re: Japanese satellites to separate and redock
Phillip Clark (psclark@dircon.co.uk)
Wed, 8 Jul 1998 09:34:30 +0100 (BST)
On Wed, 8 Jul 1998, Philip Chien wrote:
> a) Cosmos 188 and Cosmos 189 made the first automated docking in 1967, and
> most Soyuz and Progress make automated dockings. So it's hardly the first.
Agreed. I spoke with the BBC Monitoring Service yesterday when I saw
this report to see whether there was some "garbling" or whether the
Japanese were really making this claim.
I think it is a "first of a kind" in that it is the first time that two
unmanned satellites have been launched together, undocked and then re-docked.
> Also a separation of 2 meters isn't very much, it's too small for any
> significant orbital mechanics dynamics. I'd hope that the objectives for
> this mission call for more challenging tasks.
My understanding is that this was simply the first of a series of planned
separation and re-docking tests, with the separation distances being a
few km on later experiments.
Phillip Clark
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Phillip S Clark 25 Redfern Avenue
Molniya Space Consultancy Whitton
Compiler/Publisher, Worldwide Satellite Launches Middx TW4 5NA
U.K.
Specialist in "space archeology" - the older and more obscure the more
interesting it is !
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