Spacecraft docking system and method

Abstract

A spacecraft docking system for and method of capturing and coupling a target spacecraft to a servicing spacecraft provided with the spacecraft docking system, the target spacecraft having a propulsion engine, such as an apogee kick motor or liquid apogee motor, with an exhaust nozzle projecting away from the target spacecraft. The spacecraft docking system includes outer and inner clamping devices configured to selectively cooperate with a portion of an exterior surface of the exhaust nozzle and a portion of an interior surface of the exhaust nozzle, respectively, which outer and inner clamping devices are operable to jointly exert a clamping action on the exhaust nozzle and establish a rigid connection between the servicing spacecraft and the target spacecraft. The outer clamping device includes a grappling mechanism having a plurality of articulated phalange assemblies that are distributed to enclose the exhaust nozzle and that are selectively actuatable to be brought into an open configuration, allowing insertion of the exhaust nozzle within operating range of the grappling mechanism, and a closed configuration to perform closure of the grappling mechanism onto the portion of the exterior surface of the exhaust nozzle.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.