Thu, Oct 21, 2010
Sets Guidelines For Docking Technology For Spacecraft
The International Space Station Multilateral Coordination Board
(MCB) has approved a docking system standard. The international
standard will provide guidelines for a common interface to link
future spacecraft ranging from crewed to autonomous vehicles and
from low-Earth orbit to deep-space exploration missions.
The MCB consists of senior representatives from NASA, the
Russian Federal Space Agency; the Japanese Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology assisted by the Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency; the European Space Agency; and the
Canadian Space Agency. The MCB is the space station's senior level
management board. It coordinates the orbiting laboratory's
operations and activities among the partners.
"The goal was to identify the requirements to create a standard
interface to enable two different spacecraft to dock in space
during future missions and operations," said Bill Gerstenmaier, MCB
chair and associate administrator for the Space Operations Mission
Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This standard will
ease the development process for emerging international cooperative
space missions and enable the possibility of international crew
rescue missions."
This standardization effort will ensure interface commonality
without dictating any particular design behind the standard
interface. The document contains the information necessary to
describe physical features and design loads of a standard docking
interface.
NASA Image
The technical teams from the five space station partner agencies
will continue to work on additional refinements and revisions to
the initial standard. The Multilateral Coordination Board released
the document to allow non-partner agencies and commercial
developers to review the new standard and provide feedback.
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