Historiquement parlant, voici les données en anglais sur le défis qu'à eu ces astronautes pour construire la première partie de la station internationale.
Données provenant du site
http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/STS-88_Archive.txt TIME............EVENT 04:14:42 p.m....Terminal initiation burn: Final rendezvous begins
05:34:36.p.m....Range: 1,500 feet
05:39:06 p.m....Range: 1,000 feet
05:41:21 p.m....Range: 800 feet
05:44:36 p.m....The shuttle passes directly below Zarya at 800 feet
05:47:06 p.m....The shuttle's KU-band antenna switched to low-power
mode
05:49:06 p.m....Range: 400 feet
05:58:36 p.m....Endeavour passes directly in front of Zarya
06:10:06 p.m....The shuttle is directly above Zarya; Range: 250 feet
06:14:58 p.m....Orbital sunset
06:15:46 p.m....Range: 170 feet
06:32:56 p.m....Range: 30 feet
06:37:06 p.m....Range: 10 feet
06:38:48 p.m....Zarya within grapple range of shuttle robot arm
06:45:34 p.m....Zarya is grappled
06:50:11 p.m....Orbital sunrise
06:56:34 p.m....Grapple window closes
At 44,000 pounds, Zarya is some 9,000 pounds heavier than the Gamma
Ray Observatory, the most massive known satellite previously maneuvered
by the shuttle's robot arm. But flight director Robert Castle said that
shouldn't pose any problems for arm operator Nancy Currie.
"It really shouldn't be any harder on the arm moving Zarya than
lighter payloads because you move them slower," he said. "You grapple
with the joints all limp, there are no loads anywhere, and then once you
try to move things around you move it a little slower. So you apply the
same force and the same loads, you just result in a slower motion so you
never get velocities up, you never put big loads on it. So we don't see
any problem handling Zarya, it's going to be handling very slow and
moving very slow."
Unlike any other docking in shuttle program history,
Currie will be
unable to see the docking interface because her view out the shuttle's
aft flight deck windows will be blocked by Unity, towering three stories
out of the cargo bay. Instead, she'll rely on camera views, a Canadian
computerized TV measurement system and digital readouts showing the
precise position of each joint in the robot arm. But if things don't go
well, the astronauts and Castle's flight control team have rehearsed a
variety of contingency scenarios to handle just about anything that
crops up.
But capturing Zarya was the easy part. Working with a jeweler's
precision, Currie must maneuver the bulky module to within six inches of
the upper docking port on the Unity connecting node, a U.S. space
station component mounted atop the shuttle Endeavour's airlock. She must
align the module vertically to within four inches side to side and to
with less than four degrees of tilt. And she must do it without being
able to directly see the docking interface.
That's because the Unity node, towering three stories out of the
shuttle's cargo bay, blocked the crew's view of the two docking ports.
So Currie has to rely on television views, digital readouts from the
robot arm and a Canadian computerized TV system that precisely measures
the orientation of both modules.
After making sure Zarya was lined up side to side within four inches
of perfect and tilted less than four degrees to local vertical, Currie
relaxed the arm and shuttle commander Robert Cabana fired small steering
jets to drive Unity into Zarya with enough force to engage powerful
docking latches.
C'est intéressant.... maintenant je vais essayer de traduire cela en procédure réalisable pour Orbiter.