes a lot of time and patience.

Now that they improved SAS, docking should be even easier.