Abstract
Science fiction movies have accustomed us to spaceships that fly in space as if they were advanced jet fighters. But the reality is very different. Flying in space requires careful planning and coordination between the crew of the vehicle and controllers on the ground or aboard a space station towards which it is heading or from which it is departing.
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- 1.
Remember that PEG 4 guidance, also called linear terminal velocity constraint (LTVC) guidance, achieved a specified relationship between the horizontal and vertical velocity components at a certain target point in orbit.
- 2.
Two orbits are said to be coelliptic when their semi-axes coincide and when they are at different altitudes.
- 3.
In terms of a coelliptic rendezvous, NSR means "nominal, slow rate".
- 4.
The phase angle (theta) is defined as the angle between the target position vector and the projection of the active spacecraft’s position vector onto the target’s orbital plane. It is positive when the active spacecraft is trailing.
- 5.
The terminal phase initiation (TPI) maneuver was the moment at which to make the burn that would put the spacecraft on a direct intercept course with the target.
- 6.
The Solar Max satellite was launched into orbit around Earth on 14 February 1980, primarily to study the Sun during the intensive part of its activity cycle. A malfunction in January 1981 prompted the planning of a Shuttle mission to recover the satellite in order to restore it to full operation. This was achieved by the crew of STS−41 C in April 1984.
- 7.
The Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) was a passive rack comparable in size to a school bus, to expose various materials samples to the space environment. Deployed by STS−41 C as planned, it was to be retrieved in 1986 but the Challenger disaster meant that it remained in space until retrieved by STS−32 January 1990 shortly before its orbit would have decayed.
- 8.
Station-keeping is the technique used to maintain the Orbiter at a desired relative position, attitude and attitude rate with respect to a target vehicle.
- 9.
Since an orbiting body is a three-dimensional object, parts of it are marginally closer to the Earth while others are farther away and this subjects the body to different values of gravitational attraction that cause it to rotate until a stable attitude is reached. This stable attitude is such that the different gravitational forces acting on the body are in equilibrium and no further torque is applied.
- 10.
See Chapter 10 for an explanation of the Orbiter body axes.
- 11.
July 1979 America’s first orbital outpost fell into the atmosphere and burned up over the Pacific Ocean.
- 12.
The original idea was to carry out on-orbit servicing every 2.5 years and return the telescope to Earth every 5 years for a more intense refurbishment, after which it would be relaunched. But by the late 1970s concerns about contamination of the telescope and the structural loads that it would suffer during ascent and re-entry prompted NASA to limit it to on-orbit servicing.
- 13.
After several switches in the flight manifest due to technical delays, Endeavour was eventually chosen as the rescue vehicle and it would have been flown by the four flight deck crew members of the STS−123 mission.
- 14.
As the Orbiter adjusted its orbit ever closer to that of the target, its orbital velocity would more closely match that of the target, thereby reducing the closing rate.
- 15.
Targeting a burn means defining the changes in velocity (delta-V) required to bring the spacecraft to a given point along its rendezvous trajectory at a given time.
- 16.
In a filtered solution, the calculated burn obtained by the ground initialization state vector plus IMU-sensed delta velocity was further refined by means of additional relative navigation data. A propagated solution refined an on board filtered state vector containing relative navigation data from a previous data acquisition.
- 17.
It is important to understand that while the translational commands were manually given by the commander, the rotational motion (which resulted in RCS jet firings) was accomplished automatically in accordance with the DAP settings and UNIV PTG display.
- 18.
Because Columbia never flew missions to either Mir or the ISS it was not retrofitted in this manner.
- 19.
Space Adaptation Syndrome (SAS), popularly known as "space sickness”, is a form a motion sickness experienced by astronauts as their vestibular systems attempt to adapt to the onset of
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Sivolella, D. (2014). Orbital dancing. In: To Orbit and Back Again. Springer Praxis Books. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0983-0_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0983-0_12
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