Questions tagged [docking]
Questions about the process and equipment used to join two spacecraft together.
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How did the Lunar Module dock with the rest of Apollo 11 and what is the "CSM"?
I'd like to ask if anyone can, in layman's terms, describe the procedure by which the Apollo 11 astronauts were able to get back to their ship?
I ask because the most accessible literature on this ...
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How do manned spacecraft achieve an airtight connection while docking?
By another question I was reminded how hard it is to build airtight equipment such as vacuum chambers from multiple pieces. Docking or berthing space ships / space station modules is a rather similar ...
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Has in-space refueling been done?
Before the Apollo program committed to the lunar orbit rendezvous mode, one of the Earth orbit rendezvous proposals involved launching two Saturn Vs, one with the Apollo spacecraft and large lunar ...
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Will the ISS need more docking ports?
Currently the ISS has two basic segments, the Russian and US sides.
The Russian side has 4 docking ports. Usually occupied by 2 Soyuz, 1 or 2 Progress freighters or an ESA ATV vehicle.
You can see ...
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Reasons behind the "Transposition, docking and extraction" maneuver
The Transposition, Docking and Extraction (TD&E) maneuver was done during the Apollo Moon missions right after the translunar injection. The Command/Service Module (CSM) separated from the S-IVB, ...
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What would happen to the ISS if the Russians undocked their part?
So... RIA Novosti (Russian media agency) made a video, where they show the Russians ostensibly undocking the Zarya module and the US part of the station falls into the atmosphere (someone was playing ...
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What are these green text/line displays shown during the livestream of Crew Dragon's approach to dock with the ISS?
During the livestream of Crew Dragon's approach to docking, at 6:24 a laptop display is shown with lots of green text and a camera view of the International Space Station. What's going on?
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Does the ISS team plan cargo flights when at half crew on purpose?
A number of times now, the cargo vehicles (Dragon, Cygnus, or HTV) seem to have arrived while the station was between crew switchovers.
With indirect crew handovers, three crew depart in a Soyuz, ...
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Why are three cosmonauts required to move a Soyuz?
The opening paragraph of this article caught my eye*:
Three space station crew members put on spacesuits and boarded their Soyuz spacecraft Friday for a short trip to relocate the capsule to a new ...
user12
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Why was Space Shuttle Atlantis selected for Mir docking so frequently?
In this answer @RussellBorogove discussed the frequency of dockings of each space shuttle with the Mir space station. I've summarized those frequencies, total number of missions flown, and year of ...
user12102
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What is the "ISS's Keep Out Sphere" and what is its radius?
The comment:
In a similar vein, it would be interesting to know if going around the moon rather than to the ISS removes any legal hurdles. Do we have any questions covering the legal ramifications (...
user12102
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What exactly makes the "bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang!" sound just before "Houston, we have hard dock." in the Apollo 13 movie?
About seven seconds after "Capture!" and just before "Houston, we have hard dock" in the feature film Apollo 13 there are about seven loud bangs at about 3 Hz repetition. At this ...
user12102
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The Russians recently tested a new launch trajectory that goes to the space station in about six hours. What allowed for the difference?
According to this article, Russia recently tested a new launch trajectory that shaved over 45 hours off their normal flight time.
What allowed for this difference? Doesn't it seem like the shortest ...
user12
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Do Russian and American spacecraft use the same docking mechanism?
Back in the days of the Apollo era, the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project had the two craft meeting each other in orbit and docking. The stated reason for this was so that if a spacecraft from one country was ...
user12
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If Crew Dragon can dock autonomously, why is there a crew aboard when they change from docking port to another?
I was watching the redocking the other night and they kept mentioning that it can redock autonomously. If so, why is the crew there? Is it there as a backup in case the autonomous system fails? Is ...
