GREETINGS FELLOWS

[Freudian]

I was introduced to the Kerbal Space Program earlier today by a jolly good friend of mine, and thus far it\'s proven quite fun! However, I am having one teething problem.

I have no idea how to make my engines work. I am given to understand that this is an impediment to the Glory of Kerbal.

What I\'ve been doing at the moment:

[list type=decimal]

[li]LAUNCH[/li]

[li]Ride the boosters out, making sure to stay point UP (up is good)[/li]

[li]Decouple the boosters, since they\'re empty[/li]

[li]Wait for the engine to come on; it does not seem to do so. Panic, press 'decouple' again, which seems to get rid of the decoupler[/li]

[li]Wait for the engine to come on; at this point I alternate between 'panic and decouple again, resulting in a parachute ride to the ground', and 'wait patiently, and inadvertently cremate my crew'. I believe they prefer the former.[/li]

At one point I even tried getting rid of the engines and relying entirely on boosters, which turned out to be spectacularly good at ensuring FIERY DOOM FOR ALL.

What am I doing wrong?

[Redneck]

Welcome to the forums!

Spacebar to activate the engines and make sure your throttle is up (shift/ctrl)

T: for any SAS stability

R: For any RCS thrusters you may have attached

[Stevenator1]

Well first of all if you are using liquid engines, make sure to use shift and alt to control the throttle of them.

Also, in the build area, you will notice a set of pictures on the right side of your screen. This is your staging menu.

Going from bottom up, this is what happens when you press space, in order.

If your rocket is set up how I think it is, with 1 liquid engine in the middle and 8 (or however many) solid boosters around it using radial decouplers, it is actually smart to have both the rockets and boosters on the same phase. You can turn off the liquid if you wish to conserve fuel, or fire both solids and liquid at maximum thrust to get out of the atmosphere as quickly as possible.

So if you had the setup that I think you have, I would have this for staging:

[list type=decimal]

[li]All of your boosters, your liquid rocket and fuel for liquid rocket[/li]

[li]Radial Decouplers for the solids[/li]

[li]Stack decoupler for the lander if you have it, or your command pod and parachute if you dont[/li]

The top three things on your rocket should ALWAYS be: Parachute, command pod, stack decoupler. This allows you to always return to ground with your parachute safely at the end of every trip, assuming you don\'t get stuck in space. In case you are ever close to being stuck and you are almost out of liquid fuel, just do a retrograde burn and your orbit should decay and you can return to earth.

[Capt'n Skunky]

Welcome to the KSP Forums!

Happy Launching!

Arrr!

Capt\'n Skunky