You've been there. That moment when you’re staring at a Navball, sweating because your periapsis is still inside the atmosphere and you’re out of liquid fuel. It’s a specific kind of stress. Kerbal Space Program (KSP) isn't just a game; it's basically a part-time job in aerospace engineering that pays in dopamine and explosions. But maybe you've landed on every moon in the Kerbol system, or perhaps the sequel’s development drama left you looking for a new home in the stars. Finding kerbal space program similar games is actually harder than it looks because KSP is a weird hybrid of a Lego set and a physics textbook.
Honestly, most "space games" aren't actually like KSP. You’ll see people recommend No Man’s Sky or Starfield, but those are fantasies. They’re great, sure, but they treat physics like a polite suggestion. If you want that "oh no, I forgot the parachutes" feeling, you need something that respects the math.
The Engineering Purist: Juno: New Origins
If you want the closest thing to a direct successor, this is it. Formerly known as SimpleRockets 2, Juno: New Origins is basically KSP but with a heavy focus on procedural parts. In KSP, you’re limited by the parts in the tray. In Juno, you can stretch, pull, and reshape fuel tanks and engines until they look exactly like what’s in your head.
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It’s cleaner. It runs better on modern hardware. It even has a built-in visual programming language called Vizzy that lets you automate your entire flight. You could literally script a Falcon 9-style landing if you’re smart enough. The downside? It lacks the "soul" of the Kerbals. There are no green dudes to feel bad about marooning on a desert planet. It’s a bit more sterile, but from a purely mechanical standpoint, it’s arguably more powerful than the original Kerbal.
When KSP Isn't Hard Enough: Orbiter 2016 and Reentry
Some people are masochists. They don't want "cute." They want to look at a cockpit that has 400 switches and know that flipping the wrong one at T-minus 10 seconds will end the mission.
Orbiter 2016 is the granddaddy of the genre. It’s free, which is wild considering the depth. This isn't a game where you "build" a rocket; it's a simulator where you fly real-world spacecraft like the Space Shuttle or the Apollo CSM. The learning curve isn't a curve—it's a vertical wall of glass covered in grease. You will spend hours just reading the manual.
Then there’s Reentry — An Orbital Simulator. This is basically a "study sim." It focuses specifically on the NASA programs (Mercury, Gemini, Apollo). If you ever wanted to know exactly what it felt like for Buzz Aldrin to navigate toward the moon using a sextant and a computer with less power than a digital watch, this is your game. It’s claustrophobic, terrifying, and deeply rewarding.
Building Beyond the Rocket: Kerbal Space Program Similar Games
Sometimes the part you love isn't the orbital mechanics, but the building part. The "Space Lego" itch.
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- Space Engineers: This is the big one. It’s much more of a survival game. You’re mining asteroids, fighting off drones, and building massive capital ships block-by-block. The physics are "Newtonian-ish," but there are no real orbits. You don't "orbit" a planet; you just fly toward it until you hit the atmosphere. It’s a sandbox in the truest sense.
- Stationeers: Imagine if KSP and a high-end chemistry lab had a baby. This game is brutal. You have to manage atmospheric pressure, gas mixtures, and heat inside your base. If you mix the wrong gases in your pipes, your base will literally turn into a bomb. It’s less about the "flight" and more about the "engineering" of surviving in a vacuum.
- Children of a Dead Earth: This is the most scientifically accurate space combat game ever made. Period. It uses a real N-body physics engine. You aren't "dogfighting" like in Star Wars. You’re launching railgun slugs from thousands of kilometers away and calculating intercepts that take hours of in-game time. It’s cold, calculated, and brilliant.
The Management Side: Mars Horizon
Maybe you’re tired of being the pilot. Maybe you want to be the person at the desk who gets blamed when the pilot crashes. Mars Horizon (and its 2024 sequel) takes a different approach. You aren't building the rocket part-by-part. Instead, you're managing a space agency. You decide which research to prioritize, which missions to fly, and how to win the space race against other countries. It’s much more "Civilization" than "Flight Simulator," but it captures the historical progression of space flight beautifully.
Why Realism Actually Matters
We have to talk about the "Kraken." In KSP, the physics engine can sometimes freak out and tear your ship apart for no reason. Modern kerbal space program similar games like Juno or Flyout (which is more about planes but has incredible physics) have largely solved this.
But there’s a trade-off.
The "jank" in KSP is part of why it's funny. When a game gets too realistic, it can lose that sense of play. Orbiter is amazing, but it’s rarely "funny." KSP found a way to make failure entertaining. Most developers try to clone the rockets, but they forget to clone the humor.
What Should You Actually Play?
If you want more KSP, but better tech, go with Juno: New Origins.
If you want to build a giant base and drive rovers with friends, get Space Engineers.
If you want to feel like a real NASA astronaut in 1969, play Reentry.
The "best" game depends on which part of the KSP loop you find most addictive. Is it the design? The flight? The management? Or just the sheer chaos of a solid rocket booster strapped to a command pod?
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Next Steps for Aspiring Rocket Scientists:
- Download the Orbiter 2016 core for free if you want to test your actual knowledge of orbital mechanics without spending a dime.
- Check out the "Realism Overhaul" mod for the original KSP before buying a new game; it completely transforms the experience into something as difficult as a professional simulation.
- Watch a "Stationeers" tutorial before buying it, because that game requires a literal understanding of the Ideal Gas Law to keep your character alive for more than ten minutes.