Bringing Two Ships Together | KERBAL SPACE PROGRAM Contract Tutorials

[@MikeAben]

Up Next: Position A Satellite In An Orbit Of Kerbin - kzbin.info/www/bejne/hJbci5mufLyhhpo

[@Tallenn]

For anyone having difficulty with this: you are not alone. I've only been playing a few months, and remember that rendezvous was one of the toughest things to get for me, but mastering it is absolutely crucial to later stages of the game. How to master it? Like anything else, practice. Just do it over and over again. One practical way is that the (career mode) game gives you "rescue" missions where it asks you to rescue so and so Kerman from low orbit about Kerbin, and you should take them every time they come up. They will not only give you practice in performing rendezvous, but also give you more kerbals for free, and actually you'll make a bit of money while doing it.

[@MikeAben]

And that happens to be the tutorial I'll be working on next. Out in a couple of weeks. Great advice.

[@SoundmanGrant]

Brand new Kerbal player here...how I have slept on this game for so long...I have no idea, I'm only scratching the surface of this game it seems but it is slowly becoming my new favorite game! I wanted to get the hang of things before the KSP2 release. Having said all of that, this series of videos have been the most helpful out of all of the "starting from 0" tutorial videos I have found thus far. Your technical & seasoned approach and un-jarring vocal candor make these a treat to watch. I can't wait to crack the true potential of this game with QOL mods & visual enhancements... Thank you for the time & work you put in here!

[@josephmatthews7698]

Hey brother me too! I love playing with my 5 year old to teach her physics, orbital mechanics, aerodynamics and trig. Don't feel bad if you're struggling the rendezvous mission is kicking our butt! Best of luck to you!

[@SoundmanGrant]

@@josephmatthews7698 Oh I've got the hang of it now! I have yet to land on another planet but I've got a few gorgeous mods that make this game beautiful and take the gameplay to another level. Things are becoming muscle memory and it's just getting more and more fun. Really thanks to Mike Aben & Matt Lowne.

[@Rizefix]

KSP 2 is dead

[@ToonLinkah]

Using all your tutorials I accomplished my first rendezvous a few hours ago by figuring it out. Checking to see what I missed on my guesses

[@gptiede]

Congratulations! First rendezvous is a big deal.

[@warbrain1053]

Same, took me an hour and a hole lot of disposable liquid fuel on my station

[@JohnWilliamNowak]

A surprising amount of the Gemini 6 mission was last-minute improvisation, which is why it is sometimes called Gemini VI-A. Originally, it was supposed to dock with an uncrewed Agena target vehicle, but the Agena failed to reach orbit. Then it was decided to rendezvous with Gemini VII. Finally, the first attempted launch of VI-A was a failure. So ultimately, Gemini VI-A launched after Gemini VII.

[@ProfessorJayTee]

Took me all this time to figure out how to make rendezvous by myself, and THEN I find an excellent video on the topic. Finagle Rules the Universe...

[@kynnmaster_123]

This is not just for rendezvous, it is also for docking too!! Thanks for this!! Overall, it is easy to learn, quite complicated to master. But no need to rush!

[@MikeAben]

Absolutely. A lot of people that have trouble with docking, really have trouble with this.

[@Daeva83B]

Okay.. 2nd comment of today.. just wanting to share my first rendezvous. Thx to your video and explanation.. i got close, i got very close :) It was a rescue mission.. which i did 3 times now.. first time, couldn't rendezvous.. didn't understand the nodes on the map screen.. you explained that and gave me some pointers.. 2nd try i got close, but then i didn't know how to use the EVA thrusters.. so the Kerbal was just floating helplessly in space.. it's only in the main menu, you can find the keybindings (it's R, btw..) my third try... i did it!! He got in my pod.. and we returned home.. but then i realised i made a design flaw.. i never made that coupler.. so uu.. yeah.. we went down with the rocket still attached.. Live and learn, hehe

[@MikeAben]

Learning from mistakes is what the game's about.

[@DeDJMinecraftHD]

I am really enjoying your video's man! Its helping me understand KSP more but also letting me enjoying the game more. Keep up with the good video's!

[@GriffenLawrence]

Great tutorial, def the most frustrating thing to learn in this game so far. Took me 3 hours and many attempts of loading a quicksave to finally get it but ive got them parked next to each other at 8 meters apart so id say it was pretty successful.

[@Xeno7771]

Rescuing a lost astronaut was my first mission to appear after i finally managed to orbit! And that mission was tagged as trivial, with 1 star rating. Thanks Mike!

[@MikeAben]

The difficulty spikes on the contracts can be pretty bad, but once you get the feel for rendezvouses, rescues are the best way to expand your kerbanaut corps.

[@OBTX91]

I still suck at rendezvous but I am a big fan of your video. You do a great job of getting into the why's and where fores without it becoming confusing

[@franzhaselbein239]

And now remember the Moon landings, where they had to do a rendezvous in moon orbit after ascending from moon again... without a Navball or relative speeds to target.. that still is the true masterpiece for me

[@ra2186]

This is the best rendezvous video. Thanks.

[@flyingsharks3290]

I think the real purpose of this contract is just to put two ships on close enough interception orbits. But i had fun reproducing your mission up to 6m close. Quite a challenge but very rewarding. I learned at lot, thanks again.

[@Deino-1]

Mike, this series is so well developed and presented. Thanks again

[@MikeAben]

You bet.

[@ricecheese]

Thank you for your tutorial! Love all the small details and tips you added

[@TheFutureThoughtExchange]

Best KSP Vids on KZbin.

[@emrelestiri3801]

Thats the best tutorial ever thank you for that masterpiece and the summary place is the best for the notes thanks!

[@coalescence4479]

Thanks to your tips, I was able to get an intercept on my first try. Thanks, Mike! :D

[@markfisher696]

The whole bit chasing Val is exactly how I tried to do it first time.

[@MikeAben]

It's a very natural thing to do.

[@danielmatthews8360]

Really appreciate how in depth this video is, massively helped!! First try whilst watching this tutorial. Thank you😊

[@alanrobbie4851]

I have been playing since v0.9 and I am still learning. These tutorials are awesome!

[@MikeAben]

Glad you like them!

[@Gandorhar]

Amazing Video mate! I was really struggeling with this alot for some reason. Even with some other tutorials I found before I didnt get it, but finally someone (you) explained the ui tools and over all the whole move more indepth, which make this sooo much easier, thanks alot! If I find myself stuggeling with something else I now know which channel to check out! I was legit trying this for like 5-6 hrs, now first try thanks to ur video. :D

[@Anonymous__________]

Thanks for your tutorials! I don’t believe that your content it’s so good and have so many subs, hope KZbin algorithms kick in!

[@whiskers1138]

Thank you so much, because in the past two days I've been able to do this fairly well!

[@popeyesguy8748]

this is going to be a big help thanks so much!

[@professor-josh]

The fact that a rendezvous trophy on the PS4 is rarer than a Mun landing trophy says it all. It's really tough to learn. But once you've got it, you've got it. I've gone on breaks from the game for months and picked it up again and had no problem setting up a rendezvous. Like riding a bike really.

[@thorr18BEM]

I tried for hours last night on PS5. I could have sworn the in-game tutorial for docking said to use RCS thrusters for fine tuning after you get close. It also told me to go into docking mode. I think it misled me because I couldn't get those thrusters to do anything but roll and it was too hard to do very minor adjustments with the regular thrusters but since this video made zero mention of them I will try without them next time.

[@raxusveritas]

I literally need to do an orbital rendezvous for a rescue mission. I just reached orbit with Valentina piloting the ship but her ship ran out of fuel just as the ship had established an orbit. Val is now stranded in a 300x400km orbit with no fuel left. I tried to decouple the command module, hoping it would slow down enough to reenter the atmosphere. Then I realized that I had forgotten to pack a heat shield, so she would immediately be burnt to dust upon reentry. With this time constraint in mind, I need to quickly make a rescue plan, build a ship (basically just the same ship Val used, but with a second seat, more fuel, and a heat shield), and launch it up to rendezvous and transfer Val via an EVA before the command module de orbits. This is my first playthrough and seventh ever launch. Wish me luck!

[@michealvincent731]

Love your videos Mike, they are top notch. You definitely deserve more views but I guess this game is a bit niche. I’ve played KSP on and off for years and the one thing I always come back to relearn how to do is rendezvous

[@Shiftry87]

After learning these orbital maneuvers its hillarious to se pretty mutch any space movie out there. Every time they do a burn u would think WTF are they doing. Armageddons 9G behind the moon boost turns it from a scary/intense scene into a full on comedy.

[@lincolnpepper816]

Or when a ship's power goes out/they run out of fuel and they're like "Were gonna run into the sun!". Like no tf you're not lol

[@visionw1273]

This tutorial helped me out so much! Thank you!

[@Daeva83B]

You know, years ago.. when i played this game for the first time, i had a similar problem.. i just pointed the rocket at the moon... 😂 I love this game.. It made me understand gravity on a intuitive level and it is funny, not the same gravity we are used to, here on earth. Or is it? hehe :)

[@chubbyninjagaming]

dude this is so helpful. thanks for the vid!

[@taxfrauder15]

thanks m8 helped me alot on my duna mission

[@LuigiCotocea]

You can also intercept a space craft by decreasing the orbit This interception works same as getting to other planets like Duna or Jool!

[@BlackMesa322]

One thing I noticed (around 23:05 - 23:20 in the video), burning retrograde is not always the answer for the correction burn. If your intercept is in such a way that you will be "ahead" of the target at the best intercept point, then you burn retrograde. If you will be "behind" the target at the intercept point, I thought burning prograde will help, which it did, but it was difficult to get a good intercept. It almost feels like your initial drift burn should be made in such a way that your final correction burns would be some sort of retrograde burn.

[@MikeAben]

That's very true when talking about the orbital velocity, but here I was looking at the velocity relative to the target which should always be retrograde. Otherwise, you'd be moving away from the target.

[@TGTGolden]

thx now i can dock more vessel :D

[@Thatonemetalsonicfan]

Looks like I’m rendezvousing around the sun, my first working orbit sent jebediah orbiting around the sun, he’s been there for 10 years

[@MikeAben]

That's definitely trickier. I have some videos where I rendezvous with asteroids. That's likely to be similar. I can provide a link. Also, I'll be starting a mission in a couple of weeks to perform a rescue in low orbit of the sun in my live stream if you want to wait for that.

[@marsenpai9078]

I just spent hours learning from my mistakes, and only now, Do I find your video. Sad life

[@dewolfeFSP]

I perform the slow approach much the same way but make a maneuver node just before the interseption where I match the orbits together. Takes the guesswork out.

[@MikeAben]

That's an especially great technique for high velocity encounters, like when rendezvousing with asteroids. I'll try and remember to incorporate that into a future video. Thanks.

[@JohnVanderbeck]

Doing this in KSP2 right now and it is definitely hard at this stage of EA. It doesn't seem possible to "pin" the info labels while editing the manuever, AND you can't even mouse over them while the manuever is in edit mode. so you need to go back and forth a lot. I finally gave up and just stuck with one that got me a crappy 500km distance. Then once I had that I just went into target mode and started trying each of the orbital directions with a short puff of thrust to see what got me closer, then leaned into that fine tuning WITHOUT a node because that way I could keep the intersection datum pinned. I now have a 234m intersect at 344m/s. We'll see what happens when we get there :)

[@Сергейстаромодныйов]

Pretty cool trick to use the Basic Fins for clean separation if Separatrons aren't available yet, even after playing KSP for years I'm happy to learn some cool new tricks, thank you :)

[@derekhoward3897]

I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong but I’m having a hard time trying to get my orbit to be circular and was wondering if you had any tips

[@MikeAben]

I find it very helpful to keep a close eye on your apoapsis and time to apoapsis using the flight data at the bottom left. Don't let the apoapsis get away on you during the orbital insertion burn. Also manage thrust. There is no need for a ton of thrust during the final 1000 m/s or so. I do have a getting to orbit video where I talk about this. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oqS5i6dmaamjrK8si=yPLLej2ctKyUI_dO

[@scottwilliams846]

My first rendezvous contract was "rendezvous in orbit of the Mun" and I really think it should have been over Kerbin instead.

[@MikeAben]

They can come in funny orders sometimes.

[@Georgesspierre]

Wow thanks, it took a few tries but i did it 😂

[@froadwickvonfrankenstein4408]

Thanks for the excellent videos. I have been following your instructional videos in order but for some reason the Explore Kerbin contract isn’t available. I’ve done dozens of Ferry Tourist missions and Test Equipment missions hoping that Explore Kerbin would pop up eventually but it hasn’t. Is there a prerequisite technology that I need to acquire in order for this mission to show up?

[@MikeAben]

There's an annoying RNG element to the contracts spawning. Also, the more you do of a particular contract type, the more of that type it will spawn. You can go into the settings and turn the decline penalty to zero. Then start declining contracts until one you want spawns.

[@MikeAben]

There's also a possibility that you may have progressed too far for it to now spawn the contract. Different combinations of contracts will spawn every time you play.

[@froadwickvonfrankenstein4408]

@@MikeAben Yeah, I’m coming to that realization. Thanks for your input. I’ll probably revert to a save point from a couple weeks ago (though I’ll probably lose a couple million kerbucks).

[@Flybigjet]

Hello Mike, I have watched all your videos on KSP, and really looking forward to all your content you’ll produce on KSP2! As a long time viewer, I haven’t spent as much time playing as I do watching your videos. I play very complex games, I fly 5 different jets in DCS for example. Each different aircraft has a 500-700 page “Chucks Guide” on all the systems and how to employ the weapons. But there is something so intimidating watching your videos and you’ve got 10-15 open windows (mods) at a time keeping up with everything…. I really want to play KSP2 and I hope you’ll have another series on absolute beginners tutorials. Do you believe KSP2 will have many of the best mods built into the basic game? Thanks and keep the great content coming, cheers!

[@MikeAben]

That depends on what you consider the best mods. Procedural parts are definitely there, as well as a wider array of engine types. Beyond that, we'll have to see.

[@Flybigjet]

@@MikeAben Another question, I unlocked the tech tree far enough to build your MUN orbiter last night and I opened up the game this morning and I got messages that my orbiter “contains experimental parts and is unable to launch”. I looked at my tree again and saw the node that I purchased that contained the AV-R8 Winglet and the small reaction wheel is no longer purchased, and all the science I earned to buy it is gone, any ideas? Thank you!

[@Flybigjet]

@@MikeAben Another question, I unlocked the tech tree far enough to build your MUN orbiter last night and I opened up the game this morning and I got messages that my orbiter “contains experimental parts and is unable to launch”. I looked at my tree again and saw the node that I purchased that contained the AV-R8 Winglet and the small reaction wheel is no longer purchased, and all the science I earned to buy it is gone, any ideas? Thank you!

[@MikeAben]

@@Flybigjet The only thing I can think of is that you may have reverted to an old save.

[@lunarsoulgaming]

Hey, Mike! This is such a good video, but I'm still having issue. I get past the drift burn, but when I approach intersect, I cannot tune approach in time and the target flies by. When I try to burn retro relative to target to slow down m/s, the intersect gets screwed up. Any tips? The target I am trying to park next to is in an 80km orbit, while I am in a 100km orbit.

[@MikeAben]

No tips much beyond what I said in the video. When slowing down, don't stay locked to retrograde. Instead, be slightly to the side, experimenting with what brings the closest approach distance down. Use small burns. If you start the slow down process a couple of minutes before closest approach, you'll have plenty of time to stop and adjust if things are getting worse. It takes some practice, so quick save before you start slowing down and revert if you need to.

[@lunarsoulgaming]

@@MikeAben I finally did it!!! Thanks to your video and a couple others' videos about it, I was finally able to do it. The herding the retrograde and prograde is like a whole mini game lol. I love your vids they are super helpful!

[@archimode92]

Hi Mike, I'm a relatively new player and I've managed to rendezvous on various altitudes around Kerbin thanks to your previous videos on the subject, so thank you very much for your videos! However, a problem I'm often encountering is that when I activate timewarp when nearing the other vessel, the intersect info in the bottom left jumps from a couple of minutes to hours or more. As soon as I set the speed back to 1x, the intersection information becomes accurate again. The first time I thought this was because of the trajectories intersecting in a weird way and the timewarp causing rounding errors, but I've been seeing the issue a lot lately, generally while doing a rendezvous with sattelites high above Kerbin. I've never seen you mention anything akin to this, so I'm curious if you have experienced this issue at some point and/or might know the cause?

[@MikeAben]

I have the same thing happen to me. It has happened frequently in my live streams. I don't have a solution, but it would be a useful thing to mention in a future tutorial.

[@GonTar_X]

It happened to me too, not only on times, sometimes warp speed messes up physics and collisions too, like it makes the math a lot more simple to speed up things too, and sometimes that can really Duck up your plans with unforseen consequences

[@raakioko8139]

Thank you so much!

[@MikeAben]

You bet.

[@bencummins9372]

how do you do this in ksp 2 when you have almost none of the info on intercepts from ksp 1

[@bynlb]

You don't know how many times I've tried this and I still cant get it done. I don't know what to do.

[@wilsong68]

AT 11.15, you did something very sleight of hand. I'm sorry to ask a dumb question, but how did you switch from the orbiting spacecraft back to the one on the launch pad? How did you have a rocket on the launch pad when it had just launched from? Many thanks, White Knuckled with Frustration.

[@MikeAben]

They're two separate launches.

[@MikeAben]

There's no in-game switch. It's a cut in editing.

[@Just-A-YouTube-User]

thanks im subing

[@altronbee1216]

howd you get the timer for when to start burns? is it a mod?

[@MikeAben]

No, it's stock but you have to turn it on in the settings.

[@factsforlife0O0]

I have docked easily at 9km separation It took me 2 years to understand how to dock in KSP 1 ... KSP 2 I dont really like the Separation nodes KSP 1 is way better in terms of docking in orbit when I first did it since it took me 2 years to do it I went out and got a Cohiba to celebrate

[@actrade1]

Mike, if I'm coming in from a higher, slower altitude, everything in this video is basically backwards, right?

[@MikeAben]

Yes.

[@Brekkhus96]

I built my rocket exactly like this, for some reason I am not able to control it as stabile as you.

[@MikeAben]

Getting to orbit consistently takes practice, especially with low tier parts.

[@Drewplays_YT]

One of my problems is when i tried my first rendezvous, its was on the dark side (night) of kerbin so i could not see anything so i flew past the intersection and missed the craft. Any solutions or tips?

[@MikeAben]

Did you have the waypoint on the target craft? If not, F4 toggles that on and off.

[@Garrett_Jones25]

When I burn retrograde or prograde after doing the maneuver burn the intersection point and velocity don't both go down. Prograde increases intersection distance but decrease velocity and vice versa. How do I go about fixing this? Also my velocity is around 250 rather than 80, so how do I fix that as well?

[@MikeAben]

1) When are you burning prograde or retrograde? As you approach the target? If so, don't do either. Watch the video again. I'm not on retrograde (and definitely nowhere near prograde) as I approach. Also, make sure the navball is in target mode. If you meant something else by your question, please let me know. 2) The more different the two orbits are, the higher the encounter velocity. If your starting orbit is very different than the target's orbit, there may be nothing you can do about it, but if you are moving between two orbits in low orbit about Kerbin (like in this video) and getting a high encounter speed, it means either the planes of the two orbits are significantly different (inclination) difference), or you are crossing the target orbit at an angle. If the latter, then don't do this. I talk this in the video.

[@Garrett_Jones25]

@@MikeAben around the 4 minute until intersect mark is when I burn and have this problem and my Navball is in target mode and the velocity is about 230 I think. And yes the two orbits are angled compared to each other than the target is in 100,000 km orbit and the craft I'm flying started in 70,000 km.

[@MikeAben]

@@Garrett_Jones25 Yeah, there's not much you can do with the encounter speed when there's an inclination difference, but don't lock to retrograde when burning. Instead, figure out which direction near retrograde will reduce the encounter distance. If you find the encounter distance seems to go up no matter how you burn, let yourself get closer and try again. You can comfortably allow yourself to be two minutes from the encounter before trying again, and don't allow the time to intercept to get above about three minutes. If it does, stop burning and allow yourself to get closer. Once your relative velocity is smaller (say 50 m/s or lower), and your closest approach distance is really small (say within 100 m), let yourself get to within 1 minute of your target and repeat the process, watching your time to intercept and your closest approach distance. If either of these start getting large, stop burning, and let yourself get closer. Quicksaving allows to revert and practice if you want.

[@chubwheel]

Recreated you rocket 1:1, but the aerodynamics is not so low as for your rocket for some reason, also im having struggle with turning the rocket at all, even under SAS or without it. Also it weers northeast for some reason. Altough i think its because i put goo container, baro-thermo meter, 2 batteries on the pod as well since i was still hoping for some science if i can get some. Strangely i didn't have the MUN flyby mission yet, so i dont have solar panels for example

[@MikeAben]

This rocket should be pretty easy to steer. It could be any number of things wrong.

[@Beast1o67]

How do you get the yellow box around the target

[@MikeAben]

F4 toggles the markers.

[@molasses9186]

Do you have a mod to make your UI like that in the bottom left?

[@MikeAben]

There are no mods in this series. You can move the navball in the settings.

[@SpicyGun]

for some reason, i am unable to set a manoeuvre

[@MikeAben]

If you are in career mode, you need to upgrade Mission Control and the Tracking Station to level two.

[@unzorroramdon7147]

Hey could you make a video about going to the mun

[@MikeAben]

Sorry, this video was mistakenly posted to the playlist. Next week's video is going to the Mun. This video is for the week after.

[@glenn-g]

@@MikeAben Awesome Mike, Even though I now have plenty of time in-game I learned a lot of it from you! I am really interested in how you calculate landing burns in vanilla? (youtube didn't like the colloquial term we use for those LoL)

[@MikeAben]

@@glenn-g I've got spreadsheets set up to do the math, but next episode I'll be showing a non-math way to work out dV budgets.

[@glenn-g]

@@MikeAben KZbin didn't like the term we use for that high-efficiency last-minute burn when landing on the mun! The suici...er landing burn is the one I'm interested in!

[@glenn-g]

I have a super cheezy way of calculating it now 1.Quicksave when I have the landing trajectory and see what speed I hit the Mun at, 2.re-load and set a maneuver node at the surface with the dame DV as the speed I obtained in the alternate reality, 3. lock to retrograde and light the engine at the correct time. 4. cut engine right before you hit 0 velocity 5. manage the landing. 6. profit???

[@schaab7203]

it doesnt mark the other rocket for me, who do i do that?

[@MikeAben]

If you are talking about the waypoint on the rocket, F4 toggles that on and off.

[@sgtrogers]

I have no clue whatsoever how the fuck i am supposed to this. The main problem is that I cant decelerate without making me get like 50km away from the ship im supposed to rescue

[@MikeAben]

Keep watching that closest approach distance. If what you are doing is pushing it up, then stop burning in that direction.

[@thinoivarsson8969]

How do you get the "time until burn"

[@MikeAben]

It can be toggled on on the settings. It's something like "advanced burn indicator".

[@thinoivarsson8969]

@@MikeAben thanks

[@Miliradian]

Tip: There is a mobile game called "Space Flight Simulator" its a great 2d game where you can design rockets, it's pretty nice for practicing orbits.

[@HerkusLeGuitarman]

I went to eve and duna before i got a rendezvous 💀

[@itslumbergaming6821]

for some reason the contract is not showing up does anyone know why this is

[@MikeAben]

There is an RNG to the contracts offered.

[@plaaxys]

Why the hell is rendezvous spelled like that🤔

[@josephmatthews7698]

Same reason anything sucks in this world. The French.

[@stevelaw3886]

Reminds me of the fake Dubya quote - "The problem with the French is they've no word for entrepreneur"

[@polishkerbal6920]

I learned rendevous n Docking all by my self, am i a god?