Here are short video comparisons of how the two rockets fly:įor the no fin version, I leave SAS disabled and simply let it go. The CoL is below the CoM, which means that the rocket will always want to point in the direction it is flying (towards the prograde marker). If you add some fins to the bottom, you get this: This means the rocket is unstable and will want to flip over. The CoL marker (blue) is way above the CoM marker (yellow).

This is the key to controlling a rocket in the atmosphere (as well as building a stable plane). Take a look at the center of mass and center of lift of the rocket (the circled buttons turn the markers on and off): Doing that should reduce your first stage's altitude by less than 10%.įor the control problems, as the other answers pointed out, the lack of fins is an issue (the wiki was probably written before the more realistic aerodynamic model was added, when fighting the atmosphere was much easier). When you tilt 10 degrees east, do you mean almost due east, but 10 degrees up? The phrasing may be misleading you, as it means almost vertical, but 10 degrees east. If I go straight up, it doesn't run out of fuel until around 19-20km I run out of fuel before reaching 10km, if I tilt the rocket it spins out of control, and when I jettison the lower stage it spins out of control.Īddendum: I only run out of fuel before 10km if I try to tilt the rocket 10 degrees to the east. I'm experiencing all of the three control issues mentioned above. I didn't swap out for cheaper engines or anything.

I built this rocket exactly according to that tutorial - every piece matches exactly. The details of its construction and staging are here: What's the magical secret to keeping a rocket under control while in the atmosphere? Editįor the purpose of this question, I'm trying to control the following rocket: Some reason things go so right for everyone else and so wrong for me. I feel like there's some simple trick I'm missing. However when I'm in the atmosphere with any minor angle and I attempt to jettison my first stage the upper stage immediately starts spinning wildly out of control and the whole flight is lost. When I'm on a perfectly vertical ascent, or already in orbit, I can jettison my first stage rockets and keep flying pretty. If I so much as look at the D key on my keyboard during a launch, the rocket spins violently out of control and goes careening into a mountain. The 'how to get into orbit' guide suggests tilting the rocket 10 degrees east once you reach 100 m/s, performing a steady gravity turn. For instance, it says to hold a steady 300 m/s until 10km, then go full-throttle until you run out of fuel. There are three main ways that things fail horribly for me:ĭespite following the guides and tutorials precisely and picking my parts according to the specifications, it seems like my rockets are somehow less powerful than theirs. I've read about 20 tutorials on KSP rocket design and orbital mechanics and even tried following the step-by-step guide to get into orbit but it never works for me. To this end, I've been trying to practice gravity turning and burning less fuel in the lower atmosphere to reduce drag forces so that I can get into a stable orbit around Kerbin with far less effort - but things chronically go wrong. It's also extremely risky on the return trip to Kerbin since I usually can't afford the additional rocket for a controlled descent and instead rely on heat shields and prayer to make it back into the atmosphere, losing out on hours of work when I revert my flight upon catastrophic failure. This is a horribly expensive, heavy, and inefficient way to just do a flyby, and it has made getting into orbit around the moon almost impossible. Historically I've been using a LOT of rockets and a LOT of fuel in order to achieve successful flights - burning 6-8 BACC 'Thumper' Solid Fuel Boosters to lift a payload of 2-4 FL-T800 Fuel Tanks so I can get into a stable orbit, then I burn an entire FL-T800 Fuel Tank just to do a flyby of the moon.

Kerbal space program prograde