KSP 0.18 Tutorial #3 Rendezvous and Docking

This is the third tutorial on Kerbal Space Program.
In this tutorial i will show you how to do a Rendezvou and how to dock your space ship.

When doing a rendezvou, there are 2 normal situations.
One is that you are in front of the vessel you want to rendezvous with. To get the other vessel to catch up to you, you will have to go in an higher orbit then your target.
This will make the distance you orbit around a planet or moon, longer than that of your target vessel. Which in turn makes the target vessle catch up to you.

The other one is that you are behinde the vessel you want to rendezvou with.
And to catch up to it you will go in to a lower orbit than your target, making you catch up to the target. This is the most commen way to do it, because it saves fuel and is a little bit easyer. And this is the way ill be showing you in this tutorial.

Any questions, just ask.
Feed back will be appreciated:)
Follow me on Twitter @wearingstorm

[junkrat]

This was possibly the best to the point tutorial on youtube. I have struggled so much trying to understand how to rendezvous and dock with other tutorials. Thank you!

[gortshort]

Watched many tutorials on performing KSP rendezvous. For me, yours was the best. You kept your narration simple and direct to the point. I'm sure it will help me with my rendezvous jitters. - Thanks!

[WearingStorm]

Thank you so much, that is my goal to make it simple and direct.
Once starting to get the hang of rendezvous, it will fast become an everyday thing :)

[stryker]

Thank you for that tip. I've been trying 50 times and I got nothing. You saved me from raging. Thanks :)

[deltatango]

Great tutorial, thank you for posting. I have been playing this game for about 6 weeks now and built a space station with 8 kerbals living on it, and docked to it many times, but at the cost of lots of wasted fuel. My 2 problems are:

1.) Building rockets which can be controlled properly. It seems many of my craft don't turn as they're supposed to, like each key is controlling two directions combined instead of one. Also, some do not have enough torque, and turning is painfully slow, and they don't stay in place once facing the proper direction with SAS on.

2.) Overshooting my target and having to chase them. Sometimes several times. You showed how to do this here, but without a detailed explanation.

I would love to see a tutorials just on those two things. I think most people new to this game have the same problems and just give up on trying to dock.

[MrGustomundo]

Thanks a lot for this tutorial. I've been trying to add stuff to my space station, but I never could dock right. Your tutorial has helped me a lot! Thanks!

[bluelimeweb]

like always, I havn't even watched this video, but before it I watched the other videos, and can't wait. Was worth watching the other videos. I have seen others but this cleared up alot!

[Exilea]

Just docked my first two crafts together!!! ^^ Thank you for the tutorial!

[WearingStorm]

Glad to hear the videos are helping you out and clearing things up for u :)

[WearingStorm]

I use the standard, ILKJ keys for vertical adjustments, and H and N for forward and backward adjustments :)

[WearingStorm]

Sure I can make that. Have a couple of movies I have to make first this week. Have had som computer truble, so im a little behinde. But its all sorted out now:)

The importent ting when making a probe is to use SAS, if you put on a couple you will get more control.
NB!: use only one ASAS per vessle, because using more than one ASAS makes them fight each other.
The ASAS uses all the controll surfaces available (Engine, rcs, sas).

[WearingStorm]

Sounds great, ill throw one to getter when I get the chance.
I think building space stations are greate fun:)

[WearingStorm]

Its not difficult rendezvous, but it takes som patience. To make your rendezvous easyer its a good idea to get your orbit circular and aligned (see tutorial 2).
The closer your orbits are to each other, the slower you approach speed will be, so when you are starting approaching. You should bring your targets closer and closer (use the map target funksjons) when you are about 2-5 km away, start using the nav ball to bring you closer.
If you like, i can make a short rendezvous tutorial.

[gortshort]

P.S. I subscribed, gave you a thumbs up, and will watch all your other KSP vids. Thanks again ...

[WearingStorm]

Personal preference I guess. In the standard mode you can translate and rotate at the same time. With docking mode, you have to change back and forth. So I feel it just adds more difficulty, more thing to keep track of and that you can react quicker in standard mode. But as I said, it just a personal preference :)

[WearingStorm]

First: Make sure your inclination between the two ships is close to 0.
Second: Catch up to target = lower orbit. To be caught up = higher orbit.
Third: As you get closer decrease the difference between the two orbits.
Last: When you are about 5-10km away u can use the navball to approach the target.

You can watch this to, it can help :)
KSP 0.19 Tutorial #7 - Rendezvous when everything went wrong

[WearingStorm]

Thank you very much, glad to hear it helped :)

[WearingStorm]

Gald it helped you :) Good luck on you station :)

[WearingStorm]

So i thru one together for u, its a "live recording" from launch to docking, talking you thru the whole way.
Se the description:)
Hope I covered all you needed:)

[WearingStorm]

Are you using mine our your own?
- If you are using our own, maybe you haven balanced the rcs correctly.
- If you are using mine, you can try with the SAS aktivate to stop spinning.
Good luck :)