Your first flight

Fly the rocket the hangar hands you, open the parachute, land it and bring it home. Ten minutes, one screen at a time, and you end with more credits than you started with.

What you start with

The hangar opens with a rocket already built: a Command Pod on top with a Parachute above it, a Fuel Tank, an Engine at the bottom and a Fin on each side. It is the whole of what your first tech node gives you, and it is enough for this flight.

The strip along the top tells you three things about it: its mass, its TWR (how hard the engine pushes compared with the ship's weight: above 1.0 it can lift off) and its cost. Your credits are in the chip on the left. You start with enough for several tries.

The hangar with the starter rocket: parachute, pod, tank, engine and two fins, with the mass, TWR and cost readout along the top.
The starter rocket. The coloured arrows are its weight, thrust, drag and lift; ignore them for now.
Note
Nothing is charged for standing on the pad. You pay the rocket's cost the moment its first engine lights, and a rocket you bring back whole refunds every part still aboard. What a flight really costs you is what it loses.

Do the flight

  1. Check the staging. Tap Stages in the top right. The list has one stage, and the Engine is in it: that is what the big STAGE button will fire on the pad. The Parachute is not in any stage. You will open it by hand. Tap Stages again to close the list.
  2. Tap Fly. You own one launch site, Earth, so the game takes you straight to its pad. The rocket stands beside the tower with the throttle at 0 % and the stage readout saying STAGE 1 · READY.
    The rocket on the launch pad beside the tower, throttle at zero, STAGE 1 READY.
    On the pad. Throttle at the lower left, STAGE at the lower right, the navball between them.
  3. Tap STAGE. The engine lights, the throttle jumps to 100 % on its own, and the rocket leaves the pad. This is the moment the launch is charged, and the moment your first achievement lands: a toast at the top of the screen names it and what it paid.
    The rocket just off the pad under a bright flame, altitude climbing.
    Lift-off. The altitude counter at the top left starts moving.
  4. Leave it alone and watch. The rocket climbs straight up. The two curved-arrow buttons at the bottom turn the ship left and right; you do not need them today. The fuel ring by the navball empties as the tank drains, and the engine goes quiet when it is dry. The rocket keeps climbing on its speed, slows, stops, and starts to fall.
  5. Open the parachute on the way down. Tap the parachute on top of the pod. A sheet opens with the part's name and its actions; tap Deploy. The canopy takes a second to open and the fall slows to a walk. Open it once you are falling, and while the rocket is still high: a chute opened too fast, low down, tears away.
    The rocket hanging under an open parachute over the ground.
    Under the canopy.
  6. Touch down. The rocket settles on the ground and the canopy collapses. It is a landing if the engine at the bottom meets the ground slowly enough; under the parachute it does. The rocket now stands still, and that is what makes the next step possible.
    The rocket standing on the ground with the collapsed parachute beside it.
    Down and still.
  7. Recover it. Tap the ≡ button at the top right to open the menu, then ⬇ RECOVER. The game asks once, then the parts leave the field, every part still aboard is refunded, and you are back in the hangar with your ship.
    The flight menu open with RECOVER highlighted in green.
    RECOVER is in the menu only while the ship stands still on the ground.

What you earned

Achievements pay in credits and discovery. Credits buy launches, buildings and crew. Discovery buys tech nodes, which are new parts. This one flight lands the first of each kind: the ignition, a height, a landing, a recovery. Open Center from the hangar and then the Research Centre to see the tech tree and what your discovery can already buy.

Careful
A rocket that hits the ground fast breaks, and a broken rocket refunds nothing. If you forget the parachute, the launch price is gone. That is the whole risk of the game, and the reason the parachute is the first part on the list.

What went wrong?

The engine never lit. The throttle does not matter on the pad; the STAGE button is what fires the first stage. If a message at the top says you cannot afford the launch, the rocket costs more than you hold.

The parachute tore off. It opened while the rocket was still moving fast through thick air. Open it higher, once the rocket is falling, or wait a moment longer for the air to slow it.

The rocket tipped over after landing. It came down on a slope, or one fin touched first. It is still a landing if nothing broke, and RECOVER still works while it lies still.

There is no RECOVER in the menu. The ship is still moving, or it is in pieces. Wait for it to stop; a wreck cannot be recovered.

Next

You have flown the starter rocket as it came. The next guide changes it: a second stage, a turn downrange, and an orbit that does not come back down. Before that, learn how the hangar puts a rocket together in Building a rocket and what the stages list does in Staging.

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