Landing space planes at KSC...

[Scottiths]

How the heck do you de-orbit in such a way that your glide scape intersects with KSC runway? I am always overshooting or undershooting by hundreds of Km sometimes. Is there a trick to where you place your Pe in relation to KSC? I would imagine you should try to keep it in front of KSC so you don't over shoot. I can get the SSTO up just fine, I just cant get it down again.

I have been just attaching parachutes on the tops of each plane. They land with gears down, but they land like a rocket

[Pds314]

Common issue indeed. The easiest way to do this is to correct after missing by several tens of km or to steer during re-entry. Clearly, hitting anything accurately with an unguided projectile would be difficult, as assuming that you simply plop your PE down on the opposite side of the world slightly beyond where you want to land, a very subtle twitch in height could change your landing position by quite a significant distance.

My experience with fully unguided landings is that landing something on the greens is very difficult to impossible without modifying your orbit or waiting several orbits due to inclination.

[CalculusWarrior]

The good thing about planes is that you do have some cross-range capabilities with them. Hence, landing at KSC is a simple matter of gliding through the lower layers of the atmosphere (it helps if you have a bit of jet fuel left) or simply turn around over the ocean. I even landed at the island runway once.

[bsalis]

No trick, just practice and experience.

Try doing your re-entry burn always at the same place and take mental note of how far east of KSC the orbit line intersects the ocean. Adjust until you get the result you want.

It's also easier doing the re-entry burn later. Try 90 degrees west of KSC.

[Bobe]

It can be a challenge, but if you want to emulate something like a space shuttle landing, plot your deorbit trajectory such that you would overshoot KSC by a considerable amount, usually somewhere between KSC and the island runway. How much you should aim to overshoot by depends on your ship and its orbit, so it's something you just have to develop a sense for through experience, assuming you don't want to use MechJeb.

During re-entry, your trajectory will naturally decline. At this point, assuming you have no fuel and must glide it in, you still want your trajectory to place you on the other side of the runway, since you obviously can't accelerate to compensate if you aimed too short.

Then it is simply a matter of performing braking manoeuvres, such as S turns, as necessary to adjust your glide slope. You at least need to know the glide speed of your craft to be able to pull this off.

Of course, if you have some fuel left, things will be much easier.

[Silverchain]

Starting from a 100x100km orbit I try and get PE down to about 35-40km just beyond KSC; but it varies greatly depending on the orbit you're coming from, the steepness of the descent angle, the attitude and design of your plane and so on. I often end up frantically looking about for the nearest flat spot of land!

[Alpheratz]

As bsalis said, it is much easier if you do your deceleration burn 90 degrees ahead of KSC. It does take more fuel, but you get increased precision. For a new craft, I usually quicksave before the burn and I try different values of periapsis until I land on target.

[Tank Buddy]

Put your Pe at ~30Km over the peninsula to the east of KSC.