the.com/docking
a high-stakes parking job where one wrong nudge ruins a multi-billion-dollar afternoon.
means The act of bringing a vessel, spacecraft, or piece of equipment into a fixed berth or connection point and securing it there.
from From 'dock,' which comes from Middle Dutch and Middle Low German 'docke,' meaning a ship's berth or the channel of water a vessel rests in. The word sailed into English with Dutch maritime trade and originally meant the watery enclosure where ships were moored or repaired. The '-ing' simply makes a verb of the act, and over time the word slipped its moorings to cover anything that nestles snugly into place — from boats to spacecraft to your phone on its stand.
- first time
- Gemini 8 docked in 1966, then nearly killed its crew
- closing speed
- final approach often slower than a walking snail
- automated rivals
- Russian craft can dock with no human touch
- androgynous ports
- modern designs let any vessel mate either way
- orbital math
- to slow down you sometimes speed up
international space station — spacex dragon and soyuz spacecraft dock here regularly, 250 miles above earth
apollo 11 lunar module — docked with command module in moon orbit, july 1969, piloted by michael collins
skylab 2 mission — apollo command/service module docked with skylab space station, may 1973