Can't get into orbit correctly.

[Synthetic Flying Machine]

When I first started getting into orbit it seemed like everything was going well.

I could almost make perfect circular orbits.

Now it seems like no matter what I do whenever I make my maneuver node the amount of fuel it takes is way higher and the apoapsis and periapsis never seem to be similar.

Here's a screenshot:

Does anyone know a better way of getting into orbit? I was following Scott Manley's campaign tutorial.

[Reactordrone]

The orbit looks fine, if a little high, you don't have to get it exactly circular. You have a long burn to do so you're probably not burning horizontally early enough. By the time you're at 35-40 km you should be at about 70-80° so your engine is giving you horizontal velocity more than altitude.

[Frank_G]

The most efficient way to get into orbit is, to built up altitude and horizontal velocity as soon as possible.

My usual way is to accelerate the ship straight upwards, until the ship reaches 100 m/s. Then turn about 5° towards the desired direction and wait until the ship reaches about 200 m/s. Begin turning over towards 45° ascend angle, at best reaching 45° at an altitude of 12000m... continue the ascend while keeping the apoapsis about 40 seconds away from the ship... follow the prograde vector while keeping the 40 seconds distance. Tilt the ship towards the horizon to decrease the distance and away from the horizon to increase the distance to apoapsis. Start decreasing throttle as the apoapsis starts to race away from the ship to keep it close.

By this time your ships nose should point at roughly 10° below the horizon line on the nav-ball. Continue hunting the apoapsis at around 40 - 60 seconds distance until the orbit is achieved. During the whole maneuver the engine stays on.

This is a little harder than the usual go straight to 15000 m then turn to 45°... but it is the most efficient way as you build up vertical and horizontal velocity equally and early, while denying gravity and atmosphere to take velocity from you. I hope, this helps.

[godefroi]

You're doing pretty well. If you find your circularization burns are a lot of dV (and yours are, here) then make your turn sooner or steeper (more horizontal velocity). If you're neurotic about perfectly circular orbits, then add a little +/- radial to get them just right, and/or move the node forward or backward A BIT.

[Sirine]

Here are "my-way" of doing the gravity turn.

1) Click on the 'surface' label on top the navball, so it turn to 'orbit' at launch pad. It now shows 90 degree.

2) Launch your rocket. On the ascends, the 90 degree marker will slowly going upward. (See for yourself).

3) Once the marker hit 45 Degree. Start turning your craft "press D", slowly, and "maintain-the-marker" for 45 Degree. (Turn your craft "Press D or A" to maintain it.)

4) Until you reach the altitude high of your desire, Stop engines, and wait till the marker slowly move down to 90 degree again.

5) Fire your engines, and "maintain-the-marker" at 90 degree. (Turn your craft "Press D or A" to maintain it.) Until you are circularizes orbit to Kerbin.

If you understand the logic behind, congratulation, you have understand on how to read the navball. And it apply to almost ALL situation, including RSS. (Real Earth Scale mods).

Read The Navball.

Read The Navball.

Read The Navball.

Read The Navball.

Read The Navball.

[Wanderfound]

Since this seems to be turning into a "what's your preferred gravity turn technique" thread, here is Wanderfound's patented method:

* Set up a flight info mod (Mechjeb, Kerbal Flight Data, etc) so that you can monitor your "time to apoapsis" from the normal view screen.

* Start pulling your nose down a bit soon after liftoff (later if not using FAR).

* Once you get into the low-friction >20,000m air, pull the nose down further and watch your "time to apoapsis" figure. Raising the nose will increase it, dropping the nose will reduce it.

* Tweak your pitch until the time to apoapsis is about 15 seconds.

* Use pitch adjustments to hold that figure steady. You'll need to increasingly pitch down as you accelerate.

* Continue until your apoapsis exceeds 70,000m, then shut off and coast for a bit. You need to shut down at the right moment; once you're at orbital speeds, the apoapsis can increase very rapidly.

* Finish with a ~10 second circularisation burn once you reach apoapsis.

[Alias72]

I have a strategy that I use.

With FAR:

press T

Max thrust

SPACEBAR!!!

get to 100-150 m/s

pitch approximately 2 degrees

press T (unguided)

Only use the controls to cancel rolls.

Once Apoapse at 75km prepare for circularization (activate SAS level off and try and get into orbit.

basically as close to a true gravity turn as possible.

[Empiro]

There's some good suggestions about how to do the turn here.

If your question is about circular orbits, then with a maneuver node, you want to place it right on the AP. Zoom in if you have to.

However, I usually just wing it by burning while keeping the time to AP around 5-10 seconds and keep going until the PE is almost equal to AP. You can control time to AP through a combination of increasing / decreasing thrust, and aiming slight above or below the horizon. Increase time to AP, increase the thrust or pointing slightly above the horizon (by pointing above, you can even move the AP from behind you to in front of you). Decrease time to AP by pointing below the horizon or cutting thrust.