One day, two dockings: Progress and Shenzhou-8
4 Nov 2011, 16:02 UTC
Have two spacecraft ever docked to two separate space stations on the same day?
I set out in search of this answer late Tuesday night. As far as I can tell, the answer is no — although searching for the absence of a record is more challenging than finding one that exists. Enclyclopedia Astronautica has ten entries related to “docking” in its “manned firsts” article (although the vehicles in question are automated) — none mention two linkups on the same day by unrelated spacecraft.
This article was also posted on the Planetary Society blog.
Whether a record or not, double dockings are certainly not a common occurrence. On Wednesday at 11:41 UTC, Russia’s Progress M-13M resupply craft docked with the International Space Station, delivering three tons of supplies to the orbiting outpost. Hardly six hours later, at 17:28 UTC, China became the fourth nation to perform a spacecraft docking in orbit, as their Shenzhou-8 spacecraft approached and docked with Tiangong-1. Coincidentally, the Progress/ISS docking took place while the station was flying over northern China.
China became the fourth nation to perform a spacecraft docking in orbit, when Shenzhou-8 linked up with Tiangong-1 on Wednesday, November 2. Credit: Xinhua News Agency
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