Docking Timeline
COMPILED BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
Posted: September 9,
2000
| The following timeline covers the final stages of the shuttle Atlantis's rendezvous and docking with the international space station. Trailing the station by about eight nautical miles, commander Terrence Wilcutt will fire Atlantis's maneuvering rockets around 10:59 p.m. to begin the final approach. At 12:29 a.m. Sunday, the shuttle will reach a point 600 feet directly below the station (+R bar) and then loop up in front of the lab (+V bar) before moving on to a point directly above (-R bar). After station keeping at a range of 170 feet, Wilcutt will manually guide the shuttle to a point just 30 feet above the target. Once the two spacecraft are in range of Russian ground stations, the final approach to docking will commence. This timeline will be updated as warranted.
Download a PDF version of the timeline.
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