Rescue mission

[Daeromont]

Morning, folks! I'm finally able to get to a stable orbit, etc., but when I was trying to do science, my little Bill Kerbal let go of my capsule and is now in orbit about 90 metres from the capsule. I am NOT playing sandbox mode. What I am needing help with is to know what I can do to rescue him, since my command capsules only hold 1 person...and I can't find a way to launch a rocket with more than one command capsule. Obviously, I have not unlocked much technology yet. Any ideas as a low-tech option?

Second question: This is not the first time one of my guys has let go of the command capsule without my prompting. Is this a bug, something I am doing mistakenly or do they sometimes just let go on their own? I wasn't sure if 'stupidness' was a factor on their part or mine.

Thanks in advance!

Daeromont

[RainDreamer]

Is your capsule full? If not, just switch to your kerbal, press R and jet pack your way back to safety. If not, welcome to your first rescue mission.

If you have got far enough into the tech tree to get a probe core, get one and get an empty command pod. If not, you can try making a 2 bodies rocket with 2 command pods, like this:

(just an example, there are many ways to do this). You can put fuel tank radially, if you didn't know already. Just move the tank to the side until it goes green.

[Daeromont]

Great...thanks! I didn't even know rockets could be set up that way.

[cicatrix]

Kerbonauts have their own propulsion called jet-pack. Just switch to Bill (default keys are [ or ]) activate it by pressing R and navigate towards your capsule using WASD/Shift/Ctrl. Once he is close to the hatch, a message fill appear, then press F to get the hold of it and then F again to get inside.

[Wanderfound]

Warning: if you haven't used the EVA jetpacks before, go very light on the thrust (WASD handles forward/back/left/right, Shift and Ctrl do up/down, directions are relative to the camera). Tap the buttons, don't hold them down, and set the spacecraft as a target first so you can track your relative velocity and distance.

While it's possible to deliberately or accidentally let go of your rocket, there's also a current bug that causes Kerbals to occasionally be thrown away from the capsule as they exit instead of clinging on as they should. It's a known bug, should be fixed eventually.

[Starman4308]

Second question: This is not the first time one of my guys has let go of the command capsule without my prompting. Is this a bug, something I am doing mistakenly or do they sometimes just let go on their own? I wasn't sure if 'stupidness' was a factor on their part or mine.

It's a known bug, amplified if you have stuff near the capsule hatch. One of Claw's stock bug fixes makes the problem go away... and the other modules he has aren't shabby either.

As to getting Bill back to his capsule, the easiest thing would just be to jetpack him to his original capsule: press R to activate jetpack, WASD to translate forwards/backwards and sideways, shift to translate up, and ctrl to translate down (this is identical to translate mode for docking).