Today I have the class on Track & Capture that I have talked about already in the L-478 Logbook.
There’s a lot of preparation work involved in getting ready for a Free Flier rendezvous and subsequent capture. Usually a two-person team will swap leading role when it’s time to transition to robotic operations. The VV1 (Visiting Vehicle Officer 1) who’s had the primary responsibility during the rendezvous phase transitions to a supporting role during capture operations. VV2, on the other hand, will put hands on the controllers to perform the capture. We call that role M1.
As you can see in the picture, it’s quite a complex setup in the Cupola on a capture day. We have the robotic workstation, including the hand controllers, with which we fly the arm. But we also have the visiting vehicle control panel, with which we command it to free drift just before capture: when we grapple it and it becomes rigidly connected to station, we don’t want its thrusters to fire so we deactivate its guidance systems and just let it free float in space for a few seconds. On the control panel we also have commands to send the vehicle away in an off-nominal situation. And of course, as you can see in the picture, we have a variety of monitors for external camera views and a few laptops.
I also attached a picture posted by Karen Nyberg of her view of HTV4 when she and Chris Cassidy captured it last week.
15/08/2013