Equatorial orbit. Noob needs help please.

[Holding These Alligators Down]

I'm on a career mission where i have to fly an unmanned drone in to an equatorial orbit. As you can see i managed to to orbit Kerbin on a previous mission easily enough but for the equatorial i am always too high, too low or at the completely wrong angle.
Where am i going wrong?

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=462076848

[SievertChaser]

The above picture does not contain an orbit. Your trajectory in the picture is not an orbit. You can stay in an orbit indefinitely, such as the one depicted in purple. You need more horizontal velocity (~2 km/s).

An equatorial orbit has an inclination of 0. That is, you make a gravity turn eastward.

[Leigh]

Well, equatorial is super easy as you simply have to burn towards the 90degree marker on your navball. By the looks of your screenshot you are going too steep for too long.

Keep your craft at about 300m/s and SLOWLY lean your rocket towards the 90 marker. A good indication is that you should be around the 45degree marker by the time you get around 12-15k (where the atmosphere really starts to thin out).

Once thinner, go full throttle and keep pitching 'til your nose is almost on the horizon, reach the desired altitude and stop burning, and circularise from there. You can always go into a slightly higher orbit and "fall back" into the desired one via burning retrograde.

This will also be more efficient as the circularisation burn will cost less Delta V (fuel) due to the orbit being more shallow.

[Holding These Alligators Down]

Originally posted by lei07:

Well, equatorial is super easy as you simply have to burn towards the 90degree marker on your navball. By the looks of your screenshot you are going too steep for too long.

Keep your craft at about 300m/s and SLOWLY lean your rocket towards the 90 marker. A good indication is that you should be around the 45degree marker by the time you get around 12-15k (where the atmosphere really starts to thin out).

Once thinner, keep pitching 'til your nose is almost on the horizon, reach the desired altitude and stop burning, and circularise from there. You can always go into a slightly higher orbit and "fall back" into the desired one via burning retrograde.

This will also be more efficient as the circularisation burn will cost less Delta V (fuel) due to the orbit being more shallow.

Cool thank you i'll give it a try.

[Leigh]

Just added a "go full throttle" once you leave the atmos, but go gradually if you need to keep yourself steady during the pitch to the horizon.

That is what is known as a gravity turn, the profile differs from craft to craft, but you are aiming for that horizon line once you are clear of the atmosphere. This will be the most fuel saving method. :)

[Holding These Alligators Down]

Thanks mate.
This game makes me feel like a dumbass lol.

[Leigh]

Ah, KSP is all about making mistakes and forgetting to add things to a craft and such. I remember my first ever return from the Mun, in like 0.19 I think, JUST about had the fuel to make it back, but I hit a snag when the ship kept exploding as it hit the water.

Jeb was saved by basically bailing out a few feet from the waves. And he looked damn happy about it!

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/v/t1.0-9/549004_10153155803850508_1864569015_n.jpg?oh=dc88b0fac24698298c5d33586f42a184&oe=562B5236

[Holding These Alligators Down]

lol nice. I haven't even been to the mun yet. let alone return from it.
I wish this game had better tutorials because it explains about 2% of the things you need to know.

[SievertChaser]

Originally posted by KANEDAAAA!!! TETSUOOO!!!!:

lol nice. I haven't even been to the mun yet. let alone return from it.
I wish this game had better tutorials because it explains about 2% of the things you need to know.

Quite interestigly, it does have one where you go into an equatorial orbit.

[Leigh]

Look up Scott Manley on YouTube! Not only has he got a series running at the moment based on the current version of the game for beginners, he also has a massive back catalogue based on all sorts of stuff. If you can think of it there is bound to be a video about it!

[Holding These Alligators Down]

Originally posted by dennis.danilov:

Originally posted by KANEDAAAA!!! TETSUOOO!!!!:

lol nice. I haven't even been to the mun yet. let alone return from it.
I wish this game had better tutorials because it explains about 2% of the things you need to know.

Quite interestigly, it does have one where you go into an equatorial orbit.

Don't bother commenting if you're just going to be a jackass.

And yeah thanks man i'll check his videos out.

[BlackWater]

Originally posted by KANEDAAAA!!! TETSUOOO!!!!:

Thanks mate.
This game makes me feel like a dumbass lol.

Glad I'm not the only one, still fine tuning my chosen mods, be glad when thats done so I can get to actual Kerbaling.

[Kardwill]

Originally posted by KANEDAAAA!!! TETSUOOO!!!!:

Originally posted by dennis.danilov:

Quite interestigly, it does have one where you go into an equatorial orbit.

Don't bother commenting if you're just going to be a jackass.

Err, I don't think he was a jackass, there. There are quite a few things explained in the "training" tutorials (including how to adjust an orbit, what you were looking for. 3rd or 4th tutorial, I think), and many people don't do them, so it's an useful reminder.

[SievertChaser]

Originally posted by Kardwill:

Originally posted by KANEDAAAA!!! TETSUOOO!!!!:

Don't bother commenting if you're just going to be a jackass.

Err, I don't think he was a jackass, there. There are quite a few things explained in the "training" tutorials (including how to adjust an orbit, what you were looking for. 3rd or 4th tutorial, I think), and many people don't do them, so it's an useful reminder.

The basic flight tutorial is a guided launch of a Kerbal X rocket into a low equatorial orbit.