First Orbit!

[rangastorm]

Just wondering how many attempts it took people to get their brave kerbals orbiting the planet. mine took 4 attempts, the first and second crews survived, but the third wasn't so lucky , turning sas on before the flight isn't always a good idea, especially on very low thrust

However at this very moment, the brave crew of Test Craft Delta are orbiting Kerbin now, waiting for the recovery craft to collect them (if i can make one that works...)

[Scarecrow88]

If you designed a craft to get in to orbit, why didn't you equip it to get back down safely again? Much easier than trying to rendezvous a rescue vehicle, which a lot of people find to be one of the most difficult manoeuvres to master. But congrats on the orbit anyway.

[DisarmingBaton5]

Congrats! I hope you can get them down again! Rendezvous can be difficult to learn, though, so prepare to be frustrated!

[DisarmingBaton5]

EDIT: oops, double post. Sorry!

Edited August 28, 2013 by DisarmingBaton5

[Nexustrimean]

Congrats! it took me months before i finally got to orbit. Tutorials help.

[Felsmak]

I never counted them, but it did take quite a few attempts. I already knew how to do it from Orbiter, but it took me a while to figure out how to work the navball.

Edited August 27, 2013 by Felsmak

[Kerbal01]

You could rescue it by smashing it into the atmosphere if your periapsis is 69.5 km or below decelerating it enough to drop out of orbit deploying chutes and landing safely.

[magnemoe]

Plenty of attempts. first rockets was to weak, then I had to remember to burn sideways to gain speed, I knew but did not remember.

This was in the old demo so it was a bit harder.

[Rainbow-Dashie]

It took me quite a few tries to even get into Space! orbit was another couple dozen rockets... but then I found out you could put stuff.... *Drumroll* On the Sides! So that got rid of the 100% stacked stage rockets....

[Dictatorshipper]

If you count things that actually launched and didn't blow up on the pad because I didn't know how staging worked, then my first successful (unmanned) launch crashed into Kerbin, my second escaped Kerbin entirely and orbits the sun as a satellite to this day, and my third got into orbit. After that I think I did a manned launch almost immediately.

[WillHop]

Originally I didn't know you had to gravity turn and just tried burning straight up until something happened. I just kept thinking if I add more rockets i'm more likely to get in to orbit, which was wrong. When I did, it was about 11:30pm and I had school the next morning, but I still relished in my achievement.

[roosterr]

4 tries, and you are off to a great start. I think it took me about 5 tries and that is not counting the failed rockets designs that did not get to far off the pad, staging errors etc. But if I include only the rockets that flew as designed but just ran out of fuel before achieving orbit, about 5.

As for recovery, learning orbital rendezvous and docking is opening a can of worms for you. you should learn how to de-orbit burn and parachute first.

Then next stop: Mun!

[SRV Ron]

This reached Mun and back in the demo. Start the gravity turn as soon as you stage the boosters and fire up the LV-45. A short burn of the second stage completes orbit. Then, on to a Mun orbit and return to a aerobraking landing.

[acealeam]

Into space or an actual orbit?

Space probably 7 or so.

Orbit was actually after I got to the mun.

I got extremely lucky with that one!

[SRV Ron]

Into space or an actual orbit?

Space probably 7 or so.

Orbit was actually after I got to the mun.

I got extremely lucky with that one!

Into a 100K orbit, then on to Mun into orbit.

A short RCS burn was needed to complete the aerobraking return.

[lajoswinkler]

I think around ten times... One afternoon worth of toying with stuff. I emulated Mercury program rockets and the biggest problem was not exiting the atmosphere, but to push the periapsis out, too.

[samstarman5]

Pulling off your first orbit and then challenging yourself to pull off a rendezvous for crew transfer and return? You, sir, are a kerbal. I salute you.

[TheUnknownPoet]

Signature test.

[Diche Bach]

Congrats on your first orbit! Didn't count how many it took me the first time, but I'd guess somewhere between eight and 15.

Once you get the hang of it it seems absolutely easy.

[lincourtl]

Congratulations!

I did it on my first attempt, but I had worked through the in-game tutorials so I knew how the navball was set up, the keys to control the throttle, and staging. Plus I brought some ancient decaying knowledge to the game from my college days.

However, I've yet to fly a successful rendezvous, even though I've landed on Minmus and the Mun numerous times, and flown out to Duna and back.

[tntristan12]

I don't even remember when I first made orbit, but it was back before the map view so I couldn't be sure I was even there until I made a full revolution.

[Kerbart]

My biggest achievement was building something that actually made it to the launch pad in the first place. Who knew that you were supposed to build a rocket top-down?

Then it just sat there. Now what? Even throttling up didn't do jack squat.

Eventually I managed to get my engines started. Roar roar roar. So why no take-off? Well, who knew that it really helps if that cool looking launch tower is at the bottom of your staging stack as well?

And then I discovered Scott Manley, the Chuck Norris of KSP. Or should I say: Chuck Norris is the Scott Manley of the world (limited as it is) outside KSP? Sleep is only a distant, albeit sweet, memory now. I did make it to the Mun and back though and my second crew just arrived at my space station. So there's that.

[JiWint]

Try reading about asparagus staging.

Use orange tanks with engine that has 650 max power (can't remember name of it,but not mainsail).

Staging is the key to win! ^^

[ComandoCro]

Uhh, my first orbit was in the early versions, way before the map view...Back then tutorials explained that at certain altitudes you had to burn to around 2300 m/s or so, and then hope that it was an orbit.Took me a fair bit of tries.

[Bacterius]

Originally I didn't know you had to gravity turn and just tried burning straight up until something happened. I just kept thinking if I add more rockets i'm more likely to get in to orbit, which was wrong.

Same here. I didn't know about gravity turns so getting into orbit to me was a matter of getting high enough, rotating 90 degrees, and burning until I got an orbit on the map. Really inefficient, but it did get the job done!