Your first ever Docking in space.

[Kyle]

Well, I remember mine. This was funny, I was getting so upset about not docking, that I launched into a Retrograde orbit with the DG (this was back in 2005.) and, I did a lot of corrections, and for some random reason, I docked to PMA-1 at 17,500 MPH, whoa much? Course with unlimited Fuel.

 

[Piper]

I can't exactly remember mine, but I know my first few attempts were simply undocking a DG from Mir or the ISS, maneuvering around the station a bit, and then redocking. However I do vaguely remember my first docks to the ISS from a launch, and I used something like 70% of the fuel in a DG to do it (just about as inefficient as you can get). Naturally they were often way too fast, and I didn't know how to use docking MFD very well and often missed the docking port altogether. When I "graduated" to using the Space Shuttle, some of my first rendezvous took so much fuel that on occasion, I didn't have enough left to do a de-orbit burn. Nowadays however, I can usually take a shuttle into orbit, and dock with the ISS (or the IOSS) and use only about 20% of my fuel.

 

[MAPitard]

I managed to get close enough that I could see play rock, paper, scissors with the people in the station, but could never line up with the docking port.

 

[Native Son]

Took me a very long time to find out about RCS translation....

Rendezvous was the easy part. Trying to dock only by rotation and the main engine was a little tricky.

 

[n122vu]

A great memory

I remember well the first time I docked in space. I was following the tutorial "Dancing in the Dark" from Go Play in Space. Launched the DG (stock) from the Cape and manually flew her into orbit, then aligned planes and set up for the rendezvous. Flubbed the rendezvous on the first try (over shot by a few hundred kilometers) but the second flight was magic. When I heard the dock connect I got chills. It was an awesome feeling.

Makes me want to go back to flying the stock DG for a while. I learned so much from those early missions. Now I just sit back and let the autopilots do it all. IMFD is great but I need help understanding the concepts, not help understanding my ship's onboard computer.

Maybe it's time to 'graduate' to TransX.....

 

[Pilot7893]

ISS, DG-IV, pure luck. Then figured out how I did it and got it down.

 

[RangerPL]

I used to hate docking. Seriously.

Then, i decided to tackle it seriously, and docked to the ISS with the XR5. I recommend the Rendezvous MFD, it really helps!

 

[penlu]

My first dock was only a couple of weeks ago, with Mir. very easy!

And then I could do easier orbital rendezvous. Like, not with things a quarter of an orbit ahead.

 

[Zatnikitelman]

I think I did things a bit different than most people. I never docked to the ISS before I started building a space station which requires rendezvous and docking. I just decided I was too impatient to not be doing something so I decided to light up the Titan carrying the first three modules, then hope I could figure out how to dock the next module on the next launch!

 

[jedidia]

I only remember that I found the docking process surprisingly easy, compared to the carrier-landings back in the days when I was playing "Fleet Defender".

 

[AstroCam]

I've never actually docked to something if i have to rendevous yet.
Closest i ever got was missing the ISS by 2 kms, and then being REALLY peeved for the rest of the day.

Still, from KSC to the ISS area in less than 15mins is pretty good i reckon

 

[adamb193]

Well I remember my first time she... wait wrong story, mine was docking the DG-IV to the ISS.

 

[Quick_Nick]

Well I remember my first time she... wait wrong story, mine was docking the DG-IV to the ISS.

:lol:

Anyways, docking in space is cool but the REAL fun is docking on Earth. (WHILE landed)

 

[MAPitard]

I just now, as in 2 minutes ago managed to dock to the ISS. Rendezvous MFD is extremely helpful. I had the nose of my DG hovering around inches away from the port for about 5 minutes, swinging it back and forth figuring out what the parts of the docking MFD do. I think now I will be able to do it again, but without Rendezvous MFD.

 

[Hashy]

I havn't done much docking to tell the truth, but once I got the hang of RCS in translation mode, Ive got the jist of it pretty well, I am just impatient and will burn too much one way, making me speed past my docking target, then having to slow down, come back, and..do the same thing again..
Reminds me of Happy Gilmore..
"Tap it in, just, tap it in."

 

[Robsoie]

I remember perfectly.
As i made hundred of quicksaves while i was reading and applying what i could see from the recently printed tutorials while flying, i even made screenshots of the event as when you do it for the 1st time you are rather proud

That original docking was a complete disaster in term of flight optimisation, in the DeltaGlider scenario in which you start on earth manually and must reach ISS :
-Launching 14 March, 16:00
-Docking on ISS 16 March, 15:03

Yes, to just catch ISS i spent 2 days of apoapsis/periapsis corrections, plane alignement with ISS, and orbit synchronisations with it.
I believe i may have burned more fuel than the whole world space programs ever did a chance unlimited fuel is an option.

I even kept the screenshot of the event as a trophy :

I believe the real difficulty during that flight was because of all the errors i was making and then made me miss a lot ISS each time i managed to make an interesection.
And the plane alignement was something i overlooked at first (and mostly why i couldn't catch it during a lot of orbits), but proved to be extremely important to do before hoping to create valid possible rendezvous intersections on the orbit synchro MFD.

The tutorials proved to be unvaluable, i can't thanks enough all the people that wrote the various ones i used, it really helped.

But once you know how the plane alignement and the orbit synchro default Orbiter MFD are working, you can dock anywhere on Earth orbit when using the default Orbiter docking MFD, even if you launched without caring where the station target was (and if you play with enough fuel in that case ).

I know there are several addons MFD that automatise and optimise a lot the various part of the rendezvous missions especially with limited fuel in perspective, but i think there is always more satisfaction in doing them manually, even if you will then always spend a very lot more fuel than you could afford

 

[The Aviator]

My first docking experience was a DG-ISS. I was managing my deltaglider manually while reading the tutorial! I reached orbit, did a perfect plane allignment, sync. with ISS. All perfect! When I saw the station, then I started to pilot the DG like an airplane, turning around the station a lot of times without understanding why! Then I noted the crossed-circle of the relative velocity, and then I understood the right method. When I docked I was satisfied, I gazed to the show of the ISS for one hour and I realized that my airplane pilot skill was partially useless in spaceflight. Now I realized that orbital rendezvous is the easy part of spaceflight: try to plan a voyager style tour of the solar system to believe!

 

[dkluempers]

My fist attempt was awhile ago so I don't recall all the details. I do remember spending several days printing out documents, trying and retrying things until I could get into orbit, sync orbits then catch the ISS with the Delta Glider. Once I did it was hours of trying and retrying. It was a mental challenge that left me tired and satisfied.

The only thing in I can really equate it to was the day before my first solo where my flight instructor had me to so many touch and gos that I learned to hate the phrase "Lets do it again".

 

[Eagle]

First docks were undocking and docking at ISS in a DG.

First Earth -> Station dock was in a DGIII to the Ringworld BigWheel. Took off from the Cape at dawn, the BigWheel was in the western sky.

I flew manually into a 120 km coplanar orbit. The Ringworld was just a little ahead and above in the sky (at a 700 km altitude, 1,500 km away).

I did my transfer burn using Orbit MFD (I hadn't figured out transferMFD yet).
I passed the ringworld during the first part of my transfer.
As I reached apogee the BigWheel closed from behind.

At apogee the coolest thing happened. My apogee was 3 km above the ring's orbit and as I floated over it passed underneath.

I matched velocities when the ring was prograde to my ship.
I then came in a little fast and flew past a giant spoke with my retro engines aflame.

Then it was only a simple matter of drifting to the center and my docking port.

 

[ar81]

My first docking took place thanks to the tutorial of Jared Smith.
I owe Jared my first dock.
It was a great sense of accomplishment.

In the proximity of ISS I thought I could use Star Wars physics, but even there such physics do not apply. I learned it later.