Achieving orbit can be a little tricky, but with practice, you can develop your own technique. In this game, you are fortunate enough to have unlimited fuel, so you don't have to do it perfectly.

Walkthrough:

To start the game, first click on the video to give it focus. This will insure that the flash program can read your keyboard. Press "H" to remove the help message, the press the up arrow to start the main engine. Establish a positive rate of climb of at least 100-150 meters per second, then start a pitchover.

During the ascent phase, control the rate of ascent by lowering the nose. Let the horizontal velocity build while maintaining an altitude just above the middle of the screen. As the horizontal speed nears orbital velocity, about 7900 meters per second, fly up toward the top of the screen, but try not to fly off the screen. When orbital velocity is reached, shut off the engine and wait. The rocket will coast out of the upper atmosphere. If you do not shut off the engine, it will cut automatically when you exceed 150 kilometers altitude.

Once in orbit, you will need to carry out an OMS burn to keep from falling back into the atmosphere. Immediately rotate the rocket until the nose points in the direction of motion. Watch the altitude display in the lower left and when you are near peak altitude, do a very short burn to raise your perigee and establish a safe orbit.

The velocity display in orbit gives your speed relative to circular orbital velocity. A positive number indicates you are moving faster than required for a circular orbit, and will soon start going up again. A negative number indicates you are going too slow for a circular orbit, and you will soon start going down again.

To re-enter the atmosphere and land, do a retro burn near perigee to make the speed negative. The trajectory will dip into the atmosphere and the view will switch back to the flat earth model.

The rocket should be moving almost horizontally when it enters the atmoshere. Too steep an entry could be disastrous, so use the engines to slow the vehicle and bring the rocket down slowly. If the aerodynamic load factor exceeds 4 G's, structural failure will occur. To avoid this, stay out of the denser part of the atmosphere until you have slowed down. Once you get down to below 1000 meters/second, you can fly to the spaceport and land vertically.

Try to land as slowly as possible. A hard landing can damage your vehicle and feeze the program.

That's it. I hope you enjoy it. Please send your comments, questions, or suggestions to lefty2000@outlook.com.