ETS-VII a "first"?

William H. Leininger (whl@mcs.com)
Fri, 28 Nov 1997 15:09:33 -0600

Craig Cholar <3432P@VM1.CC.NPS.NAVY.MIL> writes:
>The ETS-VII is composed of two satellites, the chase satellite dubbed
>Hikoboshi and the target satellite dubbed Orihime.  One of its
>objectives is to perform a technology experiment involving the
>automatic/remote control rendevous-docking of two unmanned space
>vehicles.  This will be the world's first attempt at such an experiment.

I can see that, with two vehicles launched as one piece, both being of
different design, that it can be differentiated.  But what makes it
sufficiently different to take the title of first automatic/remote docking
away from  Kosmos 186/188, on October 30, 1967?

----------------------------------------------
William H. Leininger, Macintosh Developer for hire
http://www.watervalley.net/users/whl/
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