Docked at the ISS
21 November 2007I’ve been playing around with “Orbiter” which is a simulator for orbital and interplanetary space operations. I just conducted my first two successful dockings at the International Space Station. This is an interesting psychomotor skill, like flying. It involves controlling the spacecraft in it’s three axes - pitch, roll and yaw, while also managing translation “up” and “down”, relative to the docking port on the other vessel, and also the rate of close. The object of the exercise is to position the ship docking port to docking port while closing at less than 0.1 meters per second. If you get it right, you dock. If wrong, you crash. Actually, you pass harmlessly THROUGH the other vessel.
Needless to say, there is a large Orbiter community with a collection of ships, scenery, scenarios and screenshots.
One Response to “Docked at the ISS”
November 22nd, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Son says he has that and that it’s SO HARD docking at the ISS!
Enjoy…and Happy Thanksgiving.