A Long Sad History: Automatic Docking on Orbit

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A Long Sad History Automatic Docking on Orbit

• Stephen Granade

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Wikipedias Definition
In the Pokémon franchise, Bulbasaur are small,
squat, vaguely reptilian Pokémon that move on all
four legs, and have light blue-green bodies with
darker blue-green spots. As a Bulbasaur undergoes
evolution into Ivysaur and then later into
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flower.
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1965 Gemini Tests Docking
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Dec 1965 Gemini 6A and 7Rendezvoused on Orbit
Schirra
Stafford
Borman
Lovell
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March 1966 Gemini 8 the Whirligig
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(No Transcript)
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March 1969 Apollo 9
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Oct 1968 Soyuz 3 and Soyuz 2
Beregovoi
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Shuttle Docks with ISS
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Watch Our Shuttles Dock
Psst, show the two docking movies
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Russian Progress CanDock Automatically
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April 1971 Soyuz 10 vs. Salyut 1
Rukavishnikov
Shatalov
Yeliseyev
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Salyut 3 vs. Soyuz 15 (Aug 1974)
Demin
Sarafanov
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Salyut 5 vs. Soyuz 21 (July 1976)and Soyuz 23
(Oct 1976)
Volynov
Zholobov
Rozhdestvensky
Zudov
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Salyut 6 vs. Soyuz 25 (Oct 1977)
Kovalyonok
Ryumin
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Soyuzes That Tried to Dock Thru 1977
Soyuz 3/2 Oct 1968 Tried 3 times but failed.
Soyuz 6/7/8 Oct 1969 3 way failed b/c of electronics failure.
Soyuz 10 Apr 1971 Tried to dock w/Salyut 1. Hard dock failed.
Soyuz 11 June 1971 Successful dock w/Salyut 1. Crew died from depressurization during undock.
Soyuz 14 July 1974 Docked w/Salyut 3.
Soyuz 15 Aug 1974 Auto docking system failed.
Soyuz 17 Jan 1975 Docked w/Salyut 4.
Soyuz 18 May 1975 Docked w/Salyut 4.
Soyuz 19 July 1975 Docked w/US Apollo spacecraft.
Soyuz 20 Nov 1975 Unmanned docked w/Salyut 4.
Soyuz 21 July 1976 Igla failed. Docking mechanism jammed on undock.
Soyuz 23 Oct 1976 Igla failed. Ran out of fuel before docking.
Soyuz 24 Feb 1977 Docked w/Salyut 5.
Soyuz 25 Oct 1977 Soft dock w/Salyut 6, but hard dock failed.
Soyuz 26 Dec 1977 Docked w/Salyut 6.
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Kvant 1 (Apr 1987)
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Kvant 2 (Mar 1989)
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ETS-VII
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ETS-VII Slides Away
Psst, show the ETS-VII movie
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Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology
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Orbital Express
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What Gives?
Docking is hard!

• You dont get to prepare like you want
• No zero-g room on Earth
• Our intuition doesnt help
• Orbital mechanics is screwy
• Doing stuff on orbit is hard
• If you mess up badly enough, whoops! death.
• Practice helps
• Look at Soyuz and at Shuttle dockings versus the
  satellites