First Time Docking!!

[robogungt8]

So, I successfully rendezvoused and docked two space craft together in space tonight! Granted, it took me almost an hour, but it felt so good afterwards. Now I know that I can do it, and just knowing that seems to provide a bit of a safety net in case future missions go wrong (i.e. not enough fuel).

Here's a few pics:

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Edited March 12, 2014 by robogungt8
spelling corrections

[Geschosskopf]

Well done! "You've taken your first steps in a wider world" . Docking makes possible all sorts of cool missions you can't otherwise do without going all Whackjob.

[Tex]

Very nice work there, sir! I still have some pics from my first docking as well. I used the Sr. clamps rather than the standard or Junior ones. Cuz, y'know, I was a chicken way back then. I hope you find it extremely easy now!

[Blue]

Great work!

One tip I can give as a veteran to a new player for them to try and make it a second time:

If you have the target vehicle traveling around the equator, have it point to the north or south pole. This will ensure that the target docking port effectively does not rotate as you approach it.

[robogungt8]

Thanks everyone! And thanks for the advice Blue. The next attempt will be non-equatorial, the way I have to make a plane change, so polar it is!

EDIT: oops, I misread your advice. That's a great tip, because it did have some issues with everything being out of alignment.

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

Your first Docking is like giving birth.... It hurts, you will sweat and cry. But in the end it is still a miracle.

Congratulation!

[The Destroyer]

Great job!

...How was the framerate?

[robogungt8]

Your first Docking is like giving birth.... It hurts, you will sweat and cry. But in the end it is still a miracle.

That is actually a very accurate comparison!

Great job!

...How was the framerate?

To my surprise, not that bad. Small craft and lowest possible settings make it work fine, even on my laptop. Anything larger than what I did here, however will hurt. Like stations, probably impossible!

[Vanamonde]

Congratulations! The first one is very exciting, but even after many, there's still something satisfying about it.

[Basil]

First, sort of*, successful docking here too!

*Ran out of RCS mono prop...

Huge thanks to Scott Manley for the great docking tutorials just posted

[robogungt8]

Lol Basil, same thing. Scott Manley is amazing. I would never be able to do anything if it wasn't for him and the rest of the great KSP community all working together to help each other out.

[robogungt8]

Congrats, by the way.

[Seshins]

i played for 200 + hrs before i worked up the motivaton to actually nail it. Changed the game for me.

[1D-1()T]

Congratulations, both of you. You've just opened a door to a whole new level of this game. By the way, did you find the rendezvous or the actual docking harder? My first time I got the ships to within fifty meters, zero relative velocity, with ease, but couldn't dock them for the life of me. But from what I've seen on the forums it is normally the other way around. I thought it would be interesting to see which was easier for you, while the experience is still fresh in your minds.

Edit: Having read over my post, I realised that some parts could be taken in a fabulously dirty way.

[SkyRender]

You always remember your first docking, and usually a few early failed attempts too. One of my most memorable failed attempts back in the days of 0.18 involved me desperately trying to reach my target by constantly thrusting towards it. The end result was that I ended up "orbiting" the craft I was trying to dock with (at least until I ran out of monopropellant). Not long after I learned to stop worrying and love the navball, and nowadays I dock as an afterthought.

[Sirrobert]

Congratulations. The first docking is always the hardest.

A tip from me: If you have craft A floating towards craft B, and you are happy about that, switch to craft B. Now select "control from here" on the docking port you want to dock with.

Now select craft A as target. Now rotate craft B until the the docking port is pointing exactly towards the target marker (so the target marker is exactly in the center of the navball). This saves having to float around craft B once you are docking

[Padishar]

To my surprise, not that bad. Small craft and lowest possible settings make it work fine, even on my laptop. Anything larger than what I did here, however will hurt. Like stations, probably impossible!

Actually, it is possible to dock pretty complex craft on fairly dodgy hardware. I did these on a Core Duo 2.16GHz laptop. A bit painful at 3 - 5 fps but still doable...

[NotEmoHawk]

Congrats. Everyone remembers their first docking! Don't get complacent, the more you practice the quicker / easier it becomes. A whole lot of planets just got a lot closer.

[PwnedDuck]

It happened way ages ago for me so I didn't take a screenshot, but I called it the Jemeni project (after Jeb), which made me chuckle a little

[Jank]

It really is all about the navball and the targeting of, and controlling from, docking ports themselves. I'm finding it easy now using minimal RCS, and I just learned to dock about a month ago. At first I was eyeballing every approach, swinging my camera around like mad, backing up and trying again, etc.

Now it's just eyes on the navball, ease on in and wham bam thank you maam. Docking complete.

My big worry about docking now is that sometimes KSP locks up on me when I've just docked two relatively complicated vessels. Gotta remember that quicksave.

[blizzy78]

Congrats, good job.

[robogungt8]

Successfully docked a lander to an orbiter on an inclined orbit after landing on Minmus. Went great, and didn't take nearly as long. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this...

TO ANYONE WHO HASN'T DOCKED: Watch some tutorials on the web, read on the forums, whatever. But its an amazing skill to have and allows for so much more freedom in KSP. It's definitely something you want to know how to do.

[vger]

Gratz! Just did my first orbital rendezvous a couple of days ago. I've been to the Mun, Minmus, Eve, Duna, and the Sun, but this basic event over Kerbal gave me a greater sense of accomplishment than all of that. Talk about threading the needle.

[robogungt8]

Talk about threading the needle.

No joke! Trying to align two objects moving at (usually) well over 2 km/s and orbiting at (usually) over 150 km above a planet is no easy task. Until you practice, that is.

[air805ronin]

Congratulations, both of you. You've just opened a door to a whole new level of this game. By the way, did you find the rendezvous or the actual docking harder? My first time I got the ships to within fifty meters, zero relative velocity, with ease, but couldn't dock them for the life of me. But from what I've seen on the forums it is normally the other way around. I thought it would be interesting to see which was easier for you, while the experience is still fresh in your minds.

Edit: Having read over my post, I realised that some parts could be taken in a fabulously dirty way.

Congrats to those who've succeeded with what seems impossible when you start!

My first docking experience the rendezvous went easily enough but I spent almost an hour and like 5 reloads not being able to hit the docking port. Then I watched a Scott Manley video after we got the ability to target, taught myself how to use RCS properly, and my times went down to 30, then 20, then 5 minutes as I got better with the RCS.

It also made me better with the jet pack. A lot better.

Edited March 14, 2014 by air805ronin