Space shuttle docking to mir mission-1

摘要

This paper explains the mechanics of the U.S. Space Shuttle Atlantis' rendezvous with the russian space station Mir. The mechanical system used for this rendezvous--the androgynous peripheral attachmetn system (APAS)--is a hybrid version of a Russian docking system used for the Apollo-soyuz mission in 1975. This paper details the docking operational phases, the complications of docking, the philosophy of the jetassisted capture maneuver, and the way testing and math modeling helped Rockwell and NASA to understand the Russian APAS.