A hand from mission control
Ready when you are.
Find your next step, try a different control style, or get help with your space program.
Ask for a hand
A parent or guardian can contact John Aaron Long at:
stagesep@jlong.devInclude your device model, iOS or iPadOS version, StageSep version, and what happened. Please leave out children’s names and other personal details.
Choosing a mission or jumping into play
Mission includes launch and the trip home. Choose Earth & home, Moon & home, Satellite workshop, Our space station, or Moon rover. Play takes you straight to the workshop, station, or rover.
There is one local space program on your device. StageSep works offline on iPhone and iPad with iOS or iPadOS 17 or later; no account or connection is needed to play.
Launching, braking, and landing
Tap LAUNCH, then use the large button for the current action. When it says HOLD, keep your finger down to run the engine and release to stop. A new stage needs a fresh press. Travel and docking sometimes continue automatically.
On the Moon, engine thrust slows your descent. Let go to descend and hold to slow down. Guidance helps with landing, and REFUEL appears if the landing tank runs out.
For a different flight control style, pause and enable Tap engine on / off. Tap once to run the engine and again to stop. This setting changes the flight engine; the rover and workshop have their own controls.
The cockpit and flight instruments
Tap Cockpit during flight to sit inside the spacecraft. Drag the window to look around; this changes your view, not the flight path. Tap Outside to return to the exterior camera.
Both views show the same altitude or destination distance, speed, mission time, and available fuel. These are simplified game instruments for a time-compressed journey.
Workshop, station, and rover controls
- Workshop: choose a satellite, move the arm control, and GRAB or RELEASE. Open or fold panels. Use PHOTO, SIGNAL, or REPAIR when available. The curved undo arrow reverses a recent change.
- Station: choose a module and an empty port, slide toward the port, then LATCH. Use VIEW in the cupola, TURN on the solar wing, or open the cargo garage. Detach a module to move it; undo lets you try again.
- Rover: choose a destination and route, hold DRIVE, and release to brake. Stop to scoop or put down a sample, place or retrieve an instrument, or take a photo.
During a mission, the house button in an activity begins the journey home. In Play, the grid button returns to the opening screen.
Pause, sound, haptics, and accessible controls
Tap pause for RESUME, MISSIONS, flight control style, Sounds, and Haptics. Sound and haptics can be switched off separately. Sound respects silent mode. Haptics depend on device support; Test haptics tries a single pulse.
After pausing or returning from another app, resume and make a fresh input to continue. If there is no sound, check Sounds in the pause menu, silent mode, device volume, and the selected audio output.
With VoiceOver, activate a flight engine control or the rover’s Drive control once to start and again to stop. The cockpit window supports adjustable actions to look around. StageSep also respects your system Reduce Motion setting for optional camera vibration.
Saved progress and photographs
Choose Continue on the opening screen when it appears to resume your saved journey on this device. The app does not synchronize saves between devices.
Photographs show the simulated world and stay in the app. They do not use your camera or add anything to your Photos library.
Avoid deleting StageSep while troubleshooting: deleting it removes the local space program. Apple manages device backups, and support cannot retrieve an online copy of your save.