Aerobraking Two Vessels at Once Question

[Sorcie]

I just did this for the first time. Tried both vessels and whichever I am not controlling does not brake. I'm assuming this is a limitation. Is there a way to change this? They were even crossing each other at PE =x

Edited October 18, 2013 by Sorcie

[Dave Kerbin]

Aerobraking and other physics only work for the active vessel and any vessels within about 2.5km of it. Other ships just follow the orbit path perfectly ('on rails'), even if that path takes it through the atmosphere. They will normally stop if they fly directly into a planet (though on high warp I have seen a vessel manage to go right through Kerbin, it must have been on one side in the 1st frame, and had enough velocity to be calculated on the other side the next frame, resulting in no collision).

To aerobrake two vessels at once they would need to be flying close formation, and to be honest I think it would be quite hard since differences in mass or orbit would quickly compound any difference in velocity, moving them apart. I deal with the same issue when returning my science samples as seperate craft - I need to wait until I'm low enough that I can deploy all the chutes around the same time, so that differences in descent velocity don't pull the ships more then 2.5km apart (in the atmosphere any ship that goes 2.5km away from the active vessel just vanishes from existence)

[Sorcie]

Thanks I had assumed just a limitation of physics calculations for the active ship. Well that stinks I wanted polar orbit/landing for my probe and equatorial for my orbiter.

Thanks again!