Dock two ships

Bring the ship you are flying onto another one of yours in orbit and let the latches close, so the two become a single ship.

You need this to refuel a ship in orbit, to add a stage to one already up there, or to bring a crew across.

Steps

  1. Mark the other ship. Tap MAP, tap the ship to bring up its card, then tap TARGET on it. The button changes to UNTARGET and your own card grows RANGE, REL SPEED and CLOSEST rows.
  2. Close the range. Plan a maneuver node and drag its handles until the CLOSEST row reads a few kilometres, then burn it. See Plan a maneuver node and Execute a node.
  3. Kill the relative speed. Tap the navball until the tag above it reads TARGET. Point the nose at the ⊗ mark and burn until the speed above the ball is down to a couple of metres a second.
    The map with the ship's card showing TARGET, RANGE, REL SPEED and CLOSEST rows, and the navball below reading TARGET 232 m/s with RANGE 50.0 km under the ball.
    The navball switched to TARGET: every speed on it is now measured against the other ship.
  4. Go back to the flight. Tap FLIGHT. Inside 20 km a chip appears at the top left with the target's name, the range and the word CLOSING, OPENING or HOLDING.
  5. Arm the thrusters. Tap RCS, above the stage button, so it lights cyan. Then tap the switch beside the extra buttons so it reads MOVE.
  6. Line the ports up. Use the two turn buttons until your docking port points straight at theirs, inside the port's 30 ° cone. Both ships must be steady, not turning against each other.
    Two ships side by side in orbit with the target chip in the top left reading STATION 60 m and HOLDING below it.
    Sixty metres out, holding. From here it is the MOVE pad and nothing else.
  7. Drift in on the MOVE pad. Use short presses. Keep the chip reading CLOSING at well under 0.5 m/s, and use the sideways keys to keep the two ports lined up as you go.

What you should see

When the two faces meet close enough, slowly enough and squarely enough, the latches close on their own. The toast reads "Docked with" and the other ship's name, the target chip disappears, and there is one ship on screen where there were two. The other ship's tanks turn up in your resource readout, its thrusters answer your controls, and its card is gone from the map.

The two ships joined end to end as one vessel, a toast reading Docked with Station, and HYPERGOLIC newly listed in the resource readout.
One ship. The other's hypergolic tank is on your list now.

If nothing latches, you were too fast, too far off centre, too far out, or one of you was still turning. Back off on the MOVE pad, steady both ships and come in again.

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