The system is evidently somewhat finicky about the order in which various elements are placed down; place them out of order and the parts won't connect properly. For a given cluster of experiments (all controlled by one control station, see the Elements section), the following deployment order seems to be necessary: Experiments Comms Control station Power You'll know things are working after step 3 if the control station thinks it's connected to all the placed experiments and comms, but complains about insufficient power. Adding sufficient power components (step 4) should now cause the control station to receive power. Note that if you move the control station for any reason, you'll need to re-deploy *all* of the power components. And if you add additional experiments, they won't be detected until the control station is re-deployed. https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:Deployable_Science