Well, since none of the answers I can find seem to explain this in the level of detail I require, I'll make a new thread.
I want to take a slightly more realistic approach to exploration of the planets in my system.
First, I designed a sensor buoy, then I designed a missile with enough range to explore much of the system with the buoy as the second stage.
When I use the 'Launch Missiles at' command, I discovered the ship just goes to Luna and dumps a missile, which then self-destructs as it has no sensors and no target.
Here's what I'm trying to accomplish: the design and use of a 'base' that can launch missiles which travel to distant targets and then separate, leaving the buoy in orbit.
I tried using waypoints, but that doesn't allow me to fire things into the orbits of other planets.
Am I stuck sending a ship to every planet I wish to survey? Or is there a way to use missiles to remotely survey planets? Is that what drones are for? They don't seem to do anything.