Question about station encounters.

[Mattratt]

Just so you know, I have successfully docked before, and I am currently building my 2nd Starburst Station.

However most of the time, even when I get it within 0.5, (got 0.0 before) mostly when trying to get close with a giant fuel module, I am going way too fast, and I pass it completely.

How do I prevent this from happening?

Edited January 26, 2015 by Mattratt

[Kelderek]

You have to null out your velocity relative to your target. As you get close to the target, click on your navball until it says "target" (and not "orbit" or "surface"). Then point your ship to the retrograde marker and burn until your velocity drops to 0.0m/s. You should now be parked in space a fixed distance from your target. Now you can aim at the pink target marker on your navball and slowly burn to get some speed which will allow you to close that distance. Keep this speed very low, just a couple m/s at most -- sometimes it's easier to control this with RCS using H and N keys instead of your main engines.

[vixr]

^^^this^^^ make sure you kill it all too...even 1 or 2 meters per second can cause you to go sailing past.

[capi3101]

Probably the best way to do it stock is to set up a maneuver node at the point of closest approach. Look at your target relative velocity (click on the speed gauge until it says "Target"), and set up the node for a retrograde burn equal to that amount. You should get a burn time estimate from the maneuver node; start the burn when you're an equal number of seconds away from the node (unlike a regular burn, where you want to split it 50/50 on either side of the node) and stop when you get pretty close to zero. This will at least get you reasonably close to the closest approach distance you had with the target originally, and travelling at a much slower relative velocity, making the approach part easier.

EDIT: Ninja'd, twice.

[bdito]

The simple solution, install MechJeb and let it do it for you.

In reality do it like Kelderik said. If your engines are too powerful to do fine adjustments right click on them and limit the thrust to 5% once you get close.

[SanderB]

target the ship and set your navball to display the target relative speed, once you get in 100km start retroburning and keep your speed at 1/40th of the distance, then 1/30th at 20km, 1/20th at 10km and 1/10th at <5km. Naturally you need to use wider margins if your engines arent as good.

[Mattratt]

Thanks everyone.