Launching - Prograde or Retrograde?

[triphon]

Hello for some reason I was about to launch my ship, and I am facing "Retrograde" rather than Prograde, what did I do wrong? I want to launch directly facing at prograde (Blue) on navball... But instead I get brown, this messes up my plan to launch and put communication satellites in space.

Do I need to do something to fix this?

Trip

[vexx32]

Usually this means you've built the ship so that the command module is upside down. It's nothing too bad, but it will probably cause some confusion, if nothing else... you may find it hard to figure out at first...

[Murph]

If you have multiple command modules on the ship, and/or docking ports, try right clicking on different ones and selecting "Control From Here". The navball shows relative to the currently selected control point (and sideways or upside down, if the control point isn't facing up/forwards). I'm not sure how it picks the default, probably the first one it finds traversing the part tree from the root (frequently the root itself will be a command module). Command modules means both manned and unmanned modules, so probe cores, etc, as well as pods and cockpits.

Edit: Oh, and being pedantic, blue on the navball is not prograde. Prograde and retrograde don't exist until you are moving, and can be anywhere on the navball, determined by your current/instantaneous velocity vector. It's pedantic, but an important distinction, which could cause confusion.

Also: http://xkcd.com/1133/ If the fire is pointing towards space, you are having a bad problem, and you will not go to space today.

Edited November 30, 2013 by Murph

[triphon]

Usually this means you've built the ship so that the command module is upside down. It's nothing too bad, but it will probably cause some confusion, if nothing else... you may find it hard to figure out at first...

Thanks, that is exactly what was wrong, hopefully anytime someone runs into the same question they'll get their answer!

[Kasuha]

If you need the pod upside down for some reasons (there are such cases), you can place a Clamp-O-tron Jr. facing the right direction somewhere on the ship and select "control from here" on it. Or you can use any suitably oriented docking port or probe core already on the ship.

[capi3101]

...if the fire is pointing towards space, you are having a bad problem, and you will not go to space today.

Not necessarily...

[TKEkoolaid647]

Usually this means you've built the ship so that the command module is upside down. It's nothing too bad, but it will probably cause some confusion, if nothing else... you may find it hard to figure out at first...

Thanks. Somehow this is what happened to me. Fairly new to KSP, I went from Idiot Savant, to just idiot. Thanks. You fixed in 1min worth of reading what I couldn't figure out in 4hrs of irl gameplay.