How to land on KSC?

[[COxMA] Altripp]

Anyone knows a somewhat reliable method of landing (a spaceplane) precisely at the KSC?

[🅼🅴🆁🅲 • MaybeMe]

I try to make sure I come in from the ocean so if I over shoot, it's still relatively flat ground.

You pretty much want to kill almost all your vertical and horizontal speed right as you get to the strip, and then pull up, bring the engines very far down, but not off, and let it touch down.

Wheels and pretty much the entire plane tend to be much more tougher than you think; they don't explode as soon as they touch down unless you smash it in.

Remember to turn brakes on as soon as the wheels touch the pavement.


Also, do you have any specific problem?

[Gahooligan]

Luckily the runway at KSP it exactly east-west. so if you can line up a good equatorial orbit, youre halfway home.

From orbit you will want your trajectory to overshoot the runway a tiny bit to account for atmospheric drag if youre doing an unpowered decent. Nailing an unpowered decent on the first try is is beyond my skill. I usually end up doing 3 or 4 attempts via quicksave/quickload, dialing in the correct place to reenter the atmosphere.

However if you have the fuel to do a powered decent, it makes life alot easier. Just drop from orbit a little early and fly back like you normally would a suborbital flight.

[Gahooligan]

Also, when i was learning, I had put a manned spacecrat somewhere in the KSC so i had an easier time finding the space center from the map screen.

[A Bat From Wuhan]

If your having trouble actually locating the runway from orbit or far away,etc. You can park a rover or something next to/near the runway and that will show up on the map, and you can aim for that instead.

[[COxMA] Altripp]

@Revenant

I know how to land a plane, i don`t know how to get the plane near the KSC during the descent through the atmosphere to perform that landing (i.e. i dont wanna land on the deserts, i wanna land at the KSC)

@Gahooligan

Hm, yeah, i'd like to do a somewhat precise reentry, and how much should i overshoot :P thanks anyway

[[COxMA] Altripp]

Oh and finding the KSC is not a problem for me

[Gahooligan]

That depends on alot of stuff.
-Vehicle weight
-Vehicle drag
-Velocity prior to re-entry
-Glide slope
-rotation of the planet if you have your manuver node set up a good distance from kerbin.
-probably other stuff too

In short, its different for every craft. I cant really give you any figures to ballpark it unfortunately. Its one of those tings you just gotta try and get a feel for.

[Syd Khaos]

From 100Km (ish) equitorial orbit do your deorbit burn right before ya get over desert continent. Burn till your PE is about 5Km.
On re-entry point about 8degrees nose-up from your prograde vector and follow your glideplane in. Always a good idea to have a little engine/fuel left to fire for a bit just in case.