My first real-orbit

[Whitecold]

I have not played in a while, but just a few essentials I'd like to mention:
-Kerbal Alarm Clock: Interrupts time wrap at certain points, important to not forget your mid course corrections.
-MechJeb: Yes, this is an autopilot. Yes, some consider it cheating. However, it DOES have a porkchop polt calculator, and it does calculate DeltaV and TWR of your stages, which is invaluable.
Make sure to fly some maneuvers yourself to prove yourself you can, but your umpteenth ascent you can safely leave to Mechjeb when constructing your large space station.