Guide: Launching Rockets

Getting Started
Before you can launch cargo rockets, you need to have launched a satellite in the satellite rocket (the standard Factorio aka 'vanilla' silo) while Space Exploration is installed.

Once you have build a cargo rocket silo you need to build and fuel your rocket:


 * 100 cargo rocket sections into the inventory. 20 of these will be recovered from the rocket at the destination, more with the right research.
 * 1 space capsule into the inventory. This will always be recovered at the destinations and can return you home from orbit.
 * A lot of liquid rocket fuel, piped into one of the 8 connections near the corners.

You should also have a thruster suit so you don't die.

Your first rocket won't have anywhere to land so it will break up as the cargo is released. Most cargo is saved even if a rocket crashes, you never lose everything.

You should take a Rocket Landing Pad and some Space Platform Scaffold with you so you can build somewhere for the next rocket to land.

Destinations
Once you have a landing pad placed, make sure you update the destination of the rocket silo to target the landing pad and not a random point in orbit. You can do this via the Satellite Remote View.

Basic Automation
The rocket silo outputs signals for how many parts are already in the rocket. You can put a condition on an inserter of [Cargo Rocket Sections < 100] to make sure it won't fill the rocket with additional sections.

If you have set up launch triggers on a silo it will launch automatically, but a rocket won't automatically launch to a landing pad that isn't empty (otherwise the cargo might not fit).