How did you learn how to rendezvous and dock?

[0x7be]

I learned how to do it while playing Orbiter a long time ago. There was a nice tutorial which uncovered basics of space flight and orbital mechanics.

[bsalis]

From this...

Rendezvous Made Easy

This was back in .16 I think, and possibly one of the first guide/tutorial on a reliable way to rendezvous using the information at hand. This was before maneuver nodes, targeting and docking.

[IvanTehFennec]

I used Erkle's Docking Clamps to learn to dock.

[Toshogu]

Put a craft with a docking port in orbit, flew it's sister ship, figured out how to match orbits. spent 5 tries not even getting close. Looked up what all the symbols onthe navbal were. 3 more unsuccessfull tries but alot closer now that I understood what the symbols were on the navball. And then after that just started docking stuff. Once you understand the meaning behind all the colored symbols on the navball suddenly it all starts to make sense and you understand the direction traveling in relation to the object you are trying to dock to. Makes everything so much easier. Cause the first couple of tries I was just eyeballing it look @ my craft, look at target burn in direction I thought I needed to go. With the navball and the target m/s information I know exactly in what direction I'm going and how fast and how to correct etc. Docking is now as easy as 1,2,3. I can dock any craft in any horrible rcs configuration in under 5minutes. In a well balanced craft, I can do it under a minute. To make it a challenge I like to bump what ever I am trying to dock to first so it spins, and then that takes me like 10min to dock too. But it's all about matching speeds and directions and once you understand the navball and it's symbols it is a piece of cake.

[RoboRay]

I was somewhat familiar with the theory of rendezvous and docking prior to KSP, and I learned to actually do it in KSP the hard way back before we had maneuver nodes and a Target mode for the NavBall. The Target data on the NavBall and Map Screen make rendezvous really easy, as they are taking care of all the calculations for you.

[generalmiller]

I read what NASA did during Project Gemini and did what they did for the most part. Started practicing rendezvous and a few launches later moved to docking.

[Geschosskopf]

Like several others above, I also learned to dock in Orbiter. Having done that many and SERIOUSLY hating it, I feel no shame whatsoever in leaving the docking to MechJeb while I go debeer and rebeer. Could I do it myself more efficiently? Sure. But after a long session of design, fail launch, redesign, relaunch, by the time I get to orbit I can tell I'm getting too much blood in my alcohol system so need a break. Besides, the main point of docking is to refuel the ship anyway, so burning a bit more to get there doesn't make much difference

[JupiterII]

I tuned in to the 0.18 livestream for about 5 minutes, and it just happened to be when they were showing off the new render-vous system. I learned everything I needed to know from watching that.

[Death Engineering]

I (foolishly) started by building a space station in orbit from docked modules.. before I had ever tried docking or even before I had grasped good construction techniques. Drove myself nuts trying to maneouver giant modules together, but eventually managed it, and learned how to dock *anything* in the process.

[theflyingfish]

I played Orbiter first so that was not fun to learn docking with. Watched a bunch of YouTube videos (had to pause and rewind a lot to understand). A lot of trial and error, where I'd zoom by my target at 500 m/s, there's no collisions on Orbiter so I went through the ISS multiple times without destroying it. I'd imagine if I had learned docking in KSP first, I would have blown the target and my own ship when "approaching" for the first time.

Orbiter veteran, awwww yeah. *fist bump*

I still remember all the MFD settings and everything... Someone should totally make a mod that replicates the Orbiter Docking MFD. That MFD UI was so helpful. I would use the XR2 and DGIV to ferry food and fuel to the ISS... Good times, good times... /endnostalgia

But Orbiter was basically hard-mode KSP, rendezvous-wise. Sure, your instrumentation was so much better, but the dV budget was a lot tighter. After Orbiter, KSP docking seemed much easier by comparison. (Hint: Translation RCS is your friend.)

[Custard Donut (In Space)]

For me it was about 4 weeks of trying before i managed to dock, i have to give all credit to Scott Manley, it was his tutorial that got someone as frankly thick as myself to finally understand.

[rodion_herrera]

Orbiter vet.

[zapy97]

scott Manley's tutorial and then a lot of practice

[jcraft]

Official developer livestream before 0.18, that was all I needed to understand how to rendezvous and dock. First thing I did after installing 0.18 was of course to try to dock... did it successfully on first try and to this day I cannot understand what is so hard about it everytime I hear/read someone saying that docking is hardest thing to do in KSP, I guess I'm some kind of natural docking-master

[Guest Aaack]

Reading a couple of threads of this forum!

After burn oceans of mono propellant I learn how to dock but then... I figured out by myself how to use properly the dock interface of the game, using it I built ginormous orbital stations full of fuel.

Now docking is not difficult to me, not easy either but I jumped from "how the hell will i find that bloody station?!?!?!" to "how can I save even more fuel and dock this thing?"

[FleetAdmiralJ]

I think I watched Scott Manley's video and then tried it. I think it took about 2 hours of me maneuvering the first time before I got it. I've gotten a lot better at it over time, though sometimes it's still a pain, depending on the ship I'm trying to dock. The docking cam helps too.

Of course, every time during docking:

My ships: we are powerful with the dark side! Use the dark side of the planet!

Edited July 26, 2013 by FleetAdmiralJ

[Lanfranc]

Docking used to be the greatest, most frustrating pain in the Kerbal for me, just couldn't figure out how to do it. But my big breakthrough was the realisation that the translation controls plus Chase cam are essentially the same as the EVA controls, and since I could control a Kerbal on EVA perfectly well, there wasn't really any reason why I shouldn't be able to dock as well. Learning how to properly balance the RCS was also hugely important (the RCS Helper plugin was a big help there.) Now it's one of my favourite things to do in the game.

Of course, every time during docking:

My ships: we are powerful with the dark side! Use the dark side of the planet!

Mine too; docking in pitch darkness is practically a tradition for me by now.

Edited July 26, 2013 by Lanfranc

[legodragonxp]

I watched this and paid a lot of attention:

-Lego

[Tankbuster32]

Watched Scott manley's video, forgot it all, tried using mecjeb, failed twice, said screw you mechjeb and did it maually.

[Hanno]

I never used Mechjeb, I only used the Gemini Tutorial from the wiki

[bonyetty]

I practiced softly bumping back in 0.17 I think. The RCS balancing made it easier back then, then RCS balancing changed and it got harder for me at least. Now with the new ASAS and the docking mode rebalance of RCS in 0.21.1 I am having great fun building stations without too much spin spin spin round round round(motor racing ref) wiggle wiggle wiggle, wiggle wiggle wiggle(pop song ref).

Thanks again SQUAD. It's sometimes hard to beleve I could like this game more each release.

[Fox Arcana]

OK A majority of you learned from Scott Manley and MechJeb.

I guess that makes about 46 of us

[katateochi]

I used Erkle's Docking Clamps to learn to dock.*picsnip*

Same here, good ol' Erkle warp clamps, much more forgiving about approach angle, just kinda pulled you in from several meters away. Great learning tool thou, perhaps more instantly rewarding when just starting out as you could learn to get a better approach over time without needing to be almost spot-on on your very first attempt.

I do miss aspects of the Erkle clamp, like being able to be docked but still having the two craft as separate things you could switch between, would be nice if that was a docking option. Also the fuel pump feature was v nice.

[FITorion]

Yeah I did it myself. I credit it with teaching me finally how the nav ball works. The first few times were very long ordeals but once I figured it out no more problems.

[HeadHunter67]

Docking wasn't so hard for me to learn - given a ship with a good RCS configuration and adequate light. I'm sure I'll find other challenges in the future regarding docking - but it's taught me to put lights near my docking clamps.

Rendezvous, on the other hand? No idea how to do that manually yet - guess I need to watch more videos and read up on it. I can get in the same orbit, but then I'm chasing the target. Turning around and going the other way reduces my orbit, speeding up to catch it puts me in a higher orbit... no idea how I'm supposed to catch up.