Rescue mission contract...

[The_Rocketeer]

If you de-orbit a rescue mission kerbal using blunt force or thrust without actually putting him inside a ship, and assuming he survives re-entry (which I've discovered is suprisingly common), does it still count as completed when you recover him to KSC?

If not, does the mission count as failed, does he respawn in space, or does it just count out until a fail?

[maltesh]

One of the requirements of a rescue mission is "Get [Kerbal] aboard a vessel." Even external seats don't count for this. If you recover him without putting him inside a crew-carrying part, I expect you'll fail the mission.

[The_Rocketeer]

I know what the mission says, but unlike other missions, which only fail on time, this is one that could be failed for another reason, specifically the fact that the Kerbal has been recovered 'by other means' already. With test missions and explore body missions, these are always possible if you build a craft and start the mission in time. If the Kerb has been deorbited, died or recovered 'some other way', then this mission becomes impossible.

The only mission I can think of that comes close, therefore, is the mission to test launch stabilisers in places other than Kerbin's surface.

I also would expect the mission to be failed, but does it fail immediately, or does it fail when the timer ticks out? Or, does it go 'hey, where'd Lesnik Kerman go?' and re-spawn him in orbit?

[AlexinTokyo]

In the rescue missions, you certainly fail if the Kerbal dies, and the failure is instant at the time of his death.

I'm fairly sure (from reading other threads, not done it myself) that if you get the Kerbal back to Kerbin and recover him without him entering a vessel first, you do complete the contract, but you don't get the rewards for having him board a ship. As I say, I've not tried this method, so I could certainly be wrong.

[bakanando]

If you have landed him, save first and then try to recover him. As AlexinTokyo mentioned, the fact that you don't get him inside a ship before you recover him doesn't need to be done for fulfilling the contract.

You could try to bring him a ship and get him inside and see if it works.

[RexKramer]

I sometimes rescue Kerbals with the external seat. This does not fulfill the requirement to 'get aboard a vessel'.

However, while the 'board vessel' part never is completed, I never get a notice that the contract failed. Instead, I get a notice that the recovery was completed. Near as I can tell, at that point the game just ignores the 'board a vessel' part of the contract. You dont get credit for completing that part, but you also don't get a failure message.

[magnemoe]

Question, how about a ship with a pod and multiple command chair devices for reentry.

Kerbal enter pod, leaves again an uses the chair and return.

If you use kas it becomes far easier as he can just grab an parachute, deorbit with jetpack and use the parachute for landing.

In this setting the limit is the fuel to pick up 20 kerbals

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

Just a warning: Those contracts dry up fast.

I put a rescue ships in orbit expecting more of those Rescue contracts and never saw another one again.

(I wondered if the game engine could tell.)

[SciMan]

Funny you should mention a lack of rescue contracts... I have been getting the exact same issue. Nobody in orbit to rescue.

And to add insult to injury, this is after I built an antimatter powered spaceplane using B9 and KSP Interstellar that can get to Laythe and back without refueling! (granted it needs to be fueled with Antimatter before it even gets off the ground, but after that it can refill at any of my amat collector farms around Jool)

My solution is to use the debug menu to force it to give me a rescue contract. You can do that too, if you want to.

I'm not entirely sure what the "Ignore agency mindset on contracts" button is supposed to do there, but it might help as well. I have yet to see that make a difference in what contracts I get, however.

Or maybe it's just that you have too many members hired and not on a mission in your space program. Now that I think of it, that sounds quite likely.