Second rocket not affecting my peri/apoapsis at all, bug of physics?

[Ftmch]

First of all, please bear with me since I'm a newbie at Kerbal Space Program and have a rather lackluster knowledge of maths and physics.

I built a rocket that looks like this, figuring I'd try to send a satellite into solar orbit or something interesting:

http://imageshack.us/scaled/landing/51/fbi9.jpg

It probably hurts the eyes and souls of any Kerbal veterans, but as I said, I'm a noob!

Anyway, my problem is that the "skipper"-engine doesn't affect apoapsis or periapsis at all, I'm talking none, not even a meter more or less in full throttle after I reach space and get rid off the lower stage of the rocket, I've gotten multiple satellites and even a space station base into orbit before, using the same maneuvers (but different spacecraft) I'm using now, but this time the engine just doesn't seem to have any effect. I was just wondering if anyone know if this is a bug or if there is an actual reason for this.

[LethalDose]

Is you're skipper firing and not accelerating the craft? That's the step prior to the change to apo-/periapsis.

[Murph]

From a quick look at the picture, I think your decoupler is upside down. The red arrows on it need to point to the thing it will split from, i.e. upwards for a typical rocket. Although visually the engine nozzle is unobstructed through the decoupler, to KSP the decoupler is a solid disc and completely blocks the thrust from the engine if it's still there after decoupling.

Edit: Oh, and that rocket looks to be horribly overpowered on the first stage, massively inefficient. With the tiny probe on top of it, you'd probably be ok with just a single Jumbo-64, single Mainsail, and maybe a couple of SRBs to help with the mass of the Jumbo-64 off the pad, but might not even need any SRBs.

You've kinda built a giant firework, that happens to launch a probe, rather than a probe launcher.

Edited December 27, 2013 by Murph

[RocketPilot573]

From a quick look at the picture, I think your decoupler is upside down. The red arrows on it need to point to the thing it will split from, i.e. upwards for a typical rocket. Although visually the engine nozzle is unobstructed through the decoupler, to KSP the decoupler is a solid disc and completely blocks the thrust from the engine if it's still there after decoupling.

This about sums it up.

[JiWint]

Yep,the decoupler is upside down.

[Ftmch]

Ah, that explains it, I was under the impression that it was supposed to be pointing down, I'm glad it was just me being an idiot, haha. thanks for the help!