What Is SPACE RENDEZVOUS? SPACE RENDEZVOUS Definition & Meaning
Channel: Audiopedia
Date: 2018-10-23

What is SPACE RENDEZVOUS, What does SPACE RENDEZVOUS mean ,SPACE RENDEZVOUS meaning, SPACE RENDEZVOUS definition, SPACE RENDEZVOUS explanation


A space rendezvous is an orbital maneuver during which two spacecraft, one of which is often a space station, arrive at the same orbit and approach to a very close distance (e.g. within visual contact). Rendezvous requires a precise match of the orbital velocities and position vectors of the two spacecraft, allowing them to remain at a constant distance through orbital station-keeping. Rendezvous may or may not be followed by docking or berthing, procedures which bring the spacecraft into physical contact and create a link between them.

The same rendezvous technique can be used for spacecraft "landing" on natural objects with a weak gravitational field, e.g. landing on one of the Martian moons would require the same matching of orbital velocities, followed by a "descent" that shares some similarities with docking.
Source: Wikipedia.org