Tutorial: Land at the Space Center
Contents
Landing at the Kerbal Space Center
After you've achieved orbit, or landed on the Mun, why not show off by splashing down just east of the Kerbal Space Center?
Specifications
- Length: 30-40 minutes
- Difficulty: Easier than a Mun landing. Smaller rockets can do this easily.
- Skills needed: Orbit adjustment (via prograde/retrograde burns at peri-kerbin/apo-kerbin)
- For version: Every version (tested on 0.13.1)
Steps
Step 0 - Rocket Design
Any rocket that can put a CM, a fuel tank, a liquid engine, and SAS into orbit should suffice. RCS thrusters will help you make fine adjustmentdld
Step 1 - Circular Orbit
The easiest way that I've found is to start with a circular 150km orbit. Other orbits may work, and if you find one, do edit this page and add the info!
Try to keep this orbit as flat as possible, otherwise you may miss KSC to the north or south.
Step 2 - De-Orbit Timing
This is the tricky bit. If Kerbin didn't have any air, we would just retro-burn on the far side of Kerbin until the peri-Kerbin point touches the ground. However, Kerbin's atmosphere will slow us down, and we would land short (roughly on the west coast of "India"(called in RP Itaalicia. See Roleplaying forum for origin of name)). So we will need to de-orbit roughly 90 degrees ahead of the KSC, and place the peri-Kerbin at roughly 90 degrees beyond KSC.
Step 3 - Tweaking the landing point
If, for some reason, the peri-Kerbin isn't right on the dot, here's what you can do to adjust your landing point: Remember, burning in prograde will just lift the peri-Kerbin off of the ground, and you may wind up overshooting the whole planet!
Step 4 - Enjoy the ride
Remember to jettison everything (except for the CM and parachute) before you hit the atmosphere. The empty tanks, fins, etc., will provide unaccounted drag and will make you miss the KSC.
Finishing word
Landing at the KSC is pretty simple once you figure out where you should start your retrograde burn.
