[FPSPACE] Progress docks manually

[Dwayne Allen Day]

On Sat, 18 Nov 2000, Steven Young wrote:

> There was high drama at the International Space Station last night when
> Progress M1-4 failed to dock in the first automatic and manual attempts.
> Gidzenko was eventually able to dock the Progress using the TORU system, but
> with the station out of radio contact it made for some tense moments.

I had NASA TV on at the time (solely by accident--I was bored) and I
wouldn't call it "high drama."  It was mostly dull and played out over a
blank TV screen for about an hour or so with nothing but droning
commentary.  This is one reason why I am so skeptical about plans to turn
space into entertainment--much of it is very boring unless you really know
what is going on and what the stakes are.


> We have posted a full story and a QuickTime video of the Progress' failed
> automatic approach and the switch to a manual docking:
> 
> http://spaceflightnow.com/ops/stage4a/001118p2dock/

This is quite nice.  I missed the initial failure of the automatic docking
system.  Spaceflight now has the video.  The site's greatest strength is
that it provides a lot of great videos of space operations.  It is
definitely worth going to spaceflightnow.com and checking out the various
videos they have there.  Neat stuff.



DDAY