Orbital Rendezvous And Docking Tutorial For Kerbal Space Program 0.18

This step by step guide takes us from launch to rendezvous to docking with another spacecraft in orbit. Hopefully someone will find it useful when 0.18 is officially released.

[SimonClark]

Just completed my first successful orbital dock thanks to this video - cheers!

[vigilantecow]

Spent 4-6 hours today trying to dock. I'm more frustrated then I've ever been right now.

[Scumdog]

After making literally hundreds of rendezvous in ksp over the years, just came to say it all started here with this video. Thank you Scott for being my teacher along the way!

[Hemingslay]

Looking back at these older videos, it’s crazy to see how much KSP has changed since then- yet things are still very much the same!
Great video Scott. Checking this out after watching some of your new content

[jackdaw]

Thanks for the tutorials Scott, they are all most helpful. This one lead to a rescue of a stranded Kerbal without his ship...

His story,

Keenan was returning for the Mun but ran out of fuel before getting into orbit. So he did the only thing he thought possible, grab the science then EVA and burn towards the planet. Amazingly he achieved an orbit, while his space craft continued to leave the system. He used all his available propellant, but was safe for now. He now had 5 hours of supplies to wait for rescue in the cold vacuum of space.

The rescue mission was started, a 2 pod ship was launched, and relaunched more then once. After many many failed attempts it finally got within about 100m of Keenan. The rescue craft was now out of fuel though... So Ludwig the rescue Kerbal decides to EVA also and bump Keenan to the rescue ship. This is not easy and he gave up after a couple of very frustrating tries. Bumping the ship to Keenan must be easier...

After literally hours of near passes and re adjustments, almost loosing a keyboard and quite a bit of hair, and disabling that damn sticky keys! The ship was bumped within reach of Keenan. Since Keenan can't turn anymore because he's used all his fuel, the ship needed to be perfect(what a nightmare). Keenan The courageous or stupid, stored the science first and grabbed for a handle, with a long sigh of relief he made it! After 6 hours both Kerbals are in a ship with supplies with no fuel, but lots of science and stories. Rescue ship 2 is on its way.

Thanks Scott!

[tthermic]

I have been playing ksp on and off for over a year or two. I'll start playing for 3 weeks, trying really hard to dock succesfully, then I'll get tired of failing and rage quit for 1 month or two. Here we go again.

[douglascam]

I cannot express the amount of gratitude I have to you for making this video. I was struggling at rendevousing with ship and this has perfected my skills. You are the greatest, Scott. Thanks.

[darthbrick]

Well, I just went through all of that. I was coming in literally centimeters away and it turns out I forgot to place a docking port on my ship. *facepalm*

[Seagull]

YES! FINALLY! I DID IT! MY LIFE IS COMPLETE!

[travislockman]

Scott, you are awesome man. I finally docked and if this tutorial wasn't here, I don't know how I would have done it. What a great helpful video, thank you so much!

[Smokie]

Played with no reverts no quickloading...my space program didn't last 2 hours.

[thabigo]

After literally months of trying (I'm so bad at this game), I've finally performed my first manual docking. Thanks you so much Scott.

[dannymcgill]

Clear and effective tutorial that still applies today. Thank you!

[RuanGreeff]

Thanks Scott, this is by far one of the best tutorials for docking in KSP I've seen yet. A well done, after watching this video I re-opened KSP and after 15min had a successful docking experience.

[Mels.rdeye]

THIS IS MY FIRST SUCCESSFUL DOCKING TNX MANLEY LOVE U VIDS!!! <3

[pavelsovicka]

After 5times watching this video and 2hours of bouncing in a 5-30meter distance between my two ships I can say one thing. I finally done my first docking manouver and you Sir have a another subscriber! Greetings from Czech Republic! :-)

[adakid]

Here's a story for you:
I recently set up a manned satellite called the "Sky_Sat_Mothership" in a very wide kerbin orbit (sorta 2/3 of the way to the moon) and it had run out of fuel. So essentially, the astronaut was stranded in the pod and I was trying to get an engineer to help refuel the satellite.
I had been attempting to design a rocket which could take the engineer to space and dock to the "Sky_Sat_Mothership"  That took about two hours. The other design I had made was too large to dock to itself and I could not send up the same one twice, so I had to design a ship as small as possible that could dock easily and transfer fuel.
Once I got the rocket into space and separated it's stages, it took me about a whole ingame year to achieve perfectly circular orbit on the same level as the other ship, but when in this orbit, the satellites were on the other sides of the planet. The next task was to speed up the ship so as to not ruin the circular orbit.
10 quicksaves later, I am 1000m away from the mothership at 10mp/s.
Once I had achieved a good speed relation (About 0.02mp/s difference) I got the docking ports to line up and face the same direction now all I have to do is... Oh...
I forgot the mini thrusters.
Now I have to use those boosters to try and get to the ship as opposed to a jetpack. So once again, two hours and over 50 quicksaves later, I am finally lined up correctly and am going at a great pace, but for some reason, I miss the mothership and go flying off in a random direction!
So after another half hour of close calls, I decided to look up "How to dock satellites in KSP" and I listened to this video while attempting to dock the two humongous ships together. Then, at 14:05 in the video, as I am finally lined up, at the exact right speed, I go for it! And then, the two ships magnetically collide together and stick! I hear Scott say "You've docked!" and I yell "YES!" and immediatley create about 5 more quick saves. The two twin satellites as linked together and it now looks AWESOME.
But there's a problem...
The fuel tanks have basically run dry during the docking line up and there was not enough fuel to go around.
Kids, do Alt+F12.
It might just save you a whole afternoon.

[Spinikar]

Thanks Scott! After watching this video I have done my first orbital rendezvous with my space station which ran out of fuel. Been trying to do it for weeks and after watching this, its easy as pie! Did it ten minutes later with more fuel without breaking a sweet!

[Joshsh]

Hey Scott, I was wondering if you could do an updated version of this video, really struggling with Rendezvous and Docking in my KSP. Scott Manley 

[whooopdiefriggindoo]

You made enough sense in your explanations to guide me through it during a docking procedure of my own. I just had to be really careful not to over do it by being hesitant or impatient. Also knowing the controls and how they affect your craft in space helps a lot.