Amy Tries to Kerbal a Basic Orbital Spaceflight 

Hi Amy, here are some answers to your questions/confusion and some tips 1) Red parachute icon. Turning red means it's currently unsafe to deploy the chute, doing so with this on will mean it getting ripped to shreds like you saw. 2) Engine overheats- you will see a overheat temperature bar next to your engine icon if this happens. Those bells do glow a lot. In this video yours never overheated. 3) When to start your prograde turn after launch- depends on how maneuverable your rocket is. I start big rockets at a mere 100m/s and never deviate more than 5 deg from my prograde vector on the nav ball (deviating too far stresses the rocket and it can break up). By 30km I like to be around 10 deg above the horizon. General rule- I like to be at 45 degrees at or just before 8km and I hold that for a bit, then continue to turn. Biggest danger is pitching down too fast and then having to experience re-entry like heating on the way up because you need to gain a lot of speed but can't gain a lot of altitude due to your low pitch. 4) Cartwheel- as you burn fuel the center of mass is moving downwards. Without enough weight up top (like a light capsule instead of a big payload), at some point the C.O.M goes below the center of lift and then it's like an arrow trying to fly backwards. The airstream will correct his by flipping the rocket over so that the engines are in front. In the VAB put small fins on it, then turn on the COM and COL indicators (buttons on lower left of the screen), then start draining fuel tanks top to bottom to see if the COM ever goes below the COL. If it does, leave the fins on and move them to the very bottom and check how these variables change while you refill and drain the tanks again. It is ok to have the COL below the COM but only up so far in the atmosphere that it can't exert a lot of force on your rocket... like 30km +. 5) Hitting correct altitude on ascent- I see you have Kerbal flight engineer displaying the Apoapsis. On ascent, cut your engines and coast when you see this hit 75k or so. (the extra 5km is for deceleration due to atmospheric drag). 6) Retro rockets- the closest thing to a mercury style retro is adding a few "Separatron" solid boosters to the capsule. Watch out though, they only thrust so much so if you go to high you won't be able to retro-burn enough to get back into the Atmosphere. Most people do what you did with the small retro stage. 7) Your parachute finally failed when you attempted to deploy it at supersonic speeds. Wait until your speed falls below 300m/s and that red icon goes away. Beware... some ships are compact and heavy enough that the aero forces alone are not enough to decelerate it to a safe deployment speed prior to impact.

Great video. Just a warning, KSP is extremely addictive.

Amy, you're not "bad" at KSP, you are "new" to KSP. And you've already made orbit! How long did it take vonBraun? Start small, take your time, learn the basics. You're not on a deadline, launch windows for the virtual Grand Tour are a bit more flexible than for the real one.

I'll get to answering some of you guys individually soon, but I have to just say that I love the mix of history questions and game advice in these comments! You guys are awesome!

I was in full agony when seeing your periapsis at 49 thousand meters...

The parachutes have a safe-deployment speed. There are also drogue chutes with much higher safe deployment speeds

I loved how you went from Kerbal to geeking out about Man-high and the AF program. Your enthusiasm is fun.

A common misconception about how you get into orbit is going "up". In fact you go sideways, really, really fast, so fast that the curvature of the Earth bends away from you, FASTER than your fall towards Earth. I'm glad to see a woman playing this game, I don't think there are many that enjoy this kind of adventure. Keep it up, once you grasp the basics, it becomes extremely rewarding. Don't be disheartened by failure, in this game its very common - just learn from it and design next spacecraft better.

seeing someone play kerbals and give historical perspective is so amazing!!

These videos have literally become my favorite thing on RU-vid. I was 5 during the first Apollo moon landing, and we lived in Texas, so it had a tremendous impact on me as a kid. I've always been fascinated about the Mercury through Apollo stuff (way more than the shuttle) but, as much as I think I know, you're knowledge far surpasses my own, which would explain your career as an historian. I loved learning more about Gagerin's first orbital flight. I had never before heard that the Soviets retained control from the ground just in case Gagerin was incapacitated in some way. It really gives one pause that these were the things they were having to think of because they knew so little about how space would effect a living human being.

I don't see anyone explaining this, so here are some Kerbal tips; 1) The red parachute means its unsafe to deploy, in this case because you are moving to fast. it'll be green when you are slow enough to deploy, totally undamaged. 2) Your thrust to weight is killing you. It looks like you have a TWR at somewhere between 2 and 3 at take off, and that is causing your cartwheels and lack of delta V. Add more tanks until you are about 1.2 TWR, or a max takeoff velocity of about 12 m/s 3) You can gravity turn a lot sooner, lean over about 10 degrees once you hit 100m/s velocity, and aim to be at 45 degrees by 10km alt and 80 degrees by about 30km. Hold that heading until you get the apex you want then circularize.

Longer videos please. I'm in love.

Prepare for ultimate nerdgasm in 3...2...1..."I name all my rockets after astronauts, so Al Shepherd." :D awesome, I love it! Especially the slightly embarrassed laugh... :)

I love to see other people struggling with this game. I've killed so many Kerbals... I'm a monster...

This game is all about trial and error, Your first attempt was really awesome! +You got off the launch pad +You didn't explode during the first stages +You touched a low earth orbit +you didn't explode due to heat on re-entry -You only lose the chute due to heat and speed before landing This is already much better then many many first starts I've had with different rockets.

Love the mix of gameplay and space history :P New favourite channel.

i love amy's style. she really has a gift for lecturing.

Since picking up this game earlier this year I've really gotten into spaceflight history, the Apollo program, and is pretty much whyI found your channel.

Amy the engines won't explode until you get a red bar next to the engine icon to the left. when red fills the box all the way it will explode. I have never had that issue running the engines like normal at 100% but when reentering or using a Nuclear engine in space is when I have that issue. Also the parachute will turn red when it is unsafe over 400 M/S this happens on reentry and ascent this is with the FAR mod it is about 250 m/s stock you can deploy it higher in the atmosphere when the air is thinner as well just set the settings on being able to deploy with low pressure and high altitude. Another tip add fins to your rocket and try to turn 45 degrees east once at 10,000 meters.

the background/history was very interesting, fun to hear about it while watching the gameplay.

The recent booster landing on its tail is pretty exciting ( not boring at all). It reminds me of how 1950s movies and cartoons showed rockets landing. I have got to try Kerbal Space Program sometime. Looks fun.

Yeah it's just an 'unsafe to use' warning on the parachute, once you're going slower it'll go normal coloured again. I think the only way you could lose a parachute on ascent would be going scarily fast and burning the thing through atmospheric friction, so no worries there. I think my favourite thing about KSP is how it reduces some very advanced concepts into something you can just eyeball. Orbital rendezvous becomes a proposition of "if I need to catch up to the other ship, orbit lower. If I need them to catch up to me, orbit higher". Kickass game.

Basic kerbal talk, with amazing in depth real life history. love these kind of videos! :D

Fun video as always. This early spaceflight stuff is always very interesting. People doing this for the first time, not really knowing what happens once they are successfully in space, have got to be some of the bravest people to have ever lived. KSP Notes: *You've got chute safety indicator. That will turn back to green when you're back under 270m/s in atmosphere. Otherwise the atmosphere effects will sheer away the chute. Bill was literally 3 seconds away from having a chute ready to deploy...before....you know... RIP Bill. *Some fins at the bottom of the main tank stack will help from tumbling on your assent. (delta deluxe winglets are preferred for a rocket that size) * KSP Space starts at 70k, so you were sub-orbital here (50k peri) the entire time.

A Go girl, your FAB! I grew up with the moon race and the Thunderbirds. You are new space race!

1. Red parachute icon indicates that deploying the parachute would be unsafe. If you're going too fast and you deploy it, it will be destroyed by aero forces. 2. The engines glow red. When they overheat, a bar appears and slowly fills. When it fills, the object overheats and explodes. 3. Cartwheeling is a function of the gravitational moment arm overcoming the thrust moment arm i.e. if there's more weight forward of the cg than thrust aft. 4. I suggest full throttle burn to an altitude of 10,000; a roll program so that your rocket's "flat side" is facing 090, then pitch over to 045 when you reach an altitude of around 10,000. From there, I normally reduce throttle to 2/3 and burn until my apogee is about 75,000. Pitch over to 000 at approximately 60,000, press to orbit at about 65,000. 5. you can actually deploy the parachute in orbit. I recommend against this. But you can have your kerbal go EVA to repack it. You deployed too early, is all. Around 240 m/s is the threshold. Kerbal space program endeavors to make basic engineering, physics, and orbital mechanics intuitive. Nobody's good at it at first. :) Kerbal on, chica!

The parachute icon has 2 parts, the parachute and the background. The background color shows if it's safe to deploy the chute and turns red during ascent and the faster parts of reentry, while the parachute color shows its actual status (white = can be deployed, blue = semi deployes, green = deployed, red = broken)

This is my new favorite channel! The red parachute icon just means its unsafe to deploy at the moment, you need to bleed off more speed, try having a shallower angle of approach. Loved all the info, congrats on making orbit!

This was fantastic! More in the future I hope

The rocket motors are on gimbals to control angles. They also help over come any drift from winds pushing the space craft off course.

Love the video, keep making more like these!

The red background for the parachute icon means if the parachute is deployed now, it will be destroyed by aerodynamic forces and heating. If you wait until the spacecraft slows to subsonic speeds (~300m/s), the red background will go away and you can deploy the 'chute. :)

Information, just in case you havent received them yet, which i doubt since this video was posted on a kerbal space program group :D 1) glowing engines: the engine (as for 1.2) wont explode from just going red. once there a red highlight around the part then it in danger of overheating but wont explode yet. You should start worrying when you start seeing an health bar around the part. 2) the red parachute, As of 1.13 they added a visual marker on the parachute. Prior to that people would deploys their parachute to early and the dynamic pressure would just obliterate them. So if you deploy in Gray you are fine, in Yellow be caution high G can still destroys it. As for Red dont even think about deploying it 3) Winglets are your friend when you notice that your rocket keep thumbling, they allow more control and moredrag at the lower part which keep the engines pointing downward. usually what you want to do :) You can look at the aerodynamic forces overlay by pressing F12. that can be handy to understand why you rocket keep thumbling :) 4) Kerbal live off adrenaline and Photosynthesise so that why they are smiling when they are flying in a giant ball of fire.... that and they are kind of stupid :) 5) congratulation on achieving orbit !

loved the mix of kerbals and history. great video

Loved the video! I'm sure others have mentioned it but Scott Manley is a wonderful resource for everything Kerbal in both tutorials and gameplay on youtube. He too is a HUGE spacenut and is currently doing a "history" series where hes running a mod that emulates NASAs history of rockets (and real world/real fuel simulations on physics) and gives commentary about the history as well. Just discovered this channel but SUBSCRIBED! Love all the space videos.

i didnt think listening to someone talk about rockets would be this enjoyable for me. great channel.

Wow! Finally someone as enthusiastic about space flight and the Apollo programme , as I am. I love the KSP.

I really enjoy your KSP videos. The game may be hard to learn, but no harder than manned spaceflight was.

Your best KSP video yet! I'm sure others have explained already, but the red parachute icon is just warning you it's unsafe. It's tough, but if you wait 'til the atmosphere slows you down as it gets thicker, the icon should eventually go yellow, then I think back to its normal look. At that point it'll be safe to deploy. Good luck! Looking forward to more!

nobody starts off good at this game im sure you’ll get better at it

At launch, it is more efficient to use full thrust (the engines won't overheat so fast). That will bring you out of earth's gravity field quicker and reduce gravity losses

I subscribed after watching a few videos about Apollo, but this KSP stream is a nice surprise. What I love most is how you can launch the most poorly designed or ridiculous craft, but flown correctly it can still achieve orbit if the dV is sufficient and it doesn't explode too much. Reentry is another thing however ;p

It's always very courageous to highlight ones own "deficiencies" to the world at large. BRAVA to you young lady for doing it so fearlessly and honestly!

+Amy Shira Teitel (Vintage Space) The parachute icon is red because you're spacecraft is going too fast, so it breaks when you deploy it. You need to slow down the speed until it turns green (below 260 m/s at low altitude for this type).

I know this is like a year late, but I know the reason for every problem you were talking about. Parachutes: yes, that is normal. The red color on the symbol is simply just a more immediate way of communicating that the parachute isn't safe to deploy (which is good even on ascent, in case the player needs to abort the flight). Engine heating: That's actually normal. 1.0.X introduced some heat-related things (among other things). You don't need to start panicking about heat until you see red/orange bars hovering near various parts, and temp gauges (also red) in the staging interface. Cartwheeling: That's most likely due to not having any fins on your rocket. Also, bonus points for using KER.

Wow... You know so much about human space travel.... Impressive. Love this game, and I love space, liked and subbed.

Keep at it. The draw of KSP is that it IS so hard. Overcoming problems organically is one of my favorite parts of this game.

"Since he can be alive" I thought I was the only one who could turn a phrase like that.

It's not like you and your attention to detail to fail to mention the Apollo 1 anniversary, which this show was published on. I love your channel, keep up the terrific work!

The learning curve for this game is insane.

Just revisiting the video that turned me on to KSP, thanks Amy :)

On the Kerbal Space Program aspect, that "reddening" of the parachute icon means that it is risky or unsafe to deploy at that moment because of atmospheric pressure or heat/temperature. Just wait it to turn gray/white again before deploying your parachute. On that overheating(getting red) of the engine, that's normal until you see a bar besides your rocket icon(stages on the right) showing you if they are overheating or about to explode. Cartwheeling of the rocket while nearing the end of the atmosphere is because of the high angle or high arc of the rocket. The moment you launch your rocket, turn it to 85 to 70 degree angle until you reach 30k km then 45 degree angle until you reach 70k km or above then fire your rocket horizontally. This is the safest and easiest way to launch a rocket in KSP but not the most efficient. If you want to launch heavier rockets or something, asparagus staging is the easiest way, plus struts. KSP rockets are also heavier and less efficient than their real counterparts so you have to take that into account. There are also mods that can replace the fictional kerbal solar system with our real solar system as well as some mods to make it look more amazing. For KSP related video suggestions, there are "already built" rockets you can download online that features memorable missions like the Apollo program, Mercury program, Sputnik mission and even SpaceX. There are also some for space planes like virgin's spaceshiptwo/whiteknighttwo as well as other future/prototype Nasa related stuff. oh i forgot the Lunar vehicle. For space-only suggestions, Project Orion, what happened to the dog Russia gave to Kennedy, Nerva rocket, RTGs, comparison of rocket sizes, cost,etc

When your parachute Icon goes red, that means that it is unsafe to deploy. This is because you are either too high, or too fast. However, in orbit, it goes back to normal. If you deploy the chute, the chute will not deploy. It will arm, meaning that when it is safe, it will deploy.

for a safe parachute deployment with that small capsule the easiest thing to do is set the "min pressure" slider in the right click menu of the parachute to around 0.54 and activate it before reentry. That is the atmospheric pressure of kerbin at 4km altitude, and by that time you should have slowed down more than enough enough for safe deployment. (just make sure you aim for the water, mountains will ruin your day!)

thank you for introducing me to this fun game it's awesome

When it comes to the parachute turning red, that's simply an indicator that you're moving too fast to safely deploy it. Once you're at a safe-ish speed it'll turn yellow, indicating that it's risky but possible to safely deploy it, and the icon will return to it's original state when you're at a safe speed. For different parachutes, safe deployment speed differs, like on drogue chutes, it'll be much higher. If you right click on the part in the craft editor (VAB/SPH) it'll tell you the approximate safe deployment speed at home (on Kerbin). Happy landings.

"And look how smiley he is, even though he is going to his death"........... I want that phrase on a t-shirt

when you are reentering the atmosphere, you need to wait until your spacecraft is moving slow enough to deploy the parachute (when the parachute icon turns from red to yellow or white)

With a few minor tweaks I flew this craft through a free-return to the Mun all the way to a safe landing with ½ a tank left in the last stage. I didn't use any add-ons. Tweaks: Replaced 2 400 tanks with a 800. 2 cross-feed fuel lines. 4 basic fins on the core. 3 solar panels.

This stuff is so awesome and interesting thank you

You are not bad at this game. You are simply normal. Welcome to the club :-) And, man, you are speaking fast! Do you ever have problems breathing?! *SCNR*

Slllllloooooowwwww down! We just figured out you were saying "... The manned very high program...". Thank you. Love your videos! Your "youthful" excitement is refreshing and wonderful to see just, please remember there are some "oldsters" watching you too! LOL

Yeah you need fins, the parachute always does that, it's when you go faster than 260 m/s, and you really don't need to plan re entry, just burn retrograde until your orbit stops, also I was just as clueless as you but now I can get to Gilly and Duna (and Ike)!

Always glad too see a new face in the KSP part of RU-vid. :)

-When the parachute symbol turns red, it's showing [at that speed you are going] that it's unsafe to deploy. if you are re-entering the atmosphere, you should wait until the parachute symbol is either yellow or gray to deploy them, or they somehow over heated during ascent or re-entry. -The reason that the rocket would tip over, is that you don't have fins at the bottom of the rocket, the fins create drag to the bottom of the rocket and should keep the rocket from tipping over.

Just subscribed today after seeing a few of your videos, how your not on The Sky at Night program I'll never know, you should host your own TV show, called Vintage Space of course. Best videos I've seen all week. Rekindle that old space goodness for TV viewers everywhere. Your greaaaaat.

It's so funny watching her play. Shes just so oblivious.

Scott and you could stream games to each other. You would have to take turns obviously but could be done. And using something like Team Speak for conversation. nVidia's shadow play makes it easier, but there are other options if you are hardware limited.

hey vintage space, I really liked your video! the issue you're experiencing with your parachute is due to either attempting to open your parachute at too high of a velocity or at an altitude where the parachute will not function (generally between 5000m and 1000m will open the parachute without any problems) but you may want to check your in game settings! I really enjoyed this video and liked that you actually did research on this subject! you just got another subscriber today, so keep making awesome videos!

The red parachute icon means that the parachute will be destroyed by aero forces if you deploy it, yellow means that there is a chance that it will be destroyed and white means that it will be okay. In short, it will be fine as long as you do not deploy it. it becomes deployable at about 200m/s.

This is adorable to watch, I would love for you to do this more, and learn more about the game like I did, good luck

With the parachute icon, it can be in one of 6 states: 1. White parachute with grey background - Safe to arm and deploy. 2. Yellow parachute with grey background - Risky to arm and deploy (chance to shred parachute on deployment) 3. White parachute with red background - Dangerous to arm and deploy (Will shred parachute if deployed) 4. Blue parachute with red background - Parachute Armed but dangerous to deploy (Parachute will shred on deployment) 5. Blue parachute with grey background - Parachute armed and safe to deploy. 6. Parachute icon completely greyed out - Parachute destroyed or cut. I'm fairly certain it's set up like that, but it's been a long while since I've dealt with capsules since I started using SSTO's in KSP. I do remember the best success I've had with capsule re-entry has been to reduce orbit to 70,100-ish meters, then make a small enough burn to bring periapsis down to 68,000-ish meters, ditch your rocket stage while still facing retrograde and arm your parachute, and make sure the parachute setting is set to 0.4 on the pressure setting and 1400m deployment height to give your capsule ample time to aerobrake to a speed that won't destroy your capsule. By doing this, you should have a re-entry angle of 3° max (could be positive or negative depending on your orientation) when you start initially, and by the time you reach down to 20Km your parachute will make its first deployment safely, then at 1.4Km the parachute will fully deploy safely. Just remember to set SAS to always face retrograde and you should be safe, you won't even need an ablation shield.

Hi Amy, The red icon just means that it is not recommended you activate that stage since it will simply break (in this case due to aerodynamic forces). Your parachute will still be useable though IF the velocity is reduced enough (I think this would've taken another 10 seconds in your case). The cartwheeling you we're mentioning is probably because you started your gravity turn earlier on in the previous attempt. When the air is thicker your dragvector will be larger and your engine will have to correct more offset drag. This can be easily prevented by slapping on some fins on the bottom of your rocket to stabilise. Since you have a swivel engine the fins don't even need to be moveable. Unfortunately you haven't quite reached orbit since your periapsis was just below 50km and since Kerbal Space starts at 70km you were, theoretically speaking, in a sub-orbital trajectory. However, it's pretty obvious that a tiny burn at apoapsis would've pushed you in orbit and would've left you more than enough fuel to lower your orbit again for reentry. Nice going though. I love it how you fill up the boring wait for reentry with historical space knowledge! Keep up the good work!

Don't worry about the engines looking like they're getting too hot, they're just fine. Glowing red to orange like that is actually fairly realistic - just check out some of the SpaceX launch videos - that second stage nozzle gets quite hot. It is possible to overheat rockets in KSP, but it takes packing them pretty close together, so it doesn't happen for most craft design. In any case, you'll get a nice overheat bar in the staging area, so you'll know. For that return, you were unlucky to come down the way you did pretty much into the side of a mountain. The altitude meant your window for slowing down enough to safely deploy the chute before smashing into the mountainside was very narrow or even non-existent. Speaking of overheating, the history and science of metallurgy involved in the creation of jet engines (and later, rocket nozzles) is interesting. Things like steel soften as they get hot, which is very bad in an engine, whether it's a rocket or a turbine. This is especially true in jet engines, where maximum thrust is closely coupled to how hot you can get the exhaust gases, but remember that the turbines have to survive these gasses going through them! The advent of superalloys (generally nickel-based, rather than iron based like steel) in the '30s and '40s was critical for making jet engines feasible (as well as rocket engines, of course).

aww this game was my life a few years back. I love this game! takes time to get good at it

I'm sure it's been answered a dozen times before, but the parachute turns red when it's no longer safe to deploy, it'll deploy later when you slow down. It used to be a mod 'parachute indicator' or something like that, but now it's default in the game past 1.0. Also you need aerodynamic surfaces on your rocket while you're in the lower parts of the atmosphere to not 'cartwheel' if you're too far away from prograde vector. Even small fins will help you A LOT with a 1.25m ship, so much so that if you start a tiny gravity turn early on, you can fly to upper atmosphere without SAS at all.

sorry for grave digging this video, but i got here because im into kerbal now and i went nuts with space program and rockets research as i boldly and stubbornly started the game in hard, with only two tutorials as training. Now I have 6 dead astronauts, little money, a horrible reputation, and an orbiting astronaut that i managed to get up there in a two stage solid fuel booster rocket just to realize that after you get in orbit, and specially if it’s a horrible elliptical orbit, you have to “do” something to get out of it… i´m just hoping that eventually I can do something to get him back... I know its just a game, but it doesn`t have to be… and you clearly are doing much better than me, even if you don’t think so. Game aside, your channel is awesome and I can´t seem to get enough of you…cheers.

the cartwheel happens because your center of aerodynamic drag is forward of your center of gravity in some certain configurations/fuel states. Add fins and you should be fine.

The ascent to 10km and then starting to do the gravity turn is from the old atmospheric model that the game uses. You'll need to start the gravity turn earlier and try to keep the time to apoapsis at about one minute. Meanwhile, trying not to get to shallow of an ascent or you wont reach your apoapsis. The red on the chute means that it is unsafe to deploy at that time. Wait until it turns grey again to deploy it.

To make it easier: Rotate your ship, so your rotating get a bit easy. And full throttle at the start until your above 150 m/s for example and than throttle back until above 7Km. With adding the yellow fuel lines, your outer stages get drained more quickly. So you can sperate them before turning. Also turn auto-pilot off when trying to turn. Good luck with Kerbal !

Big fan of KSP, love it

I play this game too. I have about 90 hours into it and I've built and landed craft on the Mun, Minus, and Ike so far, and built space stations in both Kerbal and Minus orbit using multiple modules with multiple launches and then docked together. Learning to Rendezvous and Dock is the hardest skill to learn but I can do it consistantly now completely manually. 😀 (You have to learn to pull the target reticle across the prograde indicator on the 8 ball, and how to push the target reticule onto the retrograde indicator to bring yourself to a rendezvous at a reasonable relative velocity). Amy, when u launch you should start your gravity turn earlier. I start tilting slightly east as low as 3000-5000 metres.

Tilt to 45 degrees after 100m/s and around 10km after your solid boosters are done, wait for your apoapsis hits 70k M then stop all engines, wait till 20 seconds until you hit your apoapsis, burn prograde at 90 degrees (level to earth) expand until your periapsis is 70k M aswell. Yay your in orbit. Also, if you build and do this correctly your liquid tanks should be half empty before burning prograde giving you enough to orbit on that single stage. (Solid boosters + liquid)

one way to be able to deploy the parachute earlier would be to attach aerobrakes then deploy the chute once it reaches below 200m/s

Up, Orbit, Splashdown, Hero. Should be on a T-shirt!

During reentry, turn off SAS. Capsules are blunt bodies and thus autocorrect their orientation, shield first. It's the safest thing to do.

I think that you can make retro-rockets by placing seperatrons on the top of the desired stage, and using the rotate tool to point the engines upward.

Ice been playing 3 years and I'm still learning. And when your chute icon turns red it means unsafe to deploy.

What you could do, if you want to try something, is there's a space simulator called orbiter. By default, it has the shuttle and some fictional spacecraft, but you can easily find addons that add things like apollo among other things.

If the engines are going to explode, there'll be a temperature gauge next to them indicating bad things are going to happen, normally full throttle until it gets to 75% then back off to about 70-80% and trim out as needed

the red parachute icon just means it is unsafe to deploy.. not that it is damaged. it goes yellow then green to safe to deploy. You can also start a very slow gravity turn from launch.

also love the kerbal videos, just a great channel overall

Hahah this is great, I cant even make it to orbit before I explode! Plus love the space history information you put in your video thanks for the amazing content +1 happy subsidizer :))

Probably you have already solved the parachute issue but for those other watchers who are still KSP rookies: as you fall down, the atmosphere thickens and the capsule slows down due to increasing friction (I guess). So all you have to do is wait until your parachute icon turns white and then deploy it. It is very tempting to deploy parachute earlier as you see the Earth getting closer and you feel like you are about to crash down but you have to rely on the company who built the parachute and the kerbals who mounted it :)

Dear Amy Shira Teitel, you can deploy that little white parachute with a speed of 264 m/s, you can also put a little orange parachute on the capsule, those can deploy at a speed of 540 m/s, however, it can't slow you down enough to a save landingsspeed, so you have to put a little, white parachute on the capsule too, to slow down enough.

simplest explanation is when the physics engine detects you are going to fast to open the chute it shows red. Have patience and let the aero drag bring you below 250m/s ( preture sure on that number) and you will see the chute icon go green.

> 250m/s and open safe parachute (wait change red color for green color). keep going amy!

I remember seeing videos of mods for KSP a few years ago that programs now a days mimic. The latest ride to the moon/Mars. Landing boosters upright. This game is great although time consuming. Stick with it (probably a year too late for encouragement) though, as finally creating a massive station that you fly out to Jool to explore all of its moons is totally worth it. If you go that far, make sure you bring a space plane with you (air breathing engines needed)!

This is now my favorite Space-Related channel

it was very great and educational, I liked it