Maybe I'm just still too inexperienced, but...

[RSwordsman]

the thrill of getting a successful orbital rendezvous never gets old. I mean, you're whipping around the planet at thousands of kilometers a second, and you're attempting to exactly match altitude, eccentricity, and inclination, AND timing, with limited fuel to boot. Although I have mostly gotten the hang of it to where it's a routine procedure, I always feel like the king of space when I pull it off.

Anybody else have otherwise normal situations where they are just wowed by the events they are directing? Space travel is amazing.

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

The most recent time I felt like that must have been when I landed on skeletion (sentar expension mod) because the views there are stunning, a giant blue thing with rings and you can sometimes see everything at once, all the moons.

Oh and it orbits retrograde

[Luis]

The moment of touchdown on any body that isn't Kerbin. Landing is my favourite thing in the game. All the mucking about in deep space is just a means to an end. Docking is a close second though.

[Kasuha]

...you're whipping around the planet at thousands of kilometers a second...

It's just thousands meters per second. Not even 3 km/s. Relative to Kerbin, at least.

I was really excited when I did my first gravity slingshot. Especially since thanks to it I saved my mission which was critically low on fuel.

[Boris_T_Roach]

I save all my celebrations for when my interplanetary crew lands safely back at KSC

for example

The Vall 7 mission consisted of

Assemble the ship in LKO (7 flights consisting of NERVA drive section, core ship, 2 large rovers and their sky cranes, 2 small 1 shot probes, crew lander, and spare fuel tanks)

Fly to Jool and aerobrake into a decent'ish orbit., another aerobrake manuver at Laythe and finally onto Vall

Then dock with a fuel tanker already at vall

Land the rovers and probes around the target, followed by the crew ship.

Take pictures!

Fly back upto the orbiting core ship and fly back to Kerbin

Then another aerobraking followed by a parachute landing 2km west of the VAB.

And then BEER!

Boris

and plan yet another mission.. followed by 5 days of flying to build it/prepare for it

[annallia]

I know how you feel. I do the same.

Though personally I don't feel it as much anymore.. One too many ships built in sections it has become all too routine. That being said, even using something like orbital construction (I still build in small sections, just use the mod to skip the launch bit) I still feel that sense when I put together a ship built in 5 or 6 pieces and it not only fits but works perfectly.

[95tiger59]

I only feel really excited when ships get back to kerbin's SOI because I know then I didn't mess up ..... completely at least

[katateochi]

I agree with you OP, I still get a kick out of pretty much everything, I guess the only thing that's totally mundane is getting into LKO, but even that sometimes, when the Sun comes up just at the right moment and everything's gone perfectly, its still awesome.

Rendezvous has certainly not gotten old, especially when you time things just right and approach at stupid speeds, dangerously close and brake just in time and come to rest right by your target, I love that!

[FITorion]

Low altitude rendezvous over the Mun.

Making slight changes can drop your path below safe altitude... not having enough battery can cause your vessel that just adjusted things to be below safe altitude for a short time... to become uncontrollable.

Had to use the other ship to get to it before a collision and raise the orbit back to safe levels.

[RocketPilot573]

Rendezvousing is so easy with all those orbital markers, maneuver nodes, and the fact that is even says "closest approach .1 Km." Before I even knew that .18 would add this, I tried it back in good old .17. I was basicly flying blind... It was way harder than it should have been, but after a lot of tinkering I FINALLY got the ships to touch.

Though, now that I think about it my true first rendezvous ever was with a ship and the ***** *******.

EDIT: Oops, it looks like I was walking through a tunnel while typing the last part, oh well...

Edited November 10, 2013 by RocketPilot573

[RSwordsman]

It's just thousands meters per second. Not even 3 km/s. Relative to Kerbin, at least.

Good catch there; sorry about that.

I get a similar feeling when landing also, but that's more relief as well hehe. "Whee! We didn't die yet!"

[KSK]

Not just you - docking and rendezvous hasn't gotten old for me yet either. And powered landings still feel epic!

[SkyRender]

I think I've been at this game too long for mundane rituals to be particularly exciting. But completing a long and very complex mission is definitely still thrilling. That never really goes away.

[Brotoro]

I was able to launch from Vall and dock to a station in 13.5 minutes flat. Speed docking is a new thrill.

[M5000]

Nope, I've done tons of orbital rendezvous and dockings, and it never gets old when you get that one perfect one where everything just lines up perfectly and goes like a textbook perfect mission. It really adds to your confidence when flying if you can do this type of thing more often, it's a good feeling.

[Specialist290]

Nope, I've done tons of orbital rendezvous and dockings, and it never gets old when you get that one perfect one where everything just lines up perfectly and goes like a textbook perfect mission. It really adds to your confidence when flying if you can do this type of thing more often, it's a good feeling.

Pretty much agreed with this statement right here. I don't quite get exactly the same thrill from my fiftieth time doing something as I do my first, but I like to challenge myself to do better than I did the last time, and I'm always pleasantly surprised when I can do exactly that

[Epthelyn]

The nice thing about rendezvous with any object (planet, moon or craft) is that once you're near it, you can just burn in the direction the navball tells you to and your orbit will be (almost) identical. Thinking about it that way ruins it slightly Well, that doesn't include the docking part, obviously.

I don't really get a sense of achievement when two very small craft dock together because I've done it enough times to know exactly what to expect. However, with bigger craft, particularly ones with multiple docking ports to line up, finally getting everything into position after slowly pushing things back and forth will never stop being a good feeling If something wobbles around when trying to dock then it's even better

[alacrity]

I get little shots of joy from all the parts...but the fear factor is usually my own doing.

Exciting to get to LKO, but thats because I under build my first two stages... usually resorting to bleeding fuel from the payload stage.

Exciting to land on any non atmo body, because chutes are the bomb, and powered decent for the last 100 meters scares the bejeebus out of me.

Exciting to return to Kerbin, because for the first 5 version I played, that didn't really enter into my design and planning... lost count of how many jebs and bills I left stranded in the Kerbol system.

exciting loading a new mod, because they get better all the time. I started with Kethane around v2, with its random explosions and such and now we have the pipe frameworks, kerbal backpacks, and weirder explosions.

The one thing I have found is that in each new version I have eleminated some old bad habits and aquired new skills that let me make better craft and get to wierder places.

Fly safe

Alacrity

[Savage117]

For me docking and rendezvous have always been kinda boring slow affairs, iv always been patient and done small precise burns and RCS bursts, I have never had a docking or rendezvous accident in this game, unless you count missing the rendezvous or running out of fuel before getting close, did that a lot at the beginning.

Landing on the other hand is a white knuckle affair for me all the time, just so much going on and so many things that can go wrong, it never fails to give me a thrill when I land well on one of those worlds. Even Kerbin gives me a thrill with landing, lately im trying to do targeted landings on different worlds, gotten pretty good at it on the airless ones, but Kerbin is my white whale. I have only made a well targeted landing there once, where I landed my re-entry pod right on top of the VAB after orbiting Kerbin several times, that was an awesome moment for me. Iv tried to recreate my success but the closest iv got it is 2km away in one direction or another. These are targeted non-powered landings im trying to do on the worlds with atmospheres, basically a giant game of lawn darts, only with rockets and terrified green aliens.

Iv got so good at it on the Mun I can land a powered landing module right on top of one of those landing pads that Hooligan Labs has in one of their mods. Now that’s a thrill, hard as hell to get right, don't know how many upside down, crashed, or abandoned ships Id have on the Muner landscape if I still had all the debris from my failed landing attempts.

[DeepSpaceDutch]

the thrill of getting a successful orbital rendezvous never gets old. I mean, you're whipping around the planet at thousands of kilometers a second, and you're attempting to exactly match altitude, eccentricity, and inclination, AND timing, with limited fuel to boot. Although I have mostly gotten the hang of it to where it's a routine procedure, I always feel like the king of space when I pull it off.

Anybody else have otherwise normal situations where they are just wowed by the events they are directing? Space travel is amazing.

I've been playing KSP since May, IIRC my first succesfull (manual) docking was made 2 weeks later. So I have been able to dock around half a year now and I completely agree with you. I also still feel like the King of Space, Newton and Science when the screen flickers and re-orientates to show my docked vessel after a succesfull docking.

But I do think the reasons for feeling King have changed a bit. First it was just getting a good rendezvous and dock without stuff crashing and breaking off, now I get my kicks out of docking fast and precise. I love being on an intercept course at 10 m/s, then when I'm about to fly past the target put on the RCS brakes, select the relevant docking port as a target, swinging around and aligning on more than one axes at the same time, coming to a stand still perfectly aligned like 30 - 40 meters away and then just slide in at 0.4m/s.

Also landing on bodies without atmosphere; going from orbital speed to 2m/s during touchdown using one continious burn is higly rewarding

Edited November 11, 2013 by DeepSpaceDutch

[VeryCoolCat]

What gets me right now is when you make a perfect slingshot off the mun and it turns out just with very little tweaking, your path heads straight to another planet.

Even when you screw up the slingshot.... this happens....

[Madrias]

Docking still gets me, as well as landing anywhere. My track record for landings is terrible, but I still get there with at least the Kerbals alive. Also love the feeling of a good aerobraking to avoid needing to retroburn on a maneuver node.

[Richy teh space man]

I agree with M5000, when everything works perfectly as planned then it feels good.

And it still feels good getting to orbit each time, even though I've done it umpteen times already.

[toomuchbrew]

I had the same rush when I first got an orbit. When I made my first 5 unaided docks (took a long time). Also first Mun landing. Etc. It's a mile stone game. Each accomplishment is better than the last.

[Spyritdragon]

Pulling off gravity slingshots to do anything. ^-^