You pilot the Magpie, a salvage tug working the crowded orbits of the planet Kestrel. Your first job is a quiet relay satellite turning slowly. Open its dossier, then plan the chase on a live orbit map: drop a manoeuvre node, drag prograde, and watch the predicted path reach the target. Before each burn you predict what it will do, then fly it holding Space. Five more contracts follow, from a tumbling observatory you must tow to the moon Tarn to a spent rocket stage you deorbit. Each flight ends with a replay comparing your plan with what really happened.
Players learn to plan Hohmann transfers and phasing burns from timing and orbital period, predict how prograde, retrograde, radial and normal burns change apoapsis, periapsis and period, and use the rocket equation to budget Δv for a heavier towed load. They match velocity at closest approach, read relative motion in a target-centred frame, choose a grapple point using centre of mass and angular momentum, and despin a tumbling wreck. After each flight they compare predicted with actual outcomes, trace a divergence to its cause, and then explain it. Suits secondary physics and space science: real orbital mechanics at game scale.
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