Editing Kerbal Space Program save files for KSO

Currently I've got a communications satellite in almost geosynchronous orbit around Kerbin. Unfortunately, it is not where I want it (I'd like it to be over the space center) and the orbit is off by enough that eventually it'll make a difference. I figure at this point I am as close as I'm ever going to be and I'd rather just cheat a little and edit the save files. Unfortunately, I don't know quite what I'm doing and I don't want to mess up. Can anyone help me understand what I need to edit and do?

This is what I currently have in that part of the file:

VESSEL
{
pid = 73f9dec4e74a402ea64d1183ddcb8b55
name = CommSAT KSO I
type = Probe
sit = ORBITING
landed = False
landedAt =
splashed = False
met = 62739.0407278273
lct = 70585.636642262
root = 0
lat = -0.0708559885838229
lon = -97.2394889192516
alt = 2917405.7211654
hgt = -1
nrm = -0.09325099,-0.0001452725,0.9956426
rot = 0.0007564927,0.3462162,0.0007205357,0.9381542
CoM = 4.619361E-05,-0.7510172,-0.0001405951
stg = 1
prst = False
ref = 1691954764
cPch =
cHdg =
cMod = 0
ORBIT
{
SMA = 3502697.83155638
ECC = 0.0117003331041419
INC = 0.0754202425356052
LPE = 138.336092052635
LAN = 164.846525659517
MNA = 1.92694328942951
EPH = 133324.677370089
REF = 1
}


And then all the parts and all. Thanks!

• This is where a satellite with it's own propulsion can come in handy. – Frank Jan 20 '14 at 5:29
• It was all explained here: youtube.com/watch?v=0wXVm3M2I2w - can't acces youtube now, so I'll leave it to you to watch and listen and write an answer here ;) But as @Frank say, a little bit of propulsion is good. Or a docking port so you can attach a tugboat. Last but not least MechJeb is great for cheat-less precision. – Mołot Jan 20 '14 at 8:05
• @Moot: Ah, you beat me to the obligatory Scott Manley video. Yes, that's probably the best video resource for the problem at hand. – MBraedley Jan 20 '14 at 11:58
• @MBraedley if you can't type ł, type l (lower case L) instead. without either I will not be notified you commented at me. – Mołot Jan 20 '14 at 12:05
• @Mołot: I blame the auto-reply GreaseMonkey script. – MBraedley Jan 20 '14 at 12:25

The part most interesting for you is:

    lat = -0.0708559885838229
lon = -97.2394889192516
alt = 2917405.7211654


To have a stable geosynchronous orbit, you need to set latitude to 0, so you are over equator. To obtain longitude, simply launch another craft, and keep it in KSC. Read lon from it's save. Proper altitude can be read from Kerbin entry at wiki. Currently it's 2,868.75 km - you are a bit too high, so update accordingly.

Now to the orbit part, you want:

ECC = 0


for exactly round orbit. Also, to avoid confusing your game, you need to set average of periapsis and apoapsis to your new-current altitude. However, when we take into account Kerbin radius, it gets 3 468.75 km, due to Kerbin's ~600km radius:

SMA = 3468750


To be sure you are on equator, nullify inclination:

INC = 0


The tricky part is MNA - Mean anomaly at epoch. If your game will decide to use it instead of lat and long set above, you may find yourself not where you wanted. Experiment with changing it a bit in one way or another.

For easier experiments always edit quicksave. That way you will be able to load updated state with one key. And always backup your persistence file.

For a video tutorial watch this Youtube video. As usual, Scott Manley is your friend.