Ahoy Fellow Kerbonauts!

[DancinDarunia]

Hey guys! Just thought I'd check in on the forums and make my presence known to the community. I'd been watching various let's plays of KSP on Youtube for a while and finally decided to buy it about a week ago when I saw it on sale on Steam. I've been enjoying it quite a bit- reading various tutorials on the wiki and basically learning the ropes. I'm currently practicing docking two ships in orbit but I still have quite a ways to go. For your entertainment, I will now relate a silly story about a newbish mistake I made while attempting this endeavor.

How DancinDarunia Screwed Up Yet Again

After two failed missions, I had finally managed to maneuver my ship within 1 km of the satellite with which I was attempting to rendezvous. My hopes were high as I deftly worked the RCS controls, inching ever closer to the docking port which was my objective. After several tense minutes of maneuvering I finally managed to line up my approach. This was it! Finally my goal was within reach! Surely I would soon have the two ships coupled together fastly as a pair of lego bricks. And with these bricks I would begin my construction of my space station, glory of the heavens! I carefully throttled forward, approaching the port at an excruciatingly slow 0.1 m/s. The two ships came together in perfect alignment...

Bump!

The two ships bounced apart like a fat pair of colliding walruses. Baffled, I realigned my vessel and tried again. Even more carefully I approached the docking port. Once again... bump! Concerned, I now zoomed my camera in closer to my docking port. Then I saw the problem. After reaching orbit, I had decoupled the nose cone on the front of the ship to free the docking port beneath it. However, when designing my ship, I had neglected to note which direction the decoupler ring was pointing. Yes, foolishly I had placed the ring upside down where it was still covering my docking port. Sighing deeply, I resigned myself to once again return home, my mission a failure.

Moral of the story: Don't be a moron when planning your ship staging.

[Fyzzi]

Man... that is worth a warm welcome to our community... I really enjoyed your story... reminds me of my own faults... though it's even more "sighworthy" when you realize the fault in an orbit of Laythe or another planet far away in the Kerbol system... )

However, I wish you the best of luck in your space program and wish your Kerbals good luck on their journeys

And of course, welcome to our community and hope you'll enjoy your stay with us, the addicted ones

[Capt'n Skunky]

Happy Launching!

Arrr!

Capt'n Skunky

KSP Community Manager