Editing Space rendezvous (section)

== Uses ==
[[File:Portrait of ASTP crews - restoration.jpg|thumb|Most rendezvous are for docking, as in this photo of the crews and spaceship models of the historic first time Soviet and US spacecraft [[Apollo-Soyuz]] docking in 1975 of the concluding [[Space Race]]]]
[[File:Mir collision damage STS086-720-091.JPG|right|thumb|Damaged solar arrays on ''Mir'''s ''[[Spektr]]'' module following a collision with an uncrewed [[Progress spacecraft]] in September 1997 as part of [[Shuttle-Mir]]. The Progress spacecraft were used for re-supplying the station. In this space rendezvous gone wrong, the Progress collided with Mir, beginning a depressurization that was halted by closing the hatch to ''Spektr''.|alt=A gold-coloured solar array, bent and twisted out of shape and with several holes. The edge of a module can be seen to the right of the image, and Earth is visible in the background.]]
A rendezvous takes place each time a spacecraft brings crew members or supplies to an orbiting space station. The first spacecraft to do this was [[Soyuz 11]], which successfully docked with the [[Salyut 1]] station on June 7, 1971.<ref name="soyuz-11-ea">{{Cite web |url=http://www.astronautix.com/flights/soyuz11.htm |title=Soyuz 11 |publisher=Encyclopedia Astronautica |author=Mark Wade |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071030215242/http://www.astronautix.com/flights/soyuz11.htm |archive-date=October 30, 2007 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> [[Human spaceflight]] missions have successfully made rendezvous with six [[Salyut]] stations, with [[Skylab]], with ''[[Mir]]'' and with the [[International Space Station]] (ISS). Currently [[Soyuz spacecraft]] are used at approximately six month intervals to transport crew members to and from ISS. With the introduction of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, the US is able to use their own launch vehicle along with the Soyuz, an updated version of SpaceX's Cargo Dragon; Crew Dragon. <ref>{{cite web |title= Space Station Launch Delays Will Have Little Impact on Overall Operations |url= https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/sufferdini-space-station-launch-delays-will-have-little-impact-on-overall-operations-correction/?Spacepolicyonline_(SpacePolicyOnline_News) |author= Marcia S. Smith |date= 3 February 2012 |publisher= spacepolicyonline.com |access-date= June 13, 2020 |archive-date= June 13, 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200613032707/https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/sufferdini-space-station-launch-delays-will-have-little-impact-on-overall-operations-correction/?Spacepolicyonline_(SpacePolicyOnline_News) |url-status= live }}</ref>

<!-- Need paragraph here discussing rendezvous as part of on-orbit assembly of modular stations. -->
[[Robotic spacecraft]] are also used to rendezvous with and resupply space stations. [[Soyuz spacecraft|Soyuz]] and [[Progress spacecraft]] have automatically docked with both ''Mir''<ref>Bryan Burrough, Dragonfly: NASA and the crisis aboard Mir, (1998, {{ISBN|0-88730-783-3}}) 2000, {{ISBN|0-06-093269-4}}, page 65, "Since 1985 all Russian spacecraft had used the Kurs computers to dock automatically with the Mir station" ... "All the Russian commanders had to do was sit by and watch."</ref> and the ISS using the [[Kurs (docking system)|Kurs docking system]], Europe's [[Automated Transfer Vehicle]] also used this system to dock with the Russian segment of the ISS. Several uncrewed spacecraft use NASA's [[common berthing mechanism|berthing mechanism]] rather than a [[Androgynous Peripheral Attach System#APAS-95|docking port]]. The Japanese [[H-II Transfer Vehicle]] (HTV), [[SpaceX Dragon]], and [[Cygnus (spacecraft)|Orbital Sciences' Cygnus]] spacecraft all maneuver to a close rendezvous and maintain station-keeping, allowing the ISS [[Canadarm2]] to grapple and move the spacecraft to a berthing port on the US segment. However the updated version of Cargo Dragon will no longer need to berth but instead will autonomously dock directly to the space station. The Russian segment only uses docking ports so it is not possible for HTV, Dragon and Cygnus to find a berth there.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nasa.gov/content/station-crew-captures-japanese-cargo-craft |title=Japanese Cargo Craft Captured, Berthed to Station |author=Jerry Wright |date=30 July 2015 |publisher=nasa.gov |access-date=May 15, 2017 |archive-date=May 19, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170519202311/https://www.nasa.gov/content/station-crew-captures-japanese-cargo-craft/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Space rendezvous has been used for a variety of other purposes, including recent service missions to the [[Hubble Space Telescope]]. Historically, for the missions of [[Project Apollo]] that landed astronauts on the [[Moon]], the ascent stage of the [[Apollo Lunar Module]] would rendezvous and dock with the [[Apollo Command/Service Module]] in [[lunar orbit rendezvous]] maneuvers. Also, the [[STS-49]] crew rendezvoused with and attached a rocket motor to the [[Intelsat VI]] F-3 [[communications satellite]] to allow it to make an [[orbital maneuver]].{{citation needed|date=August 2012}}

Possible future rendezvous may be made by a yet to be developed automated Hubble Robotic Vehicle (HRV), and by the [[CX-OLEV]], which is being developed for rendezvous with a [[geosynchronous satellite]] that has run out of fuel. The CX-OLEV would take over [[orbital stationkeeping]] and/or finally bring the satellite to a graveyard orbit, after which the CX-OLEV can possibly be reused for another satellite. Gradual transfer from the [[geostationary transfer orbit]] to the [[geosynchronous orbit]] will take a number of months, using [[Hall effect thruster]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.orbitalrecovery.com/news15.html|title=orbitalrecovery.com|website=www.orbitalrecovery.com|access-date=April 9, 2018|archive-date=February 10, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100210072513/http://www.orbitalrecovery.com/news15.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Alternatively the two spacecraft are already together, and just undock and dock in a different way:
*Soyuz spacecraft from one docking point to another on the ISS or Salyut{{citation needed|date=August 2012}}
*In the [[Apollo spacecraft]], a maneuver known as [[transposition, docking, and extraction]]  was performed an hour or so after [[Trans Lunar Injection]] of the sequence third stage of the [[Saturn V]] rocket / LM inside LM adapter / CSM (in order from bottom to top at launch, also the order from back to front with respect to the current motion), with CSM crewed, LM at this stage uncrewed:{{citation needed|date=August 2012}}
**the CSM separated, while the four upper panels of the LM adapter were disposed of
**the CSM turned 180 degrees (from engine backward, toward LM, to forward)
**the CSM connected to the LM while that was still connected to the third stage
**the CSM/LM combination then separated from the third stage

NASA sometimes refers to "Rendezvous, [[Proximity operations|Proximity-Operations]], [[Docking and berthing of spacecraft|Docking, and Undocking]]" (RPODU) for the set of all spaceflight procedures that are typically needed around spacecraft operations where two spacecraft work in proximity to one another with intent to connect to one another.<ref name=OE-LL>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/dart/Resources/Rendezvous%20Proximity%20Operations%20Docking%20and%20Undocking%20Lessons%20Learned.pdf |title=A Summary of the Rendezvous, Proximity Operations, Docking, and Undocking (RPODU) Lessons Learned from the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) Orbital Express (OE) Demonstration System Mission
|access-date=May 16, 2020 |archive-date=August 7, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807104848/https://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/dart/Resources/Rendezvous%20Proximity%20Operations%20Docking%20and%20Undocking%20Lessons%20Learned.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>