# Kerbal Space Program

24 Hacker News commenters recommended Kerbal Space Program and 9 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend it as a fun, hands-on way to learn orbital mechanics and spaceflight basics, especially for students. Critics say its physics engine is old and janky, and it has never been fully updated.

## Why people recommend it

- Teaches orbital mechanics intuitively (6 comments): "there's no better way of getting an intuitive understanding of how bodies move in space" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45781624)) "it's a great way to learn a small bit of the unintuitive aspects of spaceflight" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49878285)) "You should try out Kerbal Space Program you'll learn all about it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49877526))
- Fun to build and play (4 comments): "One reason my students seem to really like KSP are all the different things you can do/build" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48013691)) "I loved them - very compact to launch and provided a fun place to float around in IVA" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46052640)) "Rescue missions were one of the funniest and challenging parts of KSP" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48018617))
- Runs well with mods (3 comments): "it's not hard to wire up with external telemetry, and with couple graphics mods, it looks way better" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47616750)) "I have good memories of sending my Kerbal frame rates to hell with generous modding" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49848048)) "I'm running KSP on Proton, and it works just fine." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48016968))
- Playable performance on modest hardware (2 comments): "Minimum of 30fps, most of the time around 50-60. It was more than playable, enough to be pretty fun." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48158999)) "These games work flawlessly or with <10%fps hit." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46797598))

## What people warn about

- Physics engine has persistent jank (5 comments): "there was a lot of physics jankery that never really got fixed" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45979273)) "What KSP really should have done is just done their orbital math separately from their force propagation." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47817294)) "KSP1 had fundamental engine limitations that were blocking adding stuff that the developers really wanted" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48016436))
- Performance drops with frame rate issues (3 comments): "I have good memories of sending my Kerbal frame rates to hell with generous modding" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49848048)) "I strongly suspect it was older hardware & driver issues than anything else" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45906235)) "they both play worse on my M4" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45944940))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [No Man's Sky](https://hackerapproved.com/p/no-man-s-sky.md): 97 recommend
- [Starflight](https://hackerapproved.com/p/starflight.md): 17 recommend
- [Elite Dangerous](https://hackerapproved.com/p/elite-dangerous.md): 15 recommend
- [Star Citizen](https://hackerapproved.com/p/star-citizen.md): 11 recommend
- [Wing Commander](https://hackerapproved.com/p/wing-commander.md): 7 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.kerbalspaceprogram.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Kerbal Space Program", https://hackerapproved.com/p/kerbal-space-program/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).