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ISS partners has agreed on a new docking systems international standard.. / October 21, 2010 /

Partners in the International Space Station — Roskosmos, NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) — agreed on a new international standard docking systems (IDSS). The first version of an agreed document to be published October 25

International Standard defines the principles of docking systems compatibility of different systems of connections, namely the Russian androgynous peripheral docking assembly (Apas) with petal guides and new docking mechanism with a soft grip. The standard will dock the spacecraft and ships with compatible, but not necessarily identical, mechanisms. Moreover, it provides the possibility of implementing manipulator docking.

Recall that the Upas was established under the guidance of renowned scientist VS Syromyatnikova under the "Soyuz-Apollo. Upgraded Upas used on the shuttle, which docked with the ISS is using a manipulator.

Under the «Constellation» NASA has developed a system of docking with soft grip (LIDS), which is intended to be used on spacecraft Orion. Despite the fact that the system is a smaller, lightweight, and a simplified version of the Upas, they are not compatible.

On all Russian ships and modules of ISS, as well as the European spacecraft ATV, used a different, plug-Female, docking mechanism.

Currently, LIDS is the planned future of transport ships, which would replace the shuttle after the close of the program next year. In accordance with the current plans of NASA, flying new ships to the ISS is scheduled to begin in 2015, but until then, American astronauts will get to the station on Russian Soyuz.

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