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Launch Preparation
Launch Preparation
Before taking off, we check that the fuel levels match what we planned for:
Then we wait for the target space station to be directly south of our position. We track it by watching its position on the map MFD:
Launch from Lunar Base
Launch from Lunar Base
First we use the hover engines to gain some altitude over the launch pad and lunar base:
Once we feel we are high enough, we cut the hover engines, pitch up 10 degrees, and fire the main engines:
Just short of 3 minutes, we cut the power to the main engines. The ship will continue coasting upwards towards apoapsis.
Coast to Apoapsis
Coast to Apoapsis
Coasting after burnout
After burnout, we confirm that our apoapsis value (ApR) matches the planned value of 2,234 km, and that our inclination is 41.12°, as we expected. We rotate the ship into a prograde attitude:
Coasting after burnout
On the HUD, the crossed circle indicates the direction of the velocity vector. In the screenshot, it's currently about 5 degrees above the horizon, indicating that we are gaining altitude as we head towards apoapsis.
Here is how our orbit looks in the map view. Our ship's orbital plane is shown in green, and is close to the orbital plane of our target, which is in yellow:
Map view
In the next section we will perform our circularization burn at apoapsis.
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