1.1 Background

Rendezvous and docking or berthing (RVD/B) is a key operational technology, which is required for many missions involving more than one spacecraft. RVD/B technology and techniques are key elements in missions such as

• assembly in orbit of larger units;

• re-supply of orbital platforms and stations;

• exchange of crew in orbital stations;

• repair of spacecraft in orbit;

• retrieval, i.e. capture and return to ground, of spacecraft;

• re-joining an orbiting vehicle using a lander in the case of lunar and planetary return missions.

The first rendezvous and docking between two spacecraft took place on 16 March 1966, when Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott manually performed rendezvous in a Gemini vehicle and then docked with an unmanned Agena target vehicle. The first automatic RVD took place on 30 October 1967, when the Soviet vehicles Cosmos 186 and 188 docked. Thereafter, RVD/B operations have regularly been performed by the Russian (Soviet) and US space programmes; e.g. in the following:

• US Apollo (1968-1972) and Skylab programmes (1973-1974);

• Russian (Soviet) Salyut and Mir Space Station programmes (1971-1999) with docking of the manned Soyuz and unmanned Progress spaceships;

• US/Soviet Apollo-Soyuz docking mission (Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, ASTP, 1975);

• US Space Shuttle retrieval and servicing missions (starting in 1984 with the retrieval and repair of the Solar Max satellite);

• US Space Shuttle missions to the Russian space station Mir in the 1990s in preparation for the ISS programme;

• assembly, crew exchange and re-supply of the International Space Station (ISS) (begun in November 1998).

RVD/B technology and techniques...