How many people know how to dock?

[Baenki]

Here is how I learned docking.

Step 1: Get Mechjeb and let it do rendezvous and docking for you a few times. Just watch it and control the navball modes (Orbit, Target Modes). You will be able to see in which directions Mechjeb is doing the burns, how it lines up the nodes on the Navball etc.

As soon as you think you understood what mechjeb does, move to

Step 2: Let Mechjeb do the rendezvous for you and try to do the docking yourself. Remember to use the navball the way Mechjeb did. Use Mechjebs Smart A.S.S. to help you in orienting the ship. Repeat until you get a hang on it, then move to

Step 3: Only let Mechjeb time the launch towards the target for you, but do the rendezvous and docking for yourself using the navball and Mechjebs Smart A.S.S. When you think you got it move to

Step 4: Remove Mechjeb and try it for yourself. You will already have the knowledge to do it from the steps before, it is just practice now.

Yesterday I did the first dockings (completely manual) for over 2 months. (Note: My missle tests didn´t need any docking). My targets and my ships were both really big (Minmus orbital station core + heavy tug & the biggest lander i have ever built + heavy tug) but i had no problems with docking them. The first docking was actually 1-touch/ no dancing. So I can tell you , that docking is like riding a bike. Once learned, never forgotten.

[Leatherneck]

The best piece of advice I can give is, "quit trying to do anything in Low Kerbin Orbit".

^ This.

The first Space Station I built, was to force me to learn docking. I told myself no interplanetary missions until I could dock consistently. I found that around 150 km was my "sweet spot", and there's a tutorial video or two that I've seen that also puts it there. Not sure why the OP is opposed to watching one, especially the Scott Manley one, but to each his own.

[kola2DONO]

Docking is easy, rendevouzing is haard.

You will easly learn how to dock.

And after a few times with mechjeb you will learn rendevouzing by yourself.

[Mechscientist]

After investing more hours in it than I care to confess to, I finally managed to figure it out. Now, it's fairly routine. I don't know how much you want to learn by yourself, but here are a few things that I noticed were important and missing from the link mentioned above: First, circularize the target's orbit (within a few kilometers) so that it's moving at a steady speed. This makes it a lot easier to figure out how to approach it. If you are ahead of it, then match the periapsis of your orbit with the target's orbit. If you're behind, match the apoapsis with the target's orbit. You might want to approach the target from behind at first, since the point of rendezvous will then be when you are traveling the slowest. At that point, matching the speed of the target is essentially making your orbit match the target's. Once you get close, just slow your approach to less than 1/2 m/s and take your time maneuvering your ship into position. If your orbit is matched with the target, you have all the time in the solar system to dock. My first attempt took almost a full 750 tank of monoprop, but now I typically use less than 50. Good luck!

[sscamc]

This is usually how my docking runs go:

1. Approach slowly

2. Try to orientate ship correctly

3. Discover I was an idiot when building and the thrusters are slightly off center

4. Do laps around target with next to no control over ship until sheer luck brings me near a port (regardless if it was the intended one)

5. Mess up final approach, bump into side of target, spin

6. Break off solar panel

7. Curse

8. Quickload

I'm still new to this

[Wooks]

This is usually how my docking runs go:

1. Approach slowly

2. Try to orientate ship correctly

3. Discover I was an idiot when building and the thrusters are slightly off center

4. Do laps around target with next to no control over ship until sheer luck brings me near a port (regardless if it was the intended one)

5. Mess up final approach, bump into side of target, spin

6. Break off solar panel

7. Curse

8. Quickload

I'm still new to this

And that´s how its done

[Goldham]

Docking is easy. Almost every 1+ man mission is Apollo Style for me.

[Jean Deaux]

OMG, it took forever to figure out the docking tricks... but like they said... practice practice practice and then it becomes a piece of cake. The "hardest" part of it all is balancing the ship and the RCS thruster locations (hard to do without proper balancing tools) so you have to eyeball the distances (in a perspective view) with the center of gravity icon turned on. There is a RCS balancer mod you can add, but it always caused issues with KSP for me so I haven't really used it much. Would be a great core utility to add (hint hint to Squad!).

[AlamoVampire]

And yes, use mechjeb. Despite your philisophical concerns if any, mechjeb will handle all of the repetitive things for you such as obtaining stable orbits. I am not suggesting you use the docking feature of MJ either (dont). This will allow you to spend your focus and energy on the docking aspects. Once you have mastered docking, dump mechjeb if you wish.

id say KEEP mechjeb even after master docking. There is no sense in losing a wonderful tool that can show you all your vital stats that can handle the menial work of repetitive mission aspects again and again. No... mechjeb should be a staple part of your game, for that aspect alone

[Lambert2191]

I found it next to impossible without the docking enhancer mod. With it, I docked

[Mazlem]

When I first tried docking in .18 my issues were:

I had no idea how maneuver nodes / intercepts worked. Once I figured out the basics of that and was able to get close a time or two...

I still had no real idea how to use the nav ball when docking. But the first couple times I managed to get close...

I had badly placed RCS thrusters. Combine that with the old ham-fisted SAS, no knowledge of the IJKL / HN keys or how to properly orient the ship and camera so I know which way is up and...

It was impossible. Being so close to the other ship and knowing it could be done, but also knowing I didn't have the knowledge / experience to make it happen, was incredibly frustrating. I literally felt like I could have an aneurism at one point.

After deciding I'd prefer my brain intact, I quit trying and looked up all the information I could find on maneuver nodes and docking and RCS, and watched several videos about it. I even kept some of that stuff open in the background when trying to dock again. After creeping in at .2m/s and making little adjustments every five seconds, I FINALLY docked and it was such a huge relief to know it wasn't impossible for me after all.

Not long after that I decided to make a station and docked some parts together to form that. Then came a big fuel station and to keep it and other ships full, the station had to be filled up nearly every time KSP was fired up. That's when docking became somewhat routine and I got comfortable with moving ships around and not just lining things up straight from farther away. I'm sure my blood pressure was much better at that point.

[lordlundar]

id say KEEP mechjeb even after master docking. There is no sense in losing a wonderful tool that can show you all your vital stats that can handle the menial work of repetitive mission aspects again and again. No... mechjeb should be a staple part of your game, for that aspect alone

Ehhh, I replaced MechJeb with Kerbal flight engineer After I stopped using the autopilot functions. I find the engineer is less demanding on resources than MechJeb.

That said, for unmanned flights, using mechjeb is probably the more realistic setup as those function on preprogrammed instructions.

[Rainbow-Dashie]

I've docked.... once... I guess that counts as being able to dock

[AlamoVampire]

Ehhh, I replaced MechJeb with Kerbal flight engineer After I stopped using the autopilot functions. I find the engineer is less demanding on resources than MechJeb.

That said, for unmanned flights, using mechjeb is probably the more realistic setup as those function on preprogrammed instructions.

For me, manned or not mj is always on my ship. Period. I find I prefer the ability to know what my ships stats are plus the ability to have a flight computer that's able to do the grunt work a requirement at all times but that's just me. That and a double function mod saves on mod count and fewer things that can go wrong.

[Endersmens]

I can dock, as in i've docked everything on my 15 module space station manually, among some other things. Even with knowing how to dock though, i still decided to use the docking alignment plugin. it speeds up the process, saves RCS fuel, and is practical. It's not OP, it doesn't do everything for you like mechjeb can, but it still makes it easier. It just gives you information that you would need in real life anyways. I recommend trying out the plugin to see if it helps.

[Pixel of Life]

Rendezvousing and docking is easy. I can usually get my closest approach within a kilometre or two on the first try. Docking is almost second nature to me, but poorly handling craft make it a bit more of a challenge. I do, however, prefer launching big things to launching many small things as RV'ing and docking can be time consuming.

OP (and everyone else who's having problems): Just keep trying. When you get it right the first time - and you will at some point - everything will suddenly make perfect sense. From there on you just gotta practise, practise, practise till you can do it with maximum efficiency and without even having to concentrate on it

And yes, read tutorials and guides and get familiar with the navball because you absolutely need that to dock (unless you have mad piloting skillz and/or great three-dimensional perception). Once you understand what happens when you thrust towards the various markers on the navball, and understand their functions, it will be much easier to pull off that first and most important docking.

[Biker Joe]

Can I changed mine? I had to dock there recently and as able to do it!

[Drethon]

I can dock pretty reliably now but it did take some learning. The main part for me is rendezvous.

I usually go to a higher orbit since I can get more time warp and wait until the projected distance on the next pass reverses (target will go ahead of me).

Then I boost orbit retrograde until I've minimized the next intercept. Then I go all three axes and use thrusters to further narrow the next intercept.

If I'm not close enough (less than 0.05 km) I'll orbit a little and try all three axes again.

Finally when I'm within 0.5 km I zero relative velocity and use thrusters to dock. Usually approach 1 m/s or less and try to keep my prograde on the target with regular updates.

The fun ones are when docking requires a particular orientation. Like a red tank with two docking ports.