Approach and Capture for Autonomous Rendezvous and Docking

A study has been performed to capture and catalog the various methods currently employed for on orbit rendezvous, proximity operations and docking. The results of the study presented in this paper focus particularly on the capture envelope performances for both active and passive vehicles and stacks of varying masses. Benefits and challenges to each method are discussed as well as current Internal Research and Development (IRAD) efforts being performed by Lockheed Martin.—