willner@cfa250.harvard.edu (Steve Willner P-316 x57123) (03/16/89)
From article <4400@drivax.DRI>, by macleod@drivax.DRI (MacLeod): > A month or so ago I made the heretical statement that the USA ask for > technical specs for Soviet docking and fastening interfaces and adopt them > as an international standard. Nobody commented on this. On second > thought, though, there a third set of standards, those used by the ESA. Part of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project was the development of a new docking adaptor. I vaguely remember that the agreement for ASTP included the provision that the new adaptor would be used in future missions by the US and USSR. Can anyone confirm or deny that this provision was part of the agreement? And does anyone know whether the current Soyuz/Mir adaptors are made according to the ASTP specifications? -- Steve Willner Phone 617-495-7123 Bitnet: willner@cfa 60 Garden St. FTS: 830-7123 UUCP: willner@cfa Cambridge, MA 02138 USA Internet: willner@cfa.harvard.edu
mcdowell@cfa250.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell) (03/17/89)
From article <1436@cfa200.cfa250.harvard.edu>, by willner@cfa250.harvard.edu (Steve Willner P-316 x57123): [ ASTP docking adaptor: used by USSR subsequently?] I also remember the idea that the adaptor would become standard; but I think it was more of an assumption made by the US side than anything that was in the official accords; I cant find a copy of those, dooes anyone have them? Anyway the system has not been used subsequently, and the current Soyuz/Mir units are the old probe and drogue type. The Lyappa system to be used to handle the Mir modules does have a petal-type adaptor, but it is a much smaller system and is not a ring system of the ASTP type. - Jonathan McDowell