Kerbal Space Program Chronicle, part five—the journey home

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Once at my apoapsis, I turn and circularize. Again thanks to the low gravity, this takes a fraction of the time and effort it does back at Kerbin. Soon I'm in a stable orbit a few kilometers above Newfry Kerman and Kerbal 11, so I orbit a few times until we're lined up for a close intersection. Burning to intercept takes me to within an easy three kilometers of the ticket home.

I get Bob and Sonford close, zero out their velocities, and move over to Newfry's ship to do the real work. Newfry has the more stable craft, so once the lander is relatively motionless, I guide Kerbal 11 in to dock.

Again I'm struck by how easy everything is when I'm not fighting Kerbin for every scrap of energy. I try not to get cocky, but after docking two unwieldy halves of Coconut Monkey Space Station together in Low Kerbal Orbit, this is a walk in the park.

Safely docked together, I retract all of the solar panels and send Bob and Sonford out for their final spacewalks of the mission, crossing back over to Kerbal 11. The upper shell of the lander will stay behind, a museum piece orbiting alone in the frozen dark.

After siphoning any extra fuel out of the lander and undocking with all three Kerbonauts aboard, we circle the Mün one last time and burn for home. We've barely got a third of our original fuel load left, but it's plenty. Like I said: easy.