New to Orbiter? Having trouble understanding the Orbiter manual?


Go Play in Space is the 'Orbiter Manual for the rest of us' - meaning that it's an easy to read introduction to Orbiter, primarily aimed at readers who come from a non technical background be they adults or children. Although it was written for ORBITER 2006, the principles are the same making it good for both ORBITER 2006 and 2010 editions.

Addons Galore! will help to get you started with customising your Orbiter experience. See also the Recommended Addons page.

Orbiter Video Tutorials

• DG4 to ISS - Video tutorial by 'Tex' for beginners to Orbiter explaining in detail how to rendezvous with the ISS starting from the ground at KSC. Good for both ORBITER 2006-P1 as well as ORBITER 2010-P1.
• DG4 Reentry Tutorial - Video tutorial especially for beginners by 'Oceanic', how to bring the DG4 back home.
• XR2 Wideawake to Brighton Beach - This is a 7 part ORBITER 2010-P1 video tutorial by 'Tex' showing you how to take-off and fly the XR2 Ravenstar from Wideawake International to Brighton Beach on the surface of the Moon using TransX.
• TransX Video Tutorials (Beginner to Advanced) - An excellent set of video tutorials by 'flytandem' good for both ORBITER 2006-P1 and ORBITER 2010-P1.
• Video Tutorials by thesnorklemonkey - Various video tutorials for Orbiter, including Apollo tutorials.

Basic Flight Maneuvers

• Tutorial: DG to ISS Principles to achieve orbit and reach ISS. Recommended for newbies.
• Tutorial: Concepts for atmospheric reentry How to perform a reentry without burning or missing the target
• Rocket Science for Dummies

Too much rocket science? Then try Harmsway Tutorials - super easy lessons to get you started in Orbiter.

More Basic Tutorials

• IMFD Full Manual/Playbacks This is a 105 page manual of IMFD, describing everything about it. Included are descriptions of all programs, helpful IMFD hints to make your life easier, major do's and dont's of IMFD, and much, much more.
• Tutorial: Concepts for Interplanetary MFD 4.2.1 How to go to other planets
• Trevor Johns Tutorial
• Virtual Spaceflight
• Orbital Operations Manual - Jared 'Smitty' Smith
• Orbiter Tutorials - Robert Denny
• Direct Ascent and Docking to Space Station Project - by DocHoliday
• Tutorial: Orbiter para principiantes (spanish) Tutorial en español acerca de cómo despegar y entrar en órbita. Recomendado para novatos que no sepan nada sobre cómo pilotear.
• Tutorial: Volando el shuttle fleet v1.2f English version: How to perform the ascent using Shuttle Fleet addon. Versión en español: Cómo volar el Shuttle Fleet desde el despegue hasta el aterrizaje.

• Deep Space Flight Manual and Earth to Mars
• Earth to Mars Checklist - Cpt CryBaby's

• Landing the Shuttle ( Kevin Stoffel )
• Fly to ISS Realtime ( Harmsway )

• Apollo History
• Apollo 11 Tutorial - by SaturnV
• How To Get To Lunar Orbit The Easy Way (pdf). NASSP 5 Tutorial by Bob7
• "From the Earth to The Moon" an AMSO 1.17 Apollo 11 Full Mission Tutorial Using IMFD

Tutorials for Teachers

• Tutorial: Orbiter for kids. Lesson 1 First lesson of my workshop for kids. It was implemented during 2005-2006 at Colegio Internacional SEK in Costa Rica.

• Tutorial: How to create surface bases The entry point to the world of developing addons for newbies.
• MFD Wizard for Visual Studio This is a tool to allow the simple creation of MFDs in Visual Studio.
• Surface base wizard 1.3b Manual contains concepts on how to create surface tiles. You may also use it with this tool Surface Tile calculator v5.0a
• Tutorial: How to make scenarios for Orbiter v1.5 Concepts that will help you so you can edit or create scenarios. You may want to use it these tools that provide code examples for different vessels
• Vessel code generator 1.0
• Shuttle fleet scenario generator v1.5c
• Big space plane 4.0 scenario generator 1.1
• Merlin 1.2 code scenario generator
• Anim8or tutorial: How to model a plane Tutorial for newbies on 3D modelling
• Anim8or tutorial: How to model a rocket (Lesson 2) Tutorial for newbies on 3D modelling
• Anim8or tutorial: How to make a building (Lesson 3)) Tutorial for newbies on 3D modelling
• Mesh Wizard 1.9d Manual contains concepts on .MSH (Orbiter), .AN8 (Anim8tor) and .OBJ (Wavefront) format for 3D objects.
• Tutorial: Vectors for dummies Concepts that helps you to understand vectors.
• Tutorial: How to use Spacecraft.dll (Lesson 1) This will teach you how to create a space station module (this is an exercise)
• Tutorial: How to use Spacecraft.dll parameters This is an explanation of commands used to create vessels using Vinka's Spacecraft.dll
• Tutorial: How to make music for Orbiter This will familiarize you with tools to make music