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Once in close range to target....
Ship ONE: "Control from here" on docking port.... Target ship TWO.... align ship to TARGET marker on NAV BALL... Set SAS to "STABILITY ASSIST"... SWAP SHIPS....
SHIP TWO: "Control from here" on docking port.... Target ship ONE.... align ship to TARGET marker on NAV BALL... Set SAS to "STABILITY ASSIST"
BOTH ships should now have their docking ports pointed at the docking port of the other ship.
Pick the craft with the best maneuverability.
Target docking port of other craft.
SHUT DOWN ENGINES! Right click on engines and turn them OFF
Use RCS ("R" to turn on/off) and "H" (foreward) / "N" (reverse) to approach the other craft.
Sometimes craft are built lopsided so you MAY need "IKJL" for translation (Up/Down/Left Right) and "WASD" (To keep NAV BALL aligned to TARGET" or "QE" (for rotation) to get good contact.
So you see if you use your tools properly then DOCKING is as simple as BLINDFOLDED BRAIN SURGERY.... ;P
Oh yeah, once docked you can turn your engines back on if you want...
https://kerbalstuff.com/mod/491/Docking%20Port%20Alignment%20Indicator?noedit=True
Give that a whirl first before you try MechJeb (which automates docking, not sure if you want that).
The videos on the page give you an overview of how the mod works.
Yep, that's a common problem. I find the issue is in the way you think of it. Once you wrap your head around what the craft are actually doing to rendez-vous, it becomes much much easier. I regret to say that we've been spoiled by generations of misrepresentation of space travel. Gonna have to un-scrub all that nonsense before you're going to be able to get a grip on real orbital mechanics.
Jesus Christ, people, stop pushing MJ. It's cheating. Would you suggest someone enable infinite money or god mode if they were experiencing trouble completing a level in some other game? No you wouldn't. Learn how to play the game and stop pushing cheat mods.
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Okay so for some actual help: what you're trying to do is make the orbits of the two objects match, together with the two craft's positions in those orbits. What I suggest you do is park a target object at an altitude of say 300-400km and park a docking port-equipped vehicle at say 100-200km. At that point you're ready to begin. So first thing you do is extend the craft's orbit so it intersects with the target object at two points. You can pull off both an inclination match and this orbit extension if you position your burn node at an inclination intersect point. Okay so once you have two orbit intersects,
Once you see the two intersect points and inclination match, (and forgive me if this isn't completely accurate - it's been a while since I docked) you should also see where the target object will be the next time you cross an intersect point. That's fine. So now what you do is set a maneuver node at one of the intersect points and keep showing "next orbit" (or simply waiting) until the target's position is just ahead (or just behind, I honestly forget which) of the intersect point such that a modest raising of your Pe will bring it on top of the intersect point. At this time you tweak the node until you can get the encounter distance down to preferably below ~500m.
Now that you actually have an encounter, and your two craft are approaching each other, what you'll be doing is switching your navball to show relative velocity between the objects. A relative velocity of zero means the orbits are matched. So now what you want to do is burn retrograde relative to your target until you can bring this down to 0m/s, but in such a way that you don't overshoot the target. Once relative velocity is down to 0m/s, you can start using your RCS to move in for a dock. As a few people have suggested, try using the fixed camera and translational controls to get correctly oriented.
It might take a few attempts to get the routine down, but hopefully this should clarify the procedure for you.
I wouldn't say mechjeb is cheating. It allows people to play the game the way they want. Ain't nothing wrong with that.
I havent used it for years always thought it would be "cheating" but after years of playing ksp you reach the point where you want to pull of bigger missions, and reaching orbit 2546457 times and dock 3029567905 parts in orbit or land 3455677876976 ships close to each other to build a base can be really tedious, so thats where mechjeb steps in.
Mechjeb can't fly a crappy designed ship, you stil need to design a good ship - or ships if you plan something bigger.
Mechjeb just makes me want to keep on playing since I know I dont have to fly to orbit 12 times in a row. I build the ships, design the mission, and then Im mission control and oversee everything and tell mechjeb what to to, you also have to notice you cant say "mechjeb bring me to duna and build a base"
You let him plot a maneuver, edit it so it fits perfect and then let him execute it, and then you repeat those steps until you reach your goal.
Its also worth mentioning, that mechjeb isnt perfect you ALWAYS want to have an eye on him since he likes to scre up landings horribly and can only execute rendevous if you set up a good orbit as a base, otherwise hell just crash you into the planets surface!
tl;dr mechjeb isn't cheating, its a good but not perfect pilot who needs your attention and input and a good designed ship!